Images tell your nonprofit’s story and evoke emotion. They can also boost your SEO. When a search engine like Google crawls your site, it sees words and code—not the image. But you can change that. You can tell Google or whomever what the image is about, which in turn will help your content get found. So, the next time you write an article, make it your mission to do the following.

•  Name your images: A generic name like “IMG_1234.jpg” means nothing to search engines. Give them names that reflect the content and your keywords. For example, IMG_1234.jpg could be “children-learning-to-grow-food-community-garden-seattle.jpg.” This name helps search engines understand and index your images more effectively, helping you to rank highly. Please, please do not stuff your images with random keywords. Only use keywords relevant to the content of your post or site, as in the example.
•  Do not ignore image alt text and accessibility: The little alt text box you see when you insert an image into your post is not to be ignored. It serves the purpose of both SEO and accessibility. For example, alt text like “Kids joyfully nurturing vegetables in a Seattle community garden, fostering healthy food access for all” not only provides context to search engines but also makes the image accessible to visually impaired users through screen readers. Effective alt text should be concise yet descriptive (around 120 characters), but remember that its primary purpose is to help the vision impaired understand your content.

While you might hear “Ahoy!” every time you read the phrase “anchor text,” it has nothing to do with the sea. Anchor text is the clickable words in a hyperlink, and it’s vital for both user experience and SEO.

• Use Descriptive Anchor Text: Use anchor text that clearly indicates the content of the link. For example, replace “click here” with specific descriptions like “affordable housing initiatives in Seattle.” This not only aids user navigation but also helps search engines understand the context of your links. When creating a link, your HTML might look like this: <a href=”https://example.com/housing-initiatives”>Explore our comprehensive guide on affordable housing initiatives in Seattle</a>. This anchor text is descriptive, providing both users and search engines with clear information about the content of the linked page.
• Avoid Over-Optimization: While it’s good to include relevant keywords, ensure your anchor text sounds natural and avoid keyword stuffing.
• Make It Diverse and Contextual: Vary your anchor text across different links and ensure it is relevant to the linked content.

Focus less on short phrases and more on long-tailed keywords. Defined by Semrush as “highly specific search queries that tend to have relatively low search volumes,” long-tailed keywords don’t sound like a great plan. Don’t you want high-ranking nonprofit keywords?

Yes and no. Long-tailed keywords address search intent, which leads to someone taking action. Additionally, long-tailed keywords will be increasingly helpful to any organization. As people grow more and more accustomed to turning to their favorite chatbot for answers, the way people write their search queries is going to be more conversational.

For example, “dog rescue” is a keyword, but every dog rescue everywhere is going for that one. In addition, the person searching could be in Arizona, while your rescue is in Seattle. Your keyword needs to answer the person’s informational intent and bring them to what they’re looking for, which is you!

For a Seattle-based dog rescue, “volunteer opportunities for animal shelters in Seattle with kids” is a better keyword than “volunteer opportunities for animal shelters.” As you can see, the longer keyword addresses your target audience precisely, leading to better engagement and conversion. Plus, since it includes the phrase “volunteer opportunities for animal shelters,” you’re throwing your hat into the ring for that term, too.

If you’re not sure where to start with researching SEO keywords for nonprofits to figure out what long-tailed phrases could work for you, ask ChatGPT or your favorite AI chatbot. You can prompt it with something like, “Please list long-tailed keywords for my Seattle animal rescue.”

Compelling page titles and meta descriptions with relevant keywords directly influence how search engines like Google present your pages to searchers. This, in turn, impacts click-through rate (CTR). A high CTR and ‘dwell time’ (that is how long someone spends reading said page) signals to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable. Over time, that can improve your organic ranking.

•  Page Titles: These are the clickable headlines you see in search results. Take a moment to make them engaging and include primary keywords. Keep your titles under 60 characters, or use a tool like this title tag and meta description length tool on To The Web to see how your title looks in search.
• Meta Descriptions: A well-crafted meta description of around 155-160 characters featuring relevant keywords can entice users to click on your link, indirectly benefiting your SEO through improved click-through rates. Semrush’s What is a Meta Description and How to Write One does a deep dive into all things meta descriptions and title tags.