dm in practice: how online & search engine optimisation ... · what triggers online donation...

Relationship Marketing and Direct Response

DM in practice: How online & search engine optimisation can help build your fundraisingNaomi Hamilton, Digital Strategist, Blackbaud Pacific

Plenary HallSaturday, 26th February12:05 – 1:05pm


Optimise your website to enhance online giving

• Target Analytics speculates that online donations will constitute the majority of donations by 2020

• Does your website help or hinder the growth of your online giving program?


What triggers online donation decisions?

Source:58 Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation Process and the Usability of Essential Information on Charity and Non-Profit WebsitesNielsen Norman Group


Online donation obstacles

16%

17%

13%

13%

10%

10%

7%

7%

7%

Unclear information about vision/mission

Unclear donation link

No/limited information on how money used

Busy/cluttered homepage or site

Third party check out

Hard to read text

Confusing terms

Unrelated news/events

Strange or unexpected interactions



Promote your missionYour mission, goals, objectives and work are the most important

factors for online donors. State these on your homepage and all key landing pages. Ensure these are above the page fold.



Promote your credibility• Mention any accreditations

• Clearly explain your position on controversial issues

• Only use relevant images that reinforce the your image or help convey information

• Provide information about the organisations leaders (avoid touting )

• Explain any work with corporate organisations Source:58 Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation Process and the Usability of Essential Information on Charity and Non-Profit WebsitesNielsen Norman Group


Show why you need a donation now• Show why you need a donation on your homepage and key

landing pages. Don’t wait for people to navigate through your website.

• Avoid being pushy!


Help your donors help you• Write plainly and answer the donors main questions• Don’t make donors search for information• Link your donation form to every page of your website• Avoid using org jargon/unrecognisable terms• ‘Donate’ or ‘Donate Now’ on link that launches the donation

process



Optimise your donation form(s)• Avoid any unnecessary steps

• Remove any non-mandatory fields*

• Use pre-defined contribution amounts and always include ‘other’ as an option

• Always provide an option for a one time donation on recurring donation forms

• Allow users to identify individuals to make tributes toSource:58 Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation Process and the Usability of Essential Information on Charity and Non-Profit WebsitesNielsen Norman Group


Optimise your donation form(s)• Don’t require users to register to make a donation

• Avoid routing to 3rd party payment sites

• Always define the funds/programs users can give to – no free text fields

• Allow users to go back and change aspects of the form

• If name of charge on credit card is different to organisation name let your donors know!



Reassure and thank your donors• Always explain why you need phone & email details

• Verification page

• Confirmation/thank you page

• Let them know a receipt will be emailed out to them

• Ask them to email the site/information to their friends!



Use more than one donation form


Provide clear information• If charity is named after an individual, provide clear

information why

• State names of notable endorsers in any photos/videos etc

• Keep local and national site information and design consistent

• Use real life case studies

• Don’t present essential information in PDF documentsSource:58 Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation Process and the Usability of Essential Information on Charity and Non-Profit WebsitesNielsen Norman Group


Then...optimise your website for search!40-60% of internet traffic to most websites comes in through

search engines

Ensure that potential donors can find you!

SEO


Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is…• The process of improving web site performance in

search engine rankings• A long term strategy• An area in need of continual work & improvement• Dependant on (in no particular order):1. Keywords2. Information Architecture3. Links4. Content

SEO


A search engine results page (SERP)

SEO


Keywords & key phrases• You need to decide what key search terms you would like

your website to be found through

• You need to optimise your website based on these

SEO


Choosing the right keywords & key phrases• Examine the terms people are already finding you with• Google Adwords Keyword Tool

• Look at the level of searches per keyword and choose phrases to optimise for rather than single words. Be specific!

• Ensure that the content of your site is relevant to the key phrases you choose to optimise on

• 20 – 25% of search phases on Google are unique. ¼ have never been searched for before!

SEO


Inserting keywords• Each page of your site should have different target keywords

that reflect the content of the page

• Target keywords should always be two or more words long

• Must be reflected in page content and headings

• Must be reflected in the page meta data

• Crucial locations are:• Title Tag• Page Headlines• First paragraphs

SEO


Meta Data or Meta Tags• Most valuable feature is to control (to some degree) how your

site pages are described by Search Engines

• Meta Keywords: Try to keep to 10 or less so that you don’t dilute your important keywords. Ensure you have a different set of keywords for each page.

• Meta Title: Should be built around top 2-3 phrases that you would like to be found for. Should be less than 70 characters in length.

• Meta Description: Should be no more than 150 characters in length.

SEO


To consider when using keywords:• Tables: • Tables break when search engines attempt to read them• Can push text down the page, making key words appear less relevant• Try to simplify table structure

o JavaScript• Can have a similar effect to tables in large section• Search engine will read JavaScript first, causing the HTML containing key text to appear lower on

the page

o Graphics• Search engines can’t read text in graphics• Create as much text as possible in HTML• Avoid using only image map links from home page to internal pages – need HTML links• If the text isn’t visible in a browser, a search engine won’t index it

SEO


Further considerationso Frames• Major search engines can’t follow frame links• Ensure your site can be indexed through meta tags & smart design

o URLs with symbols• Search engines choke on these, particularly “?”

SEO


You know a keyword is right when...• It’s driving traffic to your site

• Traffic has a low bounce rate (under 25%)

• Traffic is converting

SEO


Information architecture • Have you structured your site in a logical order?

• How user-friendly is it for first-time and repeat users?

• Are you repeating site sections or content anywhere?

• How are you refreshing your site & various sections?

• The better structure/site map of your site, the more likely Search Engines will be able to find every page!

SEO


Links: Page rank• Numeric value (1-10) that represents how

important a page is on the web. • When one page links to another, it is considered

a ‘vote’• The more votes it has, the more important a page

is deemed to be• The importance of each voting page is determined by the

amount of votes it has• Page rank is a key factor in determining where your page

displays on a SERP

SEO


Embracing links• Try to ensure all important links are HTML links not image

links (or that you have both if you prefer to use images)

• Consider going to the major search engines, viewing who is ranking on the terms you’d like to rank for and starting reciprocal links (ask the top 10 sites ranking on the relevant SERP to link to you)

• Link baiting: Techniques used on web sites to attract links from other sites

o Contento Online toolso Download

SEO


Your content• 30% of the internet is made up of duplicate content!• Do you have duplicate content?o Do you have multiple home page URLs?o Can you go to any page and remove ‘www’ and still get to the same page?

• Focus on positioning each site page fortargeted keywords & phrases

• Give search engines new pages to indexand reasons to return

• Keep your content dynamic to attract traffic into your site & to find new terms to rank for in SERPs

SEO


Search engine submission• Best way to ensure that your pages have been indexed

• Consider creating a site map with links to all site pages and submitting this to site engines to ensure all pages are indexed

• Make sure your internal links are correct so that search engines can find all of your pages

• There are no guarantees that your site/pages will be listed even if you submit a URL

SEO


Submitting your website• Submit top 2-3 pages that best summarise

your web site• Can take 1-2 months for non-submitted pages

to appear• Not every page from your site may be listed• Check your pages and ensure they are listed, then monitor

your listing every 1-2 weeks. Resubmit if you spot any problems.

• Resubmit every time you make significant changes to your web site

• Ensures content is kept current• Search engines may only visit your site 1-2 times per year if site is considered static

SEO


Thank you!

• [email protected]• @fairynomo• www.netwitsthinktank.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/

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