Think of Google as a voracious vegan. Google rewards websites if they keep feeding it lots of tasty and interesting information. Let’s pretend that information is lovely vegan cheese for a minute. The more you feed it, the more Google will love you and share your information. So, let’s think of Google as your newest vegan buddy and keep that vegan cheese coming! Got it? Then let’s push on.
#1 SEO
SEO. You rolled your eyes, didn’t you? Just keep thinking that information is vegan cheese and your website is the pizza and that will make the topic much easier (I bet you can tell I’m super hungry today).
You CAN eat vegan pizza without the cheese but WHY would you? Cheese takes it to a whole new level of excellence and that is what we need to do for your website. Get that cheese and throw it everywhere!
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the vegan cheese found all over your pizza. The more cheese, the happier the customer.
When Google sees your SEO being sprinkled everywhere it gets very excited. Google then decides your pages are important and moves them into the VIP pile to show off first. That’s where you want to be, so impress Google!
You do not need to spend thousands on SEO as there are many things you can do for your own website to give it an advantage. Start by writing fantastic content that your customers want to know about and keep doing it! You will see your web traffic increase.
Publishing awesome content to your social media accounts for people to share will bring you Google love.
Do some keyword research and think about what your audience want when they type into Google. What are they looking at your website for? This is an easy way to understand how to optimise your site and target your audience.
Google will take notice of you publishing engaging content. This will then position your organization in front of your clients that need you.
If your website was designed and built with traffic and donations in mind in the initial design you are off to a good start. Take some time to explore the back end of your website. Do some research into page title tags, headers and meta descriptions. Understanding what these mean will give you confidence and boost your organization’s success.
Tip: Make sure you have identified the keywords you’d like to be found for. Then place these in your page/post title, first paragraph, meta descriptions. There’s lots more to SEO, but that’s a great start.
#2 Mobile Responsiveness
Have you ever looked at a website on your phone and had to pinch the screen as the website was not mobile-friendly? I don’t know about you, but it drives me completely cray-cray!
But I am the least of your problems. In 2015 Google started the hunt for websites that are not mobile responsive and now pushed them to the bottom of search results. Responsive websites that are more engaging and easier to use get to be flavour of the month now.
There are now more mobile users than desktop internet users worldwide. In 2017, there were 3.5 billion global mobile internet users, according to Hosting Facts. In a nutshell, you need to ensure your organization’s website is mobile responsive!
Tip: Use the Google mobile responsive testing tool to check your site.
#3 Using the Power of Social Media
Sharing information creates greater visibility with bonus links back to your site. An upcoming trend is collaborating with an online vegan influencer (with a solid reputation) to share your content. This will benefit your SEO results by targeting their social followers/likers/fans.
The bottom line here is strong, informative and engaging content. Encouraging social sharing ensures credibility for your organization and brand.
Google is a fickle beast which often changes the factors that affect search results. These tips will hold you in good stead to get your organization out in the open where your audience can find you.
Tip: Don’t build your organization on a platform such as Facebook where they can change their algorithms at the drop of a hat. Build your content on your own website where you’re in control and share it on Social Media to drive traffic back to your site.
#4 Speed Baby!
Something often overlooked in the haste or hate of technology is site speed. Hosting plays a HUGE role in this. When you are looking at options for hosting and/or maintenance packages it’s very easy to just grab the cheap-n-cheerful hosting options and huff at the more expensive options. But look in depth at what they provide and sometimes what they are NOT telling you.
Everyone has to host. Your website needs to be kept somewhere. Cheap hosting may mean that your organization’s site gets hosted with thousands of other sites, most of which will more than likely be running slow and not applying security updates which in turn makes your site vulnerable to hacking. They get hacked, you get hacked. Simples.
If you do choose this option, at the very least you need to maintain your backups (offsite) and keep your security updates regular. Hosting alongside so many sites means your site speed will be affected and Google loves fast websites that make many people happy. It ranks those sites better which means more traffic to your page.
Website load speed is also known to be a critical factor in how Google ranks web pages. If you choose premium hosting you are investing in high availability and speed for your customers. With regular backups, you do not run the risk of finding out your website is GONE and cannot be restored. That investment in turn provides you with better customer service for anytime you might need to reach out.
Most sanctuaries do not really consider hosting options and often find out the hard way with a site down and, as we all know, down time in a campaign push is not a situation you want to be in. It results in unhappy customers and a damaged brand.
Consider the investment wisely as your website is integral in your organization’s success.
Tip: Test out your website speed and heaps of other interesting snippets at tools.pingdom.com. Don’t get too bogged down in the recommendations. It’s the low hanging fruit you’re looking to fix.
#5 Key Banging
Don’t let the word ‘Blog’ make you freeze up! So have a think, what does your audience love the most? What animal’s story could you share with them?
Writing a blog keeps your website ‘alive’ and Google notices it! Google rewards GOOD quality information. A longer blog post will get more engagement than shorter ones so try and give good value information that your audience and Google will share and reward. Set a goal of making one blog post a month to start with and really take the time to share your stories. Quality over frequency is the trick!
Tip: Here’s a great website that helps you improve how you write.
