Eric Facas, CEO, Media Cause With over three billion keyword searches per day, Google Grants and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) represent a massive opportunity. Learn how your nonprofit can cut through the clutter, secure free ads on Google, and make the most out of these powerful channels. Eric will share insights for ED's and VP's looking to outsource this, plus provide a bunch of useful tips for those managing Google Grants and SEO in-house.

1. SEARCHING FOR GOOD
HOW TO USE SEO & GOOGLE GRANTS
TO GROW AWARENESS FOR YOUR NONPROFIT
Eric Facas, Founder & CEO
@ericfacas #npbc13
@mediacause

2. About Me
@ericfacas #npbc13

3. What Nonprofits Ask Us About SEO

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We’ve seen a big drop in traffic, can you fix it?
We would like to show up at the top of Google for
Keyword X, can you do that for us?
Our web designer did SEO for us when the site was built,
do we need to do anything else?
Can you ALSO do some SEO?
http://www.shoemoney.com/2012/07/26/welcome-to-the-negative-seo-wars

4. SEO is a Game



Versus thousands of
the smartest engineers
in the world
Who won’t share the
rules AND change
them all the time
While 10’s of millions
of websites compete

5. SEO is a Game



Versus thousands of
the smartest engineers
in the world
Who won’t share the
rules AND change
them all the time
While 10’s of millions
of websites compete

6. Why We Play The Game


Over 3 billion
searches on
Google a day
25% of Clicks
25% of Clicks
95% of all clicks
happen on page 1
75% of Clicks
75% of Clicks

7. Good News: You’re Not Alone
Great Resources for DIY SEO


25% ofof Clicks
25% Clicks
SEO
The Moz Beginners Guide to
(moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo)
Google’s SEO Starter Guide
(static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/
search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf)
75% of Clicks

SEO In Practice – ebook & quizes
(seoinpractice.com)
75% of Clicks

8. 5 Major Factors for SEO


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Strategy – What keywords you should target
Website Content – What your users see
Meta Content – What search engines see
Technical – Give Google what they want
Linking – An online popularity contest

9. Keywords are Everything!
Google knows exactly what 3 billion people are
looking for every day.

10. Strategy = Picking the Right Keywords




What do you want to be
found for?
Target keywords need to
be 100% relevant to your
websites content
Analyze volume,
competition, searchers
profile, and intent
Nuance matters

11. Are You a Nonprofit or a Non-profit?
Vs
nonprofit
non-profit
96,000 searches/
month
155,000 searches/
month
61% More Volume

12. Bonus: Free Keyword Research Tools



AdWords Keyword Planner
https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner
Google Insights for Search
http://www.google.com/insights/search
Wordtracker
https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

13. Keywords Become Content



Create pages about the
keywords you want to rank
for. Look at existing page
1 results – what makes
you more relevant?
Use but don’t overuse the
keyword in the main text,
page headings, and URL
Track your progress –
always be optimizing
Moz.com offers a 75% discount for nonprofits

14. Bonus Tip: Blogging for SEO
Go to Yoast.com to download this free Wordpress plug-in

15. Free SEO Audits


Woorank.com
Seorch.eu

16. Free SEO Audits


Woorank.com
Seorch.eu

17. Meta Content – Common Mistakes



Don’t forget Meta Descriptions, Heading Tags (H1-H6), and Alt
Attributes for images
Title Tags shouldn’t say HOME! Describe the page using your
target keyword in <65 characters
Meta Descriptions need to be 150-165 characters, describe the
goal of the page using 2-3 target keywords

18. Technical Website Tips
4 relatively easy to fix technical factors
that have a big impact on SEO

19. Link Building 101


Don’t buy links
Instead, make great content
 Good:
Blog, Informational Resources, Infographics
 Better: Video Story Telling, Quizzes, Interactive Apps

20. Linking 101: Video Story Telling

21. Linking 101: Quizzes
slaveryfootprint.org

22. How to Hire for SEO
Step 1: Determine the best time to get started
Step 2: Run a free audit of your website for a basic diagnostic
Step 3: Run an audit
on each SEO
agency/consultant/
web designer
Step 4: Ask about
approach to all
components to SEO

23. Deep Breath, We’re Halfway There!
Any Questions?
Deep Breath, Half Way There

24. Paid Search Advertising
AdWords
 World’s most effective ad
platform
 Relevancy is everything
Google Ad Grants
 $10,000/mo free ad credit on
Google.com
 $2 max cost per click
 Ads shown below paid ads
 Sign up IMMEDIATELY at
Google.com/nonprofits

25. The average Google Ad Grants
grantee spends approximately
$330 a month
96.3 %

26. Want to know my secrets
about Google Ad Grants?

27. Your #1 Goal is Donations, but…
There are two exceptions: brand terms and disaster relief.

28. People ARE searching for information
Awareness
Monthly Google Search Volume
“About The Rainforest” – 5,000,000
Interest
“Deforestation” – 457,000
Intent
Purchase
“Save the Rainforest” – 33,000
“Rainforest Charities” - 880

29. Focus on the top of the funnel
About the Rainforest
“Creative” email capture
Deforestation
Sign an online petition
Save the Rainforest
Get Involved, volunteer, share
Charities
Donations, memberships, sales

30. List Building with Google Ads
Before (1/1/12 – 7/31/12)
0 newsletter signups
After (8/1/12 – 8/31/13)
14,278 emails collected

31. List Building with Google Ads
 Hundreds of
thousands of emails
collected
 2 custom emails
before general list
inclusion
 Online donations
now on par with offline

32. What Can You Give Away?
The Only Rules
 Stay on mission
 Get creative
 Stuck? Start with
search volume/
trends, work
backwards

33. 5 Tips for Unlocking Google Ad Grants’ Potential

34. Tip #1: Relevancy is Everything
Bad News 
 You can’t run on
keywords if you don’t
have the precise
content the user is
looking for
Good News 
 You can build content
to make yourself
relevant for anything

35. Google REALLY cares about relevancy!
Rule of thumb: If you don’t have content on
your site that perfectly matches the keyword,
don’t expect it to work.

36. Tip #2: Build Your Keyword list w/ the Long Tail
Average Global Search Phrase Length
58% of
searches use
between 2-4
words
SOURCE: Experian Hitwise – Oct 2009

37. Add Keywords Without Hurting Relevancy
Quality score is calculated at the keyword level
Bonus Tip: Use a thesaurus to find new ways to say the same keywords
that are performing the best
Bonus Tip: Use all 4 match type options for broad match, “phrase match”,
& [exact match] on higher volume keywords

38. Tip #3
Structure
Matters
38

39. Account Organization: Campaign & Ad Groups
Campaigns
should align with
goals: donations,
volunteers,
events, email
collection
Ad Groups should have 15-30 similar keywords that
align to a specific page on the website. The more
focused the ad group, the better the ad targeting.

40. TipGet Noticed
#4: Ad Text
LOOK AT ME!
I have 1.26s to grab your attention
and convince you to CLICK HERE!
www.GetNoticed.com

41. Family Abuse Facts
Family Violence
Learn More - Get the latest family
violence facts here.
www.futureswithoutviolence.org
3.32% CTR
Family Abuse
Get the facts on family abuse here &
learn how you can help stop it.
FuturesWithoutViolence.org
5.56% CTR
41

42. How to Write Effective Creative
 Headline should be hyper
relevant to the query – include
the exact keyword
Family Abuse
Get the facts on family abuse here &
learn how you can help stop it.
FuturesWithoutViolence.org
 Include an informative and
empowering call to action

 Test 3-4 variations at all times
Family Violence
Learn More - Get the latest family
violence facts here.
www.futureswithoutviolence.org
 Remove the worst performer
every month

5.56% CTR
3.32% CTR
42

43. Landing Pages
Digital Asset Optimization
Tip # 5: Drop users on the most
relevant page within your site
43

44. Homepage Vs Targeted Landing Page
Conversion Rate = 0%
Conversion Rate = 12.59%
0 emails collected
1,000 + email address / mo

45. Keep Forms as Short as Possible
Conversion Rate = 50%
Conversion Rate = 74.6%
 Is all this information necessary at this point in the
relationship?
 Most users are reluctant to divulge personal
information
 4 fields is the ideal length

46. Want More? You’re Not Alone
Great Resources for DIY SEM


Official Google Adwords Certification
(http://gcptransition.appspot.com/)
25% ofof Clicks
25% Clicks
Google Ad Grants Help Forum
(http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/grants)

Google Ad Grants Whitepaper by Media Cause
75% of Clicks
(http://help.mediacause.org/google-grants)
75% of Clicks

47. How to Hire for SEM
Step 1: Is your website optimized for your goals?
Step 2: Make the agencies/consultants you’re talking with
are Adwords Certified
Step 3: Ask questions
about strategy. Tactics are
cheap, a good strategy is
much more important.
Step 4: Make sure you
understand where SEM &
Google Ad Grants fits in to
your overall marketing plan

48. Thank You! Questions?
Eric Facas
eric@mediacause.org
@ericfacas
Media Cause
Mediacause.org
Facebook.com/Mediacause
Twitter.com/Mediacause
Linkedin.com/company/media-cause

49. Appendix

50. How are the ad positions determined?
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Max CPC (or Max CPM) x Quality Score = Rank Score
Rank Score is calculated per keyword
Quality Score is Comprised of the Following:
- CTR
- Quality of landing page
- Relevance of ad text
- Historical keyword performance
- Other relevancy factors
You only pay the CPC necessary to have a rank score
higher than that of the advertiser below you
Minimum CPC can be as low as $0.01