Keywords for search engine optimisation (SEO) can be as simple as a single word or as complex as a sentence. When it comes to attracting and engaging an audience, the ability of your content to be found in online searches using the proper keywords is critical.

1. Why does SEO matter to
Nonprofits?
Authority
Opportunities
Behavioural/ social change

2. SEARCH ENGINES

3. Google

4. SEARCH RESULTS PAGE (SERP)

5. With my history
Let's search Google using a
keyword we are all familiar with
Without my history
pssst! Keywords can
be short, single words
OR longer phrases
(short and long tail)
"South African young
people"

6. KEYWORDS AND
SEARCH AND INTENT

7. The search results we see are a
result of relevance to the keyword,
your authority, combined
with things like the browser's
search and web history and your
location.

8. Keywords are the words we use to
search for things on search engines
like Google.
They can be long – like a phrase or string of
words, like 'youth in South Africa' or 'youth south
africa' or 'being young in south africa'
They can also be single words like 'youth' or
'young'

9. The algorithm

10. Who is this
person? What
are they
looking for, do
you think?
Imagine somebody like this searching something to do
with this keyword/ topic... South African young people.

11. And how about
this person?

12. PAA (people also ask)

13. RELEVANCE

14. Google JUDGES your expertise and
authority on these keywords/ terms
(topics) by crawling your site's content
(and related content) and if your
content and site's experience is
deemed relevant and of a high
enough quality (authority), it will put
you higher up in someone's search
results. This makes you more VISIBLE
on the SERP.

15. Ranking

16. How to rank (OPTIMISE FOR SEARCH ENGINE)
Content and brand strategy: what are your core topics and themes? What are
your core areas of information and impact?
Social media: what are your topics, keywords and hashtags?
Keyword research: what are popular keywords in your core topic areas?
Keyword options: what can you write about/ what words can you use within
your themes that bring richness and depth to your topics? (semantic richness)
On-page SEO: (H1s-H3s, alt. text, file names, small files etc, internal links.)
Basic web audit: website structure and UX – are things mobile friendly? Load
time, legibility, visibility, broken links
Internet-wide presence: external links
Technical SEO: Site map, security, indexing etc.

17. WORLD KEYWORD AND SEARCH
TRENDS TOOL

18. Google Search Console

19. YOUR OWN SITE'S SEARCH
TERM TOOL

20. Google trends

21. SEO GUIDE

22. Wordstream – How to
rank higher