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Blogs Greatly Increase Website Traffic

Writer's picture: One of the WhalesOne of the Whales

One of the best hacks we have for the nonprofits we work with here at Royal Whale is to invest time and effort into developing a creative, engaging blog on your website. Blogs are very cost-effective ways to share information about your cause, educate new donors, connect with people who want to learn more and drive traffic to the rest of your website.


If there’s one marketing strategy that is all too often left on the table, it’s blogging. It doesn’t cost money to create blogs, though it does require time and the right skillset.

Don’t worry, anyone can learn how to blog, and we’ll help you with the basics in this article.

Before we jump into creating a blog for your website, here are some of the reasons a blog can be a powerful tool for your nonprofit:


Blogs Greatly Increase Website Traffic


Harnessing the power of blogs is very nuanced; in order to understand why they are so important, learning the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial. SEO refers to the searchability of your organization from search engines like Google and Bing. When you go to Google and search “apple recipe,” the first link that comes up has great SEO for their niche. As a nonprofit, you probably want to be one of the first results when someone searches your name or even the cause you support, so how do you do that?


The algorithm behind it all is complex, but these search engines rely on being able to scrub your website for keywords and information that help them identify what you are. Remember, it’s all bots doing this work, so you have to increase their chances of associating your website with the searches you want to be associated with. Blogs are the perfect way to do this!

If you have a blog tab on your website that is filled with numerous blogs and articles relating to your nonprofit, then these search engines will have access to loads of information and words to help them connect you to the right keywords people are searching.

A lot goes into an SEO strategy but having an effective and engaging blog is one of the easiest ways to increase your nonprofit’s SEO, therefore, increasing brand awareness.


Potential Donors Can Connect with Your Blogs


It’s impossible for your nonprofit to make calls or emails to everyone who you think should learn about the work you do. Sure, connecting face-to-face or over the phone is a great way to engage donors, but having an accessible resource that allows them to stay up to date about what you’re doing, news related to your niche, and educational content, gives you a lot of bang for your buck. Meaning, with blogs, you only have to create the content once, then people from all over the world can read it, learn from it, and get interested in supporting your nonprofit.


Donors are crucial to the nonprofit world and helping them feel informed is critical if you want them to keep donating. If a donor sends a large sum of money to a nonprofit, only to feel like they didn’t see anything come out of that nonprofit, they won’t be very likely to donate again. With blogs, you can showcase everything that’s going on and all the hard work happening, encouraging donors to stay involved.


Educational Content Can Reach Large Audiences Through Blogs


Every single nonprofit, no matter what it’s for, wants people to grow an interest in their cause, get educated, and feel motivated to support it. Aside from finances and fundraising, so much of the work nonprofits do is meant to be educational. Helping people learn about a rare disease that impacts more of their community than they realize or illustrating the cause and effect in nuanced issues can be difficult. Blogs provide educational content that connects to large audiences, expanding your reach and educating readers at the same time.


Another great component of blogs is to share stories and show the faces behind these issues. Whether you are fighting to reduce waste or raise money for a struggling community, there are people behind every cause. If people that aren’t immediately impacted struggle to connect with the causes themselves, it may be worthwhile to try and connect them to the people behind the causes. Sharing success stories, with permission of course, or the challenges a family has faced due to a specific ailment can greatly increase the army of support you have behind your organization. Blogs are a great way to engage new audiences and provide content they can connect to while learning.


Reaching the Right Audiences


While there is no perfect formula for how to connect with audiences or keep readers engaged, there are a few ways to ensure your blog has a wide reach and is user-friendly. To help your blog and website make it to the devices of as many readers as possible, consider the following:


1. SEO Keyword Usage


We talked a little bit about SEO above, but including specific keywords that are highly searched in your niche will help search engines pull up your website when a reader searches for that phrase or word. There is an entire strategy behind SEO, and we encourage engaging SEO specialists if you feel in over your head with trying to create a strategy.



2. Navigation Ease


Your website should be easy to navigate on both mobile and desktop versions. If it’s clunky, slow, or hard to find information on, people will not stay on your site for long and they definitely won’t come back. Today’s digital age has created an environment where individuals have grown accustomed to the best digital interactions and the bar is high.


3. Inbound and Outbound Links


If you can weave links from your own site and to external sites throughout each blog post, not only can you direct readers to other content of interest, but it can actually help with your SEO as well. Try to include 2-3 external links in each post and, more importantly, 2-3 internal links as well. The internal links can be to other blogs, services you offer, the donation page on your site, and more!


Writing the Perfect Blog


As we mentioned, there is no perfect formula for writing a blog, but there are a few tactics that can help get attention right away and encourage readers to keep coming back:


1. Catchy Headline

The headline or title of each blog should be creative, catchy, and tell the reader what they can expect. Sometimes, this is the most difficult part of writing a blog, so don’t hesitate to wait until the blog is written to come up with the title. Sometimes, as the content takes shape, a title or headline will become clear.

2. Concise Information

3. Strong Hook

4. Featured Photo

5. Call to Action


Blogs are a Portion of Overall Strategy


Gaining traction in your niche won’t solely come from blog writings, though blogs are a powerful way to draw attention to your website.

Developing a digital strategy and an outreach strategy can be incredibly beneficial to the success of your nonprofit.

By deciding what your values are, who you want to target with your outreach, and the goals you have for a specific time period, you have something to refer to when making decisions in the day-to-day. If your daily actions don’t align with your strategic plan, perhaps they aren’t the right actions to take.


Here at Royal Whale, we help nonprofits of all types and sizes develop their strategy for online ads, social media engagement, and more. Our team of professionals is well versed in the world of nonprofits, so we know what it takes to engage your donors, reach fundraising goals, and make the impact you’re aiming for. Reach out to our team today to see how we can help!





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