It’s the most wonderful time of the year! So why not make it the most profitable time of the year for your charity? After all, the festive season is a great time for charities because users increase their donations towards worthwhile causes. For instance, did you know that the Christmas card market for non-profit organisations is worth an estimated £50 million per year?
As such, it can prove beneficial for charities to spruce up their SEO strategies at Christmas time in order to secure some extra donations and support throughout the festive season and beyond. Consequently, here are some of our top Christmas SEO tips for charities; all of which will help your non-profit organisation to make the most out of the festive season.
Establish Christmas donation campaigns
‘Tis the season of goodwill, so what better way to raise support towards your organisation’s charitable endeavours than via a Christmas fundraising campaign? As matters stand there are a wide range of donation opportunities upon which your charity can depend during the festive season; from designing and selling your own Christmas cards to organising seasonal fairs where you raffle donated items. Many non-profit organisations also organise festive fun runs wherein participants are sponsored by their friends and family to run in fancy dress!
You can even create charity e-cards which your subscribers can send to all of their email contacts. All you have to do is include a link within your charity e-cards which invites users to visit your organisation’s donation and email newsletter subscription pages. By seizing the opportunity to launch these types of festive donation campaigns, you can secure vital Christmas donations as well as long term support for your charity.
Offer festive donation packages
In addition to designing Christmas cards and organising sponsored sports events, your charity can secure vital donations throughout the festive season by creating Christmas themed donation packages and advertising them via your existing digital marketing channels. For example, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) offer their users the chance to purchase ‘Adopt An Animal’ donation packages for themselves or as gifts for loved ones. Recipients of these donation packages receive a cuddly toy of the animal they have chosen to adopt as well as a gift pack which includes a certificate and photo of their adopted animal, a fact book about the adopted species in question, bookmarks, stickers and a WWF leaflet amongst other items.
So why not offer your users the chance to give the gift of giving this Christmas? By creating your own magazine subscriptions, adoption schemes or gift packages, you can provide your new and existing subscribers with unique gift ideas for their friends and family, which will also support your organisation’s worthwhile causes.
Incorporate relevant Christmas keywords within your content
Throughout December, users will be flocking to search engines such as Google in their millions in order to find out about all manner of Christmas cards, presents and events. As such, this increased online activity offers the ideal opportunity for your charity to attract more users towards your site. In order to do so, you should consider the types of keywords that users will be most likely to enter into search engines; such as ‘charity Christmas cards’, ‘Christmas gift ideas’ and ‘personalised Christmas presents’. If you incorporate these types of festive keywords throughout your website’s content then you can boost your search engine rankings, generate more traffic towards your website and garner more support towards your charitable campaigns!
Promote your Christmas campaigns on every webpage
Similarly, it is important that you continue to promote your charity’s Christmas campaigns as much as possible throughout the festive season. A great way to do this is to include a call-to-action on every page of your charity’s website throughout December, which will encourage users to learn about your Christmas campaigns and donate. By remembering that every single page on your charity website is a possible landing page for new users and existing subscribers, these calls-to-action could secure vital support towards your organisation’s worthwhile causes.
Decorate your charity website for Christmas
Whilst you are decking the halls with boughs of holly, why not spare a thought for your charity’s web design? If you take some time during the yuletide season to incorporate some festive icons, content and images throughout your charity website then you can spark users’ Christmas spirit and increase your chances of securing some Christmas donations.
Why not replace your social media share icons and donation buttons with Christmas themed editions? Or why not create some Christmas themed blog posts and share them via your charity’s social media profiles? You could even create an online advent calendar to encourage users to visit your site every day for seasonal surprises! By creating this festive content, sharing it via social media and emailing links to your subscribers, you can pique user interest and generate more traffic towards your charity website throughout December.
Showcase your charity’s credibility
Currently there are over 160,000 charities operating within the UK. Unfortunately, there are also thousands of disreputable companies who pose as non-profit organisations in order to make money from charitable donors. As such, many users are reluctant to donate towards charities over the festive season without first checking the credentials of the organisation in question. Therefore, it is important that you promote your charity’s credibility to users in order to increase the amount of donations you receive over Christmas and into the New Year. By clearly displaying your charity name, number, business address, contact details and date of registration on your website’s ‘About Us’ page you can earn the trust of prospective donors.
Provide secure donation options
Following on from the previous point, many users over Christmas will be reluctant to donate towards your charity unless you provide secure payment options. One of the best ways to reassure users that your site is secure is to include SSL certificates and security badges across your site. These certifications prove to users that your website and its online checkout is secure, credible, and that their personal information will be encrypted. Given that 48% of shoppers look for security badges when deciding whether to use a particular website, it is instrumental that you incorporate these certifications within your site if you wish to secure prospective donors.
In this same manner, providing multiple secure payment options such as PayPal, Google Checkout and Verified by Visa, as well as MasterCard Secure Code technology, you will increase donor trust that your site is credible and safe to use this Christmas!
If you would like more information on SEO tips for Charities during the festive months or at any time of year contact us now or visit our Digital Marketing page for more information.
