lf someone searches online for your NFP by name, what comes up? You might be surprised to find that your site is not the first listing.

How many times have you tried to find a club or another NFP using Google, only to see listings that are outdated and relate to external meetings or conferences. Sometimes the links don’t actually take you anywhere. They are so old that the page they linked to has been removed.

Why are you making yourself so difficult to find?

For most clubs and NFPs, it’s because no one has official responsibility for their online marketing and communications. Sometimes, too, the person who has been given responsibility doesn’t actually know what to do.

If you are not being found online, it probably comes down to 3 main issues.

1. Poor website

2. Poor content

3. Poor optimisation.

Let’s take a look at some things you need to take care of for each of those issues,

Website

Your website has to be regularly updated. When I see sites that have their copyright dated 2010, I wonder how often anyone works on them. Is the site still current or am I wasting my time looking at it?

The site also needs to have the theme changed regularly (or the behind the scenes design) to reflect new style trends. It needs to look up to date. The other benefit is that updates take into account improvements in security and accessibility. For example, a site built today would be responsive, where a site that’s 5 years old is probably not visible on a mobile device. By updating regularly, you are giving yourself the best chance to be found.

Content

Visitors come to your site for information, and search engines rely on it to determine what you’ll be found for and how high you will rank. Fresh, relevant content is the life blood of your site. These days it’s not always about text. Try using images, videos, audios and slideshare.

Share valuable content and give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.

Optimisation

This is all about using the right words – keywords – in your content and meta data. There is a great post here from WordTracker which goes over all the important information about SEO that you need to know. Here is a more detailed guide from Google.

If it all seems too hard, remember that any time you put new content on your site, it should include the keyword you want to be found for. That’s a great start.

Most importantly, though, you need to realise that the management of your website should not be one person’s responsibility. It’s the responsibility of the team to make it work. As a team, you will be able to raise your online profile and start being found.