Nonprofit SEO for the people looking for you.
Three kinds of people search for a nonprofit: those who need your help, those who want to give their time and those who want to give money. They use different words and need different pages. We run SEO for charities and nonprofits that serves all three, and we count donations, volunteer sign-ups and service enquiries.
Nonprofit SEO is the work of making a charity's website findable for the people it serves, its volunteers and its donors. It covers clear program pages, volunteer and donation pages that convert, local listings for service sites, Candid and Charity Navigator profiles, content that answers real questions, and measuring donations and sign-ups.
Three audiences. Three kinds of search.
These stages aren't a funnel. They're three different people, and most nonprofit websites only speak to one of them.
Get help
Volunteer
Give
Where nonprofit sites lose support.
Common problems, ordered by how much good they're quietly costing you.
Programs buried in PDFs
Eligibility rules, opening times and referral forms often live in PDFs or last year's annual report. The person searching at 9pm on a cracked phone screen needs a clear web page instead.
A donation page with too many steps
Every extra field, redirect and forced login between "Donate" and "Thank you" costs gifts. We test the path on a phone and fix what can be fixed on the page and in your donation platform's settings.
Neglected third-party profiles
Donors look you up on Candid and Charity Navigator. Candid's Seals of Transparency are free to earn, and Charity Navigator lets charities update their profile through its nonprofit portal. An empty or stale profile raises questions you'd rather not have.
An Ad Grant on the edge
Google Ad Grants accounts must hold a 5% click-through rate each month and track conversions. Miss the CTR two months running and the account is temporarily deactivated. Better landing pages make the grant easier to spend well.
Service sites missing from maps
If people visit you in person, each location needs an accurate Google Business Profile with real hours, updated for holidays and closures, so nobody turns up to a locked door.
Mission statements instead of answers
"Empowering communities" doesn't match anything anyone types. Pages that answer specific questions, like what happens at a first appointment or what a $50 gift pays for, do.
What we do for nonprofits
The same process we use for commercial clients, pointed at programs, volunteers and gifts.
Program pages
One clear page per program or service, written for the person who needs it, with eligibility, locations, hours and how to get started.
Volunteer recruitment pages
Role-by-role pages with time commitment and training details, connected to your volunteer system, plus consistent listings on volunteer directories.
Donation page review
Speed, form length, payment options and monthly-gift prompts checked on mobile, with tracking so you can see which pages lead to gifts.
Trust profiles
Your Candid profile, Charity Navigator profile and Google Business Profiles kept accurate and consistent, so donors who check up on you find the same story everywhere.
Ad Grants landing pages
Pages built to match your grant's ad groups and convert. If you want the grant itself managed, that runs through our PPC service at its normal published rate.
Stories, research and links
Explainers, program data and stories that earn links from local press, partners and funders, plus visibility when people ask AI tools which charities work on your cause.
SEO, Ad Grants or paid ads?
Nonprofits get one channel nobody else does. Here's how it fits beside the others.
| SEO | Google Ad Grants | Paid ads | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Retainer or staff time | Up to $10,000 a month in search ads, free to eligible nonprofits | Your own budget |
| Who can use it | Anyone | Organisations with valid charity status (in the US, 501(c)(3)); government bodies, hospitals and schools are excluded, though their foundations can qualify | Anyone within ad policies |
| Rules | Google's search guidelines | 5% account CTR each month, conversion tracking, Smart Bidding, periodic program surveys | Standard Google Ads policies |
| What lasts | Pages and rankings that keep working | The grant, while you meet the rules | Nothing after the budget ends |
| Best for | Programs, volunteering and evergreen giving searches | Awareness and volunteer recruitment | Year-end appeals and competitive donation terms |
Ad Grants rules come from Google's program policies and change from time to time; eligibility also varies by country. Our SEO vs PPC guide covers how organic and paid search work together.
Your first 90 days
A first quarter for a typical charity. Local program searches can move quickly; broad cause and giving terms take longer. More on timelines.
Map the three audiences
Audit of program, volunteer and donation pages, Google Business Profiles for each service site, a Candid and Charity Navigator review, and tracking for gifts and sign-ups.
Programs and giving
Priority program pages rewritten in plain language, donation page fixes shipped, and each volunteer role given its own page and sign-up form.
Stories and links
First content built from your program data and stories, outreach to partners and local press, and the first report on donations and sign-ups by page.
$11.3K to $47.5K a month.
Our SEO retainer is $1,199 a month, with the same deliverables listed on our SEO packages page. Our SEO retainer is $1,199 a month, our standard commercial rate; we don't publish a nonprofit discount and won't pretend to. We have no nonprofit case study yet either, so here is what the same process did in restricted markets where ads were never an easy way out.
Sources: Google Ad Grants, program overview and "Ad Grants account policies"; Google for Nonprofits Help, eligibility guidelines; Candid Learning, "Introduction to Seals of Transparency"; Charity Navigator, "Our methodology: ratings"; Harbor Compliance, "Online fundraising and the Charleston Principles". Case-study figures from Hello Bleu client GA4 and Google Ads data, client names withheld.
Free nonprofit SEO audit.
Share your website and we'll check how people who need help, want to volunteer or want to give actually find you, and where they get stuck.
- Program findabilityWhether people searching for your services in your area land on the right page.
- Donation pathHow many steps, seconds and form fields stand between a donor and a finished gift on mobile.
- Trust signalsHow your Candid, Charity Navigator and Google profiles look to a donor checking you out.
Prefer to talk it through? Book a free 30-minute call →
Got it.
Your details are with our team and we'll be in touch by email. Want to skip the wait? Pick a time for a free 30-minute call.
Book a Free CallFrequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost for a nonprofit?
Hello Bleu's SEO retainer is $1,199 a month, the same price our commercial clients pay. We don't offer a special nonprofit rate, so weigh it against what a handful of new monthly donors or one major gift is worth to you. If budget is tight, getting your Ad Grant working properly may be the smarter first step.
How long does nonprofit SEO take?
Local program searches can improve within weeks once Business Profiles and program pages are fixed. Broader cause and giving searches are crowded with national charities and media, so they take months. Time larger content pieces ahead of the moments that matter to you, like year-end giving or an awareness month.
Are we eligible for Google Ad Grants?
Ad Grants gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 a month in search ads on Google. You need valid charity status in your country (in the US, 501(c)(3)) and a Google for Nonprofits account. Government bodies, hospitals and schools aren't eligible, though their charitable foundations can be. Accounts must keep a 5% click-through rate and track conversions.
Do we need to register in other states if we take donations online?
Possibly. Many states require charities that solicit their residents to register, and a donate button can count as soliciting everywhere it reaches. The Charleston Principles offer guidance on internet fundraising but aren't law. Rules vary by state, so check with your counsel or a registration service; we'll make sure the site carries whatever disclosures they advise.
Do Charity Navigator and Candid profiles help SEO?
Indirectly. They often rank for your name and show up when donors search whether you're legitimate. Candid's Seals of Transparency are free and run from Bronze to Platinum. Charity Navigator rates US 501(c)(3) public charities with at least three years of Form 990 filings on a zero to four star scale. Keep both current.
Can you guarantee we'll rank for our cause?
No. Broad cause searches tend to go to large national charities and news sites, and no agency decides Google's results. Our side of the deal is the monthly work, honest reporting, and tracking donations and sign-ups back to the pages that produced them. If a program page isn't working, we'll tell you and change course.
From The Bleu Print
Guides from our team on the questions we get asked most.
What is AEO?
How to get your business chosen as the answer in AI Overviews, featured snippets, ChatGPT and voice search, and how AEO differs from SEO and GEO.
Read article →Outsourced vs in-house marketing
Salaries, hidden hiring costs and agency fees side by side, plus when in-house actually wins.
Read article →How long does SEO take?
What happens in each month of an SEO campaign, what speeds it up, and real GA4 data from two client campaigns.
Read article →More gifts.
More helping hands.
Book a free call. We'll walk through how donors, volunteers and the people you serve find you today, and tell you honestly whether SEO or a better-run Ad Grant should come first.
Book a Free Call