How many times have you invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in creating a report that offers real insights and solutions for the problems plaguing your state, only to see it get just a few hundred views?

What if there was a way, without spending a lot of additional time or money, you could reach more people actively looking for information on that subject?

There is: Search Engine Optimization.

What is Search Engine Optimization, aka SEO?

Simply put, search engine optimization, referred to as SEO, is making sure it is easy for search engines to find and understand what your website content is about. The clearer your content is to the search engine, the higher you’ll rank in relevant search queries.

What does it mean to have “good SEO”?

Good SEO is making sure each page is optimized for keywords you want to rank for.  

Keywords are the words or phrases that users type into the search engine. Optimized = incorporating those keywords, (yes, you can have more than one) throughout the page. As mentioned earlier, the outcome of good SEO is showing up near the top of search results.

You can spend thousands of dollars with an agency to achieve this, but even a few simple adjustments, like the two below, can have a meaningful impact.

1. Make sure your content is written in, or at least contains, the words and phrases people are searching for. This is one crucial tension that needs thought. If you want folks looking for information about Obamacare to find your article first, then you can’t primarily refer to it as the Affordable Care Act. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever use ACA, but to rank for the keywords people are searching for, you must incorporate them verbatim.

2. Once you’ve worked through which keywords you want to use, make sure everything on your page is titled with those keywords. Your page title, your photos, any PDFs, or other documents should be named something related to the page content. Avoid using internal names or descriptors like “infographic v6.” Search engines look at these titles when analyzing a page, so don’t miss an opportunity to help clarify your relevance!

How can good SEO help you accomplish your goals?

First and foremost, you need good content. If your message isn’t compelling or your argument sound, then a deluge of new people to your site won’t accomplish anything. But if you do have good content, making sure you have equally good SEO can increase your results exponentially.

• Do you want to educate the public? Once search engines have correctly indexed your content, you have the potential to reach thousands of new people beyond your current audiences for free.
• Do you want to be perceived as a thought leader in particular policy areas? Showing up on the first page of search results sends a pretty strong signal that you’re influential and relevant.
• Want to frame the conversation? If someone is searching for information and visits your content first, you can help shape their point of view.
• Do you want to increase your media exposure? Journalists are also using keyword searches to identify potential sources and learn about an issue.

The list goes on and on. Once you’ve identified your content goals, think through how appearing higher in the search engine rankings may help you achieve them.

When should you think about SEO?

For many people, SEO comes at the end of content creation, after the content is proofed and you’re about to hit publish. While that’s better than nothing, you’re missing out on real opportunities if you’re not thinking about SEO before you ever create a content calendar.

SEO should influence what type of content you’re creating.

Take a minute and reflect on each of your priority policy areas and your target audiences. What do they want to know about that topic? What questions might they have? Are there common misconceptions?

Creating content to serve an existing need is a much easier road to success than trying to drum up interest in something people are not already thinking about.

You can still go ahead with the reports and research as planned, but you may also want to create a page answering Frequently Asked Questions or write blog posts addressing “5 Things Everyone Should Know About X” rather than simply an announcement of your latest report.

SPN had a fairly successful page featuring extensive resources around Janus v. AFSCME, but we realized it wasn’t meeting all users’ needs. We created a 5 Things to Know About Janus v. AFSCME that focused on the key elements of the case and watched organic traffic to both pages subsequently jump.

Another consideration when thinking about content for SEO is whether you could have a bigger impact in areas outside your core focus. It might not be worth devoting resources to a policy report, but you can quickly turn out some FAQs or Top 5 Myths on popular issues that will help influence the public conversation.

A thirst for search engine traffic should never trump your organizational goals and priorities, but once you’ve set them, SEO implications should be your next step.

If you’re new to Search Engine Optimization, here are some recommended readings to get you started:

• Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide
• How to do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide
• Beginner’s Guide to Keyword Search Volume for Marketers