What You Need to Know about SEO

What is SEO? What does it mean?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. But actually, SEO is about helping your pages show up in search engines, like Google, where our audiences are looking for them and then getting your audiences to click on them. In practice, it's a way of writing and structuring your pages for two outcomes:

1. Your pages are visible in search engines, like Google
2. Your audience wants to click on the pages and spend time on them

Search engines like Google need to understand what a page is about in order to show it to someone making a search. There are certain fields on a page that give Google that information (jump to learn more about those fields).

But this also means that you should understand how your audience thinks and talks about a topic, because that's how they use Google to find more information about that topic. If you can anticipate how your audience might search in Google, you can make your page more appealing to them and get more clicks, as well as other desirable actions.

How to write and structure your pages for visits from Google

Before you start drafting, you need to know who your content is for. There are several audiences that TNC content reaches, including:

• Mindful Mover: Lives TNC's values through personal action, including education, volunteering, and donating
• Members and Prospects: Actively supports TNC's mission through donations, pledges, and events
• Change Agents: Advances TNC's goals at scale through policy, business, media and community involvement
• Ultra-High Net Worth Donor: Actively or potentially supports TNC's mission through significant donations
• Youth: Younger than 35 years old and those in education who grow the next generation of conservationists
• Workplace Givers: Work for large companies that match employee donations
• Corporate Partners: Companies that partner with TNC and promote our initiatives
• Managed & Major Donors: Actively supports TNC's mission through significant donations, often to specific projects

So we know that people are looking for answers, now what?

The next step is to do a little bit of research to better understand how your planned page might show up for your audience in search. (Jump to the research section.) After this process, you'll have a list of words, phrases, questions, and subtopics that you want to include, as well as an idea of what other websites are already doing so you can do it better.

Then comes drafting the page. The hard truth is that most visitors will only skim a page to find the answers to their questions and they will leave if the information is not readily available. This is why journalists employ the inverted pyramid approach:

Give your readers the best possible experience through:

• Original information, reporting, research, or analysis
• A meaningful description of the topic and thoughtful analysis beyond the obvious
• Substantial value compared to other pages on the topic
• A headline/page title that gives a descriptive and helpful summary (and avoids exaggeration or shock)

Parts of the page that are most important for Google

All of the text-based content on the page is important, but Google pays extra close attention to certain parts of the page when determining what your page is about:

• External search results title (SEO title): This field is in page properties, in the SEO tab. The title in this field is what you see in a Google search, and it's also in the tab when the page is open in a browser. Not only is this title very important for Google, this is the part that convinces people whether or not they should click on the page from a search. Make the most of it by using the most important, descriptive words here.
• Page title: This field is in the hero component, and is the actual title, or header, on a page, seen by everyone who reads it. Tip: The SEO title and the page title should be different but related to increase the odds that Google and readers understand your page.
• Subheaders: If a page title is like a book title, subheaders are like chapter titles. Just like the page title, these should also be descriptive of the section to come. Both Google and readers find subheaders helpful! There are 6 levels of subheaders, H2 through H6. (Why isn't there an H1? Because the page title is the H1, which is the most important header!)

Did you notice that all of these elements are also really important for readers? That's by design! Ideally, Google and your readers would be able to understand the page's topic and structure by reading only these parts, like an outline.

Check out this visual for crafting a well-optimized page.

Structure Pages for Mobile Readers

If you plan to promote your page on social media, text messaging or email, chances are many of your visitors will visit your page on a phone. Planning your page for mobile readers also benefits desktop readers. Everyone like to read pages that are easy to understand with lots of visual breaks!

How to do your own SEO research using Google

Keep your audience in mind. Your job is to answer their questions and keep them interested in and engaged with your content. This means you need to know the words they use when they talk about (and search for) a topic.

Different audiences talk about topics differently. For example, a Change Agent who is well versed in local policy might use more academic or political language than a Mindful Mover who has heard about a bill but doesn't know its name. Follow these steps to find out how your audience talks about a topic.

Tip: Open an incognito window or use a web browser that you don't usually use to reduce the personalization in the results you'll see.

1. Don't hit enter (Google autocomplete)

When you're confident you have it close enough, hit enter and take a look at the first few results. Are most of the pages, images, links, and resources similar to the one you'll build? If yes, great job! This is your main topic and you'll find related questions and other searches as inspiration for sub-topics. If not, click through to some of the related questions, searches, and results and try to refine further.

2. People Also Ask box

It's also a great way to see what other websites are doing. Click on a few. Can you do this better?

3. Related searches

If not, these might be great inspiration for a new page that's related. This could be the start of a mini content hub: one "main" page about the topic that provides a general overview and 2-3 "sub" pages that go into greater detail on one specific aspect of the topic.