How to Leverage Google Search Console for Nonprofits

ByIlia Jones
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Knowing how to analyze search trends is essential for any nonprofit. Without knowing what your audience is looking for, it’s impossible to know how to target them accurately in advertising and marketing efforts. 

The free tools and reports available in Google Search Console make it easy to understand which terms users are searching for and which queries bring them to your website. It can help you improve your SEO to attract more traffic or keep site visitors on specific pages longer.

It can also help you understand how Google crawls and indexes your website and alert you to any performance issues. 

Getting Started with Google Search Console

To use Google Search Console, you first have to ensure that Google can find and crawl your website. To get started, you’ll need to verify ownership of our website. 

Owner verification helps to keep your website information confidential. It prevents others from claiming your website and accessing your analytics and search data. 

There are seven different ways to verify site ownership, including:

  • DNS record
  • HTML file upload
  • HTML tag
  • Google Analytics tracking code
  • Google Tag Manager container snippet
  • Google Sites
  • Blogger

These verification methods allow you to claim your site and verify ownership through a straightforward process. 

Google Search Coverage Report

Once your ownership is verified, Google will crawl and index your website. The Coverage report shows you the identified and crawled pages, along with any errors or excluded pages. 

  • Errors – These pages won’t appear in Google search results due to specific issues. Fix any errors so that the pages may appear after future Google indexing.
  • Valid with Warnings – These pages may or may not be shown on Google. Research warnings to determine if the pages should display in search results. 
  • Valid Pages – These pages have been indexed and will appear in Google searches. 
  • Excluded Pages – These pages have not been indexed and won’t appear in Google searches. They may be inactive or not currently visible on purpose.

The Details section below the Coverage chart provides more details about the pages affected by each category. You can click on any of the details to find more information on which specific URLs are affected and learn more about how to fix issues. 

Google Search Performance Report

This report helps you understand the traffic your website is getting from Google searches, including information on queries, pages, and countries. You can also see transfer metrics, clicks, and other metrics that help provide a complete picture of your website’s search performance. 

The Performance report shows the total clicks and impressions for the time period given. It also shows the click-through rate and average search results page position. Click-through rate and page position can be metrics by which to measure improvement over time. 

When reviewing your performance data, there are three things to look for:

  • Low Click-Through Rate – Create better page titles and descriptions to make your pages more appealing. 
  • Missing Search Queries – If search queries that you expect to see don’t appear, you may need to bulk up your content on those topics to boost your search results page rank. 
  • Branded Search Queries – Searches directly related to your nonprofit. These queries may show evidence of, or gaps in, brand recognition.

As you review your website performance, you can dig deeper into the data by analyzing specific search queries, pages, countries, devices, search appearance, and dates. This information can help you better understand what your site visitors are looking for and where you may be missing opportunities. 

Google Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps you increase the visibility of your web pages and improve your search engine results page rankings. Improved ranking helps boost your visibility and attracts more relevant traffic to your nonprofit. 

Improving SEO may involve updating the content and structure on your website and web pages, such as heading tags. By creating a well-thought-out and organized website with valuable content for the reader, you’ll see your search ranking soar. 

Here are a few SEO best practices to follow: 

Create High-Quality Content

Create high-quality, original content that is accurate, well-written, and comprehensive. This type of content can include articles, blog posts, and other long-form formats. Additionally, this type of written content is an excellent way to show thought leadership or expertise in your nonprofit’s specific focus area. 

Unique Page Titles and Descriptions

Use unique page titles and page description meta tags for each web page. These should accurately reflect the content on the page so that visitors know what they are getting. Page descriptions can include persuasive language or calls to action to invite clicks. 

Use Headings and Heading Tags

Use headings to emphasize important text or to indicate page sections so that users can easily navigate the page. Putting the correct heading tags on different heading levels also indicates the hierarchy of information to the reader and Google.

Make a Mobile-Friendly Website

Make your website mobile-friendly. Today, more than ever, people are using mobile devices as their primary access to the internet. And this includes search. So, ensure that site visitors get a smooth user experience no matter how they access your website. 

Using Google Search Console is a Must for Nonprofits

As you can see, there are many valuable features available in Google Search Console. These free tools can help improve your website performance and search engine page ranking. And Search Console is just one of many tools from Google that are free for nonprofits. 

Learn more about other Google tools that may help your nonprofit:

To help you make the most of those tools and more, check out our blog posts on capturing attention on the search results page with Google Featured Snippets. Or learn how to leverage a combination of paid ads and ad grants for even greater success.

With so many free tools available, if your nonprofit isn’t already using Google, it might be time to take the plunge! Let us help! For more tips and tricks on all Google tools, subscribe to the ArcStone blog!