How to increase charity website traffic: SEO for charities that works

Most charities don’t have a budget for search advertising, which makes free visits from Google more valuable to them than to almost anyone. The good news is that charities have advantages in search that businesses pay a lot for: real expertise, trust, local roots and stories nobody else can tell. This guide covers the SEO that actually makes a difference to a charity website, and the other free channels worth adding.

Start with the searches you can actually win

You won’t rank for “charity” or “donate”, and you don’t need to. The searches that matter are the specific ones: the problem someone is facing, the service they need near them, the event they want to sign up for. A local mental health charity is far better placed to answer “free counselling for young people in Bristol” than any national directory.

• Google Search Console shows the searches you already appear for. Look for questions where you show up but sit on page two: those are your quickest wins.
• Google itself is a free research tool. Start typing a question about your cause and note what autocomplete suggests, then look at the “People also ask” box.
• Your own staff know the questions people ask on the phone every week. Each of those deserves a page.
• Your supporters search too: “volunteering near me”, “charity bike ride 2027”, “leave a gift in my will”.

One strong page per question

Once you know the questions, give each one a single, genuinely useful page. Put the direct answer near the top, then the detail. Use clear headings, plain English and a date showing when the page was last reviewed. End every page with a next step: get help, sign up, donate.

Avoid several pages that half-answer the same question. They compete with each other and none of them wins. We found two of our own posts about Google Ad Grants doing exactly that, and merging them into one stronger guide was the fix.

Get the technical basics right once

• Titles and descriptions: every page needs a clear title and a short description that says what the page offers. They are what people see in the results.
• Mobile and speed: most visitors arrive on a phone. A slow, awkward mobile site loses them before they read a word.
• Security and updates: keep WordPress, plugins and PHP up to date and serve everything over HTTPS. Our free WordPress version checker is a quick first look.
• Search Console and a sitemap: set them up so Google can find every page and tell you about problems.
• Broken links and redirects: when pages move, redirect the old address to the new one. When we audited our own site we found 60 internal links pointing at pages that no longer existed.
• Accessibility: headings in order, descriptive links and alt text on images help screen reader users and search engines alike.

Local search

If people visit you, or you serve a particular area, set up a Google Business Profile with your opening hours, services and photos. Keep your name, address and phone number exactly the same everywhere they appear online, and list your charity with your local council, voluntary sector support body and relevant local directories.

Links: where charities have an advantage

Links from other trusted websites are still one of the strongest signals Google uses, and charities can earn them in ways businesses can’t:

• Ask partners, funders and corporate supporters to link to you from their pages about your work together.
• Offer local and sector press a story, a spokesperson or figures from your own services.
• Publish something genuinely useful: a guide, a directory of local support or data from your work.
• Make sure your entry on the charity register lists the right website address.

AI answers have changed the maths

Google now answers many questions itself at the top of the results page, so some information pages get fewer clicks even when they rank well. That makes it more important to be the source those answers draw on, and to offer what a summary can’t, such as a helpline, a local service or other people’s experience. We’ve written about how Google’s AI answers are affecting charity websites and what to do about it.

Beyond search: the other free channels

• The Google Ad Grant gives eligible charities up to $10,000 a month in search advertising. Our Ad Grants guide for UK charities covers eligibility and how to keep it.
• Email is the channel you own. Put a sign-up on every page, and read our guide to the charity soft opt-in before you start emailing donors.
• Social media works best for stories and events. Link back to your site so the attention has somewhere to go.
• Partnerships with local businesses, schools and other charities bring visitors and links at the same time.

Turning more visitors into support

More traffic only matters if people can act on it. Make sure the Donate button is on every page, the donation form works well on a phone and keeps people on your site, and every information page offers a clear next step. Our research found that only 37.2% of the 55,300 charity websites that answered show a visible way to donate online. See what we found.

How we can help

Every charity website we build ships with clean structure, fast pages, proper titles and redirects, and Search Console set up, so it starts on the right foot. See how we approach charity web design, or get in touch for a second opinion on your current site.

Questions charities ask