Complete Non Profit SEO Checklist for 2025 to Boost Visibility

Why Is Maintaining Your SEO Page Ranking Important?

SEO Checklist: Tracking Basics

1. Get Familiar with Google’s SEO Tools: You’re probably already familiar with using Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Search Console, and an SEO tool like Ahrefs, Mangools or SEMRush. If you’re not, you’ll definitely need to get started, as that’s where you’re going to find all of your important SEO-related website data (and check to see if your SEO strategy is working!).
   
2. Link Your Tools: Link your Google Search Console to Google Analytics and your SEO tool so you can see how your SEO efforts translate into actual results.
   
3. Keyword Rank Tracking: Set up rank tracking for specific keywords relevant to your core pages. You can do this by signing up for an SEO tool like Ahrefs, Mangools or SEMRush.
   
4. Backlink Monitoring: Backlinks are links to your website from other sites. It’s a good indication to Google that your website contains valuable information. Keep an eye on your backlinks to identify any broken or spam links that could reflect poorly on your site; this will become part of your link-building checklist, too. 

SEO Checklist: Keyword Research & Strategy

1. Keyword Strategy: Map out potential keywords and create a keyword strategy that combines informational keywords (to drive traffic) as well as action-driven keywords (to drive conversions).
2. Define Thematic Pillars: Select 3–5 strategic content areas (e.g. “EU health policy”) to guide keyword and content development.
3. Run Keyword Research with SEO Tools: Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Mangools or SEMRush to find high search volume and low-competition keywords related to your organisation’s work.
4. Conduct Competitor Keyword Gap Analysis: Identify keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t, revealing missed content opportunities.
5. Find Long-Tail and Question Keywords: Don’t forget about long-tail keywords and relevant questions that appear in the “People also ask” section of search engine result pages. These are longer, more specific queries and questions with lower search volumes but higher conversion potential and less competition.
6. Analyse Search Volume & Difficulty: Prioritise keywords with strong search volume and manageable keyword difficulty scores. (< 40)
7. Track Keyword Search Volume Changes: Track changes in keyword popularity over time so you can keep your content relevant – what worked a year ago isn’t going to work today.

SEO Competitor Analysis

Off-Page SEO Checklist

1. Analyse Your Competitors’ Backlinks: Reverse engineer your competitors’ backlink strategy by identifying their referring domains, referring pages and targeting those sources for your own outreach.
2. Launch Outreach Campaigns: Identify high-authority websites likely to feature your content and systematically contact them to request backlinks—proactivity is critical.
3. Claim Social Media Handles: Claim your organisation’s name on all important social media channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, etc. It doesn’t matter if you’re not active on those platforms, but you want to make sure you have your username secured to safeguard your brand identity.
4. Engage Member Organisations: Request your members to link back to your website from theirs to build a network of relevant, high-authority backlinks. If you don’t know how to convince them to do so, try creating a membership ambassador programme and provide them with a badge that they can place in the footer of their website with a link to yours, so they can highlight their distinguished status while you are earning valuable backlinks from their site.
5. Guest Post Strategically: Pitch thought leadership articles to industry-relevant blogs or media outlets with strong domain ratings to secure contextual backlinks.
6. Submit to Directories: List your organisation on credible, industry-specific directories and association websites to earn authoritative, long-lasting backlinks.
7. Create Linkable Assets: Develop shareable content such as infographics, reports, or toolkits that naturally encourage backlinks when shared or referenced.
8. Host and Promote Webinars: Run webinars or digital events and encourage attendees and collaborators to link back to your landing pages and resources.
9. Track Links with UTM Tags: Use UTM parameters to monitor how shared links perform across channels and identify your most valuable backlink sources.
10. Encourage Resharing & Linking: Prompt your audience and partners to re-share your content and explicitly ask them to include a link to your website.

On-Page SEO Checklist

1. Always Start With Keyword Research: For each page, select one core keyword, 2–3 secondary keywords, and 3–5 accessory keywords based on search intent and competitor data.
2. Optimise Page Titles and H1 Tags: Ensure each page has a unique SEO title under 60 characters and one H1 tag that includes the core keyword—ideally matching the page title. 
3. Write Meta Descriptions: Craft a unique meta description under 160 characters for each page, incorporating the core keyword to improve click-through rates.
4. Use Clean URLs: Ensure all URLs are short, readable, and contain the core keyword to improve both user experience and search visibility.
5. Structure Content Logically: Use one H1, followed by logically nested H2s and H3s, and break down the content with short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings. Make sure to use internal links and proper anchor text on pages to improve navigation on your website.
6. Insert Keywords Strategically: Place your core, secondary, and accessory keywords naturally throughout the content—especially in the title, headings and the first paragraph.
7. Add Multimedia & Visuals: Use original, high-quality images, videos, or infographics with alt text to enhance engagement and improve image SEO.

Technical SEO Checklist

1. Submit Sitemap Regularly: Automate sitemap submission to Google and Bing whenever new content is published to ensure timely indexing.
2. Crawl Your Site for Errors & Fix Issues: Use tools like Ahrefs to run regular automated technical audits and flag SEO issues. Resolve any 404 errors, redirect chains, orphaned pages, and incorrect canonical tag setups highlighted in your technical audit report.
3. Optimise Page Speed: Minimise JavaScript, leverage caching and CDNs, and compress images to achieve load times under 3 seconds.
4. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness: Test responsiveness across devices and screen sizes, and optimise touch elements and navigation for mobile users.
5. Enforce HTTPS Protocol: Secure the site with a valid SSL certificate and ensure all pages are consistently served over HTTPS.
6. Apply Structured Data: Implement schema markup to enhance visibility in search results with rich snippets and improve content comprehension by search engines.
7. Optimise Images: Compress images (<200kb), add descriptive alt tags, and name files meaningfully to improve load speed and accessibility.

Complete Nonprofit SEO Checklist for 2025

Up Your SEO Game