You have written some articles, created a blog, and are sitting there waiting for prospective donors and supporters to stumble across it. The numbers are okay – but nowhere near as high as you may have hoped. Traffic seems to be consistent but if you want to increase your fundraising, you know deep down you have to do better. So how do you get from here to there?

It’s a quandary many nonprofits face. Your blog is valuable to your readers, but first, they have to know it exists. Here are our top 5 ways to improve your blog traffic and cultivate awareness of your charity or nonprofit.

1. Brush up on the basics of SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the basics that every blog owner must master. Think about the keywords that your audience may use to try to find your NFP. What phrases might they search for? Be as specific as you can. The more specific you are, the better chance they will locate your charity in their keyword search. Your research should present you with a list of relevant phrases and keywords which can be peppered into your blog posts. Don’t feel you have to use all of them in each blog post. Rather scatter them in here and there, so it doesn’t come across as forced or unnatural. You still need to balance the usefulness of your blog posts with your marketing agenda.

2. Promote your blog posts on social media

If you don’t promote your articles, how will anyone know they are there? It’s a simple thing but can hugely increase the amount of traffic to your articles. Don’t leave out any of your social media channels. As soon as you write a blog post, share it on your Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn pages. Distribute it far and wide including distribution to relevant groups and forums that may be interested in the subject you have written about. Your blog is intended to help people first and foremost, so sharing is only furthering your cause.

3. Cross-link your current posts

Cross-linking your posts to other relevant pages and older articles will help keep your older blog posts current. Just because you wrote them last year, doesn’t mean that they are any less relevant today. They should be shared as equally as much as the articles you wrote last week. It is one of the easiest things you can do to increase your blog reach. As a blog post standard, add a handful of links to each blog post you write. If necessary, delegate a staff member to go back in and add links to your older blog posts. A simple thing but highly effective to your overall traffic.

4. Refer to your blog posts in your newsletters

Each time you send out a newsletter, don’t hesitate to mention the blog posts that you penned between today and whenever the last newsletter was sent out to subscribers. Your email subscriber list is an excellent way to increase your blog exposure. Who else has more interest in your blog posts than those who are currently interested in what you have to say already? Add little teasers or tidbits and link to the original post so they can visit if it particularly interests them. It is a natural way to strengthen your relationship with your readers with requiring an enormous amount of effort.

5. Quote others and share the posts with them

One great way to widen the readership is to quote others in your blog posts and then let them know you have referred to them. Who doesn’t love to share specific mentions; and, you may just open your blog posts up to a whole new audience. Let them know that you have referred to them in a tweet or a reference on Facebook. Everyone loves the thought of free publicity, and by quoting others, you are doing them and yourself a huge favour.

Getting visitors to your blog is imperative to your fundraising plan. And, as always, there is no better day to start doing that than today.