It is essential for non-profits to keep an eye on their performance to ensure that they’re making the maximum impact for their cause. You have to constantly put in an effort to evaluate your key metrics and ensure that everything is running smoothly.
However, it can be challenging to figure out progress if you don’t know how to review your existing digital strategy properly. Non-profits around the world struggle on social media because their online presence is not set up properly. A digital audit can be a game-changer because it can allow you to get an in-depth breakdown of your online presence and understand the strengths and weaknesses of your strategy.
Today, we’ll take a deep dive into why your non-profit needs a digital audit and what are the key variables you need to look for.
What is a Digital Audit?
A digital audit is an assessment of your organization’s online presence. It usually includes an evaluation of your website, social media presence, and search engine optimization (SEO) performance and effectiveness. The purpose of a digital audit is to recognize areas for improvement and ensure that your business is aligned with industry best practices.
There are several different types of digital audits, each with its own purpose. Here are some major types.
Types of Audits
Website Audit
A website audit evaluates the design, user-friendliness, content, and SEO of your website. This includes studying the overall layout and navigation of the website, known as the user experience.
The website audit also evaluates the writing quality, image formats, and video performance on your website. Factors like responsivity and mobile-friendliness are also considered. The audit will also identify any areas where your website could be improved in terms of performance.
Social Media Audit
Most people looking for your non-profit will find you through social media. That is why you need to ensure that your social media pages are properly optimized with the correct information. You also want to implement consistent branding throughout all your social media pages.
The social media audit assesses your social media accounts, their content, and engagement rates. This includes looking at things like the number of followers you have on each platform, the type of content you are posting, and how often you are interacting with your followers.
The audit also identifies areas where you could improve your social media presence to reach a wider audience and build stronger relationships with your supporters.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Audit
Search Engine Optimization makes it easier for search engines to find your website and display your content to relevant users. SEO helps improve the ranking of your website and brings your website to the top of leading search engines like Google and Bing.
The SEO audit factors include content structure, readability, keyword density, and other advanced metrics. Your SEO audit will give you a realistic insight into where your non-profit ranks on search engines, along with steps you can take to improve that ranking.
The audit also factors in things like backlink quality, website loading speed, and overall structure. Once your SEO audit is complete, you will have a report that outlines your current performance along with suggestions to help improve your nonprofit’s online presence.
Assessing Your Website – Why Your Website is Important
Your company’s website is the fundamental landing spot where users will learn about your cause. You need to set your website up in a way that makes it easy for people to find your website on search engines. You must also consider factors like loading speed, overall user experience, and security.
Your website is the first place any audience related to your business will land, whether it is donors, volunteers, or supporters. Anyone who needs to learn about your firm will browse through your website to find information. That is why it is crucial to have an efficient website.
Here are some things you need to keep in mind while evaluating your website.
User-Friendliness
Your website should be easy to use and navigate for all visitors. The content should be written and structured in a way that makes it easy for visitors to understand.
Here are some tips for improving the user-friendliness of your website:
- Use clear and crisp language throughout your website
- Avoid terms that cause ambiguity
- Make sure the navigation structure is logical
- Use large, easy-to-point-out buttons and links
- Make sure your website is accessible to people with any sort of disabilities. This is extremely important for a non-profit organization.
Website Design
Your website’s design should be mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, and aligned with your branding for the best results. You can achieve this through the following:
- High-quality images and videos to showcase your achievements
- A consistent color theme
- Easy-to-read fonts
- A user-friendly desktop and mobile version
- Attractive call-to-action placed at different sections, for example, donate now or volunteer to help
Website Copy
Your website’s copy should be informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience.
It should also be optimized for search engines so people can easily find it. Imagine having a great website with creative content but still landing on the last page of Google.
It will be a waste of effort. Efficiency and smart use of the right keywords are critical to reach the right people.
Here are some tips for creating great website content:
- Tell your organization’s story in a clear and concise way. A timeline is a great way to tell your story and list down your achievements
- Highlight your organization’s impact and how it is making a difference
- Share stories about your donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries
- Publish new content on a regular basis.
- Use relevant keywords throughout your website content, there are several SEO tools that can help you identify the right keywords.
Your nonprofit’s website is a central tool for your target audience to connect with you. By investing in a well-designed website, you can attract new donors and supporters, increase volunteer engagement, and raise awareness about your mission.
- Use Google Analytics to track your website traffic and engagement. This data can help you identify areas where your website needs improvement.
- Ask your donors, volunteers, and supporters for feedback on your website. They can provide valuable insights into what you are doing well and what you could improve.
Social Media Evaluation
Social media is a powerful tool for nonprofit marketing or any business in this day and age. A proper digital audit will thoroughly evaluate your social media presence to figure out how to help you achieve the best results.
Here are some of the benefits of auditing your social media accounts and content:
Recognize Areas for Improvement
An audit can help nonprofits identify areas where their social media presence can be improved. This could include things like increasing engagement, improving content quality, or expanding their reach.
Keep Track of Your Metrics
This will help you analyze the changes in your reach, engagement, and traffic and will help you not only improve your content over time but also help you compare the performance of your content.
Stay In Touch with the Audience
Keep asking your followers what they like or dislike about your business and your page to maintain an effective content strategy.
Study Your Competitors
Look at what they are doing to keep their engagement levels high, the kind of content they post, or the campaigns they run. This will not only keep you up-to-date but also help you stay inspired and motivated when creating your strategies.
Search Engine Optimisation
When people search for information about nonprofits online, they are more likely to donate to or volunteer for nonprofits that appear higher on search engines. This is because these companies are perceived as more credible and trustworthy.
A digital audit can reveal a number of SEO failings that may be preventing your website from ranking high on search engines.
Keyword targeting: The company may not be targeting the right keywords.
Content optimization: The company’s content may not be optimized for search engines. This suggests that the content may not be using the right keywords, or it may not be organized in a way that is easy for search engines to understand.
Backlinks: Your website may not have enough backlinks. These are links from other websites to your website and are considered a vote of confidence in the website. They are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO.
Technical SEO: Technical SEO problems include factors like slow speed, a mobile-unfriendly design, or broken links. Technical SEO problems can make it difficult for search engines to crawl and index a website.
Benefits of Conducting a Digital Audit for SEO
- Identifying SEO faults: A digital audit can help you identify any SEO shortcomings that may be preventing your websites from ranking high.
- Improving SEO performance: By addressing the SEO shortcomings identified in the digital audit, you can improve their SEO performance.
- Reaching more people: By ranking higher, organizations can reach more people with their message and generate more leads and donations.
- Building trust and credibility: Nonprofits that appear higher in SERPs are perceived as being more credible and trustworthy. This can lead to more donations and volunteers.
Conclusion
Getting a digital audit is the first step towards understanding your standing in the digital world. You’ll get an in-depth understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and get specific feedback on your website, SEO, copy, and other critical elements that help you stand out in the market.
Your digital audit will also serve as the foundation of your new marketing strategy because it will include actionable steps. You can follow these steps to notice an instant improvement in your online performance.
A comprehensive digital audit is essential if you want to expand the message of your non-profit and improve your conversation. You want to ensure that all your traffic gets converted into supporters and you don’t have missing links in your digital strategy.
Especially in today’s landscape, where there is fierce competition, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses in detail to gain a competitive edge. A digital audit helps you understand how you can improve your existing strategy.
As a leading digital marketing company, Sunan Designs can help you optimize your digital strategy with a free audit. We evaluate all your online channels and give you an in-depth insight into your performance. Our experts have decades of experience and ensure that we identify the best areas of improvement and provide recommendations.
Reach out to us today to book a free digital audit today and learn more about how to kickstart your growth.
