Webinar follow-up: SEO Best Practices

In May, FundRaising Success conducted the webinar “If You Optimize It, They Will Come: SEO Best Practices for Fundraisers,” featuring Todd Whitley, vice president of e-marketing at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; Farra Trompeter, vice president of client relationships and strategy at Big Duck; and Rob Yoegel, vice president and online publisher, for the Target Marketing Group.

Our panel was able answer many of the audience’s questions, but not all. Here, our experts address those questions that we couldn’t get to.

To view this webinar, go to www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/story/story.bsp?sid=96827&var=story. For a look at all of the archived FundRaising Success webinars, go to www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/docs/webinars.bsp.

Q. Is it possible for another site to link to our company site without permission?

Todd Whitley: Yes, it is. In fact, if you look at your Web logs you should be able to see all of the sites that link to yours and, with an analytical program, which [of them are] driving traffic. Look at the reference to your organization on Wikipedia, which is a big driver for LLS.

While it’s great that most organizations that link to you today do ask, I’m not bothered by any site linking to an LLS property online. Linking back is another matter. You want to make sure, since linking to a Web site other than your own is akin to an endorsement, that the site and page you are linking to is truly providing helpful and relevant information for your visitors.

Farra Trompeter: Yes, technically anyone can link to your site — all they need is your site’s address or URL. Your organization can post a policy about links and permission. In the meantime, take a look and see who is already linking to your site by going to any search engine and typing: link: http://www.YOURURLHERE.org.

Q: What would you consider the must-haves for our organization’s homepage in order to capitalize on SEO efforts?