A strong online presence helps charities reach more donors and supporters through search engines like Google. With SEO for charities, even small nonprofits can enhance their search rankings and visibility in search results without incurring additional costs.
This guide shares the top 5 free SEO tools to help you improve search traffic, optimize for the right keywords, and enhance your marketing strategy by implementing effective SEO tips and best practices. Whether you’re new to SEO for nonprofits or want to sharpen your efforts, these tools will help you grow your online presence.
Why SEO Is Essential for Charities
Search engines like Google allow donors, volunteers, and partners to find your nonprofit. If your nonprofit is not optimized, you will miss this audience. SEO for nonprofits helps ensure your website appears in search results for keywords that match the needs and intent of your audience.
Good SEO involves a combination of on-page, technical, and off-page strategies. On-page SEO focuses on optimizing content and structure, technical SEO ensures your website performs well—like loading quickly—and off-page SEO helps build credibility, all of which improve your search rankings and make it easier for supporters to find you online. SEO is a long-term strategy that helps your charity increase its visibility in search results, attract more visitors, and extend its reach and impact.
Top Free SEO Tools Every Charity Should Use
1. Google Search Console: Track SEO Performance
Google Search Console is a powerful free tool that helps nonprofits monitor their website’s SEO performance. It shows how search engine bots crawl your content, which search terms bring visitors, and how your pages rank in search results. Google Search Console helps you improve on-page SEO, spot technical issues, and monitor how your site performs in search results.
Why it matters:
- Track queries and traffic to discover what users are looking for and tailor content to those needs.
- Monitor search rankings and where your pages appear in search engine results pages.
- See how Google crawls and indexes your pages, and which search queries send visitors to your content.
- Identify issues such as core web vitals and website speed that affect your search engine optimization performance.
- Target relevant and long-tail keywords to improve on-page SEO and increase the chance of ranking for specific searches.
2. Google Analytics: Monitor SEO Efforts
Google Analytics is a free tool that helps nonprofits gain deep insights into how users find and interact with their website. It shows where your traffic comes from, what content visitors engage with, and which search terms drive users to your site. By analyzing these patterns, you can tailor your content to meet user intent, track SEO progress, and enhance your site’s performance to achieve higher search rankings.
Why it matters:
- Understand where your search traffic comes from and how users navigate your site to improve their experience.
- Analyze user behavior to identify which pages keep visitors engaged and which areas need optimization.
- Discover specific search terms and patterns using tools like Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic to create content aligned with your audience’s search intent.
- Track your SEO efforts over time using goals and conversion metrics, such as donations or sign-ups.
- Focus on long-tail keywords to better match user intent and improve your SEO strategy for higher search rankings.
3. Google Business Profile: Boost Local SEO
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free tool that helps nonprofits improve their visibility in local search results. Providing accurate address details, hours, contact info, and keyword-rich descriptions, plus regular updates and photos, improves your local visibility and makes it easier for nearby supporters to find you. Use your Google Business Profile to link to key landing pages, and separately build a clear internal linking structure on your website — both help users and search engines find important pages.
Why it matters:
- Improve your charity’s visibility in local search results to attract donors, volunteers, and supporters nearby.
- Ensure accurate location details to build trust with both users and search engines.
- Use internal links to relevant landing pages to strengthen your on-page SEO.
- Include relevant keywords in your profile description to align with the search intent behind queries.
- Strengthen your local SEO strategy to appear higher in search engine results pages and increase online search visibility.
4. Ubersuggest & AnswerThePublic: Keyword Research Tools
Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic are free tools that help nonprofits uncover the specific search terms and target keywords people use when looking for causes like yours. By analyzing search volume, trends, and related queries, these tools enable your charity to focus on long-tail keywords and craft SEO content that aligns with the search intent behind queries. Apply keyword insights to landing pages, blog posts, and site copy, so on-page SEO (titles, headings, meta descriptions, body text) is targeted and consistent. Optimizing your pages with SEO best practices can help your content rank higher in search results and attract more visitors.
Why it matters:
- Identify keywords supporters use so your content answers their queries.
- Focus on long-tail keywords to target highly specific searches with lower competition.
- Understand search intent behind queries to create content that engages and converts.
- Optimize landing pages and blog posts to strengthen your on-page SEO.
- Enhance your SEO strategy to improve search engine rankings and overall online presence.
5. PageSpeed Insights & GTmetrix: Technical SEO Tools
PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix are free tools that help nonprofits improve website speed, core web vitals, mobile optimization, and technical SEO. Implementing recommendations such as image optimization, browser caching, and efficient coding can make your site faster and more accessible, helping search engines crawl it more effectively and improving SEO across your landing pages, donation forms, and blog posts.
Why it matters:
- Enhance user experience and SEO by optimizing load times and improving page responsiveness.
- Optimize technical SEO elements like mobile performance and core web vitals to enhance rankings.
- Make sure your landing pages and blog posts load quickly to provide a better experience that attracts and retains supporters.
- Strengthen your charity’s SEO strategy for better search engine rankings and increased visibility in search results.
- Improve accessibility and technical performance so search engines can crawl your site reliably and users have a positive experience — both support better rankings.
How to Combine These Free SEO Tools for Effective SEO
Nonprofits can use Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights together to strengthen their digital marketing and SEO efforts. Together, these free tools help you research keywords, track search traffic, and ensure search engines can crawl and index your site effectively. This helps your nonprofit follow effective SEO practices and improve its search visibility.
A holistic SEO approach includes on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. On-page SEO is about using the right keywords and a clear internal linking structure to help individual pages rank. Off-page SEO builds brand authority through backlinks, while technical SEO focuses on website speed.
Using these tools will help charities better understand what people are searching for, improve their presence in search results, and make smarter, data-driven decisions to expand their content and reach.
Conclusion
SEO is about optimizing content and website signals so that search engines can understand and rank your charity effectively. SEO involves optimizing on-page content and technical elements to ensure your site meets best practices and aligns with search intent. It’s a long-term strategy—consistent effort using free tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google Business Profile helps your nonprofit climb search engine rankings and achieve SEO success, reaching more donors and supporters.
By focusing on these strategies, your charity can strengthen its online presence. Begin applying these SEO practices today so supporters can find and engage with your cause more easily.
Start Growing Your Impact
Take the first step—use these free SEO tools to boost visibility, attract supporters, and expand your mission’s reach. Even small improvements today can boost your SEO results over time.