"Common Sense” SEO: a Practical Approach

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When clients explore the possibility of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for their website, they often imagine a complex world of keyword research, technical optimisation, and ongoing investments. While that approach works well for a lot of brands, it’s a total waste of money for others.

At its core, SEO is nothing more than helping search engines understand what your website is about and whether or not they should recommend it to searchers. Think of them as librarians trying to match readers with the right books. Your job is to make the search engine’s work easier by properly labeling and organising your content, and making sure visitors get exactly what they’re looking for.

Why traditional SEO might not be your best investment

Fact: as a conservation organization, you're probably not competing for highly commercial keywords that guarantee loads of traffic - those battles are fought by companies with massive marketing budgets and dedicated SEO teams.

Keyword research is expensive: it takes an expert anywhere between a day and several weeks to find all relevant keywords and turn their research into recommendations or an SEO strategy. They might go down several rabbit holes to exhaust all possibilities and find those hidden gems - search terms and phrases that directly relate to what you do, get a decent amount of traffic, and aren’t being used much by other websites yet.

SEO also isn’t an overnight magic trick: once you’ve found those relevant keywords, you’ll need to consistently apply them to your website - and it usually takes 4-6 months for search engines to take notice and your SEO strategy to start paying off.

This all requires a considerable investment (if you want it done right)… which may not always get you a great return on investment.

That’s why we often go with a “common sense” approach to keyword research and SEO:

1. Optimising your website for search engines - making sure your foundations are set up right

2. Finding some “common sense keywords” so people who do search for your organisation can find it easily

3. Posting fresh content regularly and updating old content as needed, signaling to search engines your website is being kept up-to-date and reflects the newest information.

Not sure if investing in SEO is the right step for you? Schedule a no-pressure discovery call to find out and/or to get a quick SEO audit for your website.

Common Sense SEO: Minimum Viable Actions

Here's what every small to mid-sized conservation organisation should do, regardless of budget:

1. Technical Basics

Search engines prioritize websites that provide a good user experience. That starts with technical fundamentals:

• Ensure your website loads reasonably quickly - slow sites frustrate visitors and rank lower in search results

• Make sure it works well on mobile devices - most people will view your site on phones or tablets

• Create a clear site structure with logical navigation - this helps both visitors and search engines understand your content

• Set up HTTPS security to protect your visitors and improve search ranking

Getting these basics right signals to search engines that your website is trustworthy and user-friendly. Plus, a well-functioning website makes it easier for supporters to engage with your mission instead of getting lost (and ultimately giving up) trying to find the information they’re looking for.

2. Website structure

Creating a clear site structure with logical navigation isn’t just necessary for your visitors to find their way around - it also helps search engines understand your content. Ideally, your website would need

• A homepage that tells people all about your mission and directs them to sub-pages if you have those

• An about page describing your mission and work, and listing key team member and their roles

• A contact page with clear contact information, including locations

• Individual pages for major projects

• At least one “blog” of some sort - these could be resources, articles, stories, podcast episodes, press releases - anything you could post regularly to add fresh content to your website.

• (And, of course, a privacy policy and cookie banner - while not as essential for SEO, we would be amiss not to mention these here!)

This core content helps establish your organization's credibility and makes it easier for interested parties to reach out. It also provides natural opportunities to include relevant keywords without it feeling forced.

3. On-page optimisation

These elements help search engines understand what each page or post is about:

• Clear page titles that say exactly what the page is about

• A descriptive excerpt (meta description) for each page or post, including (common sense) keywords if relevant

• Headers (H1, H2, etc.) to organize content logically and make it scannable

• Include common sense keywords (see below) in key places

• Name your images with descriptive file names and alt text (helps with both accessibility and image search)

Good organisation makes your information more findable and useful.

A common sense approach to keyword research

Stay close to home

While you might not outrank National Geographic for "wildlife conservation," you can absolutely own searches related to:

• Your organisation's name and variations

• Project names and locations

• Key staff members' names and titles

• Unique terms or methodologies you've developed

• Local initiatives you're running

Start with your audience

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who would visit your website. When would someone search for content that should lead them to your website? Some examples:

• A student researching a specific conservation project

• A potential donor looking up your organisation’s name or searching for organisations in your field

• A local resident checking your latest community initiatives or local projects

• Journalists researching stories related to your work or fact-checking details about your organisation

• People looking for volunteering opportunities

The answers to these questions are your real keywords – and they're probably quite different from what an SEO tool would suggest.

Use the words they would use

A lot of us (humans) suffer from the “curse of knowledge”: we don’t know how much we actually know. And especially if you’re an expert at something, using the correct terms for everything or language you’d use internally, might not always resonate with your readers - let alone be the words they’re searching for.

For instance, the correct name for a female alpaca is “hembra”; however, people looking to find out more about alpacas might not know this yet. So while an article on the topic will reflect you know the correct nomenclature, you also need to include more basic language to get traffic from organic search.

Answer real questions

Create content that addresses what people actually ask about your work in real life. This approach, also featured in the best-selling book They Ask, You Answer, focuses on authentic communication rather than keyword optimisation.

Think about:

• Questions you frequently get at community meetings

• Emails you receive from supporters

• Topics that come up in conversations with stakeholders or visitors

• Common misconceptions about your work

• Questions that arise during volunteer orientations

Turning these conversations into website content helps to share useful information that naturally includes the language your audience uses.

Ongoing SEO and content creation

Fresh content shows that your organization is active and engaged. That doesn’t mean you need to post often; twice a week is good if you’re aiming for big organic traffic with high-volume keywords, but overkill if that’s not the case. Every other week or even once a month is plenty if the main objective is to show search engines (and visitors) your website’s not dead or abandoned.

Post regularly: better to schedule a post to publish once a month, than to post every week for 3 weeks - and then nothing for 3 months.

Examples of content you could post:

• Share new campaigns and initiatives

• Create a post every time you get mentioned in the press or someone in your organisation does a podcast interview

• Ask a volunteer to update your audience on an ongoing project or share their experience working with your organisation

• Answer questions from your followers (see previous section)

Regular updates give search engines a reason to keep coming back to your site, and more importantly, they keep your supporters informed about your work.

You may also want to update information as needed:

• Keep track of posts that will need an update later (e.g. if an article mentions congress will be voting on new regulations soon, post an update after the vote)

• Remove posts that are no longer relevant; when you do this, make sure you place a redirect instead so people don’t just end up on a 404 error page

• Occasionally review older posts for broken links or outdated information

When to invest more in SEO

There are specific situations when it makes sense to expand your SEO efforts. For example:

• If you're launching a campaign or running an initiative that could attract significant search traffic

• When you're competing for grants or funding where online visibility matters

• If you have a webshop (ecommerce)

• If people are searching for information about your topic or location, even if they don’t know your specific organisation

However, only consider expanding your SEO efforts when you have the resources to sustain a longer-term strategy. SEO isn't a one-time effort – it requires ongoing attention and regular updates to stay effective.

Here at SmartAlpaca Marketing, we build websites and write content that can either be based on extensive keyword research, “common sense”, or somewhere in between. We’ll determine which option is right for you when we know more about your organisation’s goals and needs!