Pro-Bono SEO and PPC Helps Non-Profit Increase Online Presence by +200%

Rainbows for All Children, a nonprofit organization that has been serving youth for over 40 years, has a commitment to “creating a community and providing resources that empower youth to navigate loss and uncertainty”. Their organization runs chapters in nearly 40 states, as well as in 16 different countries. In November of 2023, based on the needs of their organization, Pilot selected Rainbows to be our next Do Good By client.

Nonprofits in Pilot’s Do Good By program work closely with our SEO and PPC teams to identify their most pressing marketing needs. From there, we develop an action plan to position the organization as well as possible in the digital landscape, not just through ads management and SEO optimization, but by building the marketing infrastructure they need to propel the organization forward, long after their partnership with us.

Snapshot

In working with Rainbows for the first six months of 2024, Pilot built out the majority of the organization’s technical marketing infrastructure. This included:

• Configuring event tracking in GTM and GA4 for key events
• Building a Looker Studio dashboard for GA4 and Search Console analytics reporting
• Working closely with both Google Support and Rainbows in order to reactivate and verify the Client’s Google Grant account
• Building out several Google Ads campaigns and conducting accompanying keyword research

Overall, the number of users increased 285.23% from 2023 to 2024, the bounce rate decreased from 44.5% to 14%, and Google ads traffic from their reactivated Grants account was 15% of new users in 2024.

The Challenge

While Rainbows had an existing website, Google Grant account, and Google Analytics account.However, their organization had key technical issues they needed help with:

1. They lacked concrete tracking of their conversion events, and the only metric being tracked was overall traffic to the website,
2. Did not have correct access to their Google Grants account; the account had also been deactivated due to account inactivity, and
3. Had several pages that led to soft 404 errors, making it difficult to navigate for users wanting to find a list of available Rainbows support groups.

Despite the organization having a solid online presence, when we began working with them, their digital marketing was missing the organization and structure needed for success. As a result, they were missing out on users that need their vital services, or potential donors who want to connect. 

Our Approach

Our team began by conducting an SEO audit of the organization’s website, identifying issues that could be remedied during our six months of work. These areas of improvement included developing an optimization strategy for non-branded keywords to reach both potential program members and donors. We also prioritized implementing tracking of donations, as well as tracking of contact form fills and other important KPIs. 

Our team also updated titles and meta descriptions, removed external 404 error links, and added Organization schema to the organization’s homepage. All of these efforts were in service of a larger goal: to connect with more users, and give Rainbows the information they need to continually improve their digital marketing strategies.

On the PPC side, Pilot worked with Google Grant specialists in order to reactivate the account – a process that proved to be longer and more tedious than initially thought. Once the account was reactivated and both Pilot and Rainbows had access, our team began conducting keyword research. We focused on areas important to Rainbows, including targeting keywords concerning youth grief counseling, community involvement, and volunteer opportunities. Once the keywords were agreed upon and the ad copy was written, we built out the Google campaigns, creating the appropriate ad groups, ads, and associated assets. 

Results And Continued Success

At the end of our six months of SEO work, Rainbows was in a better position to move forward in the digital marketing sphere. Here are some of the results:

• Significantly improved organic visibility: Rainbows had moved up to the first page for nearly 130 non-branded keywords; they also started to rank for over 100 non-branded keywords that they had not previously ranked for
• Increased clicks & impressions: Total search impressions increased nearly 16% from the previous period, with total clicks increasing nearly 8%
• Growing paid search audience: The PPC campaigns launched resulted in several new users making their way to Rainbows’s website. In the last four months of working with Rainbows, paid traffic accounted for approximately 20% of new users
• Increased site engagement: During this same time, the account also saw 12 contact form submissions, two facilitator form submissions, and several successful soft conversions

Beyond the Numbers

Working with Rainbows proved not only to be beneficial for their organization, but for ours, as well. Our team now has a working relationship with the organization, and are currently finishing up work on their website. Pilot’s main point of contact at the organization had this to say about the Do Good By program:

This program has been a game changer for our organization…This grant is a true service to the non-profit sector, especially for small to midsized businesses who are continually putting their SEO, web development, and Google Ads work on the back burner for lack of staff bandwidth. Pilot’s Do Good By program will set you up for long term success and sustainability…The amount of time and love that went into handing this work back to us was deeply appreciated.

Liz Falstreau, Rainbows Community Education Manager