A charity’s website does several jobs at once: raising money, informing people who need help, running campaigns and events, and publishing research and news. Search affects all of them. People search for support, for ways to donate and for causes they care about, and the charities that answer clearly are the ones they find. I’ve supported Children with Cancer UK, a national charity, on protecting its search visibility through a website migration.
The search challenges charities face
Information pages that people rely on. Families, patients and supporters search for practical information. Those pages need to be accurate, easy to find and written with care.
Links from everywhere. Charities earn links from news coverage, schools, fundraising partners, community groups and supporters’ pages. Those links point to specific URLs, and losing them in a website change quietly wastes years of goodwill.
Events and campaigns come and go. Time-limited pages for runs, appeals and campaigns build links and visibility, then expire. Handling them well keeps that value.
Limited budgets and small teams. Charities rarely have in-house SEO specialists, so work needs to be prioritised and practical.
Large organisations in the same space. National charities, health services and media sites often rank for the same causes, so smaller charities need to focus on the questions and communities they serve best.
How I approach it
| Area | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Donation and fundraising journeys | Making sure donation, event and fundraising pages are found and work well |
| Information pages | Clear, accurate, well-structured content for the people the charity helps |
| Link protection | Keeping campaign, event and information URLs working, or redirected, through changes |
| Evergreen campaign pages | Reusable pages for recurring events, so links and visibility build year after year |
| Migrations and redesigns | URL inventory, redirect map and launch checks |
| Measurement | Search Console and analytics tracking of donations, sign-ups and information visits |
Children with Cancer UK
Children with Cancer UK funds research into childhood cancer and supports families. When its website moved, the priority was to keep the pages supporters, families, schools and the press rely on working, from donation and fundraising journeys to information pages and years of inbound links.
Services for charities
FAQ
Why does SEO matter for charities?
Because people search for causes, support and ways to help. Good visibility means families find information when they need it, supporters find donation and fundraising pages, and campaigns reach more people. For charities with limited marketing budgets, being found in search reduces reliance on paid advertising.
Should charity event pages be deleted after the event?
Usually not. Event pages often earn links and searches that recur each year. Reusing one evergreen URL for a recurring event, updated with new dates, keeps that value. For one-off events, keep a short summary page or redirect the URL to the most relevant current page.
What should a charity check before a website migration?
Build a list of every page that earns visits or links, including donation, event, campaign and information pages, and map each one to its new address with a redirect. Test before launch, then monitor Search Console afterwards so broken links or missing pages are fixed quickly.
Working for a charity?
Get in touch, or start with a free assessment. The site migration checklist covers protecting pages and links through a website move.