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Understanding E-E-A-T and its impact on your Google Ad Grant
In the world of digital marketing, especially for nonprofits leveraging Google Ad Grants, the term E-E-A-T has become an important part of achieving online success. But what exactly is E-E-A-T, and why is it so crucial for your nonprofit’s SEO and overall marketing strategy? Let’s dive into this essential concept and explore how it can enhance your website’s performance and impact your Google Ad Grants campaigns.
What is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s a set of criteria that Google uses to evaluate the quality of web pages, particularly when it comes to ranking them in search results. Let’s break down each component:
- Experience: This refers to the firsthand knowledge or skill an individual has about a particular topic. For example, if your nonprofit focuses on mental health, having content written by individuals who have personal or professional experience in the field can boost your site’s credibility.
- Expertise: Expertise involves the depth of knowledge or proficiency of the content creator. This means your website should feature content created by experts in your nonprofit’s area of focus. Credentials, qualifications, and documented experience play a significant role here.
- Authoritativeness: This pertains to the overall authority of your website and its contributors. Being recognized as an authority in your field can come from endorsements, quality backlinks, and citations from other reputable sources.
- Trustworthiness: Trust is built through transparency, accuracy, and reliability of your content. Clear contact information, robust privacy policies, and secure transactions are vital components of trustworthiness.
Why is E-E-A-T Important for SEO?
Google’s primary mission is to deliver the most relevant and high-quality content to its users. E-E-A-T helps Google ensure that the content ranking at the top of search results is reliable, informative, and valuable to users. For nonprofits, this means that adhering to E-E-A-T principles can significantly improve your website’s visibility and credibility, leading to higher rankings and increased organic traffic.
Impact on Nonprofits and Google Ad Grants
For nonprofits utilizing Google Ad Grants, E-E-A-T can have a profound impact. Here’s how:
- Improved Search Rankings: By optimizing your site with E-E-A-T principles, your content is more likely to rank higher in the ad auction search results. This means your Google Ad Grants campaigns will drive traffic to a more credible and authoritative site, enhancing the overall user experience.
- Enhanced Credibility and Trust: Nonprofits thrive on trust and credibility. Demonstrating E-E-A-T on your website reassures visitors of your nonprofit’s legitimacy and reliability, encouraging them to engage more deeply with your mission. This, increased trust credibility and trust can lead to more and larger donations.
- Better Ad Performance: Higher-quality landing pages contribute to better ad performance. When your ads lead to a site that exemplifies E-E-A-T, users are more likely to stay, explore, and convert, whether that’s through donations, volunteering, or other forms of support.
- Increased Funding Opportunities: A well-optimized website can attract not just individual supporters but also grants, partnerships, and collaborations. Funders and partners are more likely to invest in nonprofits that present themselves as knowledgeable, authoritative, and trustworthy.
How to Implement E-E-A-T on Your Nonprofit’s Website
- Leverage Expert Contributions: Involve experts in your field when creating content. Guest posts, interviews, and articles from professionals can enhance the expertise of your site.
- Showcase Experience: Share stories, case studies, and testimonials that highlight firsthand experiences related to your cause. This personal touch can elevate the experience factor.
- Build Authoritative Backlinks: Partner with reputable organizations and media outlets to gain high-quality backlinks. These endorsements can significantly boost your site’s authoritativeness.
- Ensure Transparency and Security: Clearly display your nonprofit’s contact information, maintain updated privacy policies, and ensure your website is secure with HTTPS.
- Regularly Update Content: Keep your content fresh, accurate, and relevant. Regular updates signal to Google that your site is active and trustworthy.
Conclusion
Embracing E-E-A-T is not just about satisfying Google’s algorithms; it’s about building a robust online presence that resonates with your audience and amplifies your mission. For nonprofits leveraging Google Ad Grants, prioritizing E-E-A-T can lead to better SEO, more effective marketing campaigns, and ultimately, a greater impact in the communities you serve. By focusing on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, you’re not only improving your search rankings but also fostering a deeper connection with your supporters. Start integrating E-E-A-T principles today and watch your nonprofit’s digital presence thrive.
By implementing these strategies, your nonprofit can leverage the full potential of Google Ad Grants and create a lasting impact. Remember, at Kinsey Street, we’re here to support you every step of the way, ensuring your Google Ad Grants campaigns are optimized for success.
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How a nonprofit organization can effectively utilize the advertising budget provided through a Google Ad Grant
As a nonprofit organization, advertising can be a crucial tool for reaching new donors and spreading awareness about your cause. However, advertising can also be expensive, making it difficult for nonprofits to allocate budget towards it. This is where the Google Ad Grants program comes in. The program provides eligible nonprofits with a monthly advertising budget of up to $10,000 to use on Google Ads.
While receiving a Google Ad Grant can be a game-changer for a nonprofit, effectively utilizing the budget can be challenging. Here are some tips on how to make the most of your grant:
- Set clear goals: Before creating any ads, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your advertising campaign. Are you looking to increase website traffic, raise awareness, or generate donations? Setting specific goals will help you create ads that are tailored to achieving those objectives.
- Use keywords strategically: Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click model, meaning that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. To ensure that your budget is being used efficiently, it’s important to use keywords that are relevant to your organization and are more likely to result in conversions. In fact, it is not only good practice, with Ad Grants, it is also a policy requirement.
- Utilize all features of Google Ads: Google Ads offers a wide range of features such as location targeting, ad scheduling and a wide variety of ad extensions. By utilizing these features, you can ensure that your ads are reaching the right audience at the right time.
- Use a Google Ad Grants certified professional agency: Using a Google Ad Grants certified professional agency, such as Kinsey Street Online Marketing, can be a great way to maximize the potential of your Google Ad Grant. A certified professional agency can help you set up, manage, and optimize your campaigns, making sure your budget is being used in the most effective way. An Ad Grants certified professional agency will also help to ensure that your account is staying compliant with Ad Grant policies..
- Monitor and adjust: Advertising is not a one-time effort, it requires constant monitoring and adjustments to ensure that it is meeting your goals Use the analytics provided by Google Ads to track the performance of your campaigns and make changes as needed.
By following these tips, your nonprofit organization can effectively utilize the advertising budget provided by a Google Ad Grant to reach new donors and spread awareness about your cause. With the help of a Google Ad Grants certified professional agency such as Kinsey Street Online Marketing, you can maximize the potential of your grant and achieve your advertising goals.
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New Google Ad Grants Activation Process
One of the challenges for many nonprofits looking to benefit from Google’s $10,000 per month Google Ad Grant program has often been the initial set up and activation. Since the launch of Kinsey Street back in 2009 we have seen the Ad Grants team improve the program year-over-year; Whereas just the verification itself used to take several months, with the new activation process that launched today, a nonprofit can now be set up with an active Ad Grants account in under a week.
The Ad Grants team stated that the new process:
- Has clear requirements that are easy to understand. Steps to activate are short, and emphasize website quality and function, which is critical to be successful with search advertising
- Is fast and requires minimal up-front time investment. The first time a user opens their Google Ads/Ad Grant account, it is set up and they can get started
- Can be completed efficiently regardless of skill/savviness levels. Anyone with knowledge of their nonprofit can get an account and get activated
3 Steps to Google Ad Grants Activation:
- Visit the Ad Grants product page in the Google for Nonprofit account
- Complete the eligibility form
- The pre-qualification survey and quiz is now condensed into one single form.
- Check the box confirming you have submitted the eligibility form and Submit
Naturally, all nonprofit organizations still need to meet the eligibility requirements to qualify for Ad Grants. Full details of the Ad Grants activation process are found on the official Ad Grants Activation Guide.
So if you are a nonprofit that has not yet enrolled in the Google For Nonprofits and benefited from the $10,000 per month Ad Grant program, now is the time to enroll. It is easier than ever to set it up yourself, or have the Ad Grants experts here at Kinsey Street set it up and manage your Google Ad Grant for you.
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Google Ads, formerly AdWords, has well established itself as being one of the best platforms for small businesses to reach consumers looking to buy their products and services. Here are a few expert strategies that small business advertisers can use to help drive more sales with Google Ads.
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Know your goals.
What is it you are wanting to achieve? Are you just looking for more traffic to your website? Or, are you looking to have the end-user turn into a customer for your business? And if you are wanting them to be a customer (which you should) what is the product or service you are wanting them to purchase? Be specific in your goal by clearly defining the task that you are wanting that prospect to complete. By doing so, you will be able to tailor craft ads that better engage your prospect and will lead to increased conversions.
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Start at the end.
Once you know your end-goals, you will be able to start at that finish line and work back towards the search query. Many less-experienced advertisers start at keywords and then try to push the user to the point of conversion. Instead, apply the strategy of starting from the conversion point. This allows you to identifying the best landing page to accomplish that conversion, write ads that speak to the content on that landing page and, only then, determine the keywords that are most relevant to the ads and the landing page you have. By taking this strategy, your keywords will be much more focused. The more focused your keywords are, the more likely they are to lead back to conversions.
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Leverage the latest features on Google Ads to maximize the impact of your ads.
Ad extensions such as sitelinks and callouts are a must have for today’s AdWords advertisers. If you have a “brick and mortar” small business, then location extensions and call extensions are also crucial, as well. Be certain to leverage ad extensions since they can help to increase the click through rate (CTR) of your ads. Additionally, other ad features such as Google Ads new Responsive Search Ads can also help to boost your CTR. And a higher CTR can be the catalyst that leads to improved Quality Scores, which in-turn can lead to lower cost per click bids, which means more clicks under existing budgets and ultimately more conversions (i.e. sales) at a lower cost per conversion.
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Ensure a good user experience.
Getting the right traffic to your site is certainly important, however, it is only half the equation. Once your prospect is on your site, you must ensure that they have a good user experience and are able to easily complete the goal you are wanting them to complete. That involves, clear and easy navigation and making certain that your page renders quickly – on the desktop and on the ever-increasingly important mobile device where users are spending more of their time and completing more of their searches. This is especially true for purchase decisions with “near me” mobile searches having grown over 500% over the last two years according to a recent report by Google. (Source: Google Data, U.S., July–Dec. 2015 vs. July–Dec. 2017.) And since most sites loose half their visitors while a site loads, it is crucial that your site loads as fast as possible on both desktop and mobile. So before your write your ads, test the speed of your website at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ By doing so, you are ensuring that your new Google Ads campaigns get off on the right foot.
Conclusion
Google Ads is a great advertising platform for small businesses and Google has made it easy for advertisers to get set up and running on the platform. However, having a good understanding of the platform can help you get the most our of your advertising dollars. These 4 AdWords tips can help. And if you need more help, we are only a phone call away.
If you would like to schedule a specific time, you can easily see real-time availability and schedule a phone call at https://calendly.com/kinseystreet
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Names Kinsey Street Online Marketing as one of the first Ad Grants certified professionals to be published in the directory
In support of their Ad Grants program, which provides qualified nonprofits with $10,000 USD of in-kind advertising every month, Google has just announced the launch of their Ad Grants Certified Professionals Directory. This new directory of certified professionals will help nonprofits, who need assistance apply for or management of their $10,000 a month ad grant, to easily identify those agencies that have demonstrated expertise in the Ad Grants program.
While some nonprofits are able to find success managing their Google Ad Grant accounts on their own, other nonprofits may not have the time or in-house expertise to effectively manage their account. As such, they turn to professional help through a third-party agency, such as a Google Partner. Even then, success with Ad Grants isn’t assured. This is because even though all Google Partners have experience in AdWords (the platform that Ad Grants runs on) not all Google Partners have experience with Ad Grants. As such, finding the right agency that understands the nuances and policy requirements unique to the Ad Grants program can be challenging – that is where Google’s new Ad Grants Certified Professionals program comes in. The program only includes agencies that have been carefully vetted by the Google Ad Grants team as having true expertise in the Ad Grants program. This helps nonprofits identify those agencies that have experience with Google Ad Grants and can help the nonprofit best utilize the Google Ad Grant.
Kinsey Street Online Marketing, an agency that has long provide Ad Grants management services to nonprofits in the US and around the world was one of the first to be recognized and included in the new program by Google.
“The Ad Grants Certified Professionals directory is going to be a great asset for the nonprofit community and this recognition by Google is a great honor” stated Robert Coats, founder of Kinsey Street. “Since launching Kinsey Street nearly 10 years ago, our focus has always been on helping nonprofits, of all sizes, get the most out of their $10,000 a month ad grant from Google. I am tremendously proud of our team for being recognized for the great work that we do and to have Kinsey Street be one of the first agencies to be recognized as Ad Grants Certified Professionals.”
Michelle Hurtado, Head of Ad Grants, had this to say, “Kinsey Street Marketing has been a friend to Ad Grants for many years, helping nonprofits make meaningful connections online and providing thoughtful guidance in our community forum. We are excited to welcome Kinsey Street to the Ad Grants Certified Professionals Community.”
If you are a nonprofit interested in obtaining a Google Ad Grant or getting the most out of your current Ad Grant account, certified professionals such as Kinsey Street are here to help.
Contact us at 425-405-0690
About Kinsey Street Online Marketing
Kinsey Street is a Google Premiere Partner and has specialized in helping nonprofits in the United States get the most out of their Google Ad Grant since 2009. For more information, visit https://www.kinseystreet.com/ or follow on Twitter @kinseystreet.
About Google Ad Grants
Google Ad Grants provides qualified nonprofits with $10,000 USD of in-kind advertising every month from AdWords, an online advertising solution from Google. This allows nonprofits in the Ad Grants program to attract donors, raise awareness for their organization, and recruit volunteers with in-kind advertising on Google Search using the Google Ads platform. For more information visit https://www.google.com/grants/
See our press release on PRWeb.
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Understanding Why Your Google Ad Grants Account Was Suspended.
Over in the Google Ad Grants forum of the Official Google AdWords Community the #1 question I get asked by Ad Grants managers is “why was my Ad Grants account cancelled/suspended?” Primarily, the reason is because of a violation of one of (the many) AdWords policies or Ad Grants policies. Any of these violations could result in a suspended account if not adhered to, however, the top 3 reasons why Ad Grants accounts are suspended are:
1) Violation of the Active Account Policy
This policy requires that you sign in to review performance at least once a month and that you make one or more changes to the account at least once every 90 days – these are the bare minimums and to get better results from your Ad Grants account, I certainly recommend active management above and beyond these minimums. If the account is a legacy Grantspro account, the requirements are even stricter.
The policy does also have a section on what to do if your Ad Grant account has been turned off which states the following:
If your account has been turned off because you haven’t met the requirements for active management, you can contact the AdWords team if you’d like to have the account turned back on. Once the account is reinstated, you’ll need to continue following the policies mentioned above.
If you find that you and your organization do not have the time to effectively manage your Ad Grants account and it has been cancelled because of this policy, you may want to consider hiring a 3rd-party agency that provides Google Ad Grants management to manage the account for you. By hiring an agency to manage the account for you, this ensures that the account will receive the level of management required to keep the account within the guidelines of the Active Account Management policy. Further, if the 3rd-party agency is experienced with managing and optimizing Ad Grant accounts then you are more likely to get better results from your Ad Grants advertising, allowing your organization to better achieve its mission.
2) Violation of the Mission-based campaigns policy
This policy states (in part):
The ads and keywords in your AdWords account must reflect the mission of your nonprofit organization and be relevant to your nonprofit’s programs and services.
Strictly commercial advertising is not allowed. If you intend to promote products or services, the sales and/or proceeds must directly support the nonprofit.
This policy violation often happens when the account manger is trying to go after every keyword that might possibly generate traffic even if it is related to the mission of the organization or not. Simply generating irrelevant traffic to the organization’s website, just to spend the full amount of the $10,000 per month grant, is NOT how Google wants to see their grant money spent. Google wants to see effective account management focused on relevant keywords and ads.
3) Violating the Website Policy by promoting an unauthorized website.
Any account found in violation of this policy is subject to automatic suspension without notification. The cause of this violation is unapproved websites being advertised within the Ad Grants account. Sometimes, an organization has more than one website they are wanting to promote, and this is allowed, as long as, that organization goes through the steps to get that additional website approved by Google first.
Occasionally, this violation is also triggered when the account has been compromised and a “bad actor” is running ads within the account. If this happens and you see ads within your account pointing to website that you or your organization did not create, the first step is re-secure your account. This Help Center page shows you how to reset your password.
If you believe a violation of the mission-based campaigns policy is the reason your account was cancelled, this too may be able to be fixed and have your account reinstated. Next, use this form to request reactivation. (Note, if your account has been compromised, then it will not be reactivated until after you have reset your password.)
Granted the above three are not the only reasons why accounts are suspended but they are the most common. Google may reinstate the account if this is a first policy offense but repeated offenses can result in permanently disabled accounts.
Regardless of what led to the suspension of your Ad Grants account, once your account is reinstated, it is IMPORTANT that you abide by AdWords policies or Ad Grants policies. Kinsey Street Online Marketing can help you do just that.
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Charity number required on the landing page
A recent policy change with Google AdWords is now requiring all pages that are asking for donations to include a charity or tax exemption number. Ads submitted with landing pages that do not include a charity or tax exemption number will be disapproved for ‘Missing Information’ which is a violation of AdWords Misrepresentation policy.
The policy reads in-part:
The following is not allowed:
Omitting material information (that is, important and relevant information) when soliciting a charitable or political donation
Examples: Failing to display a charity or tax exemption number for charitable donations, failing to disclose whether political donations are tax exempt
Donations: If your ad or landing page solicits donations that are tax-exempt, please clearly indicate your tax-exempt status on your landing page or donation page, including your charity number. For example, in the United States, 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status is an indicator of the required tax-exempt status.
How this change affects nonprofits
The ‘Misrepresentation policy’ has been around for a while but the recent update to the policy is the addition of the charity number being required on the landing page. For a 501(C)(3) advertising on Google (such as with Google Ad Grants) this means including their EIN on the landing page. Admittedly, this is something that some nonprofits may be hesitant to do. However, this new policy change helps to limit the number of ads being run by non-charities that may be soliciting donations. As such, this policy is actually beneficial to legitimate charities as well as to users who are looking to make informed decisions for their donations. After all, making it clear to the end user that their donation is going to a verifiable charity can increase the user’s confidence which can then lead to increased donations and increased donation amounts.
Since we see a lot of benefit for the nonprofits in adding this information, we recommend to our nonprofit clients that they include the information in the footer of all pages on their website, similar to including a copyright. What we recommend is something along the following lines:
“ABC Charity is a 501(C)(3) Nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 12-3456789”
Additionally, if the charity has a good ranking in Guidestar.com or CharityNavigator.com, it would not be a bad idea to link the charity’s profile on one of those sites. Doing so provides additional validation for the charity, which can further increase donors’ confidence in that charity.
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Here is why your Google Ad Grant was suspended and the steps to take
On August 16th the Google Ad Grants team sent an email out notifying grantees of recent changes to the Website Policies and Promoting Multiple Sites. This email by the Ad Grants team notified grantees that they can only use a website domain that was approved through the Google for Nonprofits application, the Ad Grants enrollment process, or the Additional Website Domain(s) Request form. If you received this email then your account was identified as one that was serving on a domain that had not been approved and would be suspended on September 8th, 2017, if no changes were made.
If your Google Ad Grants account was recently suspended on or around September 9th then it likely has to do with your Ad Grant account being identified as one that was serving on a domain name that was NOT listed as being approved through the Google for Nonprofits application, the Ad Grants enrollment process, or the Additional Domain Request form form.
To get your account reactivated, grantees must fill out the Additional Domain Request form and include ALL domains they are advertising on. Domains that are not approved, must be removed from the account before the account can be reactivated.
TLDR:
- Your account was likely suspended for advertising a domain it is not authorized to. (See: Website Policies and Promoting Multiple Sites)
- Fill out the Additional Domain Request form to get your domain names approved. (Note: Please include ALL domain names.)
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Ad Grants Account Suspended?
Here is why your Ad Grants account was suspended and (more importantly) what to do now.
UPDATE: If your account was suspended on September 9th, 2017 read the updated article on 9/9 Ad Grants suspensions for what to do.
If your Google Ad Grants account was recently suspended then your account may have been one of the many that was recently deactivated because it was not in compliance with the Active Account Management policy. This policy requires that you log in to your Ad Grants account at least once every 30 days and have changes made to the account at least once every 90 days. Many grantees have reported receiving emails from Google stating that the account was cancelled and that a budget was due. If you received a “balance due” email, you may ignore it as that is a system auto email that should not have gone out to grantees.
To reinstate your Ad Grants account, you will need to log in and follow the prompts to contact AdWords support and they will likely reactive the account if this is the first time for your account to be deactivated due to an Active Account Management policy violation. Once the account is reinstated, it is IMPORTANT that you abide by the Active Account Management policy or your account is subject to being cancelled permanently.
NOTE: If you do not have the internal bandwidth to provide active account management you may hire a third-party agency to manage the account for you and keep you in compliance with Ad Grant policies. Kinsey Street, does provide low cost Ad Grants management services to nonprofits and many nonprofits find that they achieve greater success with Ad Grants with professional management.
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All good things must come to an end… unfortunately, Grantspro – Google’s $40,000 per month Ad Grant is on permanent hold.
I spoke with the Google Ad Grants team today and the official response is:
The Ad Grants team is no longer accepting applications for the Grantspro program as part of new efforts to streamline the program. This update aside, the program will continue to remain open and free to all eligible nonprofits.
While this is indeed sad news, the good news is that the $10,000 per month Ad Grants program is going to continue and is just being streamlined.
As always, more updates as I am able to share them.
