No one wants to read last week's newspaper or hear about yesterday's airline schedules. The most engaging and meaningful news is, by definition, new. The internet is no different; dynamic websites with fresh content are consistently more successful than those which remain static. Search engines recognize this, and websites which are constantly growing by adding fresh content achieve higher rankings than those which remain outdated.

So where does blogging come in, anyway?

A blog (web log) is a public journal published online. Although blogs were originally used for sharing personal experiences and messages, many organizations (including Google and Microsoft) are now using them as a more personal way to connect with their broader audiences. You may want to consider creating one on your website, perhaps authored by one of your senior staff. For example, Grassroots.org maintains links on our homepage to a blog authored by our executive director, Angela Stuber.

Blogs can personalize a website, making it warmer and more accessible to the average reader. From a marketing perspective, this gives your organization a human face, both to constituents and to potential supporters.

From an SEO perspective, a blog is an easy way to maintain a space for frequent updates -- injecting fresh, meaningful content into your website on a regular basis. Naturally written pieces often contain keywords related to your organization's activities, which will correspond with keywords that you can target in your SEO campaign.

Weekly showcases and other ways to freshen content

You should also consider other creative ways in which you could deliver fresh content through your website. For example, a weekly story showcase could regularly highlight one story from your organization's work, perhaps focusing on a constituent's success as a result of one of your programs or an employee's successfully completing a professional development certification. You might also want to consider a regular sponsor spotlight, showcasing foundations or other organizations which have supported you. And, of course, maintaining an active and updated events calendar is always helpful.

Bringing it home

Find ways in which you can bring snippets of these elements into your home page—so viewers see them right away. You may want to create discrete boxes on your home page to contain some of these pieces of content, such as a box in one particular place that always contains your weekly sponsor spotlight or an excerpt from your executive director's weekly letter.

Content management systems (CMS)

Many of the ideas discussed in this section are difficult to implement without a solid understanding of website development (and can be prohibitively expensive for a traditional HTML website), but the implementation of a content management system (CMS) package can automate most (if not all) of the processes involved. Free, open source software such as Drupal, Mambo, Plone, or Wordpress can made it easier to maintain and administer a dynamic, frequently updated web presence, often without knowing how to do more than point, click, and type. Indeed, several search engine optimization firms are now switching their clients to CMS packages purely for this reason. Implementing the right CMS package can be a solid foundation for your SEO strategy.

Next: Understanding analytics