5 WordPress Tips for Nonprofits That Are Serious About Content Marketing

After more than 11 years managing WordPress websites, blogs and publications, I can easily tell who is serious about content marketing, as well as exactly how serious they are. Before we get into the tips, below is an informal scale that will help you figure out your level of ambition.

The point is not to shame people who are casual about content marketing. Understandably so, a lot of nonprofits don’t have the budget for serious content operations.

Our goal here is to help you understand where you are, where you want to go, how much work you’ll need to put into your WordPress website and who you might need to bring on for help.

Casual

Level 0

• no content (resources, blog, podcast, etc.) on your website
• no ways for people to sign up for an email list

Level 1

• minimum viable product blog (but you rarely publish) 
• email signup in the footer

Level 2

• blog with at least a little custom design
• you publish at least once a month
• there is some kind of email signup available beyond the footer

Somewhat Serious

Level 3

• you have a basic SEO content strategy for growing traffic to your site
• you publish at least a few times a month
• you have at least one relatively advanced email signup such as a popup
• You have started trying to track a correlation between increases in website traffic, email signups and financial metrics such as donations

Level 4

• You have a more fleshed out SEO content strategy for growing traffic to your site
• You publish at least twice a week
• You have more ambitious traffic goals such as more than 10K visitors a month
• You are actively link building
• You have at least one advanced email acquisition system such as targeted popups with custom triggers or lead magnets (premium content where site visitors need to exchange their email for access)
• You have built out a basic email nurturing series connected to your content
• You’re confident that your analytics are successfully tracking a correlation between increases in website traffic, email signups and financial metrics such as donations

Dead Serious

Level 5 

• You have a complex SEO content strategy for growing traffic to your site
• You publish at least three times a week
• You have highly ambitious traffic goals such as more than 50K visitors a month
• You have a complex link building strategy that weaves together content production, journalism and public relations
• You are regularly accounting for technical SEO issues such as WebP images, image file compression, site speed, plugin weight, core web vitals and schema
• You have multiple advanced email acquisitions systems
• You have well-designed, regularly monitored email drips tailored to their email sources
• You’ve invested in high-quality design specifically for your content
• You’ve added extra conversion features such as a banner
• Your goal is to measure whether content can drive more money than it costs, and you have the analytics to assess progress

Now for Our 5 WordPress Tips

These tips are for WordPress website operators who want to at least reach level 3. If that description fits you, let’s get started.

Tip #1: Choose a Lightweight Theme

Every component of a WordPress website has a technical “weight” to it. The more weight you pile on, the higher the risk your site will run slowly. When site speed decreases, search engines are less likely to favor you and help with traffic growth.

All WordPress sites have a “theme,” a set of files that loosely define your website’s appearance and backend production. Some themes are heavier than others. If you don’t need a heavy theme for some kind of core functionality, go with a lighter theme.

Here are a few options I’ve seen experts describe as light during the past year:

• Avada
• Blocksy
• Bricks
• GeneratePress
• Twenty Twenty-Four

Before committing to a theme, seek advice from the experts at WPNonprofits. Speed is important, but you also want to be sure the theme fits other organization needs. Changing themes can be really disruptive. It’s best to get it right the first time, or at least reduce the number of changes.

Tip #2: Try Out These Important Plugins

Plugins provide everything from crucial functions to security. Here are a few I have used consistently:

• Advanced Custom Fields: You’ll need this one if you want those complex email acquisition and conversion features I mentioned in the levels chart above.
• Akismet: Use this one for spam protection.
• Broken Link Checker: Removing broken links will significantly improve your SEO.
• Site Kit by Google: Developed by Google, this plugin will help with SEO and analytics.
• Smush Pro: This plugin reduces image file sizes. The smaller your image files are, the faster your site will run.
• Wordfence Security: Keep your site secure from viruses and malware.
• Yoast SEO: Input key SEO data points such as meta descriptions. If you don’t like Yoast, SEOPress is a popular alternative.

Tip #3: Try Not to Have Too Many Plugins

There’s a debate as to exactly what the “too many plugins” number is. From my experience, more than 30 active plugins is too many. Even light plugins still have a weight to them, and that weight adds up. Each plugin increases the risk of the site crashing if that software has a problem.

Less is more. Chat with the experts at WPNonprofits to assess which plugins are truly necessary. Aim for less than 25. If you’re able to, go for under 20.

Tip #4: Choose an Email Software That Meshes Well With WordPress

WordPress can sync with the vast majority of email platforms out there, but some fit better than others. Klaviyo has been my favorite because you can segment popup targeting based on keywords in your WordPress URL permalink. That way it’s easier to segment your audience and send each segment a different set of automated emails.

If you’re not a fan of Klaviyo, try one of these other platforms for your email acquisition and management:

• Constant Contact
• Drip
• MailChimp
• SendGrid

Tip #5: Assess Team and Budget Needs for Your Chosen Level of Seriousness

There are three broad categories of costs that go into content marketing with a WordPress website:

1. WordPress Website Costs: hosting, web domain, themes and plugins (when they aren’t free)
2. Software Linked to WordPress: email platform, SEO analysis, etc.
3. Labor: If you don’t have the time and skills to do everything yourself, you’ll need to hire someone for help.

Regardless of which level of content marketing seriousness you choose, the first two costs won’t change much, and they might not seem expensive compared to another cost we’ll get to in a moment. At Level 3 your WordPress Website Costs and Software costs might total around $300 a month. At Level 5 that total could increase to $350.

For the folks who reach or approach Level 5, labor is likely to become an increasingly large expense. If you pay a writer $200 per blog post, for example, going from one to eight blog posts a month means an extra $1,400. You might also need an SEO pro, website designer or email pro. If you don’t have the time or skills to manage that team, you’ll need a content manager like me.

Before choosing a level, think about budget, time, skills and ambition. If you have limited time, no content marketing skills and only a few hundred dollars a month to spend on content marketing, err on the casual side of the spectrum. For those with big ambition and thousands of dollars to spend every month, strive for the Level 5 pinnacle.

Bio: Joseph Rauch is the founder of The Rauch Review, a publication about the intersection of literature and politics.