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I recently had the opportunity to discuss SEO/SEM with a non-profit organization.  The conversation didn’t start with SEO/SEM but I got to thinking:  How does a non-profit do SEO/SEM?

Having been in the industry a while I have a pretty good idea what the going rate is for professional SEM and I find it hard to believe that a non-profit firm would invest in it, knowing that in some cases it’s hard to measure.

What you are about to read is part one of a two part interview with the Director of Online Communications for the American Cancer Society High Plains Division.

Let’s get the formalities out of the way.  What is your name and title?

My name is David Neff and I am the Director of Online Communications for The American Cancer Society High Plains Division

What does the director of online communications do?

Basically my job is to manage all the website design and maintenance including any upgrades as well as any email campaigns we do.  This includes any e-commerce that we get into.

Do you do any type of search engine positioning on any of your websites?

Not really.  Besides submitting to DMOZ and Google we don’t actively pursue any search engine marketing at this point.  Most of our promotions are done through print ads, Internet ads like Google Adwords, banners and stuff like that.  We don’t proactively go out and position.

Now, we’ve talked before and you mentioned that the American Cancer Society has a few sites, including some which you are more responsible for.  Why doesn’t the Cancer Society invest in positioning?

It’s not on our priority list at this point.  We are quite busy promoting our sites through the offline promotion that I mentioned earlier.

Is there a reason that SEM isn’t a priority?

Decisions like that are made at a higher level and it’s not well known how it works.  There is no real “baby steps” that you can take to get into it. 

I’ve dealt with large organizations like yours and I’ve found that usually in order to get an SEM campaign off the ground there needs to be an “SEM Evangelist” on staff.  One person that is the spearhead behind the campaign.  Has there been anyone in your office trying to push for it?

Not at the moment but I’m seeing results from stuff I’ve talked to you about and the early results are quite impressive.  Also, other media I encounter has had me considering it.  Maybe 2006 will be the year to start pushing for an SEM campaign.

You mentioned earlier that you do other Internet advertising.  What type of Internet advertising do you do for the American Cancer Society?

We’ve done banner advertising on a PDA tool and a ton of the major sites.  Finding PDA things that doctors read like WebMD and PDAMD.com.  We actually contacted Motricity as well and we’ve done a lot of ads on a whole bunch of partner sites for a free product, yet we had to pay full price for those ads.

Next, we are planning to sell a golf pass to get you discounted green fees no matter where you golf across several states. So we will be placing ads for those soon as well.  We will also be placing Google ads for these when the timing is right.

As a search engine marketer I know that Google ads are generally pretty good traffic tools.  How effective have they been for you in the past?

The Google ads have been really great for us in the past - lots of clicks over the holidays.  They have been better than banner ads in some aspects.

What would those aspects be?

Rate of return.  We’ve found that some banner ads generated a lot of traffic and interest in the past.  We did notice, though, that during the holidays we got lots of views but not as many sales. 

So what you are saying is that you are getting better conversion rates on Google ads?

Yes definitely.

Who looks after your Google program?

(Chuckles) I do unfortunately.

Why do you say “unfortunately”?  Is it a difficult job?

No it’s not difficult, it’s just that we only check on it when I get a bill .  We just don’t have the manpower to study it in depth.

click here to read the rest of the interview with David Neff of The American Cancer Society High Plains Division.

Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com. Textlinkbrokers is the trusted leader in building long term rankings through safe and effective link building. Please provide a link directly to Textlinkbrokers when syndicating this article.