Write about what your organisation offers and the questions it has the knowledge to answer. Focus on information people need when looking for support, exploring opportunities or trying to understand an issue you work on. Use audience enquiries and search evidence to identify specific subjects, then check whether your website already covers them. You may need to explain a service more fully, add missing instructions or write a separate article. Prioritise content that helps the people you want to reach understand their options and decide what to do next.
Investigate what your audience searches for, choose questions your organisation can answer well, and improve or create pages that provide those answers.
Start with the information people need about your work
Identify who you want to reach and what they need to know. Someone seeking support may need to check whether they qualify and where the service operates. A professional may need referral instructions. A prospective volunteer may want to understand the roles available. Gather questions from enquiries, conversations and colleagues who work directly with these audiences. Check whether your website already answers them clearly and accurately. Missing service details deserve attention because they help people decide whether your organisation can support them and how to access it. Also note wider questions your team regularly helps people understand. These may suggest subjects for explanatory articles. You are identifying information people need; the next step is to investigate how they search for it.
Use search evidence to investigate your ideas
If you have access to Google Search Console, open the Performance report to see searches for which your website appeared and which brought clicks. Look for phrases connected to the questions you have collected, including searches that do not mention your organisation’s name. Select a relevant query and check which pages appeared for it. Read them to see whether they answer the question fully, leave important details unexplained or cover something different. Note what you could add or improve. Google’s Performance report guidance explains how to explore this data. The report shows your website’s visibility, rather than total search demand. Some queries are omitted, so a missing phrase does not mean nobody uses it. You can also search Google using a few natural ways of expressing each question. Suggestions that appear as you type can prompt related ideas, but do not tell you how many people search for them. Record where each idea came from and what you found. Keep audience feedback and search evidence distinguishable when deciding what to pursue.
Work out what the person searching needs
Consider what someone using a particular phrase is trying to find out or do. “Volunteering opportunities in Halifax” suggests they want available roles and application details. “What should I expect when volunteering?” suggests they need an explanation to help them prepare or decide whether to participate. Read several relevant results. Do they mainly offer services, directories, practical instructions or explanatory articles? These provide clues, but a phrase can mean different things to different people. Compare the results with questions your audience asks and the circumstances in which they ask them. Write one sentence describing what your page should help someone understand or do. Use that purpose to decide which information it needs to include.
Check that you can provide a credible answer
Establish what knowledge and evidence your organisation can contribute. You may be able to explain your service in detail, share practical experience or provide local information that is difficult to find elsewhere. Identify who can supply the information and check its accuracy. Familiarity with an issue does not necessarily qualify your team to advise on every aspect. Where specialist expertise is needed, involve someone appropriately qualified or direct readers to an authoritative resource. Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable content encourages writing for an intended audience, drawing on relevant knowledge and adding value beyond summaries of other sources.
Decide whether to improve a page or create one
Check whether an existing page already serves the question or task you have identified. If it does, look for information you can add, clarify or update. Eligibility, location and referral details will usually belong on the relevant service page. If an article already answers a question, improve it where needed. A slightly different search phrase may express the same need. Create a separate page when readers need an answer with a distinct purpose. A guide to preparing for a first volunteering session serves a different need from a page listing current opportunities. Link related pages where readers may need both. Once you have decided what to cover, our guide to how SEO and copywriting work together explains how to develop clear, useful copy.
Choose what to work on first
Give early attention to gaps that make it difficult to understand or access your services and opportunities. Improving these pages can help visitors even when the effect on search traffic is uncertain. Compare other subjects by considering who each answer would help, what evidence suggests people need or search for it, and what your organisation can contribute. A specific question may serve a small but important audience. Limited data leaves its traffic potential uncertain; it does not mean the answer has little value. Equally, a popular subject may attract people whose needs fall outside your work. Choose a short list of pages to improve or create. Record the audience, question, evidence behind your choice and information needed. For help turning these priorities into a publishing schedule, see our guide to creating a realistic content plan for a small charity. Choosing relevant subjects supports your SEO work, but cannot guarantee rankings or visits.
If you are unsure what to write about or which pages need attention first, Grinning Graphics can help you identify your audience’s questions and review how well your website answers them. We can agree which pages to improve or create, then develop clear copy using your organisation’s knowledge and experience.