Local SEO for Pregnancy Centers?
-
So, the thing is, we don't want these websites associated with anything pro-life or Christian. So, we can't list them in those directories. And we can't list them in abortion provider directories because they don't do abortions. The organizaitons are Christian, pro-life -- but the target audience is the complete opposite. How can I effectively market their services without crossing any boundaries?
-
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the definition. I recommend that you utilize Mike Blumenthals Local Business Center Category Tool (http://blumenthals.com/index.php?Google_LBC_Categories) and you will start to see why you are going to have difficulty marketing this business in a traditional local way. The term 'pregnancy care center' is associated with the following synonyms:
Pregnancy Care Center abortion, clinics, ob gyn, obstetrics
So, if the business chooses to market itself through typical local channels (Like Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Places for Business, Yelp, etc.) there is a very high chance that your core term, Pregnancy Center, is going to be mistakenly associated with abortion clinics, which is clearly not what your client wants. I'm not sure this is avoidable, however the client chooses to market itself. Even if the website is 100% clear regarding what services are and are not offered at the center, people often fail to read website well and the center may end up fielding calls for services not offered. Of course, this is a risk factor for literally any type of business model. An auto body shop may get calls for muffler repair, even if they don't offer it, right?
If you are the marketer for the project, I believe your task will be to explain the risk/benefits scenario to the client. There is going to be a built-in grey area for the company. Some people may see their business on or offline and think it is an abortion clinic, a right wing organization, a birthing center, etc. I don't see a way around this and it is likely something the center is already dealing with. So, basically, they need to make an informed decision as to the amount of publicity they wish to earn, as this will likely be commensurate with the amount of traffic/phone calls, etc., they are receiving for services they don't offer, while at the same time, bringing them new business from the right types of clients.
-
I've never dealt with a client of this complexity.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-
Pregnancy centers need effective marketing
and communications strategies. But, as with
most small non-profits, pregnancy center
leaders are stretched thin with time and
marketing budgets are limited. Additionally,
most pregnancy centers do not have staff
with the professional training and expertise
necessary to design and execute
marketing/communication strategies that
will produce the outcomes you need to
impact lives and increase support.
As a pregnancy center leader, your
challenges are compounded by the
complexities of the abortion issue in the
church as well as in the secular community.
Your non-profit is not like other feel-good
organizations that work to end hunger, fight
poverty, educate children, and so on. These
organizations have broad Christian, or even
plain humanitarian, appeal. On the contrary,
your supporting “market” is polarized on the
issues surrounding your “products.” Yet,
you are in direct competition with these
warmer, fuzzier organizations for funding
and support.
As if all that weren’t enough to overcome,
you’re also in direct competition with
abortion providers actively marketing to
reach the same woman your ministry intends
to reach. Abortion providers want to pull
them in, pregnancy centers want to pull
them out. What other non-profit is engaged
in a tug-of-war for lives to impact like a
pregnancy center? Most non-profits do not
face such well-defined, governmentsanctioned,
and publicly-funded opposition.
In spite of the challenges, it is possible to
create effective strategies for success. Your
marketing and communications don’t have
to be a mystery or a shot in the dark.
By examining basic questions used
in professional marketing such as:
• what is the product,
• who is the customer,
• what does the customer value;
and
• what is our objective,
you can find answers that will drive
intelligent and effective marketing
strategies for pregnancy centers.
What is the Product?
All non-profits must develop
marketing and communications
strategies if they are to be successful
in generating impact and increased
support. For many non-profits,
marketing and communications are
purely a development activity. The
mission must be marketed to
potential supporters. Once they
engage, your new supporters should
then land in a communications
continuum designed to maintain and
build the relationship. But,
pregnancy centers must not only
promote their missions, they must
also promote their services to the
abortion-minded and abortionvulnerable,
thus creating two major
products to market.
Abortion Intervention as
a Product
Most pregnancy centers have a
mission statement in some shape or
form that positions them to deliver
Christ-centered ministry to their
communities through 3 types of
programs surrounding abortion.
1. Prevention. Pregnancy centers often
present an abstinence message whether
to individuals in counseling or on a
larger educational scale to churches or
schools.
2. Intervention. Usually a core program
for a pregnancy center that seeks to
counsel client(s) before they go through
with an abortion. With medical facts,
reason and compassion, the desire is to
encourage a choice for life.
3. Restoration. Showing compassion and
mercy to those suffering from a past
abortion and leading the wounded
through a structured, Bible-based
counseling program.
The resources pregnancy centers invest in
each of these areas varies. For most,
however, the Intervention arm of the
ministry is primary. Prevention and
Restoration have generally been adopted
over the life of a pregnancy center as offshoots
of the primary ministry. Some centers
have fully embraced these off-shoots and
seriously invest in developing them as fullblown
programs. Other centers focus only
on Intervention and do not offer Prevention
and Restoration as featured programs.
This article specifically addresses the
complexities you face in marketing abortion
Intervention as a product. -
Hi Jason,
I'm not familiar with the term 'pregnancy center', but Google has two pre-set categories for 'birth center' and 'midwife' if this describes what your company provides. If so, these are the main terms I would target in your optimization. If this is not your focus, please provide further details. Thanks!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
SEO for multiple languages [Arabic]
Hello all, I am currently managing a Marketplace that comes in two different languages: English & Arabic. The English website is, fortunately, doing quite well in terms of SEO performances but, not the Arabic one. The website has two kinds of content: Static content: controlled by me. It includes menu items, navigation, static pages etc which is properly translated among the two languages User-uploaded content: It includes ads/news posted by the user which may not be translated to Arabic if they chose not to do it. Now if somebody goes to the Arabic website and check a news item that doesn't have an Arabic translation, it will show the English title. I am assuming, serving content in a different language that is specified in the hreflang is a straight no, right?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MozammilStorat0 -
Technical SEO
Where can I find knowledge of enhanced and technical SEO for all type of websites ( mainly E-Commerce)? Please share some good sources (PDFs, Videos, Checklist etc)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Obbserv0 -
Is CloudFlare bad for SEO?
I have been hit by DDoS attacks lately...not on a huge scale, but probably done by some "script kiddies" or competitors of mine. Still, I need to take some action in order to protect my server and my site against all of this spam traffic that is being sent to it. In the process of researching the tools available for defending a website from a DDoS attack, I came across the service offered by CloudFlare.com. According to the CloudFlare website, they protect your site against a DDoS attack by showing users/visitors they find suspicious an interstitial that asks them if they are a real user or a bot...this interstitial contains a Captcha that suspicious users are asked to enter in order to visit the site. I'm just wondering what kind of an effect such an interstitial could have on my Google rankings...I can imagine that such a thing could add to increased click-backs to the SERPs and, if Google detects this, to lower rankings. Has anyone had experience with the DDoS protection services offered by CloudFlare, who can say a word or two regarding any effects this may have on SEO? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | masterfish1 -
Frames and SEO
In the old days frames were a problem because they could end up being orphaned pages that get indexed and appear in the SERPS but had to navigation so they were useless. Are frames still a problem with Google and if so what are the suggested solutions?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | siteoptimized0 -
SEO Company that bills on results?
After having bad experiences with a few seo and ppc companies, I would like to find a company that operates on the premise that they should get paid for producing results instead just for signing a contract. I'm not thinking that any payment is contingent results but that a large portion of the billing is. I also know that it can take several months to get to an seo goal so I'm not taking a "you have one month to fix our site or we don't pay" approach. Is there a company out there that has enough confidence in their white-hat processes that they actually back their services with some sort of guarantee?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IanTheScot0 -
How Does SEO Help Local Businesses
Hello, I recently took a position as a digital marketing manger with a advertising agency. Its my job to grow the digital marketing department. One of the issues I am running into is 90% of our clients are local businesses. When doing keyword research it is very difficult to find keywords with lots of search. For example, if I am optimizing for a Ford dealership in Hackensack,NJ there are not a lot of searches for this term. How can I justify a larger SEO budget when there is just not a lot of search volume for these keywords? This is nothing like Dog Training Videos or something similar. Am I missing something? Where can I pull traffic from for local businesses to justify larger SEO budgets? Thanks, Bill
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wparlaman0 -
Google Adsense Good for SEO?
Is there any merit to the statement that Google will give some SEO value to sites that display Adsense? Or is there absolutely no SEO value for or against a site that displays Adsense Ads? Clearly, it would benefit Google's finance to give at least a small boost to sites that display Adsense, but do they do it? My guess is no, but I'm wondering ...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | applesofgold0 -
Changing domain reigstrant - seo impact
Hi there if you get a domain off someone and change registrant details and hosting, to what extent does this affect the power of the site? Any opinions of interest, many thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pauledwards0