At first glance, these items seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how often simple yet important information is left out of campaign websites.
Here is a short list of critical text that should always be included when building out your political campaign website. Leave this information out at your own peril!
1. State/Municipality/Office Sought
It’s amazing how many local political websites say “Candidate X for Mayor”, but don’t actually mention the state that the municipality is located in. If you’re running for office in Orange County, is that Orange County New York or Orange County California? Be specific. Help your visitors (and the search engines).
2. The Primary/General Election Date
Don’t assume that everyone knows the day they need to go out and vote for you. Add the year, as well. A lot of old websites out there are asking for votes, even though the election day has come and gone. It’s another good reason to keep your website up-to-date, even after the campaign.
3. Election Information
Include local election information, such as where people can vote and how they can register. Link to your local or state election information.
4. Specific Local Issues
Be specific. The more local the campaign, the more specific the issues become. Don’t just say ‘our traffic problems’, say ‘TinyTown’s traffic problems’. Again, this helps you appear for more relevant – though not necessarily political – searches. Either way, it brings in interested visitors.
5. Full Contact Information
Provide full contact information for your campaign. This will be helpful to both voters and the media. After all, if they can’t easily contact you when you’re running for office, why would they think you would be more responsive when you’re actually elected?
This information is what search engines look for when displaying search results for campaign-related queries.
Bonus: Don’t forget to include the candidate’s name! Too many times we see websites written in the first person. The candidate is referred to as ‘I’ or ‘my’. Without an actual name somewhere in the copy, how can you expect your site to rank well in the search engines?
Try adding a quote box and a call to action written in the third person. Mentioning the candidate name, position sought, and location is critical for political SEO.
Incorporate this information into your site, and there will be no question to site visitors who you are, what you are running for – and what you stand for!
Related:
- Political SEO Strategies
- Writing Content For Your Campaign Website – Examples
- Write an Optimized Political Press Release
- Creating a Political Campaign Swipe File
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Tags: campaign writing, search engine optimization, website tips