For years I’ve been a proponent of using SEO for more than just making money.

You can’t just do business as usual when the planet and humanity with it goes down the drain.

Yet SEO for activism still rarely happens.

Thus here’s a great example campaign from Greenpeace to inspire you!

Why Greenpeace approves of SEO

Not every non-profit organization is automatically working for the greater good.

There is one though that is beyond doubt in this case: Greenpeace.

Greenpeace has also used SEO for its detox campaign in a way that inspired me to write this post.

One of the reasons I write about it is the lofty definition of SEO Greenpeace originally shared when the campaign started.

They ask people to link to their campaign site and summarized SEO as follows:

This is SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization”, and it’s one of the few fantastic activist tactics that are native to the web.

The SEO they refer to here is a call to action to website owners and bloggers to spread the word!

This is of course the easiest and best way to do it. Also it’s quite inclusive.

Not everybody can donate money or take part in actual protests on the streets.

Also many people might feel that just giving money is not really activism.

On the Web you can act local but think global

Last but not least many actions are just too far away for most people.

On the Web there is no distance and attention is the currency. Links provide and channel attention.

Of course I’d invite readers to share the campaign URL on social media sites as well.

On the Web the people have the power to change things and to direct attention where it belongs.

The detox (my fashion) campaign is certainly worth your attention! Why?

Greenpeace is campaigning to stop the fashion industry from poisoning waterways around the world with

• hazardous
• persistent
• and hormone-disrupting chemicals.

They target many well known brands you probably have in your closet.

I think I’m using products by at least three of the brands targeted in it initially:

• H&M
• Adidas
• Nike
• Puma

Now it’s around 80 fashion brands altogether.

These are just the brands that have already reacted.

Also Greenpeace has already forced Apple to become more environmentally friendly.

Dirt cheap fast fashion brand Shein is the latest culprit to poison you through clothing.

I’m quite optimistic that they will be able to curb the water pollution by these and other global brands.

 

Big brands are just brands — other companies make the products

We know they they don’t produce or even design most of their garments themselves. They are all made in

• China
• Bangladesh
• Philippines

The people in the countries suffer at least twofold, by ridiculously low wages and by environmental destruction.

These global brands do not have factories themselves.

They even often outsource the creative process. The main asset they have is their brand image.

When they pollute the environment we can pollute their images with news about it.

It’s that simple. What can you learn from it?

You don’t need an expensive SEO agency to use SEO for activism.

Just ask and inspire people to link to you and spread the word on social media.

Of course some advice from SEO experts is also sometimes crucial.

In this case Gareth aka SEO Doctor has pointed out a critical technical SEO issue!

The campaign page Greenpeace requested readers to link to has been redirected by a temporary redirect.

This so called “302” redirect does not work for Google. Thus all the links using the short URL would have been wasted.

 

Search engine optimization activism works

Does it work?

Yes, Greenpeace was already at #11 for the quite competitive term [detox] shortly after I discovered the detox campaign.

They don’t rank for that head term anymore yet by now detox is a widely used health term.

Add some more links to your sites to push it up to the top 10!

Of course SEO is more than rankings.

Personally I also doubt that people who are searching for detox are actually the right audience for this kind of topic.

It would be better to optimize for the brand names of the companies that are responsible for the pollution.

Once potential customers find out about the toxic pollutants their brands produce they may reconsider their purchase.

This way the pressure grows. I try to seek out ethical alternatives whenever I can.

In any case the progress report on the campaign site indicates that Greenpeace was very successful with this kid of pressure.