The 60-Minute SEO Checklist for Political Campaigns and Party Committees

Most political sites are invisible to Google. Here’s how to fix that in one sitting.

I’m going to be honest with you.

Political campaigns spend thousands on digital ads and almost nothing on the one thing that drives free, long-term traffic: basic SEO.

I spent an hour doing this for my own organization recently. It wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t expensive. And most campaigns have never done any of it.

Here’s exactly what to do.

What You’ll Need

• Access to your website backend (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress — doesn’t matter)

• A free Google account

• 60 minutes

Step 1: Add Structured Data Markup (15 minutes)

This is the highest-leverage thing you can do. Structured data is code you paste into your site that tells Google — and AI tools like Claude (this is what I used) or ChatGPT — exactly what your organization is.

Without it, Google has to guess. With it, you’re stating it directly.

Go to your site’s SEO settings and look for a “Structured Data” or “Custom Code” section. You’ll paste in JSON-LD code. Don’t let that phrase scare you — it’s just text in a specific format.

Add these three:

Organization Markup — tells Google who you are.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Your Organization Name",
  "url": "https://www.yoursite.com",
  "description": "A brief, accurate description of your organization.",
  "foundingDate": "2024",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Washington",
    "addressRegion": "DC",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  }
}

LocalBusiness Markup — reinforces your geographic presence.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Your Organization Name",
  "url": "https://www.yoursite.com",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Your City",
    "addressRegion": "Your State",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  }
}

WebSite Markup — helps AI tools understand your site as a whole.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Your Organization Name",
  "url": "https://www.yoursite.com"
}

Just swap in your real name, URL, and location. Paste each one separately. Save and publish.

Step 2: Add a Meta Description (5 minutes)

This is the two-line summary that appears under your site name in Google search results. If you haven’t set one, Google writes it for you. It won’t be good.

Find the SEO settings for your homepage and write your own. Keep it between 50 and 160 characters. Include your location and what you do.

Example: “The official committee for [Party] in [County], [State]. Volunteer, donate, and get involved today.”

That’s it. Short. Specific. Actionable.

Step 3: Set Your Keywords (5 minutes)

Keywords are the phrases people type into Google when they’re looking for something like you. Pick 4-5 that are specific to your race or region.

Good examples for campaigns:

• [Candidate name] for [office]

• [Party] candidate [state/district]

• [County] Republican committee

• [City] city council election 2026

Avoid anything too broad. “Republican” by itself is useless. “[County] Republican committee” is searchable and winnable.

Enter these in your site’s SEO keyword field if it has one. More importantly, make sure these phrases appear naturally in your site’s actual text.

Step 4: Connect Google Search Console (20 minutes)

This is the most important step and the one almost no one does.

Google Search Console is a free tool that tells Google your site exists, shows you how you’re ranking, and alerts you to any problems. Without it, you’re flying blind.

Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your site as a new property.

To verify ownership, choose the HTML tag option. Google will give you a line of code that looks like this:

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" />

Paste that into your site’s Custom Code section, set it to load in the Head on All Pages, and publish. Then go back to Search Console and hit Verify.

Takes about 10 minutes once you know where to click.

Step 5: Submit Your Sitemap (5 minutes)

A sitemap is a file that tells Google every page on your site. Your website platform almost certainly generates one automatically.

In Search Console, go to Sitemaps in the left menu. Submit:

https://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

If that returns multiple sitemaps inside it, submit each one individually. Google will crawl them and index your pages significantly faster.

Step 6: Check Back in 2-3 Weeks

Go to Search Console and look at two things:

• Coverage report — shows if any pages have indexing issues

• Search results report — shows which queries are bringing people to your site

That’s your baseline. Now you know what’s working and where the gaps are.

Why This Matters for Campaigns

Donors research candidates before they give. Volunteers look you up before they show up. Voters Google your name before they decide.

If your site doesn’t appear — or appears poorly — you’re losing all three before they ever contact you.

This checklist costs nothing. It takes one hour. And 95% of campaigns have never done it.

Do it before your opponent does.

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Have questions or want help applying this to your specific site? Reach out to me at Andrew@AssemblyStrategies.com