SEO and COVID-19
Understanding SEO and COVID-19
We are in the midst of a global pandemic and times are hard for everyone. That doesn’t mean that businesses should sit on their hands during this time.
In fact, a quarantine due to a pandemic is an important time for businesses to re-evaluate their marketing, a big part of which is search engine optimization. Here's what you need to know about SEO and COVID-19.
How SEO and COVID-19 Income Flow are Related
Often we think about SEO in terms of more long-term marketing, but in fact, SEO can rapidly result in monetary income even during a pandemic. Extra cash flow is important at a time when as many as 50% of small businesses may need to close their doors if the pandemic lasts for as long as three months.
Search Engine Marketing is a Stay-at-Home Cash Flow
Just because your business can't open the doors of a physical location doesn't mean they need to shut down completely. Whatever your business does, they can continue marketing and selling products and services using search engine marketing.
You may see some sales go down due to this pandemic, but you can reduce your losses by investing in search engine marketing that increases sales of other products or services.
People Search for Scarce Resources
When goods (think toilet paper) or services become scarce because of a pandemic, you are likely to see searches increase for those products and services. A forward-thinking search engine marketer can find ways to capitalize on the scarcity of items and rank for changing search trends.
More People May Be Online
During a pandemic, more people may be online and looking for ways to entertain themselves or solve problems. By putting your business in a position to attract clicks, you dramatically increase the probability that you will be the answer to somebody's problem, resulting in sales now or down the road.
People Still Need Stuff
In many ways, the world has come to a halt, but in reality, most people still need a wide range of different things during a pandemic. In fact, retail therapy may be causing even more people to shop during this time.
Some things are necessary and others are just necessary to fill the time. By continuing to advertise, you can attract customers who are looking for a new hobby or doing a new renovation.
Now is a Great Time to Build Your Marketing Strategies
Too often, marketing takes a backseat to other aspects of your business. After all, marketing doesn't do much good if you have forgotten to adjust the inventory and don't have something to sell or if you didn't budget correctly to pay your employees.
Now is a time when most of your day-to-day responsibilities have likely stopped. Therefore, it's a great time to invest in your marketing strategy.
Search Engine Marketing Lets You Monitor Your Success
Too often, marketing takes a backseat to other aspects of your business. After all, marketing doesn't do much good if you have forgotten to adjust the inventory and don't have something to sell or if you didn't budget correctly to pay your employees.
Now is a time when most of your day-to-day responsibilities have likely stopped. Therefore, it's a great time to invest in your marketing strategy.
This is a Great Time to Build Your Brand
These are scary times and people are searching for reassurance. This is an opportunity for your business to reach out to their client base and show that we are all in it together.
By talking about how your business understands and offering whatever help you can, you can build a bond and establish trust with current and future customers. If you can find a way to help your community during this pandemic, people will appreciate and remember your efforts.
Stay Visible
This pandemic is proving to last a long time. You don't want people to forget about your business after the long months of quarantine. Continuing to produce plenty of marketing lets you continue to show up in searches and be visible to clients and potential clients so that they won't forget about your business.
Stand Out
Not every business in your niche will take the opportunity to reach out to customers and stay visible like you are. This is your opportunity to stand out from the competition and get ahead with SEO marketing. Make sure that when the pandemic is over, your company is what people think of for whatever good or service you produce.
Plan for the Future
It can be hard to think about the future during a time when things seem so uncertain. However, by making the right choices in your marketing plan now, you can accelerate your success when the pandemic is over.
Build Long-Term Marketing
Most businesses realize that their blog and landing pages would benefit from more beefed-up content, but it is hard to get to content creation amid the busy routine of business.
During a pandemic when everything is shut down is the perfect time to build content that will propel your long-term marketing campaign forward. You may release some content now or save some for the future, but either way, this is a good time to create marketing content.
Be an Authority
During a time when people are anxious and stressed, you can emerge as an authority in your area of expertise. This can create trust in your brand which will continue long after the quarantine is over. Create well-researched and appropriate content to help people in whatever way that is relevant to your company.
Things Will Eventually Go Back to Normal
Sometimes it can feel like the world will never go back to the way it was before this pandemic, but in fact, eventually, the world will go back to normal. The world may be different, and priorities may emerge that are different than previously.
By being on top of the changes as the world adjusts to a post-pandemic life, you can market your product or service for what people are searching for.
What Should Your SEO Marketing Plan be During COVID-19?
Now that you have taken into account how important it is to think about SEO marketing during this pandemic, you're probably wondering just what you should do in order to market at this time.
Even if you already had an SEO plan prior to this time, COVID-19 has dramatically changed what keywords are ranking and what people are searching for. Here are some things to keep in mind about SEO marketing during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Be Careful When Creating COVID-19 Related Content
You need to tread carefully when creating content related to the pandemic. The last thing that you want is for people to think that you are taking advantage of this international disaster in order to market yourself. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself before you create content related to COVID-19.
- Is the topic directly relevant to your business? You want to stay in the lines, so to speak, as you create content related to the Coronavirus. Make sure that you can say something about the virus that is directly relevant to your business or service.
- Is this topic sensitive to my potential clients? You certainly don't want to accidentally offend someone in your content choices, so make sure that you are being sensitive and won't get your business into trouble.
- Is it ethical to post about this topic? If your primary goal in posting a Coronavirus related topic is to get shares or attention but you aren't really offering something of value, think twice. Your clients will notice that you are just adding to the buzz.
Try to Find a Way to Stay Ahead of the Keywords
Keywords such as “ how did the Coronavirus start” or “ how does the Coronavirus spread” are already attracting huge amounts of searches. Many articles have been created to attract those keywords.
You are unlikely to be able to produce enough content to compete. However, if you plan ahead and think about what the next search is likely to be, you may be able to produce your content ahead of the competition and be able to attract readers.
Be Specific to Your Brand
Keywords that are specific to your area or business are more likely to win out against the competition. These keywords are more likely to really be attractive to your potential clients as well, making it more likely that a search will result in sales.
Update Your FAQ Page
If you find that many customers are asking you questions about the coronavirus or about coronavirus related posts that you have made, it's a good idea to update your FAQ in order to include these questions.
If some customers are asking, you can bet that there are more customers who are wondering the same questions. If you are getting a lot of attention, it may even be a good idea to make a dedicated page related to the Coronavirus.
Get Your Marketing Plan for SEO and COVID-19 Going Today
If you are feeling overwhelmed by everything that is necessary in order for you to create an excellent marketing plan to make the most of the COVID-19 crisis, it may be best to enlist the help of a professional search engine optimization company.
Perfectly Optimized knows just how to create content and optimize search engine results to make the most of your marketing strategy at this difficult time.