SEO Helping Businesses Recover From Pandemic
While the coronavirus pandemic has increased internet usage exponentially, it also caused search traffic to business websites to go down in many industries. It may have made you feel SEO has become useless but that is far from true. SEO is an indispensable component of digital marketing. It is one of the most powerful tools to build brand awareness. While SEO is essential for blooming businesses; for failing businesses, SEO could prove to be a potent business recovery strategy.
Organizations are working to remain relevant for their target customers throughout this pandemic. Maintaining a strong digital presence through SEO and content marketing will be a step in the right direction. Customers are increasingly shifting their buying activity towards online options, and brands need to be present for these consumers as the customer finds it safer to order online than to go out.
Consumers are turning to online markets to address their needs, which means that thriving organizations will be those ready to meet them with an excellent online experience and engaging content. Brands should also note that much of this growth has occurred on mobile devices, as smartphones and tablets have seen an incredible 50% growth in usage, comparing March 2019 to March 2020.
A piece in HT, stated that in the states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh the spike in data use was the most. Thus, increasing SEO efforts is highly imperative for businesses in these states. Internet usage in India surpassed that of developed economies like France and Canada according to HT.
Relevance Of SEO In Times Of Pandemic:
● COVID-19 is trending, while SEO is a consistent practice
SEO is something that needs regular maintenance. It may take a while for you to see the benefits of SEO but they are lasting. Don’t ignore SEO during COVID-19, even if all you can do right now is the bare minimum. What you do—or don’t do—now will impact your business post-pandemic.
● Consumers confined to their community are seeking out local businesses
As people are not able to travel far, local search optimization is crucial. Local SEO tactics will help you to appear for “open now” and “near me” searches.
● There is no “bad” time to publish evergreen content, a staple of SEO
Content on relevant topics related to your business niche will be relevant even after the pandemic ends. It is time to stay relevant and accumulate traffic overtime.
● The visitors you do attract right now are genuine leads
SEO not just attracts traffic but it attracts the quality traffic who are interested in buying the product/service. The visitors who are finding their way to your website in the face of opposing trends are most likely very interested in what you have to offer.
● SEO gains are long-term
SEO is about gaining trust of the search engines, and this requires time. Significant gains from SEO happen mostly post three or so months down the line, there is plenty you can be doing now that is worth your while.
● Search is only going to be more ingrained in our lives after the pandemic
Internet use has skyrocketed during this outbreak with so many questions around at-home pursuits. The questions have been more focused on health, news, and other highly relevant industries. Initially there was a decline in traffic to nonessential business websites (many of which are small businesses)—from both paid and organic results but now they are also improving slowly.
● It is free and you just might have the time
SEO is free unlike PPC marketing. However, it takes significant investment of time to get the benefit of it and local business owners have that time right now.
Your SEO strategy for business will yield the maximum effect when the following practices are incorporated:
● Consistency
There are many factors in SEO that contribute to the ranking of the page.
Some of these factors include - title tags, internal linking, canonical tags to indicate duplicate content. Each factor tells search engines something about the website and the aggregation of all these little things lead to a better ranking for your page. When all of these elements signal to the same direction, or are consistent the impact of your SEO strategy is the maximum.
● Long And Relevant Content
Long content that is relevant indicates that the content is helpful to the readers and leads to better page rankings.
● Local SEO
Local businesses need to focus on local SEO rather than on achieving global SEO to promote their product or service.
● Balancing Short And Long Term Goals
You need to shift focus amongst both depending on the need of the hour. While long term goals shouldn’t be compromised, some events call for quick short-term-benefits yielding SEO efforts.
● Target Currently Trending Topics
To stay relevant and feature in searches consistently.
● Target Trending Theme (like indoor entertainment ideas for kids)
For the same reason as mentioned before.
● Re-optimize Old But Relevant Content In Current Times
Retouch, reorganize old content but in practices that are relevant in the current scenario.
● Target New Terms
New terms that are being searched by people online.
● Update Already Performing Content
Content that is already ranking high is not immune to getting impertinent overtime. Regular updating of it is a must.
● Continue Creating New Evergreen Content
Again, for the same reason - to stay relevant and to feature in browser searches regularly.
● Update Your Google My Business Listings
Updating the listing along with verifying your working hours is immensely important.
So while SEO might seem irrelevant, there are plenty of SEO benefits for business. Business owners should leverage the same to get more visibility, awareness and profitability.
The author is Prasad Pillai, Associate VP Search, BC Web Wise
