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Why SEO during COVID-19?

COVID-19 & SMB SEO “SEO is like sowing the seeds and cultivating the crops before harvesting what you can eventually eat. If you stop harvesting now, you may still have some crops to last you, but six months down the road, you’re going to be kicking yourself for losing out.” 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. For many small businesses during COVID-19, it can be easy to think that with physical operations slowed or halted, you can let your marketing operations follow suit. The truth is, digital marketing strategies like SEO can actually be crucial to your small business success both during and after this pandemic. In this article, we’ll take a look at why SEO is important and cover tangible strategies your business can implement during this time—whether your business is considered essential or not. We’re going to cover: Why SEO during COVID-19? General SEO strategies Content SEO strategies Local SEO strategies So let’s begin. The right SEO strategies give SMBs unparalleled exposure on Google. Why SEO during COVID-19? Search trend data shows that traffic to websites from search results—both paid and organic—is in decline for a lot of industries. So is SEO pointless during the pandemic? Absolutely not. Here's why: COVID-19 is trending, while SEO is consistent practice. Consumers confined to their community are seeking out local busi Read the full article

#SEOwarlocks

Why SEO during COVID-19?

COVID-19 & SMB SEO “SEO is like sowing the seeds and cultivating the crops before harvesting what you can eventually eat. If you stop harvesting now, you may still have some crops to last you, but six months down the road, you’re going to be kicking yourself for losing out.” 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. For many small businesses during COVID-19, it can be easy to think that with physical operations slowed or halted, you can let your marketing operations follow suit. The truth is, digital marketing strategies like SEO can actually be crucial to your small business success both during and after this pandemic. In this article, we’ll take a look at why SEO is important and cover tangible strategies your business can implement during this time—whether your business is considered essential or not. We’re going to cover: Why SEO during COVID-19? General SEO strategies Content SEO strategies Local SEO strategies So let’s begin. The right SEO strategies give SMBs unparalleled exposure on Google. Why SEO during COVID-19? Search trend data shows that traffic to websites from search results—both paid and organic—is in decline for a lot of industries. So is SEO pointless during the pandemic? Absolutely not. Here's why: COVID-19 is trending, while SEO is consistent practice. Consumers confined to their community are seeking out local busi Read the full article

13. Update your other listings

13. listings While your GMB listing is especially useful during COVID-19, it is not the only part of an effective local SEO strategy. Other listings are important because they serve as citations for your website, and also because Google looks at not only the quality and accuracy of your listings but also their consistency with one another and with your website. That being said, if you’re a non-essential business with a little extra time on your hands, now is a good time to do an audit of your online listings. Make sure all of your information is identical across platforms. Check Yelp, Angie’s List, Trip Advisor, and other popular free listing sites. Check for any new listings that may have been auto-created or user-generated. Do a reputation check. Catch up on your customer reviews and respond to them—the positive and the negative. Customers look at your responses just as much as the reviews themselves. Set up Google alerts so you can stay on top of reviews and auto-generated listings moving forward. Final SEO strategy: Focus on conversion Traffic to your website may be in decline during COVID-19 as people shift their focus, but that could mean that those who are still finding their way to your site despite these major trends are highly interested in what you have to offer. This leads us to the last SEO strategy your small business can try during COVID-19: optimizing for conversion. This isn’t exactly SEO (it’s CRO actually), but it’s closely related. If you c Read the full article

12. Check off your attributes

12. Attributes Many businesses are responding to the pandemic by offering special amenities like curbside pickup or delivery. Google My Business shows searchers these types of attributes on a business's profile, so make sure to check off which ones you provide. Even if you are closed right now, small details will be especially important when you’re open to customers again and may become important as the situation evolves. To indicate applicable attributes in GMB, make sure to select a category. If any pandemic-specific attributes are not yet available for your category, consider adding them to your business name or “about the business” section. If an attribute is not available for your business category, add it to your business name for now. Read the full article

11. Verify your hours

11. Hours As of this post date, Google is putting labels on listings for businesses that haven’t added special hours or marked themselves as temporarily closed. If a consumer searching for a business near them during COVID-19 is presented with multiple listings, which one do you think they’re going to engage with? The one that they know is open or the one they have to call first and double-check? Similarly, cancel your events to avoid an off-putting label such as this one on your GMB listing: Read the full article

10. Update already-performing content

10. performing content Even your top performing evergreen content will still need tweaks from time to time—new facts, updated screenshots, better stats, etc. But between running day-to-day operations and producing new content, updating these posts and pages tends to get pushed to the back burner. After all, they’re already performing. But for many of these pieces, the fact that they are performing well is precisely the reason to give them special attention. Since they’re collecting decent traffic, a few updates can cause a big boost, and one pre-existing post that moves from page two to page one will have much bigger results than a few new posts that make it to page four. CTR doesn’t change much from page 10 to page three but soars from page two to page one (Backlinko). This is a good time to go back into your top-performing posts and polish them up so they can stay on or make it to that coveted first page. Some optimizations you can perform are: Add high-quality outbound links Add new information Update screenshots and images Add alt text to images Add keywords to headings Change out title tags to be more compelling Local SEO for SMBs during COVID-19 Perhaps the most important part of a business’s local SEO strategy is its Google My Business (GMB) profile. Your GMB profile is the source of data for your Google Maps listing, Local Results listing, and your Knowledge Panel result. These listings provide a quick and thorough snapshot of your business, a Read the full article

9. Continue creating evergreen content

9. Creating Content The coronavirus is a major and serious issue, but it is a trending topic that will eventually subside. So while pandemic and post-pandemic content might help give you a traffic lift now, don’t forget about your longer-term goals. Keep up with your evergreen content because unlike trending content, it will accumulate traffic over time and build your SEO “equity.” Read the full article

8. Target new Keyword terms

8. Target Keyword Another search trend we’re seeing is entirely new queries, like “drive-by graduation party ideas.” Think about the specific needs, desires, interests, and pursuits of your buyer personas right now and the creative ways people are adapting. You might be able to come up with some unique searches to rank for. Read the full article

7. Reoptimize old but newly relevant content

7. Relevant content The beauty of this SEO strategy is that it doesn’t require the production of new content. One of the search trends of the coronavirus is that many previously-dormant topics are getting revived. For example, an old post we had on Facebook Live had a 326.78% organic traffic increase in just one week. Check to see if you have any pre-existing content that is newly relevant to your audience during the coronavirus. Spruce it up and republish it to put it at the top of your blog reel and attract more traffic. Read the full article

6. Target trending themes

6. Targetting If coronavirus-specific topics and keywords are still too competitive for your business, think about broader themes that are applicable across industries, like “virtual,” “in-home,” “DIY,” and “indoors.” For example, this local design and architecture firm shows up first for the “virtual design consultation” search: Read the full article

5. Target coronavirus-related keywords

5. Coronavirus keywords On the short-term side of things, one SEO strategy is to target trending terms to boost your traffic. Broad search terms will have you competing against global and high-authority sites like BBC and Forbes, but long-tail, niche-specific searches related to the coronavirus can set you up for ranking success. For example, a search for “prevent neck pain while in quarantine” yields a blog post by a small business Wood Associates Physical Therapy. While not open at the moment, there is no doubt that this post is building domain authority for the business and connecting it with prospects and future customers. Small businesses can indeed rank for coronavirus search terms. Read the full article

4. Balancing short- and long-term goals

4. Balancing goals We know that the coronavirus pandemic will end eventually, but we also know that its impact is going to be long-term. That being said, your overall SEO strategy should employ a mix of both short- and long-term tactics. Short-term SEO efforts may include publishing content pertinent to coronavirus themes within your industry, as well as updating your listings and website for local search terms. Long-term SEO efforts may include publishing content that answers questions your customers will be asking post-pandemic, as well as continuing the objectives of your traditional (read: non-pandemic) strategy. Your allocation of efforts to short-term vs. long-term goals will vary according to your business and may evolve as the story unfolds, so expect this to be a fluid process. Content SEO for SMBs during COVID-19 So you know that you should keep up with your SEO, and you know that long-form content is a good idea, but what should you write about? Read the full article

3. Local SEO

3. SEO Local SEO has always been a lucrative solution for small businesses as they compete against big brands and major websites on search. And with people staying close to home, local businesses are being sought out. Local SEO tactics are important for any business but may be particularly useful right now for those who are operating and who might not have the time for long-form content. Read the full article

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