A look at some top 2021 SEO industry insights and what growth strategies business players are incorporating to drive impact
The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly impacted numerous businesses across industries. Owing to the lockdown, many business owners, especially those who relied on offline foot traffic, saw a rapid decline in sales.
On a positive note, the pandemic has also impacted the search engine market, with search volume witnessing an increase especially for industries like health, news, essential eCommerce, and relevant others. For businesses, this can also be a tell-tale sign of the potential for growth in sales and ROI.
How the Pandemic Has Changed SEO and Search
Ever since the outbreak, Google has made drastic changes to its search engine. This has become evident across everything from highlighting important information such as news and statistics to showing testing information and questions related to the virus.
Topics non-relevant to the virus such as hobbies, fitness, or other activities have also seen a rise in search results, thanks to people trying out new things during the lockdown.
The importance of local SEO has also grown significantly. Given the curb on travel and certain issues faced in the supply chain of companies, a majority of customers today have started relying more on local businesses for their convenience. In the wake of the pandemic, Google has also rolled out new attribute features for Google My Business. These include online services, health and safety and other pandemic-related ones for restaurants and other categories.
Online shopping has also skyrocketed. As per a report by the Selligent Global Connected Consumer Index, weekly online shopping has increased by 28% than before the pandemic. This has given marketers a plethora of opportunities to experiment with eCommerce SEO.
To give an insight into how the pandemic has impacted SEO for different industries, here are some important findings.
Key SEO Industry Insights in 2021 during the Pandemic
While online traffic for businesses from certain industries may have down-ticked in recent times; there is still a great potential for others.
- For those from the travel industry, website traffic is slowly gaining pace thanks to inquiries for flight reservations.
- Local businesses are experiencing a surge in call volume regarding inquiries for working hours and deliveries.
- Search results pages belonging to the local, health, and travel industries now show new and updated information in the form of answer boxes associated with the pandemic.
- A spike in traffic for keywords belonging to the real estate industry, news-related keywords for tourism websites, and educational content keywords.
- An increase in consumption for educational content such as how-to posts, since many stay-at-homes are delving into new hobbies or activities during the pandemic.
- A significant rise in search terms related to the coronavirus pandemic, especially for topics such as vaccines, symptoms, and mask guidelines.
- A change in shopping behavior among customers with many searching local keywords like ‘nearby’ and ‘near me’.
This is also the best time to create branded thought leadership content as many are unsure about COVID-19 related information on certain topics and need a trusted source for that information.
What You Can Do to Capitalize on Your SEO Strategy
During such times of crisis, it’s always important to keep an eye on top trends for whichever industry you belong to. Since there is always a flux in customer behaviour and preference, make sure you map certain patterns and form a strategy based on the data you gather.
- Have a dedicated page for COVID-19
Your first step can be as simple as having a page to tell your audience how you’re tackling the pandemic. This can instill a great deal of trust in your brand from your customers. For instance, if you’re an owner of a food chain, what measure are you taking to ensure the hygiene and safety of your food products? How are your workers observing the COVID-19 protocols? If you’re into e-commerce or retail, what packaging measures you’re taking in delivering products to customers. You can even inform customers if your store is closed for orders and where to purchase products instead, leading to some increase in sales for your products. Nike did this with their stores’ closure page for COVID-19. You can even add short-tail and long-tail keywords as well as interlinks as other pages start ranking.
- Publish content centered around COVID-19
This can help you naturally add high-ranking and trending keywords to rank in search results. Make sure the content offers helpful information regarding COVID-19 and stays relevant to your domain. Hip camp does this well with their blog, telling them how they can camp safely by following COVID-19 protocols.
- Update your web pages with FAQ content
FAQ content is sought after by marketers and can dramatically give you a boost in SERPs.
- Keep your GMB profile updated
Don’t forget to leverage the new Google My Business features like attributes. These can be incredibly useful especially if your local business is a restaurant or clinic.
Final Thoughts
Since we aren’t sure when the pandemic will completely end, we do know that its impact will be significant on the digital marketing industry. As customer demands and situations keep on changing, SEO is here to stay and will definitely shape the search marketing space for years to come.