6 Reasons Why you should NOT Stop SEO for your Businesses During COVID-19

Coronavirus, better known as COVID-19, is wreaking havoc all over the world, with many people practicing “isolation and social distancing” and forced to stay at home. How can it affect your marketing and PR strategies? Let us take a close look at what can be done during such a difficult time. Perhaps you have seen the effects of Coronavirus in your daily business. Maybe you have had to cancel and postpone some important events and must have started doing work from home projects, or implemented cleaning routines within the company. We all know that COVID-19 is now affecting every industry differently. For instance, people are forming long queues outside the grocery stores, and eCommerce websites that sell the same essentials are experiencing a huge surge in their traffic. It is changing as the news unfolds.

Here are the 6 Reasons Why you should NOT Stop SEO During Coronavirus

As SEOs, we will have to react accordingly. Based on what we have seen till now, here are a few ways COVID-19 appears to be even affecting the SEO metrics, or how we must consider responding.

1. eCommerce Websites Selling Essentials Are Increasing 

Everyone is noticing eCommerce sites with huge spikes in traffic and impressions. That is coming from the people who are looking for the hand sanitizer, toilet paper, thermometers, Clorox wipes and product searches related to this pandemic. The huge demand and product shortages have created the new queries such as “hand wash shop near me” or “N-95 mask near me.” On the flip side, we have seen some non-essentials such as makeup experiencing tremendous drops in the traffic, and products tied to the travel, such as luggage.

2. Search Is Measurable

Suppose you are marketing at a top of the funnel and experiencing a budget crunch, then it makes a little sense you will move all your efforts to the consumers with immediate buying intent. The search engine marketing exactly does that – but very importantly, you will prove whether you’re successful. All you need to do is to look at the sales and leads in your SEO analytics. It allows you to pivot your effort and budget when essential. Buyer behavior will go to some significant changes in the next few months. Your marketing efforts must pivot based on the data.

3. In Scarcity, People Search

Already there is an indication that certain goods are tough to find shortly. When the goods are scarce, users will look for them. Suppose goods aren’t available, then consumers can search for the alternatives. Suppose you are in search results when the people are looking for the scarce goods and services, your business will be a recipient of windfall. The kinds of scarcity we might see in the coming months are unparalleled in our lifetimes. Many SEO experts will build their link building campaigns over alternatives for the products that are expensive and tough to find. One that will capitalize on Search Engine Optimization can be better off since keyword costs over scarce items can likely increase as demand increases.

4. Recipe Websites Seem to Be Experiencing Uptick

Recipe websites have so far experienced an increase in the clicks and impressions, though not as drastic as the essentials retailers and health sites. It is likely because many people are now cooking at home than eating out. It might continue to increase as far as restaurants are closed and operating at the reduced capacity.

5. People Need Products and Services

Like we have already stated, search engine marketing, organic and paid, is the best way of reaching the consumers with purchasing intent. We are not saying search engine marketing will always be the quick fix –however, you will get the Google Ads campaign running in some hours. When the CEO begins panicking, recommending the search engine marketing strategy might be the best way of calming them for a bit. Particularly if you not doing a search engine in the past.

6. Things Can Get Normal

Eventually, things will do normalize. It might be very different, and there are the new normal, but the world can stabilize. Search engine marketing still will be a highly effective method to reach your consumers. Those that will implement effective search engine marketing campaigns during downtimes can be primed in cleaning up when things normalize.

Conclusion

Whereas you can see positive results from the SEO in the short time frame, the overall effectiveness of the SEO does not happen overnight. This takes a little time to get the SEO campaign run effectively. However, in a time that we’re dealing with global pandemonium, a business can create an SEO campaign that can reap positive results for many years to come.