If you are keen on how coronavirus has affected internet use, you will notice that internet use has increased.
However, search traffic has dropped significantly.
Does this mean that SEO is useless? No its not!
From the COVID-19 trends and behaviors I have seen, I am going to share why SEO is still very important for your business.
What is the impact of COVID-19 on search traffic?
Experts all over are saying that SEO is important because internet use has increased.
However, that is not the exact reason why it is important.
You know why?
Because internet use means so many things. It does not necessarily have to be an online search.
It can be social media, movie streaming, gaming, virtual meetings just to mention a few.
Search is still there, but it has moved to things that are related to the crisis or relevant industries like health, food, news, and connecting socially.
That is why search and traffic both organically and paid for your business has declined.
So, if your business falls under industries that are relevant to the situation at hand, your SEO must stand out over your competition.
Why does SEO matter during COVID-19?
Like I said before, SEO is still vital even when search traffic has gone down.
1) COVID-19 is trending.
I actually thought that coronavirus will blow over after some time but I figured that even if it subsides, it will still have long-term consequences.
I am not saying that you should only focus on COVID-19 content.
I just think you should have information out there for when customers have evergreen questions in the future.
2) Evergreen content is still key.
Learn to put out evergreen content in your niche because that is what is going to stay relevant and will accumulate traffic over time and dominate the first page results.
It is very okay to publish trending topics. But we all know the world moves very fast and trends die down after some time.
So try as much as possible to focus on looking for evergreen topics in your niche.
3) SEO is not just about traffic.
People think that SEO is only for increasing website traffic.
While this is true, it is also good for what we call qualified traffic.
Qualified traffic is from visitors who are interested in what is on your website despite other opposing trends that people are searching for.
SEO can, therefore, give you qualified leads that you can nurture in the future.
4) SEO gains are long-term.
If you are consistently putting out SEO rich content, you reap good fruits in the long run.
As we all know, SEO is not an immediate result.
Three or four months down the line, you will see that it was all worth it.
I recently saw a study that shows that pages that rank on the first page on Google are mostly more than one year old.
5) Search is going to become more important.
People are more reliant on search engines than ever since COVID-19 started.
Things like voice search, voice assistants, news, and updates.
This means that traffic to search engines has not declined.
Therefore, search engine marketing like PPC and SEO will skyrocket for businesses down the line.
6) SEO doesn’t need to be timed properly.
With SEO, you do not have to worry about timing.
If customers are ready to find your business, they will, unlike TV or print campaigns.
This is because SEO is an inbound marketing strategy.
Your site will be visible to meet all customers’ needs even ten years to come because it is a long term investment.
If you invest in content marketing, it will be there to educate, persuade, and convert visitors to buying customers any time they search a topic related to your niche.
Many say that SEO needs maintenance, but I think it works consistently at a cost-effective rate.
This is why I advise you to use SEO strategy even during these hard times.
7) SEO offers scalability and low-cost leads.
SEO has to be the marketing channel that brings very high ROI for businesses, especially during these tough times.
You do not need a huge premium to scale up your visitors from search and reach a wider audience.
You might be wasting time and money using the pay-per-click campaign while you could be getting more visitors from search every day without all the extra stuff you are doing.
Remember — SEO helps people already interested in your business find you.
Being discoverable online is always important for businesses, but it’s especially crucial during times like these.
SEO is a very smart investment to help fuel long-term growth for your business in 2020 and beyond
CONCLUSION
One good thing about SEO is that it is free.
However, you have to invest your time, understand it, then produce content, and then stay on top of it.
To sum it all up, this is why SEO is important even during the coronavirus pandemic:
- Travel restrictions are making consumers seek out nearby businesses.
- Consumers are looking for small businesses to support.
- SEO is the means by which small business owners can stand apart from competitors.
- It is free and who are we kidding, we have the time.
If your business is slowing down right now, consider investing your time in SEO because you will become visible once search behavior goes back to normal.