SEO Industry in Coronavirus (Covid19) - Infographic
The whole COVID-19 pandemic has taken the whole world for a spin. Amongst everything that has changed, the SEO industry has seen an almost monumental shift in the search trends of people. This infographic explores the different aspects that the coronavirus has changed in the SEO industry and how businesses can update themselves to stay ahead of the competition.
The sudden change in the lifestyle of people is a result of the ongoing pandemic. Because of these changing lifestyles, we are changing the way we approach different aspects of our lives. All of our day to day activities have changed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Every business that you can think of, has had to adapt to this pandemic. Some businesses saw their sales increase, while others saw a decrease in their sales. Businesses have taken the opportunity to take their operations online while many have had to shut down their shops.
According to a survey carried out by Conductor, 63% of the people who responded said that the importance of SEO will definitely increase during this economic downturn. An estimated cost of $2.7 trillion will be incurred by the world because of the pandemic.
From the content available on the internet to the groceries and everyday things, consumption patterns have changed. This calls for marketers to be on the top of their game and be aware of all the changes that are happening and adapt to them accordingly.
Content consumption patterns have changed mainly because of the fact that the things that people search for are also changing. This is a sign of major concern for online businesses. Strategies need to be changed in order to align with what people are searching for. The search trends have changed which in turn are compelling businesses to change their positioning as well among their competition.
Certain industries are seeing an upsurge in online traffic while others are dealing with a decrease in their traffic. Media, telecom, retail, and supermarkets have been the beneficiaries of the increasing traffic while home furnishing, cosmetics, jewelry, and entertainment and events industry has been facing the brunt of the decrease.
Businesses that had heavy investments in their brick and mortar stores like cafes, bookstores, malls, movie theaters, and gyms have had to suffer the most during this pandemic because of the downward trend of the footfall. Policy changes like lockdown and quarantine have been the major culprits behind offline businesses shutting down.
Drastic changes have been seen in these 4 months since the quarantine and the lockdown began. The searches for indoor activities have increased while people are rarely searching for things that relate to outdoor activities. One primary phenomenon that has been observed is that these searches for indoor activities are actually substitutes for outdoor activities.
Along with changing trends, searches for terms like donate, coffee, normal, antibody, cooking, instant noodles, meditation, vaccine, delivery, and binge-watching have been at an all-time high this year. All of this has been confirmed according to Google Trends.
Essential items are the need of the hour. Efforts are being made to meet the demand for these essential items.
Search volumes of different keywords have changed. According to Glimpse, the trend has been as follows:
The keywords with increased search volumes: Paper towels, Yoga mat, Dumbbells, Yeast for bread, Bulk flour, Unemployment application, Virtual conference, Paintbrushes, Face-time games, and Isolation gowns
The keywords with decreased search volumes: Backpack, Perfume, Heels, Water bottle, Art Galleries, Coffee-shop, AirBnb, Bowling and Food truck
People are googling about new topics. They want information on what is going around right now and how is the world reacting to this situation. Google Trends has a list of queries that people around the world are searching for:
- How can oil prices go negative
- Online jobs hiring now
- IMF great depression
- How to keep kids busy during the quarantine
- Coronavirus tips for workplace
- Thankyou essential workers
Now that consumer preferences have been altered, they are going to be looking for some new information in a new way. As a business, to stay relevant, you will have to adopt practices that will help you be in the top results of the relevant search queries of the customers.
Here are a few suggestions that can help your business stay on top of things are:
- Create a coronavirus landing page.
- Inform customers of precautions and necessary steps you are taking.
- Informing customers about the availability of their products.
- Creating content that is credible.
- Make your website responsive.
- Adapting according to trends
