The latest coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic is an unprecedented event for marketers and search engines alike. The keyword itself has reached almost 4 million searches monthly, and Google has even gone as far as to create a custom landing page for inquiring users.
But while managing marketing dollars and serving helpful content can prove difficult during this confusing time, it’s important to stay calm and remember a few important things.
- Zoom out
First and foremost, take a step back and evaluate your SEO strategy from an 80,000 foot view. Some areas may be worth keying in on, while others may not. This is particularly relevant for the ecommerce (e.g. medical supplies) and streaming industries. In some cases, it might be possible to capitalize on an acute rise in online traffic.
- Assess paid
The same is true for paid search or display. For example, career and contractor sites could likely be adjusting based on search behavior, particularly for terms like ‘freelance’. That said, investing in a PPC audit may result in short and long term increases in performance and revenue.
- Keep a moral compass
While it’s important to consider ways to increase performance and revenue, it’s still important to consider ethics. If you’re thinking of ways to capitalize on covid-19 traffic, do so carefully. Having a sense of business ethics is a good way to avoid jeopardizing integrity.
- Amplify brand awareness and trust
If you can, create buzz around what your own brands are doing to support the community and employees. Offering a free product and/or upgrade, temporary or not, is a great way to earn media coverage and boost SEO link equity. While they’re not all limited to digital, here are some other great examples.
- Don’t stop link building
Any SEO can tell you, pausing link building is a big no no. The same holds true during a pandemic. Use examples like the ones above, and adjust tactics as needed. For restauranteurs, this may translate to local newspaper content marketing — These are the perfect outlets for listing dine-in alternatives.
- Align Local with Social
Parallel both paid and organic efforts with social media. Facebook and Twitter are big drivers of traffic for local restaurants. Bolstering the same dining alternatives and custom options via Facebook, Twitter is a positive step in the right direction.
- Boost infrastructure
Lastly, up your infrastructure and bandwidth for phone and internet — if you can. Doing so can not only help track performance, but also mitigate poor customer satisfaction and loyalty issues down the line. A great example is the travel and hospitality industry. Their response to the pandemic could likely make or break some of them in the coming months and years, particularly those lacking in response / refunds.
These, among others, are just a few high level considerations for quality marketing during a time of crisis. A key thing to remember is that strategies like SEO are long term. Stagnant traffic or slow decline could simply be a result of being sluggish to react. If you’re concerned about the effects of the coronavirus on your digital marketing efforts, give me a call. I’m here to help however I can.
