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SEO is a valuable part of any good digital marketing strategy, but now, it could be more important than ever. Whilst it’s true that internet usage has increased significantly over the last few months, with people at home spending more time online, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that will benefit you as a business. If you’re not deemed essential, then it’s likely you may have seen a drop in traffic as people prioritise news websites and supermarket shops, for example.
That being said, here’s some reasons why SEO is still just as, if not more important right now:
It is, of course, insensitive to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘trend’ but in terms of search, it has been a major search topic as people are understandably wanting to keep up with the latest news and updates. As we mentioned above, this could mean that your website just isn’t getting as much traffic as it normally would as people are prioritising other subjects.
COVID-19 will have an impact on consumer behaviour but as a search topic, it won’t last forever. As the situation improves, the volume of the search term will decrease.
It’s never a bad idea to create content that relates to trending topics as it will help to keep your customers informed and interested, but content that is specific to your industry is a great way to accumulate traffic over time. Sometimes referred to as evergreen content, creating content on subjects that are within your field of knowledge is a good move for some sustainable marketing; i.e, it will continue to be relevant and interesting so the traffic will build over time. It will also give you a better chance of ranking higher on search results.
Now is a great time to start creating some evergreen content. If you start planting the seeds now (pardon the pun), you’ll be reaping the rewards later. The Digital Marketing Institute offers a great beginner’s guide to evergreen content.
SEO is data-driven and technical. As such, you can’t expect to see results overnight, which is why there’s never a bad time to get the ball rolling. It’s unclear what businesses can expect over the next few months as the UK continues to navigate through this crisis, but investing in SEO is a great example of how your business can put its best foot forward amid the current uncertainty. It’s likely that we’ll only see search traffic continue to increase as reliance on search engines grow. Just as we’re coming out the other side of COVID-19 disruption, don’t you want to be the business that is already seeing results from work done during the crisis as opposed to the businesses who will have taken their foot off of the pedal and will start to think about a strategy once things begin to settle?
With all this in mind, where’s the best place to start? Below is a checklist of 4 things that you can start doing right now to put you in the best position.
STOCK UP ON CONTENT
Did you know that according to HubSpot, companies that publish at least 16 blog posts per month will generate 4.5X more leads than those that only publish four posts or less? How many blog posts is your business posting per month? Now is the time to start building up a collection of good quality blog posts. Being a consistent publisher of informative blog posts is an important part of your SEO strategy. You want to develop a trustworthy and authoritative brand that will put your business’ name to the forefront of somebody’s mind when they’re at the purchase stage.
MONITOR TRENDS
Use tools like Google Trends to make sure you’re staying on top of any topics or questions being asked in your industry. This will mean you can start to recognise trends and create relevant content around it. This includes reviewing relevant keywords either in your local area or within your industry.
CONSIDER SOMETHING NEW
If consumer behaviour is changing, make sure your business isn’t left behind. It’s estimated that by the end of 2020, the average person will consume 100 minutes of video content per day. With video content on the rise, why not explore creating something that resonates with your target audience?
DO YOUR QUALITY CHECKS
After all of your hard work building a strong SEO strategy, you really don’t want a simple mistake to be your downfall. Use this time wisely to do a complete review of your website to make sure that you’re not missing any tricks.
To put it simply, SEO is a great solution for your business to become visible now and to ensure you’re set up for success later.
HOW CAN WRIGGLE MARKETING HELP?
As a trusted digital marketing agency in Newcastle, we pride ourselves on delivering results with our streamlined SEO process. Get in touch if you’re ready to get started with your SEO, or check out our blog for more SEO-related tips!
