Top 6 SEO Strategies for Small Businesses During Covid-19

The pandemic hasn’t been easy on a lot of small and medium businesses, since many physical operations have either been slowed, or are completely at halt.

However, if the virus is making your business suffer, know that marketing is still something that you can rely on.

So, rather than simply wishing for Covid-19 to go away, it’s best if you focus on molding your digital marketing strategies in accordance with the current market situation. 

How to do that?

We’d show you!

How Important is SEO During the Pandemic?

Before we get to the strategy building part, let’s discuss some of the major reasons why you need SEO more than ever during Covid-19, and how can it help you survive the current crisis.

First of all, SEO is a consistent practice. Which means, getting your site optimized by certified SEO experts wouldn’t just benefit you during the crisis, but even in the post-pandemic world. Because, let’s be clear, SEO gains are long-term.

Apart from this, since most consumers are unable to leave their homes and communities, they’re searching for local businesses and services online.

So, if you want your prospects to find you in their time of need, take your SEO to the next level!

Here’s a list of some important SEO strategies that you need to focus on during the pandemic, especially if you own a small or medium business:

1. Stay Consistent with Your SEO

In case you don’t know this already, SEO is a long-term process. You can’t just optimize your site once and think it’d stay on the top of Google’s search rankings forever.

To put it in other words, proper SEO requires ongoing research and regular maintenance.

So, if you want your website to be visible on the top of Google’s SERPs and also stay there, consistent SEO efforts is what you need.

Can’t do it on your own? Partner up with a team of professional SEO experts!

2. Create Long-Form Content

Since a lot of consumers are stuck within their own homes, with nothing much to do, they’re likely to delve deeper into topics while scrolling their feed or searching for something.

Which means, long-form content has higher chance to get read nowadays than ever before. Also, long articles and blogs are basically the staple of successful SEO, so long-form content would definitely improve your search engine rankings.

How long should it be?

Well, according to Backlinko, content that ranks on the first page of Google contains around 1890 words.

You can either create engaging blog posts yourself, or if you want your articles to be perfect enough to appear on the first page of Google’s search results, a professional content writer can be your secret SEO weapon.

3. Invest in Local SEO

Local SEO have always been on the list of ‘most important SEO strategies’ for small and local businesses, and it’s also a great solution for smaller companies to compete against giant brands in the search battle.

Plus, local SEO allows you to advertise your services and products just where all your potential customers are. And with consumers preferring to stay within their communities, local businesses are being sought out by a huge number of searchers EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE.

So, stop losing sales to competition, and make your website pop-up in front of your customers’ eyeballs with some advanced local SEO tactics.

Also, don’t forget to focus on the most important ranking factors for local SEO.

4. Balance Your Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

We know that the current crisis isn’t going to last forever, but we also know that the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic are going to be long-term. So, your overall Covid-19 SEO strategy must be focused on both short-term, as well as long-term goals.

Your short-term SEO efforts may include updating your website and listings for local search terms, and uploading content related to coronavirus and its impact on your industry, Covid-19 tips, etc.

On the other hand, you can work on long-term SEO by posting content that answers the ‘post-pandemic’ concerns and questions of your customers. Also, do not abandon your traditional (pre-pandemic) SEO tactics and keep focusing on all the factors that can impact your local SEO.

Whether you should spend more efforts on either short-term or long-term SEO depends on your industry and the type of business you own. However, you can get some expert advice or partner up with a digital marketing agency to make the whole process easier, and, of course, successful.

When it comes to posting content – which, by the way is still the ‘king’ of SEO – you should focus on coronavirus related keywords, because that’s what most searches are related to these days.

Targeting trending terms can get you more traffic, while enabling your small business to compete against big brands.

For instance, you can put up an article about “how to keep your muscles strong while in quarantine” and there’s a high chance of your content getting ranked on Google, which would ultimately build your domain authority while bringing you closer to all your future customers.

6. Update all Your Business Listings

Lastly, if you happen to own a local business, such as a pizza restaurant that’s offering home delivery or curbside pickup during the pandemic, it’s best to make sure that all your business listings are accurate.

And it’s not just your Google My Business listing that’s important, you need to ensure that all of your business information is identical on each and every platform, including Yelp, Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, and even Facebook.

Also, conduct a reputation check and catch up on all your reviews, respond to every single feedback whether it’s positive or negative, and if your business is a startup, encourage your customers to post a review since that can help persuade more people to buy from you.

All in all, if you want to stay afloat during the pandemic, SEO is something that you shouldn’t bail on, specifically if you own a small, localized business.

In case you aren’t ready to handle all the tedious SEO activities yourself, simply hire a team of certified SEO experts, and consider it an investment rather than expense.

 

By VROX Content Team - 16 Jul 2020

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