Over the last 12 months, there have been many changes across all industries during the pandemic, including digital marketing and SEO. With shutdowns, lockdowns, and quarantines, there’s more digital traffic than physical traffic. This increase has caused a trickle down effect on SEO.
Skyrocketing Internet Use
The lockdowns around the world have left most people at home or isolated at their job. With few places to go, internet use has increased to numbers never seen before in the technology age. This traffic boost is tri-fold with more searches, expanded social media use, and an unprecedented increase in e-commerce sales.
SEO Needs Outpace Traditional Services
Online sellers have experienced an increase in their digital sales. Several months into the pandemic, the competition among online storefronts has heated up. These businesses need more SEO services to stand out.
Additionally, companies that made most of their sales in-person have had to turn to their websites to keep turning out sales. In many cases, this has required a massive undertaking by digital marketing agencies to update on-page SEO for these businesses.
Essential Businesses Boom
A huge influx of traffic is going to essential services. These companies, including everything from retailers for groceries, health and beauty aids, and household merchandise, need SEO services to direct their website searches. Several times over the past few months, essential items have sold out at big box stores, such as Walmart, Target, and Costco.
Instead of going on a waiting list, people have turned to search engines to locate what they need. Essential business owners mustn’t slow down or stop their SEO services once in-store service returns to normal.
By keeping both ecommerce and a physical storefront’s digital marketing plans in place, you have the potential to increase sales from your pre-pandemic numbers.
Non-Essential Services
Unfortunately, non-essential businesses have seen the opposite. At first, people searched to find updates on when places would open, current restrictions, or book services at a future date. As the pandemic continues to drag on, these companies are seeing less SERP results.
However, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel that we can see coming. Multiple effective vaccines are available or soon be ready for the public. Through rapid vaccinations and safety protocols, many non-essential services will be opening again. As people feel safe, they will head out more.
It’s vital to be ready for them. Don’t go dark for a few months, weeks, or even several days during the pandemic’s lockdowns and shutdowns. Instead, spend the time preparing to bring customers back to your business through high-quality on-page and off-page SEO services. By the time everything opens up again, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition.
Don’t wait for life to start getting back to normal to update and maintain your website’s SEO and other digital marketing needs. By the time you have your pages tweaked to drive traffic to your physical or online storefront, you’ll already be behind your competition. An SEO company can help you maintain a digital presence during downtime, and make sure your site is outshining your competitors.
Interesting related article: “What is Internet Marketing?“