Governments are taking steps to protect themselves from the economic impact of isolation. But for some companies, it is difficult to find help. So how can your online business survive during this pandemic? This is possible with a good Google ranking strategy, Discover how to optimise the SEO of your website and get ahead during this time!

Stay Calm and Start Optimising

This is not the time to panic. It doesn’t matter if you have a gardening business, a family restaurant, a small store or a private company, you may experience income losses in the coming months. There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the possible economic impact of COVID-19 and it is certainly scary.

However, the truth is that we will recover! The “flattening of the curve” works as a method to mitigate the damage of a pandemic not only by reducing the number of cases and, therefore, the pressure on social systems, but also spreading the cases over time so that can be treated more effectively.

How SEO and Marketing Can Benefit You

Now, let’s see what SEO and marketing activities businesses can apply to achieve faster recovery from the coronavirus.

1. Interview Employees and Customers

Use Skype or Google Hangouts to receive and make video calls. Ask your employees and customers about their unique experiences with your products, services, and culture. Similarly, use tools like Otter.ai to transcribe the audio.

In the coming months, these transcripts and videos will be a valuable source of inside information for blog posts, social content, press releases, and more.

2. Conduct a Mini-audit of the Contents

A full audit of your content takes time and specialised knowledge is required, but there is much to be done during this low activity period to improve the performance of your content with a mini-audit.

If you have not kept an inventory of the content, you have made to date, this is a great opportunity to start. Create a Google spreadsheet and use a tab for each type of content:

• Websites
• Post
• Blog posts
• White papers
• Ebooks
• Presentations
• Videos
• Infographics
• Articles that you have published externally

If you are very ambitious, you can also keep track of articles that others have posted about your business. Now, test each piece critically:

• What high-quality parts and images can you retrofit for other channels?
• Which pieces had the highest number of actions on social networks?
• Which got the most traffic on the website?

All of these can be opportunities for:

• Update yourself with current content
• Optimise with CTA and new keywords
• Add internal links to new products or services
• Promote yourself again when business recovers

3. Record Videos

Videos are a valuable tool for SEO. They can help you with the following:

• Use long-tail keywords
• Get featured snippets
• Appear in relevant YouTube searches

But, they can also be the basis for all types of content. As mentioned above, Otter.ai is a cost-effective tool for transcribing a video with AI. Embed the video in a blog post and include the transcript.

Take screenshots and use them as images on social media. Choose between 5 and 10 phrases from the video transcript and use them in the images on Instagram in the following months. Reuse those phrases in network posts and in future blog posts.

4. Check the Comments Online

On the web pages, you can find many comments that companies do not respond to. Now is a good time to make sure that your recent comments have a more thoughtful response. Create a comment policy and train an employee to manage your comments online from now on.

Write an answer template and make sure it matches your brand. Train your employees so they know how to respond to negative comments and refer customer service issues to the right person. Similarly, offer them the tools they need to monitor comments and receive alerts.

5. Update Your Google My Business Profile for Local Customers

Are you working on a special schedule? Are you following the instructions to prevent the spread of COVID-19? Google wants local businesses to use the tools available within the Google My Business dashboard to allow customers to be aware of changes.

Update your business time and description, share Google posts with updates, and make sure your contact information is correct in case people want to contact you.

As you can see, SEO and online marketing strategies are means that allow you to establish relationships and build trust with people. How you accomplish this during difficult times matters as much as when you are ready to serve them or sell your service. In this way, your business can combat the impact of the coronavirus!

Contact us if you are interested in positioning yourself organically on Google. At Cliffex we can help you with different SEO strategies and tools.