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These times of uncertainty as a result of the novel Coronavirus pandemic are certainly trying for all businesses and their owners. In such circumstances, most businesses feel like they need to back out from their usual obligations and take adopt a new strategy. While this might be needed in most facets of running a business, when it comes to SEO and digital marketing, retreating and taking a break isn’t an option. Elucidated below are all the ways that you can and should maintain consistency in your SEO strategy throughout this global quarantine period.
The Importance Of Maintaining A Presence
Global pandemics (such as we are experiencing now), deep-seated economic recessions, and depression-like situations, have all occurred in the past. And if it’s one thing that the world learned in the aftermath of these situations was that small businesses have the power of resilience. The current situation is not very different from the situations of the past. Small businesses will have to brave through these periods to come out successful on the other end. This is a good time for business to focus their efforts on growth and maintaining their presence in the market, in order to witness tremendous growth spurts when the economy does go back to normal.
Despite the fact that short-term strategies are required for the unpredictable situation that we are currently in now, these strategies shouldn’t have a bearing on your growth strategies. Just like all the pandemics that came before it, COVID-19 is sure to die off at some time or the other. Therefore, it is in the best interest of all businesses to position themselves in such a way, that they are in a better position than their competitors to make the push to the top when everything goes back to normal, and the world goes back to functioning as it once did. This includes continuing your SEO efforts and your pursuit of cementing your brand’s online presence. Remember, the steps that you take now will determine how well equipped you are, to make the push to the “big leagues”, when the economy gets back on track.
Search Engine Optimization Is A Continued Effort
Optimizing and fine-tuning every aspect of a brand’s online presence takes months if not years. And, making use of the time that you currently have (not being able to do the things that you normally do) to focus your efforts towards the optimizing of your brand’s online presence, might be the deciding factor when it comes to whether or not you’ll be able to overtake your competitors after the crisis ends. While your competitors take a backseat and relax their SEO efforts, this is the perfect time for your brand to go all-out and cement its online presence and claim its space at the top of your specific niche.
Halting your SEO efforts abruptly could have a drastic negative impact on your brand’s ability to bounce back when the pandemic ends. This is where implementing a long-term digital marketing strategy aimed at making sure that when things do get back to normal, your brand will be there to exploit the first wave of customers that come in and scoop them all up by enticing them with your amazing products, and exemplary cost-effective services. Thinking ahead instead of making fear-based decisions based on what’s going on now, is the key!
Consistency Is The Name Of The Game When It Comes To SEO
Devising and implementing an ace SEO strategy involved long-term thought processes. This is due to the fact that SEO is something that does not yield immediate results. It is akin to planting a seed and putting in the work every day. You’re not likely to see a plant the very next day, but if you’re sure to do what’s necessary every day without stopping, one day you will notice a spurt. And after this spurt, it’s easy to sustain growth and yield rich dividends from all the work that you’ve put in.
Continued maintenance of an SEO strategy, followed by close monitoring and fine-tuning as per the insights gained (from monitoring) is paramount. Meanwhile, if your brand already has an SEO strategy in place, then taking your foot off the pedal at this point, can not only be counterproductive but also detrimental in terms of your brand’s ability to bounce back after the crisis dies out.
Put Your Customers First
Continuing your existing SEO and digital marketing efforts doesn’t mean that you should act as if everything is normal and not address the elephant in the room – COVID-19. Try to tweak your SEO strategy around offering your customers pandemic-specific help, information, products, and services. Communicating these things through marketing emailers and your brand’s social media platforms is the way to go. To this effect, you can start –
- sending out updates through newsletters via emails,
- posting relevant crisis-related updates via social media,
- update your GMB details as per your changed work timings, services, offerings, etc, during this crisis period.
- make sure all customer service lines, chat services, email accounts, and the like, are open at all times to address the concerns of customers.
Making sure to keep the above points in mind and persisting with your SEO and digital marketing efforts is guaranteed to put you in a better position than you ever were to take your competitors on, when things go back to the way they used to be, and return to normal!
