These are unprecedented times. While the future may be uncertain, there's one thing that's right in the world of digital marketing: search engine optimization.
Many companies are withdrawing from conducting regular business activities in an effort to salvage their funds, mitigating business risks, and abide by physical distancing guidelines. As internet traffic has gone up by 50% due to self-isolation, many are moving their operations to online platforms in an effort to keep their businesses afloat during the lockdown period.
What's the driving force that helps them from drying out?
That's right, it's SEO.
If you're one of the many who are gradually making a transition to the online landscape and choosing to invest in SEO, you've made a wise decision. Here's why SEO continues to be more relevant than ever in 2020.
- The COVID-19 pandemic
First, let's talk about the elephant in the room. In other words, the current pandemic. Across the world, cities are being locked down and way of life has drastically changed over the course of a few months. Moreover, COVID-19 has also impacted online search behavior.
For businesses looking to find growth during the crisis, SEO offers unique advantages as a marketing channel. Since many businesses have closed their physical locations, the ability to found online helps these companies generate revenue. Having high rankings on Google will not only build brand visibility, but you get to attract a target audience that can possibly turn into loyal patrons. When you do re-open your physical locations, they already know your brand and are likely to purchase from you.
- Search is going to become more important
Today, businesses can no longer solely rely on traditional marketing tactics and their brick and mortar store to bring in new business. Having a strong search engine presence is the game-changer. In fact, 53% of shoppers say that they always research before buying to make sure they're making the best possible choices.
If your business isn't listed on Google's first page for the search terms your customers are using to find your products, then you're just simply missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business. Without SEO, getting to page one will just be a pipe dream.
- Everyone's switching to online shopping
In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, almost everyone has switched to online shopping – even those who were sceptical about it before. During the earliest stages of the global lockdown in March 2020, there was a 21% increase in online orders during that month compared to March 2019. Respondents also said that they shopped online for items they would normally shop for in-store.
The data highlights what many are currently experiencing -- as people have to shift from their normal shopping habits to adapt to the "new normal."
By making your products and services available online, you don't lose out on business opportunities, even as the world settles into the new normal. With SEO services, you'll gain higher visibility and stand out in the clutter. Businesses, operating across verticals, will find success even during these trying times if they can properly optimize their web content to drive optimal marketing performance.
- People are looking to support SMBs
Another reason SEO, especially local SEO that targets customers in your city and region, is more relevant than ever in 2020 is that the pandemic has introduced the spirit of supporting small businesses. These days, consumers are making an effort to purchase from local businesses over big brands. Online marketing tools like an SEO strategy give you that competitive edge and connect you with people looking for local SMBs to support.
But remember, customers often don't become customers instantly. Often, it takes multiple encounters. For instance, the informative blog articles you post as part of your SEO strategy make for familiarity-breeding and trust-building encounters. Once consumers are finally ready to buy, which ones do you think they'll choose? Of course, the ones they've heard of before or seen a few times while surfing the web.
- The rise of visual search
Today, more and more people are conducting visual searches. In fact, Google Lens has already been used 1 billion times and 36% of American consumers have used visual search while shopping online.
While visual search technology is still in its infancy stages, there's no denying its impact. People want to search with images, be it for shopping, directions, local business reviews, identifying landmarks, and many more. And if you want to show up as a visual search result, SEO holds the key to your success.
Just like normal SEO, it's important to write alt text and use descriptive file names for every image in your website. However, that's just the first step. According to Google, they prefer featuring Google Image results from authoritative pages. And if we go back to our basics, SEO is the driving factor that will improve your site's authority and relevancy.
- Don’t forget about voice search
Is voice search the next big thing in digital marketing? It might just be. For instance, check out these statistics that prove it:
- 20% of all mobile searches are voice searches (source)
- Since 2008, voice searches conducted in Google are up by 35 times (source)
- 41% of adults conduct voice search at least once every day (source)
Knowing that, you'll need SEO to optimize your content for voice search. Why?
Well, Google tends to source voice search answers from content that ranks in the top three search results. So for your page to appear in voice search, your content needs to rank high. Additionally, ranking in a featured snippet will help a ton. Data reveals that 4 out of 10 voice search results directly come from a featured snippet.
- Speaking of Featured Snippets...
Last but definitely not the least, you’ll need an SEO strategy if you want your page to be a featured snippet.
According to SEMrush, 11.52% of search results have featured snippets, and they're stealing most of the clicks from the #1 spot.
But how exactly do you get content featured in a snippet?
Like most things in SEO, you need keyword research. Featured snippets tend to come from high-ranking pages so you're not part of the top 10, you have zero chance of landing a featured snippet spot. You'll also need to add snippet bait, which is a 40-60 word content block that's specifically designed to make you land the featured snippet spot.
Needless to say, SEO has mitigated marketing challenges worldwide ever since the start of the pandemic. But even if COVID-19 didn't impact businesses worldwide, SEO is still more relevant than ever due to shifts in technological trends and businesses making an effort to transition to the online space.
With SEO, there's always more to discover, to learn, and to accomplish. But at the end of the day, it will help you achieve the ultimate accomplishment in this digital age: the top spot on Google.