The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on just about every aspect of most people’s lives. As a result, it has had an enormous impact on business and commerce. While high streets around the world have come to a complete standstill with non-essential stores forced to close their doors until the pandemic is over, or at least under control, there have been some businesses that have noticed a significant uptick in sales.
For some businesses, having more people inside, browsing the internet, and buying stuff online, presents some real opportunities. But as with any large-scale shift in user behaviour, search engines have had to adjust their SEO algorithms accordingly. As a result, Covid-19 has impacted SEO in a number of ways.
Covid-19 Info On SERPs
When users search for terms relevant to Covid-19, they are now greeted with new SERP features promoting information about the pandemic. These new features ensure that users searching for information are immediately presented with information from high-quality sources like the NHS and the CDC. This helps to reduce the spread of misinformation.
Variations In Organic Performance
Because there have been some businesses who have made money from the Covid-19 pandemic and seen their sales increase since the beginning of the outbreak, there have been some sudden and dramatic shifts in performance. However, there is a significant variation among businesses in terms of the impact Covid-19 has had on their organic SEO performance.
For example, SEO professionals like WSI Digital Ltd have generally done well, as businesses seeking to capitalise on the current situation look to maximise their online presence through SEO. On the other hand, B2B businesses that sell physical products to other businesses instead of services have found that their organic performance has taken a nosedive.
Covid Content
As you would expect, there has been an enormous amount of content written about Covid-19 since the pandemic began. There is still much debate amongst SEO experts as to whether businesses should be giving priority to Covid-related content. The consensus seems to be that it is a good idea to publish some organic content that relates to Covid-19, but you should avoid artificial content that doesn’t fit with the rest of your output.
Trust is important right now, and businesses that – deliberately or otherwise – end up spreading misinformation are going to take a hit to their reputations. Consumers are increasingly likely to turn away from any business that they associate with fake news or with lax standards when it comes to information about Covid-19. This has encouraged fact-checking and verification of information in a way that we haven’t seen before.
With the Covid-19 crisis far from over, it is likely that we will witness further changes to the SEO landscape before the pandemic has subsided. Businesses and websites need to pay close attention to developments going forward. This is especially important for businesses that have had to rethink the way they operate in response to the pandemic.
