Has COVID-19 given you the gift of time? Why not make the most of it and implement these SEO wins for some quick results. None of us could have predicted the unprecedented turn of events that have unfolded over the last few months. COVID-19 has not only impacted the health of the nation but the economy too. And quite frankly, it’s been scary.
SEO Tips To Use During The Pandemic
It’s fair to say that most companies went into risk management mode in a bid to reduce costs and save their business. As a digital marketing agency, we know one of the first things to go on many people’s lists was PPC. (On the flip side, those who have been able to maintain their PPC campaign have seen a low CCP).
Thankfully for many in digital marketing, SEO wasn’t impacted as heavily. In fact, in some instances it wasn’t affected at all, moreover, some companies even boosted their investment in their SEO strategy.
After all, what better time to invest than when competition is reduced? Especially as the results of SEO can take a few months to appear. With that in mind, investments made now will deliver ROI just in time for the world to start returning to the way we once knew it.
By taking advantage of time that was freed up because of the current situation, a lot of businesses have already started to publish great content. Furthermore, they’ve already started making plans for the post-COVID world. This is a very smart decision.
So let’s start future-proofing your business by looking at some SEO tips you can take on board right now, to see positive results in the future.
Focus on content your audience needs right now
So normally we recommend steering clear of trends that come and go in favour for evergreen topics. However, COVID has pretty much impacted everyone in one way or another so it makes sense to answer the questions your target audience is asking now. If your company is already struggling to stay afloat, you need solutions that don’t involve a monetary investment. Therefore, SEO and content are the lifeline you need.
For fast results, the best thing you can do is repurpose and improve your existing content that is being searched by potential customers and is still driving traffic (even if it has reduced).
Keyword research is essential
When it comes to SEO tips that work, keyword research is essential. Delve into your top-performing content pieces and take a look at what queries they’re already ranking for. In order to get the most accurate results use platforms such as:
Google Search Console, Google Trends, SEMrush, Ahrefs and Moz. Gather all the queries that are relevant to your content then, split them into the following categories:
- Queries that return a page 1 ranking
- Queries that return a page 2 ranking
- Finally, queries that return a lower ranking than page 2
Related: How Do You Know If You’re Choosing the Right Keywords?
Repurpose and improve existing content
For the content that ranks on the first page of the results, it should be easy to tweak small bits here and there to boost you up a few places. Even better, aim to include bitesize information that is relevant even when isolated for a chance to appear in the featured snippet.
For the content that is appearing on the second page of the results, you’ll have to put a little more work in (but not too much). It’s probably worth adding more content, researching more keywords and adding a few internal links, images and ensuring the content is fully optimised (sentence length, alt attributes, transitional words etc.).
An additional way to add extra content and answer specific queries is by adding FAQs to the page. We’ll dig down deeper into this later.
Consolidate your content
Now take a look at the queries where you ranked below page two of the search results.
Maybe you have content that isn’t blowing anyone away on its own, but integrated with another piece of content it just might be the long-form content you need. By consolidating the content into one page you’re giving them a better chance to succeed. Otherwise, they could be competing against each other.
Create new content for long-tail search queries
Let’s not forget about low-search-volume questions that you’ll have also found whilst doing your keyword research. While these search queries aren’t high, it’s still worth creating content that specifically answers these queries as your odds of showing up are much higher.
The good news is that you can keep the content short and it will perform just as well.
Implement FAQ page schema markup
This is a little more technical than the other solutions so you might have to invest some time in research. We recommend checking out Neil Patel’s blog as it also gives you the code you need to make it a simple copy and paste job.
What this strategy does is gives you the opportunity to significantly extend your snippet with the FAQ box. Therefore, increases your chances of appearing on the first page of the results. An additional bonus to this method, Google picks up on it pretty quickly so you’ll see results fast.
To conclude
There are lots of ways to harness the extra time COVID-19 has given you. Firstly, focus on the really quick fixes that will keep you in business, then focus your attention on the areas you can improve. If you still have time, it’s worth creating some evergreen content that will add value to your audience and continue to drive traffic for years to come.
Want more ways of boosting your SEO? Here are another 5 Quick Tips To Improve your SEO Rankings.