The global outbreak of the coronavirus is a tragedy that has brought about a series of unprecedented and unpredictable circumstances. The world changed in almost a blink of an eye, and as we scrambled for cover, we realized that no one is safe from the pandemic— especially not businesses.

With plunging stocks and the threat of recession looming over the world’s biggest economies, even the most successful businesses like Facebook and McDonald’s have come to terms with their business taking a massive hit in the wake of this global outbreak. Other industry giants like Uber and Google have also voiced their concerns about the future of their businesses. 

With unemployment rates soaring high, and 62 percent of employees speculating that their total income will take a hit, businesses fear temporary or permanent closure. In light of these circumstances, the future looks even bleaker for small businesses. 

As the onset of a new way of living becomes the norm—with remote work and altered business hours being enacted to ensure the safety of the employees—small businesses must evaluate their options. 

Evolving with the changing times is not so much of a luxury but a necessity that small businesses must embrace if they want to ride the storm. But now, with the limited cash flow, the challenges faced by small businesses are immense. Meeting high-level KPIs is a constant struggle, and retaining and engaging audience seems to get challenging with each passing day.

So how are small businesses supposed to stay afloat when their business operations have taken a severe hit due to the onset of this virus? By leveraging effective small business SEO tools! 

Why Do Small Businesses Need SEO During the Coronavirus Crisis?

If the global outbreak of the coronavirus has shown us anything, it’s that having a robust online presence for your brand is vital for your survival during these uncertain times. Visit Digital Spotlight to know more about their digital marketing services. Unfortunately, statistics show that a whopping 46 percent of local small businesses don’t have an adequate SEO strategy—dooming their business to fail during the pandemic. 

In the face of rising debt and changing consumer behaviors, small businesses must fall in line with the age of digitization to come out of this storm less battered than expected. If you want to continue audience engagement despite offering limited services, you need to work smartly. You must build a brand identity that allows your brand to come out to the other side of the pandemic stronger than ever and boost conversion rates for your website, which is why a comprehensive small business SEO strategy is your best bet. 

How to Use SEO to Weather the Storm

Stay Relevant Through Keywords

As consumers are forced to stay indoors to curb the coronavirus spread, their search behavior changes rapidly. Google’s search trends show that there has been a sharp increase in searches related to the coronavirus in the last three months globally. Searches like “business opening covid” have started gaining popularity as lockdown restrictions are eased.  

You must account for these rapid changes in your overall SEO strategy and keep it updated and relevant. Using trending keywords and creating content that revolves around them is an effective way to stay in sight of your target audience and engage with them.  

By creating relevant and useful content that addresses the present needs of your customer base, SEO can boost your brand visibility and establish you as a credible leader in your industry, which will ultimately help you generate a loyal customer base.

Create Compelling Web Content

You may have the most visually dynamic website, but if you don’t leverage it to maintain a strong online presence through it, it’s all null and void. 

As small businesses struggle with customer retention, a strong web presence is the key to converting your target audience into loyal customers. If your website has high-quality blogs, infographics, and other promotional media, you will create an immersive website for your preexisting customers, which will ultimately enhance their experience and restore their faith in the credibility of your brand. 

When your target audience engages with the content on your website, they’ll be directed to your products and services. This ensures long-term brand growth and minimizes customer attrition. Make sure you use empathetic yet powerful CTAs that are in line with the current global situation to nudge newcomers into availing your products and services. 

Stay Active on Your Social Media Platforms

Did you know that internet traffic has gone up to 50 percent since the coronavirus outbreak reached a global stage? Small businesses must cash in on this with the help of an active social media presence that not only engages their target audience but also allows them to keep the potential customer updated about products and services during the coronavirus pandemic. 

While this may seem like a no-brainer, many small businesses divert resources from their marketing budget to essential business operations in hopes of keeping themselves afloat.  Unfortunately, this has a detrimental impact on their online presence, which is much harder to recover from. 

Maintaining an active social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest allows you to improve audience engagement and stay connected with them during the pandemic. You must take an empathetic approach with your posts and respond to queries promptly to improve your overall conversion rates. 

Build Quality Backlinks

Making the most of backlink opportunities is an important aspect of any SEO strategy for small businesses. They improve organic search traffic and referral traffic. 

Backlinks are the incoming links to your webpage that occur whenever an external website links to your webpage. Much like a virtual shout out or an academic citation, if an established website that has a high domain authority links their content to your website, you’ll shoot up to the top of SERPs, thereby increasing your brand’s online visibility.

While the ongoing pandemic may have you practice social distancing, there’s no harm in doing some digital networking that will ultimately boost revenues and help you stay one step ahead of your competition. 

Some effective ways of receiving high-quality backlinks include: creating value-added and compelling content, increasing your social media outbreak, creating guest posts, and building internal links.  

Make Your Website More Interactive 

Internet usage has gone up to 70 percent in the last three months due to the coronavirus outbreak. In fact, marketers speculate that web browsing will continue to surge as long as people continue sheltering in place. 

In times like these, small businesses that have a strong online presence can leverage this surge in web browsing to boost organic traffic being generated to their website. As consumers stay indoors, they’re looking for local products and service providers, and your small business must make the most of it. This can be accomplished with the help of a user-friendly website.

Research shows that more than 92 percent of small business owners noticed an immediate boost in audience retention and engagement with an interactive website. This will only double in the coming days as people continue to stay indoors and browse the internet.

A fully customized website that gives potential customers easy access to your products and services and keeps them updated will improve your search rankings, enhance local outreach, and drive traffic organically.

The Takeaway

As small businesses worldwide face the threat of closure and limited working hours, leveraging SEO tools is the only way to ensure that your business isn’t driven into the ground.

No matter what industry you belong to, an SEO plan for small businesses can help you achieve your business goals during the coronavirus pandemic. Boost customer reach, generate website traffic, and keep your business afloat with proven SEO strategies!