The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Schools, restaurants, and businesses have closed down in hopes of limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Some companies are even forced to shut down as the outbreak triggered unprecedented layoffs. 

Honestly, the impact of this pandemic can be awfully scary especially when it seems like there is no end in sight. However, that’s just one side of the coin. 

Not all is bad…

There is a lot of fear and restlessness about the market and businesses closing down. We know, and we have enough of that. 

Let’s focus on the good side of this news. 

Slack, the instant messaging platform for business is flourishing. The same for Zoom, a video conferencing service, in fact,  Zoom now boasts 200 million daily users, up from 10 million daily users in December.

The reason is pretty obvious, with the ongoing pandemic, more and more of the population is now working from home. Although Slack and Zoom are not built specifically for working from home, both applications are flexible enough to serve a suddenly exploding amount of users. 

This shows the resilience and speed of adaptation when handling a crisis. 

Another company that saw gains by acting swiftly and switching their focus to cater to the market is shared-ride app Via. Following the pandemic situation, Via is now being used to transport supplies and personnel instead. 

The result? The company raised $200M in its latest funding round. 

Both of these examples how that no matter which field you’re in, you can always make a gain by adapting and playing to your strengths. 

SEO-Wise, what strategy should we use?

Keep a close eye on search trends and make adjustments to your targeted keywords

If you’ve been in the SEO game for a while, you should be familiar with Google Trends. If you don’t, now is the best time to start implementing Google Trends into your keyword research routine. 

Google Trends is a handy tool that shows you the search volume for certain search terms across a period of time. 

Here’s an example, “how to cut your own hair at home” starts getting a whole lot of attention after the United States started their social distancing effort. The popularity of this search term is absolutely explosive. 

If you already have a list of keywords in planning for your SEO or content marketing effort, you should take a step back and see if there are any other better keywords in this situation, that can generate more hype and social media shares instead. 

Google Trends is a good place to start. 

I read a blog that gives you an idea of what other keywords are gaining traction during the crisis and how you can use them as content ideas:
https://biq.cloud/blog/content-ideas-covid-19/

All you need to do is just have a rough guess of the keyword you want to target. 

Then, you get a set of more accurate keywords used by searchers at the Related Queries box.

There you have it, a set of related keywords that you can then build your content around. 

Monitor your website performance through rank + impressions

Another tip is this. 

Have you been keeping an eye on your keywords, rankings, and impressions in Google Search Console? If the answer is no, this is another free Google tool that you should start using today. 

Unlike the previous tip that helps you to curate a list of keywords to target, for this tip we’re focusing on monitoring the performance of the contents and web pages you already have. 

We want to focus on impressions. 

The official definition from Google is this.

Impressions: The number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user, not including paid Google Ads search impressions.

Now, what this means is that the more impressions you got, the more search volume and interest this search term is getting. 

By monitoring the impressions you’re getting for different URLs, you can get a hint of where the searcher’s focus is shifting to. If you’re getting a whole lot of impressions on pages that weren’t that popular before, you should start putting more effort into attracting clicks for those pages. 

That means working on your meta headline, description, and adjusting the page’s content itself. Make sure that it’s updated, easy to read and easy to be accessed. 

Read this case to understand how you can get better conversion: Secret about Meta Description that can Triple Your CTR.

Some Help for SEOs:

During these challenging times, many marketers and SEOs have stepped out to help businesses struggling with the severe consequences of the pandemic. 

To make it easier, we have compiled a list of previously paid online marketing and SEO courses that are now available for free

1. CXL – Digital Marketing as a Second Career

If you have been laid off, step one is to breathe. You have every right to feel stunned but it’s more important to get your last paycheck and move on. In this time of crisis and self-isolation, we recommend you to start building new skills and secure a new source of income online, behind a computer screen. 

To help with that new career, CXL Institute is offering their Growth Minidegree program for free that will teach you everything you need to know about digital analytics, conversion optimization, and digital psychology, all with a certificate.  

2. Free Access to the Blue Array Academy to Anybody

To help through these challenging times, Blue Array Academy has also opened up free access to their SEO Manager certification training program to everybody. All you gotta do is use the code “WeGotYouCovered”. 

This course covers proven SEO tactics and strategies from the team at Blue Array who has been doing SEO for decades. In total, there are 230 lessons and the full course worth €997 Iis now free up until June 2020, so better start early!

3. Moz Academy – Learn How to Do SEO Yourself

A second option for your future career is to be an SEO expert. Moz has made its Academy courses free for anybody, and all you gotta do is to use the promo “wegotthis” to sign up. 

The course covers all the essentials and basics of SEO including technical site audit and local SEO business strategies, and you will be given a Moz SEO Certificate upon completion which can be a strong addition to your resume. 

4. AHREFs – Blogging for Business Course

Given Ahrefs SEO campaigns that have been pretty successful in using content to increase their traffic from 126 to 121,000 unique visitors in under 6 months, it’s exciting that they are offering their blogging for business courses free.  

Learn how to blog and grow your monthly traffic as the course will teach you how to find great content ideas with high business values and how to optimize your article for a target keyword. 

5. The #COVID19 Conversion Rate Aid Package #COVIDCRAP

A few CRO specialists, including Arnout Hellemans and Raoul Doraiswamy are giving free actionable advice to help companies impacted by the COVID-19 crisis completely for free. 

Just hit them up on LinkedIn and they will give you  a 1-on-1 video or phone call to identify your conversion issues and give you suggested changes to fix them. Check it out. 

6. MarketersMEDIA – $1.5 Million PR Credit Grant

Out of sight means out of mind. Rather than cutting down on your marketing budget, you need to rethink how you can spend it smarter and prepare for the long haul. Resorting to cost-effective strategies, we thought of press releases, but we were surprised to find that MarketersMEDIA is offering a free First Tier press release credit to all small businesses. 

Claim yours today and you can send your business message to media outlets including AP News, USA Today, MarketWatch, Comtex and reach more than thousands of endpoints. 

Tips for working from home:

Working from home is not an option now, but a must. 

Navigating the workspace could be a challenge, but navigating work while maintaining productivity in your house, is a damn boss fight. 

Most of us here are completely new to working from home. For most of us, it’s been at least 3 weeks since we’ve started working from home.

Whether you are enjoying your time working at home with your loved ones or probably bored to death staring at the same 4 walls all day, these tips will work for you. 

Here are some tips for working from home. 

Tip #1: Have a dedicated workplace

This is our number one rule for productivity! You need to have a personal space with minimal distraction to work on your stuff. 

Working on your bed or in your living room may lead to lower productivity. You’ll be having a hard time staying focused. 

Your family members may initiate a conversation with you. Other than that, you may also be distracted by your pet and the TV playing.

Well, I’m not saying that you cannot have a chat with your family but you need some time for yourself during work hours. Find a room where you can be alone. When you’ve completed a certain task, go out there and take a deep breath. 

If you haven’t gotten a workplace for yourself, it’s never too late. 

To establish your workplace, evaluate your needs so you’re always equipped. Here are a few things you should have at your desk: 

I. Stationeries, including A4 papers

Ii. Water bottle, to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day

Iii. Jacket, to keep you warm

Iv. Some snacks

V. Hygiene kit like sanitisers, wet wipes, and tissues.

Vi. Chargers, to keep your devices powered.

Vii. Sufficient lighting.

You should start now. You’ll definitely see some improvement in productivity. 

Tip #2 Planning For The Month

We’ll never know exactly when the lockdown/ social distancing orders will come to an end. Therefore, it’s best if you can plan for the month. By planning, I mean creating a schedule and setting goals to be achieved. 

After all, you’ll be able to work additionally at home as your workstation is now situated there. So, take time out to plan for the additional time you have. 

As for your goals, consider using SMART criteria. They stand for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. 

This brings us to point #3. 

Tip #3 Create Healthy Boundaries 

Healthy boundaries are an essential part of self-care. 

Now, I know that most of us are hardworking over here. Working is pretty convenient now as we can just sit in front of our laptop anytime. But, you should learn to set healthy boundaries.

Learn to call it a day. You wouldn’t want to experience burnout as it may affect your productivity. For us, we’ll go out of our room once in a while to breathe some fresh air.

Tip #4 Eat Well

Food plays an important role in our lives. The food we take in is our source of energy. Eating right may just improve your mood as well as memory. 

At work, most of you probably grab a quick bite at a fast food restaurant and that’s it for the day. Now, you get to cook your own meal or even enjoy home-cooked meals which are very likely to be healthier. 

Tip #5 Remain Connected

An obstacle of working from home could be the lack of clarity when working on certain tasks. It can be difficult to track the progress and status of them. 

A good way to overcome this is to remain connected with your colleagues. If you’re unclear about anything, you can always give them a call through your office communicator like Slack. 

Not necessarily you need to talk to them about work, but you can also give them random calls just to have a quick catch-up. It’s definitely the best way to maintain your relationships.

Tip 6: Hosting Virtual Events on YouTube

Now, if you’re thinking of live streaming or hosting a virtual event, you can easily do so via YouTube. 

You may download Google’s guide here

Tip #7 Keep track of Wins

Without goals, you’ll never know if you’ve been productive enough.In regards to tip #2, you need to track your goals.  This is something we practice ourselves. Every Friday, we’ll have a quick meet up to share the wins among our team members. 

What exactly is a “win”? 

“Wins” to us is any project/tasks that’s completed and the impact we bring to the people. 

Why do we practice this?

We practice this for a few good reasons:

Reflection

It allows us to rethink what led us to this success and what we can learn from it and replicate.

Affirmation

It affirms the members involved and eventually acknowledges the skills, contribution, and efforts involved. 

Accountability

To those who were accountable, they’ll have a bigger sense of responsibility for the future projects.

Encouragement

By celebrating wins, every member feels appreciated for the hard work they’ve put on. Consequently, it motivates everyone to achieve more.

Therefore, safe to say, celebrating small wins will create a habit that may just lead to achieving greater results. 

Over to you. Are you using any of these tips? Do you have any other tips for us? If you do, feel free to share them in the comment sections down below.

That’s a Wrap…

We hope this small guide is helpful to you. Now let’s keep supporting each other so we can come out of this crisis stronger than ever. 

Meanwhile, check out some other guides we have. Now is the best time to improve yourself and be prepared for anything that might come. We’ll see you in the next blog post, take care! 

Complete Guide: Write Meta Description That Gets Massive Clicks

A guide you must have for writing a better meta description.
• Only 11 Easy Steps to follow (+ Detailed Example)
• Increase Click-Through Rate today with better meta description.
• Additional resources included: Tools and articles.

Updated: 7 November 2024