Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important investments at a time like this one. As the shift of activities from offline to online accelerate, optimisation of content is more critical now. Consumers have now turned to the internet to browse and shop for goods and services and to generally stay informed on issues that matter to them. You might be faced with the pressure of cutting down on your marketing budget when profits are low but with SEO, you can do more with less. SEO can provide you with insights on consumer behaviour that can help you to meet their fluctuating demands. It is a vital tool when it comes to protecting your brand, pivoting and positioning of products and services. For the survival of your business in times of volatility, SEO is the solution for creating the largest return on investment over time.

Here are some of the strategies you can employ to leverage search engine optimisation.

Improve Your Site’s Loading Time

One of the most essential SEO strategies is having a fast responding website. A website that keeps users waiting for it to load leads to an increase in the bounce rate. For a website to deliver great user experience, it needs to be responsive to web requests. A slow-loading website can cause prospective customers to lose interest in your business and further reduce the chances of your business’ web visibility on search engines.

You can modify your website’s load speed by minimising HTTP requests, optimizing image size and format, removing unused scripts, optimizing caching, and reducing cookie size.

Having a responsive website further boosts sales because customers spend more time interacting with your products.

Read on how we enhanced a website’s load speed through image optimization.

Update your Google My Business page

As a local SEO tactic, Google My Business (GMB) can help you maintain a strong brand identity. This is a free platform which allows business owners to share information about their business such hours of operation, contact number, website

address, business description and posts. This can boost your business’ visibility on google search and maps. Updating your Google My Business page in accordance with the new business environment brought about by COVID-19 will keep your customers in the loop.

Optimise your page by providing your customers with the latest information which includes: 

• New business hours
• Updates on available and unavailable stock
• Safety measures
• A post reflecting additional details to reflect any changes to your business.

Updating your GMB page with accurate information increases your page click-throughs and it enhances online presence.

Google recently launched new tools and strategies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to help businesses share essential updates with customers.

Update Keywords 

The keywords you used before the pandemic might not be relevant now. To stay abreast with popular searches and relevant topics, you need to adjust your keyword and analysis strategy. 

Appropriate use of keywords increases organic search traffic and helps your business to appear on search engines results pages. To increase your page visibility even further, update the keywords in your content, title tags, meta description and image attributes.

You can use google trends to monitor the current trends so that you create content in tandem with the fluctuating customer habits, thereby maximise audience reach.

Build Quality Backlink

Backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website. This occurs whenever an external website links to your content. Backlinks are a prime factor in helping your website rank better. When credible sites link to your website, its ranking is increased, so is visibility. 

To receive strong backlinks, you need to tailor your SEO strategy to incorporate tactics that focus on helping your website receive strong backlinks from authoritative companies. You can receive high-quality backlinks through increasing social media outreach, creating compelling content, creating guest posts and by using the broken link building method.

Expanding your network by making the most of backlink opportunities is one of the most effective ways to improve organic search results and get referral traffic.

When all this is over, businesses that will come out alright are those that are optimistic about protecting their brand even in these hard times. Investing in search engine optimisation will help position your business now and in the post-COVID economy.

Would you like to explore SEO opportunities for your business? We can help.