6 SEO Tips for Improving Your Website During COVID-19

Luka Štular02.04.2020Marketing

If your company doesn’t produce hand sanitisers, protective masks or toilet paper, there’s a high chance that you currently have one question on your mind: How to keep your business afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic and reach for the stars again when the crisis is over? Those that have shifted their focus towards online activities are definitely on the right way to success. However, getting back on your feet is much easier if you go a step further.

This article explains how search engine optimization can help you stabilise your business, enabling you to attract online attention and win new customers – even on a limited budget!

Cutting business costs? Just don’t overdo it!

While days are getting longer and warmer, global markets are bracing for a harsh winter. Understandably, many companies are rushing to reduce their expenses while experts warn from tightening the budget too much, especially in areas like digital marketing. If the last major financial crisis has taught us anything, it’s that companies that didn’t give up on their marketing activities were much quicker to get back on their feet.

And as the online world is shaping our lives more profoundly than ever, businesses that aim high should not leave this arena. Instead, they should use strategies such as SEO to make their presence known. Search engine optimization might be the last thing on many a business owner’s mind right now, but giving up on rankings and organic traffic is a surefire way of letting the more agile competitors take over your customers.

And why SEO?

Search engine optimization is a process of strategically using online content, improving the user experience and implementing technical solutions to help a website rank higher among search results. Its aim is to help the site attract a wider online audience, thus improving its organic traffic.

In the time when shopping online is the only way one can buy non-essential products, it’s vital that internet users find your website among the first search results. And now is the key moment to make this happen!

1. Gain online visibility and boost your brand

Even though online users have more time on their hands than usual, they probably still won’t waste it by checking several search result pages to get what they need. And why would they if one can usually find what they’re looking for among the top results? Being one of the first online choices for searchers is therefore vital if you want to stay in the game.

And if you’ve been hesitant about reaching new heights in Google search, it’s high time you rethink this strategy. Since so many companies are moving their activities online, your niche might soon get filled with several new players. Occupying the most visible positions in the growing online crowd will send the searchers a signal that you’re a trustworthy and already established name in the business. Therefore, being first will not only get you more clients but also build your brand reputation in the long run.

SEO is a great way of building a brand on a budget.

2. Even a small investment can have a big impact

While online advertising, especially in more competitive markets, might require a bigger budget, search engine optimization can prove itself as a cost-effective alternative, providing great long-term results while reducing overall costs.

If you nail your SEO strategy right from the start, you can boost your site’s domain authority, which makes it easier to stay above the competition for a longer period of time, even if you reduce your optimisation budget later. What is more, even seemingly small changes (which may only require you to invest some time), for example changing the keywords, upgrading your content or optimising the images, can significantly boost your ranking game.

3. Search engine optimisation is a long-term strategy

Contrary to online advertising, which is all about quick results, SEO needs some time before the real effects start to show. But don’t think of this as a downside. Currently, many businesses still have enough orders or projects to keep their heads above water. But the situation might change in a few weeks’ or months’ time. If you roll up your sleeves today, your SEO work can save you in the long run, providing more online exposure when you need it most.

4. You can even do it yourself!

Search engine optimization involves many small tasks that you need almost no help with. Once a SEO specialist has shown you the ropes, you can take over and save some money in the process. In many cases, the only thing you need is time. And we don’t think this will be a problem at the moment. :)

You can use some extra time in self-isolation to prepare a good content strategy, add a paragraph or two to your most important content or do a technical check-up of your site. Keep reading to learn some useful tips and tricks.

How to optimise your website during the crisis?

Make the most of the time in self-isolation to improve your website and reach new customers – both during and after the pandemic. If you haven’t exactly prioritised SEO until now, you’ll probably need an optimisation specialist to get started.

You can integrate SEO in a broader online marketing strategy, combining several approaches for the best possible impact.

Here at Optiweb, we usually start our work by thoroughly analysing the client’s website, focussing on key advantages and disadvantages to prepare a list of improvement suggestions. While the implementation of some fixes requires professional assistance, others are easy to apply without any help.

1. Find the best keywords and refresh your content

Quality content that provides relevant information to searchers is becoming a cornerstone of search engine optimization. Google wants happy users, which means it must serve them with pages that match their search intent.

The crisis brought us many new keywords and caused a spike in traffic for several others …

SL-popularne-kljucne-besede-med-pandemijo

This is why finding the perfect keywords for your niche and using those to improve the texts on your site could be your shortcut to online success. To see what phrases or words people use to search for products or services, you can use some free tools like Ubersuggest or resort to more feature-rich paid programs like Ahrefs or SEMrush.

If you want to optimize the content, it’s best to focus on the most visited subpages. In the case of online shops, this means that working on category and product pages is the best way to go. Adding some useful articles to your blog is also a smart move as these can bring you additional organic traffic while establishing your site as a quality source of information. As people have so many questions in these uncertain times, offering trustworthy content might be one of your key advantages.

A comparison between the number of clicks and impressions for 2018 and 2019 that showcases what a difference a strategic blog optimization can make.

2. Improve your site’s loading times

If your website is slow to load, the visitors might simply give up and choose your competitors instead. This is why you should use Google’s own tool PageSpeed Insights to check up how fast the desktop and mobile versions of the site open.

PageSpeed Insights shows a speed test result while also providing improvement tips.

If the testing returns a bad result, one of the things you can do on your own is checking the size and resolution of image files. These are often too large (for example, when using a large file for a thumbnail), which means you need to lower their resolution and compress the files. One of the tools that can help you achieve this is TinyPNG.

Speeding up your site is of great importance during the time when some wifi networks are under heavy load.

3. Spring cleaning – SEO style!

Especially if your site wasn’t created yesterday, we’re sure there is some content that you created a long time ago and then deleted when it wasn’t relevant anymore. Pages like this can still be in Google’s index, which means they can be displayed in search results.

SEMrush is also a very useful tool for technical analyses, discovering issues such as 404 warnings.

However, when a searcher clicks on such a result, a 404 page opens, notifying them that the page they’re looking for does not exist. In order to prevent such inconveniences, it’s wise to redirect old results to existing pages, which keeps visitors on your site.

And while you’re at it, checking up on your site’s metadata and optimizing it won’t hurt your rankings either. Take a look at the meta titles and meta descriptions that represent your pages among search results. Log into your content management system, check each important page for its metadata and add the text where it’s missing.

When preparing meta descriptions, try to make a unique one for every page. Also try to make them attractive while also including relevant keywords. Make sure you don’t exceed the character limit of 156 words.

4. Optimize your Google My Business listing

Google My Business listings (data shown next to search results for keywords associated with your business) enables searchers to obtain the basic information about your company even before they actually visit your website.

If you’ve been forced to close your physical stores due to emergency measures, use the Google My Business listing to let the searchers know. This is also a great way to emphasize that you’re still available to them via email or phone. Double-check if the numbers and email addresses added to your listing are correct so that the clients can actually reach you. Read our separate article on how to optimize Google My Business during the COVID-19 crisis and make the most out of this tool.

Make the most of Google My Business and let searchers know when and how you are available.

5. Build relationships and backlinks

Despite the fact that self-isolation is one of the main keywords in the current situation, you shouldn’t give up on networking. And if you’re expanding your network online, don’t forget about the backlink opportunities. These act as a signal to Google that your online content is trustworthy and reputable.

Ask your new or existing business partners if they can add your site’s link to their page, thus contributing to its online authority. You can even take some time to write a PR article with one or more links to your site. Of course, if partners help you with link-building, make sure to return the favour whenever possible.

6. Use analytics data to discover hidden opportunities

Now is the time to unleash the power of advanced analytics. Use the fine metrics to determine your target audience, find out which pages are the most popular or discover which keywords bring you the most organic traffic. You might be surprised by discovering an opportunity you haven’t thought of before! Using analytics, you will base your SEO strategy on real data and realistic predictions, thus making your optimisation investments worthwhile.

P.S. And if you’re looking for some help or need more information before embarking or your SEO journey, we’ll be more than happy to lead the way! Contact us and find out how we can help you make your site stand out on Google. :)

Luka Štular

Content Marketing Specialist

Merging my SEO and content marketing knowledge with my passion for copywriting, I am constantly analysing search trends to find the most popular keywords and package them in stories that inform, help, entertain, promote, attract attention, and, of course, sell.