The Affect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on SEO Trends

The Affect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on SEO Trends

The global reach of the COVID-19 pandemic is making an impact on every aspect of the digital marketing world, and SEO trends are not exempt from the changes brought on by COVID-19. Digital marketers have seen a shift in SEO trends. These are some of the current SEO trends that could influence digital marketing until the COVID-19 pandemic dies down.

SEO Trends during the COVID-19 pandemic 

Trends on the rise: 

Online shopping:

Instead of heading out to physical retail stores, consumers are now more likely to use online shopping to purchase goods and services. Click and collect options, delivery of shopping and purchase of digital vouchers to support small businesses are all included in the online shopping trend. This trend is rising as the pandemic becomes worse all across the globe and might positively influence the future of commerce, as many people are shopping online for the first time. If the experience is positive, customers may return to online shopping even when the pandemic has run its course. 

Essential products and services

Searches for essential products and services are rising daily, and consumers are searching for items that used to be reserved for smaller, niche markets. Personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves and hand sanitizers are becoming more popular as consumers try to keep themselves safe from infection. Local searches are becoming increasingly important because many governments are restricting travel, and people are starting to self-isolate, consumers will be looking for convenient, local options to solve their needs for products and services.

Health, hygiene and wellness information

With the rising awareness of the existence and dangers of COVID-19, consumers are searching for products, services and information to keep themselves safe from the pandemic. Rising search trends include the symptoms of COVID-19, how to prevent infection, methods of sanitizing your home, and reports on the global and local infection and death rates.

Recipes, food trends and nutrition

Due to restaurants and fast-food outlets being closed during the pandemic and stricter rules for movement being put in place, people are preparing food at home more often. Searches for recipes, meal ideas, nutritional information and tips on how to meal-prep and make ingredients last longer have been on the rise. Spending more time at home and having limited options for shopping for food items has necessitated a more creative approach to preparing meals, and online sources that supply this kind of information is seeing an increase in website traffic.

News

Most news outlets and news media companies are seeing a lot more traffic during the pandemic, but the increase in search traffic isn’t limited only to traditional news publishers. Independent creators are providing information related to the disease to consumers. A physician from Michigan posted a video on YouTube with recommendations on how to disinfect grocery items and got over 20 million views in a week.

Safe recreational activities

In areas where governments are allowing their citizens to move around freely while practicing social distancing, there has been a tremendous rise in searches for recreational activities that are relatively safe to practice such as hiking, camping, and renting video games.

Because facilities such as sports clubs and gyms are no longer freely accessible, at-home exercise equipment and home-based workouts are also becoming more popular. Due to the popularity of home-based fitness, independent creators are producing more content to address the rising trend and establish themselves as experts in the fitness market.

Declining trends 

Services and activities that require contact

While there is a massive rise in trends such as at-home fitness and other activities that allow social distancing, there has been a sharp fall in searches for activities that require people to congregate in large numbers or to be in close contact with others. Searches for amusements parks, movie tickets, bowling and concert tickets have dived. Professionals who provide a personal service such as hairdressers, nail technicians, and personal trainers are experiencing an all-time low in requests for their services and products.

Travel, hospitality and booking agencies

Due to the restriction on travel in most countries, many forms of travel and booking services do not see a lot of traffic during the pandemic. Industries that are experiencing devastating declines include travel agents, airline companies, hotels and other hospitality services.

Has your business been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Contact us for help with your SEO strategy.