Given the current state of the world, a sound SEO strategy considers its target audience’s needs. Here’s how to make your pivots stick:
The past two and a half years have been marred by a pandemic, a war, political discord, and swinging economics.
If anything from all of this has taught us about SEO, it’s that even the most sound, successful techniques are open to revision.
SEO strategy and goals must take current events and news cycles into account, especially in sectors unrelated to global affairs.
Let’s examine the function of SEO in a volatile global environment and how marketers must reorient and adapt.
The Function Of SEO In Odd Times
One of the first lessons a new marketer picks up is that effective SEO should take into account users’ needs:
In the search terms, you’re aiming for your writing’s content and even the request you make in return from the user.
The fundamental goal of SEO is to create value by offering data pertinent to users’ searches.
That value is even more crucial when we’re experiencing severe upheaval, as we have for the previous 30 months.
Unless you’re selling toilet paper during a shortage, SEO methods focused on transactions will be much less successful than those that give the consumer the kind of helpful information that only your firm can provide.
For instance, rather than creating a landing page to express opinions on the conflict in Ukraine, a company that produces auto components should concentrate on solving supply-chain problems and solutions that affect its target audience of distributors.
Effect on Your SEO KPIs
The economy is impacting both B2B and B2C businesses differently.
While their target customers cut spending, tech companies are pressed for money or are under pressure from worried investors.
Retail and e-commerce businesses struggle due to constrained customer spending and rising product prices.
SEO KPIs must consider that people aren’t spending as freely as they were a year ago.
Although SEO conversion rate is and should be a KPI, other relevant benchmarks for optimization may exist.
Consider concentrating on more upper-to-middle funnel KPIs instead, such as:
- Traffic.
- Length of stay.
- Various touchpoints
- Percentage of repeat customers.
- The number of pages viewed.
These can accommodate a few tactics, including:
- They educate and entertain customers with helpful content until they are prepared to make another purchase.
- You may improve your sales funnel by adding material and information that reassures people they’re spending their money wisely if they decide to purchase your goods or service.
In this turbulent time, the one bright spot for SEO is that it may cover funnel holes created by shrinking paid media budgets.
So make sure you comprehensively understand your marketing team’s objectives and how SEO is expected to help.
Resources To Guide the SEO Pivots You Make
There are several instruments you may use to guide your strategic modifications and keep a constant eye on the macroeconomy and global trends.
Google Trends & Keyword Research Tools
Using Google Trends and keyword research tools, you may learn a lot about the topics and queries users are searching for — or aren’t searching for as much as they once did.
Internal data is crucial for assisting you in pivoting successfully.
Data From Paid Search
You can virtually access real-time data on user search activity by working with your paid search team.
Your paid search peers can provide information on keyword demand and whether their campaigns suddenly convert less (or more) without competitive adjustments.
This can be a sign that the customer experience is evolving.
Customers & Leads
Another excellent source of information is your current customer and lead database.
Subscription cancellations and slowdowns in repeat purchases are blazing red warning signs that the needs of your target audience are changing.
When you notice these indicators, consider sending surveys to get input on people’s priorities and wants so you can use that information to inform your keyword and content strategy. (Your product and marketing teams will value that information as well.)
Traffics & Impressions
Ensure that you are monitoring traffic and impressions.
Even if your rankings remain unchanged, if they are rising or falling, this suggests a broad movement in interest.
To ensure you’re taking everything into account, you should always cross-reference your data with Google Trends, explicitly searching for past trends, including seasonality.
Utilise These Channels to Make Speedy SEO Modifications
I advise against redesigning your branding and primary website assets to account for transient changes (although to be fair, the pandemic seems like an eternity).
Use a blog instead, or add one. It’s an excellent tool for swiftly adding new, pertinent information and upgrading timeless content to reflect current events.
A financial services company, one of my clients, published a blog post on how to apply for COVID-related loans and relief. It soon rose to the top of their list of most well-liked content.
It would help if you also discussed hot blog subjects on your social media channels. Just be careful to tailor the information to be more engaging and interactive.
How To Use Pivots To Gain Immediate Traction
It cannot be easy to wrap your mind around the idea of immediate benefits in a long-term channel. SEOs invest a lot of work in gaining credibility and trust, and over time, momentum grows.
Concentrating on long-tail, low-competition keywords to raise awareness of your business, increase authority, and generate more backlinks.
For example, you won’t rank for “supply chain” immediately, but you can gain ground with “why is there a supply chain shortage.”
Additionally, organic social media can offer quick input on popular subjects within your network.
A post that receives a lot of positive engagement on your social media networks indicates that you have discovered a subject that would benefit from further exploration.
Try methods like LinkedIn polls to uncover sentiment without hesitation. After that, add this information to your SEO program.
SEO campaigns can be created using the responses and information your audience gives you through organic social media.
Create a keyword list based on the subjects and responses from this pivot. These are excellent suggestions for creating new blog posts, how-to articles, or enhancing your current marketing sites.
Consider focusing more on more competitive, higher-volume phrases closely related to the long-tail terms you initially used if you start seeing results on those terms.
Final Thoughts
We must go back to the basics of what we do as SEOs and marketers and why this is all important in an era of global disruption.
We are here for more than just business and brand growth. We are here to assist users in locating excellent responses and solutions to their queries.
In situations like the one we’re in right now, what they need changes radically, and we need to adapt.
Assistance can be found at DMA Marketing where we aim for improvements and betterments, not primarily focusing on adaptations. This is how we improve.
