Essay: 2020 5 27 1590540440

As countries including the USA head into phased reopening, countless questions remain
about the business landscape ahead. Will changes in consumer behavior persist and if
so, to what degree? Is there a second wave coming that will derail recovery efforts and
send consumers back into lockdown? How can you plan for recovery when no one really
knows quite what “recovery” means?
In the face of such uncertainty, one thing is for sure, companies need to get in position
to gather and analyze data quickly—to be agile and respond to whatever twists and turns
Coronavirus throws our way next. Regardless of industry or location, that responsive,
adaptable strategy is going to rely heavily on ecommerce and SEO.
Ecommerce is suddenly a reality for millions of businesses who may not have had online
selling on their radar prior to COVID-19. In addition, while search optimization is a
discipline as old as search engines themselves, dramatic differences in consumer
behavior may require an entirely new approach to SEO going forward. In this report, we
will look at the current state of the economy and how businesses will need to adapt their
ecommerce and SEO strategy to succeed post-COVID-19 (whatever that may end up
looking like).
Consumer behavior and ecommerce: Present state
Fresh off an unprecedented leap of $8.5 billion in U.S. CPG (in-store and online) sales
during the first two weeks of March, conditions have quickly shifted once again. Panic
buying gave way to record-high ecommerce sales in mid-March, after which we saw a
week-over-week decline (-22%) in online sales between March 21-28. Overall, according
to Nielsen, U.S. ecommerce sales right now are above the rates of one year ago. CPG, in
particular, is soaring and up nearly 42% over the weekending April 4, 2019.
Consumers in most countries are cutting back on discretionary spending as optimism
for economic recovery has fallen. Groceries, household supplies, personal care, and
entertainment are among the categories in which consumers plan to maintain
spending. As of April 19, 32% of US respondents to a McKinsey survey were anticipating
a drop in their household income and over half expect the impact on their household
finances to persist for four months or more.
Kantar/Google research shows even greater pessimism and pegs 71% of consumers in
G7 countries as expecting Coronavirus will affect their income.
Online and phone ordering with contactless delivery or curbside pickup has become the
modus operandi for millions of businesses.
Businesses need to be able to listen closely to consumer fears, needs, and preferences
as they evolve. Customers may not be comfortable heading straight back into crowded
retail environments. Vacations closer to home may be preferred by many. Businesses
will be challenged to understand the customer experience as it’s happening and to
respond with optimizations in real-time to meet the individual’s needs.
In addition to this increased listening and awareness, consumers want to hear from the
companies with whom they choose to do business. Even prior to COVID-19, 64% of
consumers and 84% of business buyers expected companies to respond to them in realtime, according to Salesforce research. Right now, consumers are looking to brands for
guidance and expertise in solving the challenges they are experiencing navigating the
path to a new normal. The vast majority of consumers across sectors want to hear from
brands just as often or even more than before the Coronavirus pandemic.
How SEO will drive ecommerce success as the coronavirus pandemic evolves:
The relationship between ecommerce and SEO has become far more complex than how
you optimize product listings for search.
However, whether you are ecommerce first, selling online as a sideline, or now enabling
ordering and payment online with curbside or in-store pickup options, the insights
gleaned from SEO will power operations that are more effective across the board. Here
is why:
SEO provides real-time insight
Bright Edge (disclosure: a client company), back in 2019 surveyed a sample of over 200
digital marketers and found that over 86% of marketers stated the real-time research
is critical to success. Furthermore, SEO insights are being used in all manner of digital
marketing campaigns across paid search, video, email, and display.
Real-time search insights – especially now – enable us to tap into localized pockets of
demand and appear in front of customers with rapidly evolving needs and intent. SEO
insights, more than any other type of data, give us a clear line of sight into the voice of
the customer through search queries, interactions with local search results, site
analytics, and more.
SEO paves the way for both desktop and mobile experience
Consumers may not be searching for restaurants during the commute home from the
office right now, but that does not diminish the importance of mobile-friendliness,
especially when it comes to ecommerce. As Google itself says, when it comes to mobile
marketing, “speed is table stakes.”
Staying at home does not necessarily mean switching to desktop, particularly where
multiple family members may each be home and browsing on their own mobile device.
Consider switching to next-gen image formats like JPEG 2000 or Web for mobile, with
PNGs or JPEGs for desktop browsers. Look out for render-blocking resources, inefficient
code, unused CSS and other page speed or site speed issues that may be hindering your
performance. Use Google’s Test My Site as a starting point.
Search trends are key in staying on top of customer expectations
Who was even thinking about curbside pickup this time last year? Today, it is pretty much
expected that if you are open for business, you will provide this fulfilment option for
customers who are not comfortable entering your store (in some places, entering the
store may still be prohibited by public health regulatory agencies).
Those businesses that caught onto the trend in early to mid-March were ahead of the
groundswell in early April. Being among the first in your space to catch onto a massive
change in consumer demand such as this can help you win over new business and better
serve your existing customer base. Google Trends has a Coronavirus Trends resource
business should be keeping an eye on. These are helpful insights for marketing but could
influence operations, sales, and customer service, as well.
Search spans Google, Amazon, YouTube, and more
Organic search commands the largest proportion of channel share, accounting for 53.5%
of site traffic, on average. A comprehensive ecommerce SEO strategy accounts for
Google, but other product search opportunities, as well. Amazon, for one, cut back its
service to third-party sellers but as this comes back online, there may be opportunities
to expand your ecommerce presence in the world’s largest marketplace. Check out this
guide to improving rankings on Amazon to get you started.
Video search is another massive opportunity for companies now selling online,
as Nielsen reports video streaming is up 100% in some markets due to Coronavirus. Even
before lockdown, YouTube was both the world’s second-largest search engine and
second-most visited website.
YouTube SEO takes into consideration factors ranging from watch time and keyword
targeting to sentiment, engagement, channel authority and more. Learn more about
optimizing this channel in SEW’s YouTube Optimization: Complete Guide.
Post-COVID-19 SEO tips for ecommerce:
Whether you’re an experienced online seller or just transitioning to ecommerce as a
result of physical distancing, your customers may be entirely different from who they
were even three months ago. A few tips to help you get in front of the right people with
the right content:
Revisit your adherence to ecommerce SEO best practices. You may need to renew your
keyword research, update on-page optimizations to reflect changes in consumer
behavior. Reorganize your site structure and optimize for the new customer journey,
refresh and add new content (particularly around how you are responding to COVID-19-
related issues such as food safety or package handling).Ensure that you are monitoring
trends in real-time whilst planning for ease of lockdown restrictions, seasonal and
product demand. For example, above we can see large demand for products related to
how people now are investing in their dwellings, particularly, with spring here and
summer coming, and in outdoor spaces, it is important to seize opportunities where
demand is high and plan for future trends and new normal(s).
Optimize your ecommerce site for voice search
Make sure that you are positioned to trigger a response when consumers ask their voice
assistant for a product like yours. If you are not yet familiar with speak
able schema, there is a good primer here to help you get ready for it.
Automate SEO intelligently
Taking the legwork out of routine SEO tasks can make marketers more efficient, freeing
up valuable time for more creative optimizations and strategy. Of course, intelligent
automation can dramatically improve search performance, too, by recognizing and
optimizing for opportunities in real-time.
Consider your headless commerce and content options.
Make your products and content even more accessible, removing barriers to conversion
in the process, by incorporating headless commerce into your strategy. This is the
process of separating the front and back ends of your ecommerce application so you
can sell directly through social media, for example.
Most important of all is that you are set up to measure, analyze, and activate the mass
of user signals consumers are sharing with you across search interactions and your
ecommerce website. Whatever economic conditions and user preferences COVID-19
generates next, those businesses that are able to quickly understand and move on new
opportunities will win the day.