Ruined by a pandemic, war, political division and dizzying economies, the last two years have upended life as we know it.
If all of this has taught us anything in the world of SEO, it’s that even the most solid and effective strategies are subject to re-evaluation.
Even in industries that are not directly connected to world events, SEO strategies and goals must reflect the reality of the times and news cycles.
Let’s look at the role of SEO in a turbulent global landscape and how marketers must pivot and adjust.
The role of SEO in strange times
One of the first things a marketer learns is that good SEO should reflect people’s needs:
The keywords you are targeting. The content you are writing. Even what you ask the user in return.
The inherent purpose of SEO is to add value by providing information relevant to people’s searches.
When we are in a state of acute disruption, as we have been for the last 30 months or so, this value is even more imperative.
Transaction-focused SEO strategies (unless you’re selling toilet paper during a shortage) will be far less effective than SEO strategies that provide the user with useful information that your business is uniquely qualified to provide.
For example, a company that makes auto parts should focus on addressing supply chain issues and solutions that affect its target audience of dealers, not build a landing page to convey sentiments about war in Ukraine
Effects on your SEO KPIs
The economy is affecting B2B and B2C businesses in different ways right now.
Tech companies are scrambling for funding or under pressure from worried investors as their target audiences cut budgets.
Retail and e-commerce businesses are suffering from reduced consumer spending and higher costs of goods.
People aren’t throwing money around like they were a year ago, and SEO KPIs need to reflect that.
SEO conversion rate is, and should be, a KPI, but it may not be the most useful optimization benchmark right now.
Instead, consider focusing on higher to mid-funnel KPIs such as:
Traffic. Time on site. Number of touch points. Percentage of recurring visitors. Number of pages visited.
These can accommodate a couple of strategies, such as:
Encourage and engage users with valuable information until they are ready to spend again. Enhance your purchase funnel with content and information that reassures people that they are spending their money wisely if they take the leap to purchase your product or service.
The good thing about SEO in this period of disruption is that it can fill in the funnel gaps left by declining paid media budgets.
Thus, ensure a holistic view of your marketing team’s goals and how SEO is expected to contribute.
Resources to inform your SEO pivots
Aside from keeping a close eye on the macro economy and global trends, there are several tools you can use to inform your strategic adjustments.
Google Trends and keyword research tools
Google Trends and keyword research tools are extremely useful in helping you understand the topics and queries that users are searching for, or that they aren’t searching for as much as they did in the past.
Internal data also plays an important role in helping you pivot effectively.
Paid search data
Aligning with your paid search team can give you access to near-real-time insights into user search behavior.
Along with keyword demand information, your paid search partners can tell you if their campaigns are suddenly converting less (or more) without competitive changes.
This could be an indication that the customer journey is changing.
Customers and potential customers
Your existing base of customers and prospects is another great source of information.
Canceled subscriptions and slowdowns in repeat purchases are flashing red indicators that the needs of your target audience are changing.
When you see these signs, consider sending out surveys to gather feedback on their priorities and needs and incorporate that into your keyword and content strategy. (Your product and promotions teams will also appreciate this data.)
Traffic and impressions
Make sure you track traffic/impressions.
If they increase or decrease even though your ranking remains the same, this indicates a broad change in interest.
And always cross-reference your data with Google Trends, specifically looking for historical trends, including seasonality, to make sure you’re considering the whole picture.
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Use these channels to make quick SEO tweaks
I don’t recommend overhauling your brand and core site assets to address temporary changes (although, to be fair, the pandemic seems like forever).
Use or add a block instead. It’s a great tool for quickly adding new and relevant content and updating perennial content to fit the times.
One of my clients, a financial services company, posted an informative blog about applying for loans and grants related to COVID. It quickly became one of their most popular pieces of content.
You should also address high-performing blog topics on your social media channels. Just make sure you personalize the content to be more interactive and ask for engagement.
How to get instant traction with pivots
Getting the idea of quick results into a long-term channel can be challenging. SEOs spend a lot of time building authority and trust, and momentum builds over time.
I recommend focusing on long-tail, low-competition keywords to gain interest in your brand and increase authority and backlink volume.
For example, you won’t immediately start ranking for “supply chain,” but you can get traction on “why there’s a supply chain shortage.”
Organic social media can also provide quick feedback on topics that are resonating within your network.
If a post gets a lot of (constructive) engagement on your social channels, that’s a sign you’ve covered a topic that could benefit from a deeper dive.
Don’t be afraid to try things like LinkedIn polls to surface sentiment. Then feed this data into your SEO program.
What your audience responds to or provides you with on organic social media can be used to build SEO campaigns.
Take the topics and responses from this pivot and create a list of keywords around the topics. These are great instant ideas for writing a new blog or content guide or optimizing your existing marketing pages.
Once you begin to recognize progress in these terms, consider increasing your focus on more competitive, higher-volume terms that are closely related to the long-tail terms you first put into play.
wrapping
In a time of global disruption, we need to get back to the roots of what we do as SEOs and marketers and why it all matters.
We’re not just here to help brands and businesses grow. We are here to help searchers find high quality answers and solutions to what they need.
What they need changes dramatically in times like we are in right now, and we have to adjust accordingly.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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About the author
Adam Tanguay is head of SEO and content at Jordan Digital Marketingwhich he joined in February 2019. Previously Head of Marketing at Webflow and Head of Organic Growth at Weebly, Adam has developed successful growth programs with a combination of content strategy, copywriting, technical expertise and analytical acumen in a variety of organic channels.
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