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Your 2020 SEO Strategy: Adapting To The ‘New Normal’

Your 2020 SEO Strategy: Adapting To The ‘New Normal’

We’re three months into 2020, and all of a sudden, this unusual state of isolation and distancing has become the ‘new normal’.

People’s individual priorities have changed, and businesses are being forced to adapt to the negative economic impact that will result from your customers and clients changing their habits for the foreseeable future.

Any 2020 plans and initiatives that you’ve put in place will undoubtedly be called into question, so it’s worth re-visiting your SEO strategy in this rapidly changing environment.

In this blog, we aim to outline both short and long term SEO considerations as part of your building products company’s larger response to COVID-19. Understanding how you can adapt areas of your SEO strategy will be crucial in order to plan effectively against the impact of this virus.

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Short-Term SEO Considerations for Building Products and Construction

As it stands, construction and manufacturing are set to continue under the latest government guidelines. Whether that changes between me writing this now, and when this blog is published remains to be seen.

However, you need to be aware on what businesses are deemed ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’.

The likelihood is that your office space will be deemed as ‘non-essential’, meaning that you will already have plans in place for your staff to work remotely. In this event, we urge you to update your website, GMB profiles and other digital assets to accurately indicate the status of your physical location. This includes how your business will be available for the foreseeable future.

Adapting For Significant Shifts in Search Behaviours

Research from Worldata shows that web traffic is up 24%. This means that more of the population is online, for business and consumer purposes.

Your building product business should closely monitor organic search sessions, website performance and conversion numbers over the next few months, as well as historical reporting to factor in the impact of COVID-19.

What can we learn about people’s behaviours during this time?

If there’s anything positive to come out of this self-isolation, it’s the impact that it’s having on our environment.

Architects, specifiers and other decision makers within built projects will be more acutely aware of their environmental impact and will be seeking solutions that help to promote a low carbon footprint and a reduction in waste.

Similarly, hygiene and cleanliness will be high on the priority list when it comes to all future specification, highlighting the importance to promote your products as a safe, sanitary solution.

Your SEO strategy should reflect the significant shift in specification behaviour.

Long-Term SEO considerations

for Building Products and Construction

Whilst it’s difficult to look beyond the next few months, now is a great time for businesses within the building products and construction industry to work through efforts for future initiatives, ensuring that they’re best prepared for when the economic outlook begins to improve.

We suggest that you leverage the long-term nature of SEO to ensure that your website ranks well for high-volume high-competition keywords that are expected to peak in the fourth quarter of 2020.

For some building product companies, this could be getting ahead of the game for school refurbishments in preparation for the new academic year. Do you have your SEO-driven content in place to prepare for this?

For others involved in outdoor projects (roof gardens, for example), you may want to prepare your SEO strategy to reflect the inevitable demand for this once the weather starts to improve.

Whilst your building product business may see short-term losses in the next several months, future planning and optimisations for upcoming initiatives can ensure that your businesses are best positioned for when the economy is in an upswing.

Future Proof Your Business By Planning For Digital Transformation

Arguably, Covid-19’s biggest impact on the world is around social interaction and it’s impact on businesses and consumers.

Physical locations are closed for the immediate future, supply chains are disrupted and our general ability to go about our everyday life is significantly impacted. As a result, we suggest that you begin evaluating the digital transformation of your products and services.

Covid-19 has forced businesses to adapt their methods in the following ways:

  • Conferences and CPDs have shifted to digital video streams
  • Companies are re-evaluating how they reach customers during their time of social distancing
  • Companies are making technical content as easy to download as possible

Companies within building products and construction should use this as an opportunity to expedite their digital transformation to ensure long-term business health.

COVID-19’s Impact on Specific Areas of SEO

Look for opportunities to fine-tune your messaging around Covid-19 specifically. Consider the following areas and whether they  apply to your company:

Consider creating a Dedicated Coronavirus Page – If your services will be required to meet the new impact that Covid-19 is having, consider creating a dedicated page to capture all relevant Coronavirus traffic that can effectively link to key areas of your website, for example, product pages.

Develop More Video & YouTube Content – People are expected to spend more time at home, viewing YouTube and other streaming services. Consider developing more relevant video content, or repurpose what you have already got to get in front of your target audience.

Ensure FAQ Content is Updated Appropriately – Now is the time to evaluate your customer service and FAQ pages to determine if specific language should be updated or if new FAQs related to Coronavirus should be added.

Factor in Isolation and Social Distancing in Messaging – When writing any content or producing any messaging during this time, be mindful of the overall idea of social distancing. Why not consider some DIY topics around your product of service?

Include Cleaning and Care Instructions for Products –This can help to capture search traffic as people actively search for ways to clean certain products during this period.

Small tweaks in your content strategy will help you to be perceived as a thought-leader, adapting to this situation and future-proofing your business for the long-term.

Conclusion

Now is the time to adapt and change. Sadly, we can’t simply carry on doing what we did before. We hope you find these actions useful when considering your SEO strategy. If you’d like any further information on how you can adapt your SEO strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with an expert today.

Keep an eye out for our latest webinars, too, where we’ll be exploring, in depth, how you can adapt your digital marketing strategy to manage this ‘new normal’ that we’re becoming accustomed to.

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About Insynth

At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.

We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.

As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM ImplementationWeb DesignSales AutomationSEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.

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