Improving your SEO in the lockdown, and it’s all free!

In these troubling times, there are few silver linings to be found, let alone if you’re running a business. However, you may find you currently have a lot of time on your hands wondering how your business will survive. Or you may be thinking with all this time on your hands what you can do to come out of this stronger and more resilient. In fact, this way of thinking has even got its own new term – SurThrival.

This is where there may be an opportunity that rarely affords in normal business life.  Instead of working in your business, you have got a unique opportunity to work on your business. There is some space for you to reflect on what is important about your business and to consider how, or even whether, this is reflected in your website.

The challenges

Given the current economic conditions, a lot of businesses are having to rethink their entire business models. Many are trying to determine how they can make their businesses work whilst taking into account large numbers of staff being furloughed, social distancing measures and physical premises not being open. These are huge obstacles and I’m not for one minute suggesting that having a greater online presence or functionality will magically solve these issues, though it may in part assist with your solutions to your ongoing business survival.

The opportunity

In a recent study (of admittedly of US consumers) reported ‘1 in 3 consumers indicate news of Coronavirus has already impacted their shopping behavior. The impact is felt in several ways including… purchasing products they wouldn’t otherwise have purchased, shopping online when they would usually shop in-store, and shopping in new stores.’ In addition, of those ‘...who claim their shopping behavior was impacted, 1 in 4 consumers with confirmed in-store purchases between March 1 and March 9 indicated they were replacing in-store shopping trips with online.’

This isn’t limited to just B2C markets. In a recent McKinsey study by McKinsey of UK B2B decision-makers have found a ‘Preference for digital now ~2X more than traditional sales interactions; self-serve, digital ordering methods now preferred, eg, mobile app ordering up ~50 percent.’ In fact, the ‘new normal may well become the sustained way of doing business well after the lockdown. In the same study. ‘ 97 percent of B2B companies have shifted their GoToMarket model during COVID-19; 58 percent believe the new model is just as effective or more so than before‘, further ‘22 percent are “very likely” to sustain these shifts 12+ months after COVID-19 and another 52 percent are “somewhat likely” to do so.’

So it appears that more and more people are online and forming their decisions through their online research and evaluations it seems reasonable to assume there will be more and more (of the existing sales) opportunities will be found online.  This being the case, it worthwhile taking a long hard look at how you appear online and what you can do to improve and maximize your availability to this new landscape.

The offer

It’s hard to distinguish how to move your website forward, even when given time for reflection. It can often help to discuss your challenges, both online and in general. I’m offering a free 30 minute consultation along with an hour’s prep work at my end to undertake a summary view of how your website is helping, or hindering, you to move forward post lockdown. Feel free to contact me at my contact form below and pop in some details for me to get started with and if you can let me know a time that’s convenient to talk then I’ll get back to you.