The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the global economy, creating the necessary conditions for businesses to shift to the digital environment. Some individuals capitalised on these challenges and opportunities, becoming tycoons, while others faced bankruptcy. COVID-19, along with lockdowns and social distancing, became a game changer, altering the dynamics of how customers purchase products and directly boosting e-commerce. In this article, Waleed Najam, a successful digital marketing practitioner and the Founder of Rankistan, explains how he leveraged SEO traffic in the current toughest conditions to build up scalable opportunities for businesses.
A boom of traffic was enjoyed by those who leveraged SEO beforehand in their marketing and customer acquisition strategies. As SEO does take time to build authority in search engines, an instant approach was not as result-oriented compared to those who already had SEO in place. Let’s dive deep into analysing the factors and challenges in SEO with eCommerce.
How COVID-19 Transformed E-commerce: Challenges and Opportunities
Surge in Online Shopping
The pandemic triggered a massive shift towards online shopping, as consumers flocked to e-commerce platforms for everything from essentials to non-essentials. According to the 2020 ARTS release, e-commerce sales skyrocketed by 43% in just the first year of the pandemic, reaching $815.4 billion. This rapid shift presented both opportunities and challenges for businesses, as they needed to stand out in an increasingly crowded digital marketplace while adapting to rapidly changing consumer preferences.
Supply Chain Disruptions
Global disruptions of the supply chain were a challenge that affected e-commerce business operations. Surveys conducted by the World Bank revealed that around a quarter of companies experienced a dramatic 50% drop in sales compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, these challenges were surmounted by the e-commerce industry, which adopted aspects of digital technologies as well as strategic innovations, thereby becoming out vibrant and elastic.
The Role of SEO During the Pandemic
While SEO has always been crucial in digital marketing, the pandemic increased its significance. Waleed shares why:
Increased Online Searches
As more individuals turned their focus to online shopping, the number of search queries entered about various products and services increased significantly. To take advantage of the generated traffic for businesses, they required optimum website promotion. Companies could become much more visible on the web by applying popular search terms and
keywords identified in the study.
Google Trends was easy to use and supplied business people with real-time trendy search terms that helped to distinguish them from competitors, while Ahrefs and SEMrush gave real-time statistics on search patterns. Including these trending keywords in content and updating it so frequently made websites active and seen more often in the search results.
Trust and Credibility
It was possible to guarantee high SERPs for products, which helped to earn new shoppers’ trust in the sellers online. It showed that customers had confidence in buying from websites that rank at the top of search rankings, hence emphasising the need to apply SEO to boost customers confidence. To increase credibility, Waleed Najam suggests employing user reviews, product schema, organisation schema, and a complete website hierarchy, which are very important in SEO rankings. Focusing more on the issues of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in content also helped to improve the results of research rankings and customers’ trust.
Identifying the Niche Market and Finding the Gap
During the pandemic, market niche and market gap identification became major decisions. Waleed Najam also emphasises the need to identify those categories for which competitors are not particularly focused and start targeting particular customer requirements more effectively. Some of the benefits that could have been derived from such a development agenda included better positioning as key service providers in neglected markets to offer custom solutions that can make their websites more relevant in search results, hence better positioned to face competition from the many e-commerce services already developed.
Not just the services part but jumping into the niche products market, where there is demand but not many people are capitalising on it. That’s the best thing to work on when it comes to SEO with e-commerce.
Creating Engaging Content
Due to the pandemic, there was a necessity to approach the generation of content that is engaging, adequate, and appropriate. Waleed specifically used user-generated content in his social media to capture the attention of audiences and create trust. With factual articles, guidelines, and reviews that transformed to answer the question that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to businesses, they could also lure visitors through credibility. By this period, efficiency and the actual consumer’s benefit were the key factors in successful SEO techniques.
Establishing Authority
Leveraging search engines, whether it be Google, Bing, Yandex, etc, can help in gaining authority. As customers trust more on websites that are organically ranking on the SERP,. Even Waleed noticed a significant increase in CTR of his campaigns once his websites started ranking for the search terms.
Working on Semantic Entities
The use of semantic entities in SEO thus became even more important. Semantic SEO deals with not only the keywords used by a user but their context and purpose and enables businesses to offer users better results. Regarding information retrieval by using semantic keywords and sd, the presence of a company could be enhanced in SERPs. It allows for more diverse searches that users type into the search bars, enabling companies to adapt to the information demand. Thus, the companies recorded an increase in the level of interactions and sales.
Why Organic SEO Outperforms Paid Google Search Campaigns
Although there are pros and cons of having both organic SEO and paid search campaigns, organic SEO seems to have bigger opportunities in the long run, especially during the pandemic. Organic SEO is preferred by Waleed Najam since it is favourable to have consistent traffic and visibility of a website without necessarily incurring expenses on constant paid campaigns. Perhaps the principal advantage is the enhancement of the technical performance of the site offered by the evaluation. Some of the common activities that characterise Organic SEO include optimising of webpage loading rate, making the website more friendly to mobile phones, and making the designs of site more efficient, all of which warrants a better low-price ranking and a pleasant users’ experience.
Thirdly, organic SEO is an effective long-term solution that supports the gradual increase in domain authority and customer trust through content and backlinks, which are not primary objectives of paid campaigns. Even though paid search campaigns can yield quick results, these types of campaigns have to be funded all of the time, and in the long run, they can explode into a rather expensive proposition. The positive effects of organic SEO are more continuous, resulting in more constant presence of the website and significantly higher ROI compared to using PPC.
Key SEO Strategies Leveraged During COVID-19
Keyword Research and Optimisation
Identifying and targeting pandemic-related keywords such as “contactless delivery,” “home office essentials,” and “COVID-19 safety products” became crucial. Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner helped businesses find trending keywords reflecting their target audience’s concerns. Frequent keyword assessments ensured strategies remained aligned with changing search trends. Long-tail keywords, which are more focused phrases capturing specific search intents, proved highly effective. Tools like Ubersuggest helped identify suitable long-tail keywords, improving relevancy and attracting targeted visitors.
Content Marketing
1. Informative Content: Producing high-quality, educational content addressing pandemic-related issues was important. Trust was established and value was added by articles on safe procedures, remote working advice, hygiene, and mental wellness during lockdowns. Regular content updates and publications were made simple by content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress.
2. Product Guides and Reviews: Creating thorough product reviews and guidance helped customers make wise choices. Emphasising the characteristics, advantages, and unique selling propositions of products builds trust. Reviews using structured data were more visible in search results and might even receive rich snippets. Including user-generated ratings and content increases legitimacy and social proof. Tools like Yotpo and Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper make this process more efficient.
Local SEO
Ensuring your Google My Business (GMB) listing was accurate, up-to-date, and contained current information about store hours, contact details, and safety precautions was critical. Visibility and trust were increased by consistent updates and customer interaction via GMB posts. Positive evaluations from pleased clients had a big influence on local search results. Focusing on local keywords to draw in clients in the area for services like kerbside pickup and local delivery was essential. Using geo-specific words like “same-day delivery” increased local search visibility.
User Experience (UX)
1. Easy Navigation: Improving website navigation to make it easier and faster for customers to find things was key. A search bar, clear categories, and filters all enhanced the user experience. A well-designed website reduces bounce rates and increases user retention. To help discover areas for development, user behaviour analytics tools such as Hotjar and Crazy Egg provided heatmaps and insights into how visitors interacted with the website. Good search capabilities and sensible product arrangements made it easy for customers to locate what they wanted.
2. Fast Loading Times: Optimising website speed to lower bounce rates and raise user satisfaction was essential. Slow loading times could irritate users and increase bounce rates. Sources like GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights provided insightful data to enhance website performance. Compressing images with programmes like ImageOptim or TinyPNG reduces size without sacrificing quality. Minimising CSS and JavaScript files with different programmes and using content delivery networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare, which distributes content worldwide, further cut down on load times.
Long-term Impact
The pandemic’s SEO strategies have had a long-lasting effect on online sales. Companies that invested in SEO at this time are still benefiting from consistent traffic and client interaction. Due to the necessity of switching to digital channels due to the pandemic, the way customers interact with businesses has fundamentally altered, making SEO an essential instrument for long-term success.
Waleed Najam’s insights underscore the lasting impact of the SEO practices adopted during the pandemic on e-commerce. Businesses that invested in SEO during this period continue to reap the benefits in terms of sustained traffic and customer engagement. Overall, the shift to digital channels, driven by the necessity of the pandemic, has fundamentally changed how consumers interact with businesses, making SEO an indispensable tool for long-term success.
