As COVID-19 continues to institute a new normal in our lives, businesses need to adjust digitally to their clients’ changing online habits. While it seems that consumer behavior is more unpredictable than ever, most digital platforms have released enhancements to make it easier for content to be found during these unprecedented times.

Below we have added tips that are relevant to Technical, SEO, and PPC areas. These can help your business improve digitally through this period of uncertainty with COVID-19.

Technical: COVID-19 Banners from Google Optimize

In late April, Google’s Optimize team introduced a new feature that allows a banner to be shown at the top of a page to display important changes or information. You can add a banner without using HTML, making this a convenient and easy option to enhance user experience.

Because of the shifting situations from COVID-19, the organization wanted to produce a feature that makes things easier for businesses. This tool helps:

  • Provide relevant info such as different hours or procedures.
  • Cover all pages of your website or just specific ones.
  • Link to your page that has information on COVID-19 policies, such as wearing a mask in a store.

If you have a business with relevant COVID-19 changes or your state’s regulations are shifting, you may want to implement this tool. For more information on this specific function, Google has a handy how-to article to help you get started.

SEO: Schema for COVID-19

While this structure is still in beta, there is a schema for COVID-19 called “special announcements.” This gives Google more information in order to read your page effectively and helps your page show for rich snippets. It will help your COVID-19 page show more prominently in SERPs for users searching for info regarding your business.

There are multiple ways to use this schema for your related page. For instance:

  • Hospitals can add a property with info about getting tested for COVID-19.
  • Local businesses can use the special announcement schema for new updates and guidelines that may be continually developing from openings or restrictions.
  • Schools can use this schema to provide details about upcoming or current closures.

If you want to implement the schema, Google has a specific article on implementation here, and schema.org has a list of more fields if necessary.

Please note, schema does require advanced technical SEO knowledge and can be difficult to implement. WTM Digital’s experienced SEO team can guide you through the process of using schema. Learn more about our SEO services here.

PPC: Negative Keywords Related to COVID-19

When users search for terms related to COVID-19 such as “coronavirus”, many of them are related to origins, updates, or symptoms. These are usually not beneficial to companies doing paid advertising because there is an extremely low chance of converting.

Due to this, we suggest putting COVID-19 keywords into a negative keyword list and applying it to all paid campaigns. The benefits from this are it will:

  • Prevent these words from triggering your ads
  • Help show your ad to a more relevant audience.
  • Save money by preventing unnecessary clicks.

If you have questions and want to read up on this PPC tactic, you can find out more from our blog post on negative keywords.

Even though things are different because of COVID-19, we can all still adapt and make our businesses better in order to thrive. If you need assistance with the digital aspect of your company, contact us to discuss your marketing needs. We can help you modify your digital strategy in response to COVID-19.