10 Ways SEO could be Helpful during the Pandemic COVID-19

SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization, which simply means optimising a webpage to appear higher and correctly on search engines. According to Wikipedia, Search engine optimization(SEO) is the process of growing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine. Web search engines identify any relevant information being searched online and rank them in order of their quality and relevance to the search made. This simply means that SEO increases a websites position on the search results page.
Covid-19 pandemic has threatened the world and even led almost all countries to a standstill. Heads of states and their citizens have all been subjected to a state of uncertainty with mortality rate rising each passing day and the cure not being found. With people staying at home, working from home or being quarantined and isolated, SEO can be helpful in different ways during this pandemic.
SEO can be used to provide true and useful information concerning the corona virus disease, its prevention and management. Many online fraudsters use the internet to mislead people by providing untrue or even biased information. SEO can also be used to provide unbiased results that deliver the information that people are looking for as quickly and as accurately as possible and so it could help to optimize and even put away any wrong information in order to avoid panic and other related consequences during this season of crisis.
SEO could be used to increase and improve the online form of business so as to avoid physical contact. SEO could help promote business websites especially for the essential services that might not reach the people who are highly affected.
SEO could help control what content is put out on search results pages. With almost every major activity such as learning, worship and even work being done online, it is important that minors are not exposed to unfriendly content such as suicidal games and pornographic content. It is best time for motivational websites & inspirational content creators to do strong SEO that can solve the problem & increase read through rate.
Being cheaper than many other campaigns, SEO could help business reach clients and the clients to also reach the most suitable service or commodity that they wish to get during this times that physical contact is limited.
SEO increases brand awareness. Whatever brand of commodity or service you are looking for online, SEO could help in guiding you to the best by bringing the best up first. Businesses can also make their services the best by thriving to be on the first page through building trust and credibility with clients.
With people working from home, SEO could help ease the access to information to improve how people work and the kind of information they need for their work.
Being a long term strategy to business improvement, SEO could help especially small businesses to be exposed to an unlimited market in this uncertain times.
By increasing traffic to a business website, SEO impacts the buying cycle by boosting sales of a business.
SEO brings new opportunities to light hence helping a business to understand the market that they are targeting. By surveying the best search engine results, a business will be able to understand what its targeted market is really interested in and how to go about it.
SEO helps provide a cheaper way for businesses to operate through website promotions despite having closed physical stores. Businesses can therefore keep running online and make profits to regain their previous status.
With the ability to identify and give all the relevant information, SEO is therefore in a good position to guide internet users to the right content that will be beneficial during these trying times by boosting businesses. SEO is good from business as well as users point of view if it is done ethically and with the right intent.

Jiten Thakkar is a Digital Marketing Consultant who specializes in SEO, paid ads, content marketing & growth hacking. He is the founder of Local Forever, a complete directory platform for local businesses that helps them in online presence, marketing and complete website creation. He has consulted various brands and business owners in multiple countries to guide them towards actionable result-oriented digital marketing strategies.