COVID-19 has turned a lot about our lives upside down. The way we do just about everything has changed and continues to change as we navigate through this new reality. If you’re a small business owner, one of the biggest changes shocking your world (next to forced closings) are changes in consumer behaviour.

Research company McKinsey & Company has identified five key themes emerging in consumers around the world:

Shift to value and essentials
Flight to digital and omnichannel
Shock to loyalty
Health and “caring” economy
Homebody economy

You can read more about their research here, but I for the purpose of this post, I want to focus on just a few of the highlights:

21% of US consumers are doing more research on a brand or product before purchasing
Most industries have seen more than 10% growth in their online customer base and most people plan to continue to make a portion of their purchases online post COVID-19
75% of US consumers have tried a new brand, retailer, or method of shopping

For me, that points to the fact that businesses, especially local businesses, need to focus on their online presence now more than ever. If you aren’t showing up when your prospective – or even existing – customers are searching online, who is?

The good news is that there are some simple SEO activities you can undertake right now to improve your online presence and increase the chances that people who need what you provide will find you when they search.

1 Optimize Google My Business

Go to Google’s Free Listing Page: https://www.google.com/business and identify your business by finding it on the map or adding it for free
Confirm your identity – they will either call you or send you a letter
Double-check your details to make sure that the right category and subcategories are chosen and make note of the exact way your business name, address

Read more on optimizing your GMB profile in this post.

2 Get Markup Right

Simply visit Schema.org’s Local Business NAP generator and fill in the blanks
The tool will produce the HTML code you need to add to your site in place of your current address

3 Clean Up Citations

Citations are simply places on the web that reference your business. They could be directories or other websites mentioning you.
Using a tool like BrightLocal, look for inconsistent citations and ask the site owner to make any corrections.
Basically, you want your name, address, phone number, and other business information to be consistent across the web to avoid sending Google mixed signals.

4 Create Local Content

Include detailed information about your local area/service area in your online content.
Post about local events. Use your blog to talk about the community, customers, and employees.

5 Focus on Reviews

Set a goal of obtaining at least 5 Google reviews (the number that Google requires to display the review stars as a highlighting feature of local results)
Make it as easy as possible for your happy customers to log in to the sites that matter and leave a review
Repurpose reviews in email newsletters, on your site, or in local display

Taking steps like these will help improve your local SEO rankings and that means more potential customers finding your business. Try our SEO Booster Pack and supercharge your search engine rankings.

If you’d like to make a big difference to your online presence, try our Total Online Presence Audit and we’ll tell you exactly what’s working and what you should focus on to improve.

I hope you are weathering this pandemic and wish you all the best. Stay safe.