With the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns taking place across the globe, people are adapting to their new stay-at-home lifestyles. This is reflected in the search terms that are becoming more popular and the products that are receiving more attention online (*cough* formal pajamas *cough*).
While some of the product search trends might come as no surprise thanks to Covid-19, you should be thinking about what these trends mean for your products and marketing. Some of these search trends might change once the pandemic subsides, but others might last beyond it and for years to come.
In this article, we round up some of the popular search trends that have emerged due to Covid-19.
Comfort Terms
With people needing to stay at home so much more due to Covid-19, the search terms for comfort items have increased. Lounge and leisure wear searches have increased exponentially, especially in South Africa now that we are entering the winter season. Candles and pajamas are two other search terms that have risen in popularity, showing that people are moving toward making their homes more comfortable and welcoming. For clothing industries, this could mean a move towards offering a more comfortable clothing range or towards providing larger sizes for a better fit.
Health And Wellness Terms
An obvious group of search terms that have seen an increase in search volume are those relating to health and wellness issues. Some of the search terms that have been rising in volume include “symptoms” and “treatments”, as well as “air purifiers” and “hand sanitisers”. For those in the industry, you should look at increasing your stock of these items or creating content using these terms to drive traffic to your website. Be sure not to spread false information simply for the sake of using search terms.
Creativity Terms
With people being stuck indoors due to Covid-19, it stands to reason that more and more people will eb searching for creative ways to spend their time. Some of the terms that have been searched for include “camera drones”, “gaming laptops”, “musical instruments”, and recipes. In the retail sector, you could look at these terms and use them to stock your store, encouraging people to interact with your brand and make purchases from your online store. You can also create content outlining how to use these items in order to improve your ranking for these terms.
Productivity Terms
With more and more people working from home due to the lockdown and Covid-19, productivity search terms have increased significantly. Some of these terms include “video conferencing”, “office chairs”, “laptops”, and “graphics tablets”. The electronics industry will certainly see more e-commerce coming their way, and if you are part of this industry, you should look into stocking these products. You should also ensure that your website runs smoothly and that it does not crash if there is a large volume of traffic for a certain item or items. Optimise your website for these keywords, too.
Household Terms
Household search terms have also seen an increase in search volume, especially those revolving around the kitchen. A few search terms that are unique and which could be considered as trends include “dalgona coffee” and “banana bread”; these are fads which may not last for a long time but which surged in popularity at some points of the Covid-19 and lockdown period. However, household utensils terms can still be useful for online retailers looking to bring in more customers and traffic.
How To Use These For Your Brand
Trending search terms can be used to improve your online visibility and drive more targeted traffic to your website. If you use these terms effectively and update your digital marketing strategy, you will soon find your brand’s SEO ranking improving and online presence improving.
- Update Business Information: One way to effectively use keywords without having to completely overhaul your website’s SEO is to update your Google Business Listing using the relevant popular keywords in your description. Also update your hours according to the Covid-19 lockdown and be sure to change your product description on the listing to contain updated keywords.
- Soup Up Your SEO: While you do not need to change every meta description on your website to match these search terms, you can do so on your most popular items so that they appear in search engine results. Alternatively, you could create content using these keywords, such as how to articles for working from home or even creating recipes using kitchen equipment you sell.
- Create Targeted Ads: If you use Google Ads as part of your SEO strategy, you can make use of the search terms that relate to your industry to create targeted ads. For example, an online computer store could create targeted ads for those working from home, focusing on their range of affordable laptops. You can continue these ads well past the end of the Covid-19 period as working from home becomes the new norm.
If you would like an improved digital marketing strategy for your business during these uncertain times, feel free to contact NetMechanic today to find out how we can help you.