COVID-19 has certainly turned the world upside down, and more so putting a lot of businesses in a tough spot. However ecommerce and related online companies could still safely operate where the brick and mortar stores like hypermarkets and walkin malls have had to temporarily close down. Though things may have changed quite rapidly, everything will return to normal or rather come to a new normal at some point.

Of biggest interest though are emeerging  ecommerce trends – both in terms of SEO and conversion, according to a recent research from Stackline, which has revealed that certain online retailers providing medical supplies, food, and fitness equipment have grown a considerable amount. Overall, total online retail traffic has declined by 9% since March 2020.

The latest research has revealed that  eCommerce conversion rates have only declined slightly, but the long term is looking truly promising once coronavirus is vanquished, this means that while waiting for when things will return to “normal”, online business owners must utilize this when things may be slowing down to prepare for Post-COVID-19.

It is thus the most opportune moment time to restructure and improve your online store’s SEO and content for an impending flood of virtual customers.

Lets show you where to start

1. Deep Technical SEO Audit of your website

Ecommerce business owners should be checking up their websites. A good technical SEO audit is one of the best ways to set yourself up for success once traffic rates pick up again. This includes

• Going through all aspects of your platform like your site’s structure, site mapping, tags, and content issues.
• Updating the internal linking structure for both mobile and desktop versions of your site.
• Identify any 404 link errors with a site crawler and deleting these pages if they are no longer relevant or fix them.

Use auditing tools like WooRank or SEMrush to check these technical SEO factors and alert you to areas that need work.

2. Mobile-Friendly First!… Optimize for Mobile-First Indexing

In early March 2020, Google announced that it will now switch to mobile-first indexing for all websites beginning in September.

This means Googlebot will prioritize your site’s performance on mobile devices before desktop – as the majority of users now interact on smartphones. If your ecommerce site is not fully tweaked for mobile-first, now is the time to do so.

First, make sure that Googlebot can properly access all of your website’s content by using the same meta robot tags on both your mobile and desktop site versions. Then ensure your mobile site contains the same content as your desktop version.

3. How about a Website Redesign

If you have not had a website design revamp, now may be a good time to rethink your eCommerce site design and layout to give your online store a new look post-pandemic.

This is clearly a major undertaking (and not completely necessary for everyone). If a redesign is something you have been considering, now is a good time to make it happen.

A redesign will take the following;

•   Improve the UX.
• Fix any complaints you have received from customers regarding the use of your website, such as trouble checking out or missing information on product pages.
• Consult your website metrics to measure the CTRs and bounce rates for various pages. T

Always remember that appearances can have a huge impact on the way that your brand is perceived, and can even make a customer trust (or distrust) your business.

If your pages simply appear outdated or the layout is confusing and clunky, it’s a good idea to adopt a more modern design while business is slow.

We have a web design package at YakoCloud, talk to us today

4. Keep Up Your Content Marketing to keep relevancy as a top priority.

Websites with a consistent flow of fresh content tend to have higher rankings and higher CTRs, thanks to Google’s Freshness Algorithm. During this time, a lot of online stores in declining categories will think about stopping their content efforts. But this can do more damage than you think.

If you work with a marketing agency, consider talking to them about your budget and see what you can afford.

But remember, great content usually has a major payoff in the long run, so it is certainly a worthy investment.

5. Revamp and Build Your Email Subscribers List

Building your subscriber list should be a top priority to generate leads that will be likely to convert after COVID-19. This helps you keep people engaged thus keep your brand at the forefront of their minds) even when sales are slowing down.

Your content in every email should be providing value that extends beyond sales and promotions.