Are You Asteroid Level?
This is one of the questions I always ask potential businesses that I might invest in or become part of. For me and what Soderman SEO does, aside from wanting to know the level of competitiveness in organic search, the survivability of the business model is the next up.
If i’m going to put my time and resources into a business, it’s vitally important to know how easily it can be wiped out due to a new regulation, technology, {cough} virus, etc.
Most business I’m invested in have always hit the “asteroid” level. Meaning, it would take an asteroid hitting earth to eliminate the need for the specific product/service.
Well, looks like I’ll be adding a mid level to those discussions, the “virus” level.
Obviously, COVID-19 has shocked the world and it’s still too early to talk about “lessons learned” in regards to how we handle these situations in the future. Between writing this and reading it, anything I had written about COVID-19 is most likely out of date. It’s only natural when something is moving this fast through society. New challenges we face during this time, point to more permanent changes we must make in our lives and especially, how we do business.
Of those changes, one trend I want to talk about is what I have seen in the last few weeks. A trend that I think will grow rapidly in importance when this unprecedented situation is past us, which will be sooner rather than later.
How Important online marketing has become for my clients during the last month or so.
With the world becoming more complex and densely populated, this could be the “new normal” when an unexpected new virus hits our planet. Millions being forced to stay at home to slow an outbreak could be a regular occurrence – and businesses with a solid online presence will prevail.
One thing we know is that America, is America. Even if forced to stay home for periods at a time, Americans will eventually adapt and get back to doing what they do best; working, making money and spending money.
With the COVID-19, social distancing and staying at home is the first of it’s kind; and I’m seeing data/trends that directly point to why some businesses are succeeding and why some are struggling.
From my time at home to writing this at my office today, I’ve already started to see American returning. I’m sure if you look around too, you’ll see it as well.
Already today, while my pool was being cleaned, I received a text message from my pest control company about Monday service, while leaving my neighborhood, I counted 6 different industry service vans/trucks outside houses on services calls (HVAC, Carpet Cleaning, Garage Door, Remodeling, Pool Builder and Flooring), 4 landscapers working, Amazon trucks zipping around… and on and on.
With data from hundreds of clients’ sites in all different industries, we are seeing a massive correlation between organic online visibility and the level of customer flow each business is receiving.
Clients who have secured top spots in organic rankings, have seen very little reduction in new business – if any – with some becoming busier. However, those early on into their campaigns that have yet to reach those coveted spots, have seen quite bit in reduction.
Let’s look at some results… (Keep in mind that these results do not include phone calls which produce around 2x more business than form submissions)
One of our clients in the carpet cleaning industry has seen a slight uptick of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. I reached out to them today and they said 90% of business was coming from organic search and wouldn’t know what to do if rankings were not there. That’s valuable carpet cleaning SEO right there. Oh, and it’s like that for all our carpet cleaning clients (25+).
Our Auto Glass Repair client hasn’t slowed at all with a crazy amount of online leads that rolled in on auto pilot. Those were just on Monday (4/6/20) of this week and I could have kept scrolling down to see all Monday leads. Talking with most of our auto glass clients (30+), results are similar all across the board with some having to hire extra hands.
One of our moving clients kept trucking along with a great flow of businesses coming in daily. This was also in line with our other moving clients that have top organic rankings.
Looks like one of our pool builders are busier than ever. Actually, mostly all are and they are crediting their great organic rankings surviving during this mess.
Additional local service industries that saw a steady stream of business included, Pest Control, HVAC, Garage Door Repair, Home Improvement/Remodeling, Pool cleaning, Flooring, Plumbing and a lot more.
In fact, all of our local service businesses that have top organic rankings are thriving while COVID-19 spreads across the country.
“I always knew it worked well, but never did I expect it to work during this time. Not sure what we would have done if we weren’t ranking so good.”
Great results weren’t limited to just our local service based clients either. We saw almost the same correlation with our National services, Ecommerce and SAAS clients – quite impressive.
Investing in SEO – with the right company – has always paid huge dividends but it’s never been more important than it is now.
It is so important that even the big G (Google) talked about the importance of investing in SEO to kick off their new blog: Showing the Value of SEO
They have never been vocal about investing in SEO, something is definitely going down.
Let’s look at it again…
These are massive indicators that point directly to the future of SEO. It’s going to be more important than ever for businesses to get into or stay in the game.
Congrats, you’ve always known SEO pays off and seeing these indicators only validates your decision to get into the game when you did. You’re positioned beautifully now and especially for the future – aside from that asteroid thing I mentioned earlier.
Do all you can to stay the course, it will pay off. This situation is coming to an end and the last thing you want is to regress to where you started. During this time, government is giving small businesses a lot of money that if used correctly doesn’t have to be paid back. Go here for details on the Paycheck Protection Program.
You already know the answer. I’m sure you’ve thought about investing in SEO many times and never made the call. Hopefully, our client results and Google’s actions should give you that little nudge to get you off the fence.
For all businesses during this time, make sure you’re taking advantage of the governments resources. If you have done so already, here is a good place to start.
Keep an eye out for a featured article I’ll writing for Forbes regarding this same topic. I’ll send it out when it’s live.
Stay safe!
