5 Emerging Quarantine Keyword Trends That Marketers Can Leverage

As SEO’s, we use keyword trends to help us choose relevant topics to write on and the words we use in our content. Since COVID-19 shook the world, we’ve been monitoring search trends and what they say about what customers are looking for, asking, and prioritizing.

Through this research, we’ve found a handful of surprising keywords that have spiked in volume recently. We wanted to share these search trends with other marketers with advice on how to leverage keywords to capture your audience’s attention. 

Find Keywords Using Google Trends

As the world’s most prominent search engine, Google has access to a wealth of search data. They compile this data into Google Trends, their free tool that shows search trends across region and time. 

Start by typing in a keyword of interest into the search bar to see search trends over time. You can also input comparison keywords and compare the trends of up to five different keywords. 

You can filter your keyword by region, date range, categories, and type of search. Filtering by region can help you target your content to the area of your audience or local market. To find these keyword trends we chose the time range of 12 months, to make sure we were accounting for seasonality changes.

Categories also allow you to specify your search for terms that have different meanings such as “highlighter” which can be a makeup item or the office supply. 

After you’ve inputted your keyword and set your filters, you can take a look at the regional trends as well as Related Queries. 

Using the insights you gather from Google Trends, you can get ideas for new content, services, and keywords to incorporate into your marketing strategy. Here, 5 emerging keywords that you can leverage for your COVID-19 content strategy. 

Sale

Times are tough for many people, but there are ways you can still promote your product or service while remaining sensitive to the situation. “Sale” is trending for a few reasons. Record-high unemployment rates mean many people are struggling financially, and are looking for businesses offering sales during the crisis. Others are taking advantage of this time to learn new skills, and are searching for discounted services.

Promote a temporary sale to incentivize customers to make a purchase. Free trials are also a great way to let customers try your product or service before committing. 

After the economy recovers, many customers will remember your service and come back for your products and services after trying it out discounted or free.

Some businesses that have offered Coronavirus-related sales include Moz, Skillshare, and Uber Eats. Here at Alphametic, we are offering 50% off our SEO Audit service to help businesses that were affected by COVID-19.

Use “Sale” in your SEO strategy: 

Make sure your discount or free trial offer is front-and-center on your website. This can include adding “sale,” “discount,” and “free trial,” keywords to your homepage copy. If applicable, create a separate landing page for your discount content, and add a pop-up to prominent pages of your website with a link to that landing page.

Touchless/Contact-free

The safety of your customers should be at the forefront of your post-quarantine reopening plans. “Touchless” is a trending keyword because as people get ready to leave their homes, they want to see what businesses prioritize safety by using contact-free measures. 

The most significant change that you can do to ensure the safety of your business is to establish safety guidelines like social distancing signs and posting about your cleaning measures. 

Contact-free standards can help assuage customers’ concerns if they see the protocol at your business change. By using tap to pay or cash-free payment, you can minimize the contact at the time of the transaction. 

Use “Touchless” in your SEO strategy:

Customers are searching for businesses that have contact-free measures in place, so make sure your website has content that can be ranked for that keyword.

If you are adding contact-free practices to your business procedures, write a COVID-19 Response landing page or blog post informing customers on these contact-free solutions and how they will function in your business. 

For example, Domino’s added a landing page to their site that walks visitors through their contactless pizza delivery process.

Is it safe

As we return to a new normal, many people wonder how safe it is to do activities that used to be part of our daily routines. This is a trending keyword because people are uneasy of letting their guard down when reentering the real world. As the economy slowly reopens, take the time to inform your customers about how you will make sure your establishment is safe.

Use “Is it safe” in your SEO strategy:

When people search if it’s safe to shop, order online or go out to eat, you want your website to appear at the top of the list. The best place to add “is it safe” keywords is to your FAQ section, since the keyword is already in question format.

McDonald’s took advantage of this keyword in their COVID-19 FAQ section:

You can also consider writing a blog post including “is it safe” and another keyword that’s relevant for your business. 

To get more ideas for how to incorporate this keyword into your content, search “is it safe” in Google Trends and check out the related queries. 

Shop Online

An important lesson from this global pandemic is how critical an online presence is for businesses. Retailers that have adopted ecommerce operations are profiting during quarantine because customers are able to buy from them safely and conveniently. 

Use “shop online” in your SEO strategy:

To reap the benefits of this keyword, strategically and seamlessly blend it into your content. “Shop online” is being searched because people are wondering what services they can get from the comfort of their own home. This is also a way to word content to get customers excited about exclusive online-only products or deals. 

You can include drop-down banners on your website that say if you “shop online” you can receive better deals or “shop online” to buy these exclusive products. You can also include “shop online” for virtual courses or “shop online” to receive free shipping, another incentive for customers to shop with you.

Clothing brand Asos uses “online shopping keywords in their meta data, in both the page title and meta description of their homepage.

Open

As the pandemic peak is passing, more and more people are looking to go out into the world and return to normalcy. How your business handles reopening can determine a lot for the future of your company. 

Many consumers have gone online, so how can you attract those customers back to your businesses? What is the right way to go about reopening? 

These questions can be answered by looking at what your customer wants. Open is a trending keyword because people are looking for places that are open to shop at, eat, or even get a haircut. Use this to your advantage by communicating to your customers what they can expect from your business when you open. 

Use “open” in your SEO strategy:

Before reopening, you should establish how your business will run and post an FAQ page detailing how your business will serve customers when you open. 

Writing social media posts, landing pages, or strategically placing content using the keyword “open” will drive consumers who are ready to do business. 

Take a look at how other companies like these Chili’s are structuring their FAQ pages for more of a guideline. We have implemented this SEO tactic with our casino clients by placing the word “Open” in their meta data. This would allow for them to rank higher on Google searches so take advantage of these opportunities to attract more customers. 

The quarantine has brought about much change in the world, and you can see this through trending terms and changing policies. Now is the time to adjust your business and content strategy to make sure you can keep up with the evolving times. You will see an increase In your website traffic if you can seamlessly incorporate these terms while also communicating to your customers that you care about their safety and are working hard to make sure their needs are met. 

Remember that SEO strategies are now more critical than ever because consumers are looking to “shop online” for their needs to be met. They want “sales” to be able to get through these financially challenging times. Also, remember that consumers are searching for information on “is it safe” to shop if businesses are “open” or which companies are better to go to because of “contact-less” measures.

Matthew Capala

Matthew Capala is a seasoned digital marketing executive, founder/CEO of Alphametic, a Miami-based digital marketing agency, author of “The Psychology of a Website,” dynamic speaker, and entrepreneur.