If your company doesn’t produce hand sanitizers, protective masks, or toilet paper, there’s a high chance that you currently have one looming question on your mind, how do I keep my business afloat during this pandemic and start building up again once this crisis is over? For those of you who have decided online is the way to go, there are certain changes you need to make on your website to suit an online audience. If done the right way, online branding can be very beneficial for your website so let us help you take it further.
Our company Hypercube Technologies works with a lot of clients across a wide range of industries, lifestyle, hospitality, jewelry, etc and we understand that COVID-19 affects your audience, hence it’s important to update visitors on what adjustments you’re making as a result of the rapidly changing world we’re living in. The best time to strategize is now so here are a few tips on a few updating your website during this Pandemic.
1. Update Your Website Header
Push the latest COVID-19 related information or updates on your site header
Your homepage may bring in the highest traffic on your landing page, but it is not the page that most of your audience lands on when they first get to your site. Google ranks pages, not sites and when someone is searching for your organization, they’re likely to get directed to an interior page on your site, not your homepage. Because of this, it’s better to push the latest COVID-19 related information or updates on your site header, it will be easier for your customers to find.
2) Add an alert bar above the navigation
Install a sitewide alert bar to draw attention to a crucial issue.
It’s important to install a sitewide alert bar to draw attention to a crucial issue, alert bars aren’t only useful during global pandemics. it’s something you’ll be able to utilize moving forward. An alert bar is a practical tool to have for things like:
- Limited working times due to a holiday
- Promoting a special deal or an offer or even a sale
- Announcing an upcoming event
Your alert bar should draw attention, but should also be short and quickly drive visitors to a page that can expand on the topic.
3) Update Your Homepage Masthead
Customers should know which page to go to for important updates.
Your homepage needs to be updated with important information about COVID-19, your visitors need to understand the seriousness of the pandemic. In addition to visitors, the homepage is also a very valuable signal to Google about your site being updated and what it can rank for.
A few tips for updating the homepage masthead is to keep the language short, use action-oriented language like “Explore the latest” or “Follow updates” for the button to your COVID-19 page, use high-quality images only, and most important keep updating your website. There should be only one page that speaks about COVID-19 so customers know where to go if they want important updates.
4) Put ‘COVID-19’ in the URL slug for easier tracking
Have a consistent term in the URL of all your COVID-19 content.
As your company creates more content related to the virus, having a consistent term in the URL of all your COVID-19 content will ensure that you can easily track the impact of your content moving forward.
By setting the content up that way, Google can more easily group the content together under your primary landing page.
5) Update your timings on Social Media Accounts
Update your business hours on all important platforms.
If your business has had to modify its hours due to stay at home orders or a lockdown, be sure to update those hours on your website and also any other platforms where visitors may go to find your hours. A few common places you’ll want to check are:
- Google My Business
- Instagram Bio
- Website
Here’s a guide for how to set special hours on Google My Business, Facebook, and Instagram. (https://blog.tracpoint.com/how-to-add-holiday-hours-to-google-business-facebook-0)
Whether you’re now offering home delivery, takeaway, online services, or even quarantine-friendly recipes for folks to make at home, keep your site updated and keep pushing forward.
Stay safe!