How the COVID -19 Outbreak Has Impacted Google’s Organic Search

1. How the COVID Impacted Google’s Organic Search 19 Outbreak Has COVID - -19 Medical websites must provide relevant content & educate users about the corona virus to gain organic search results & improve healthcare content marketing. Businesses of all sectors are coming to terms with the global changes due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The governments of all countries are adopting measures restricting movement and foot traffic. This has temporarily halted all the activities of businesses and a large number of businesses have switched to complete online and tele-work routine. The same applies to the healthcare industry also and all healthcare businesses including medical practices, hospitals, pharmaceuticals etc need to have a proactive online presence also. People are looking for information regarding the new infection, preventive measures to take, personal protective equipment, and treatments available. This has led businesses in this segment to change their conventional marketing strategies and adopt new digital marketing techniques by associating with a medical software development company. Change in Buying Behaviour The outbreak of COVID pandemic has made a significant change in the online search and buying behavior of people. There is a huge demand for medical supplies like vitamins, supplements and respiratory care items along with household items. In Italy, people prepared to take good care of themselves at home after a partial lockdown on February 25th and the sales of medical supplies spiked by +286% in early March. France, which has enacted a country-wide quarantine, saw sales of medical supplies outpace even food products in early March, rising by nearly +600%.

2. According to a report in Search Engine Journal, Fulfillment By Amazon shipments have stopped except for household and medical supplies that consumers need. According to Amazon, they see increased online shopping and as a result some of the medical supplies and household items are out of stock. Amazon says this change in focus will continue through at least till April 5, 2020. That’s a little more than two weeks. The CDC has ordered a ban on crowds of 50 or more people for eight weeks. Google Displays New SERP Features at the Time of Covid-19 Emergency With the COVID -19 pandemic, Google’s result page for ‘coronavirus’ queries activates a variety of new panels to provide users with objective information about the disease. This content is generally drawn from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and other local government resources. Google has provided “Help and Information” panel for corona virus and also displays SOS Alert which indicates that the disease is actively creating a state of emergency. Google also shows safety tips along with video that educates users to properly wash their hands along with other recommendations provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). Google also displays an “Affected Area” panel, with a world map indicating how the outbreak is spreading and displaying its density across different world regions. Google also displays “Symptoms” panel that includes common symptoms of corona virus as given by the WHO. A new feature called Sistrix enables you to see how Google SERPs have changed over two particular date ranges for a specific query. Some of the developments in Google’s organic search are: •The top 4 organic positions are exclusively for the CDC and WHO and have not fluctuated for all of March. •Health publisher websites, such as WebMD, Medical News Today, and Healthline, have declined from the top 2 pages of Google, despite having normal ranking in top positions for most health queries. •Wikipedia has also gone off the first page. This may be due to the crowdsourced nature of Wikipedia content, that may temporarily contain inaccurate content as its coronavirus page undergoes constant updates. •The positions earlier occupied by health publisher websites and Wikipedia are now taken by local governments and highly reputable news sites. Organizations such as the CDC, WHO, Cleveland Clinic, and other entities that provide official information on infectious diseases would see increased organic visibility during a pandemic. Some websites that have posted relevant content related to the COVID -19 pandemic have also seen an increase in organic visibility. In short, Google is at present focused on providing content from the most trustworthy, expert organizations that focus on global health issues. So, medical websites must now concentrate on providing relevant content and educating the patients about the corona virus to gain organic search results and improve their healthcare content marketing. (800) 941-5527