COVID-19 has been dominating the interest of the earth. And rightly so. We are hoping everyone is still secure and takes good care of these and nearest and dearest in this scary moment. That said, our company continues to proceed, and we all believe it is also important to check at this catastrophe from the angle of the internet to help others and clients browse these times via an operational standpoint. We all know there are bigger human narratives at play, but we are working to remain in our lane and supply you with valuable content.
We use hundreds of customers across a selection of businesses and if you are a running manufacturer, a law company site, or even a pork manufacturer, COVID-19 influences your crowd and it is important to upgrade traffic about what adjustments you are creating as a consequence of this fast-changing world we are living in.
We have worked with a lot of our customers throughout the past couple of weeks to float on the best approach to find timely information for their viewers. Below are a couple of methods we recommend upgrading your site throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Update Your Own Website Header, Not Only Your Homepage
Your homepage might be the highest-trafficked landing page on your website, but it probably isn’t the page that the majority of your viewers land when they get to your website. Google ranks pages, not websites and if somebody is looking for your company, they are very most likely to receive led to an inside page on your website, not your own homepage.
Consider logging in to a Google Analytics account and heading to Behavior > Site Content Landing Pages. You’re able to see what percentage of the visitors to your website begin on the site.
Since your site is your starting point for just a part of your website traffic, your website header is a much better location to drive details regarding COVID-19 to ensure each individual that goes to a website can quickly locate the most recent information regarding the pandemic and how it pertains to you personally.
Two choices for upgrading your header would be:
1) Insert a link into Your Primary navigation
If your website is looking for a content management platform, this is likely something you can perform all on your own.
- In WordPress, your navigation is generally managed under Look > Menus.
- In Drupal, it is typically under Construction > Menus
If you are uncertain how to upgrade your navigation, then reach out to a development group.
A couple of hints when upgrading your navigation:
- Maintain the name of the major nav thing brief. “COVID-19” is likely enough.
- Once you include the menu thing, gradually adjust your browser thickness from super thin to super broad to be certain that the new menu item does not make your navigation elements it should not.
- When adding the newest thing does trigger your navigation to become too broad because of its own container, see whether you’re able to eliminate or shorten other principal navigation things. By way of instance, change “Who We Are” or “About Us” into “Around” or eliminate “Home” and only allow users to click on your logo to visit the homepage.
- In case you can not create room in the home navigation, then add the COVID-19 webpage for a dropdown menu.
While correcting your principal navigation can look to be a significant change, even though there is not a worldwide outbreak, we have discovered that using a place in your primary navigation that changes frequently based upon the most topical thing anytime a part of some fantastic site navigation best practices approach.
2) Insert an alert pub that sits over the navigation
Possessing a sitewide alert pub is a fantastic way to attract attention to some vital matter. You might not have the capability to make alerts on your website without the aid of your site development group. The fantastic thing about incorporating that performance, however, is that alarm bars are not only helpful during international pandemics. It is something you are going to have the ability to use moving ahead. An alert pub is a sensible tool to get for things such as:
- Limited hours because of a vacation
- Marketing a particular deal
- Announcing an impending event
After you reach your Internet development group, make sure that your alarm bar:
- Can be in another color to draw attention to this
- Can be easily toggled off or on
- Could be blown off by consumers
- Is easily customized
You may see a good illustration of just those we recently tried for a law firm. Your awake bar must draw attention, but you are going to want to maintain the content onto it brief and drive traffic to your page which could expand on the subject.
Update Your Homepage Masthead
Even in the event that you’ve upgraded your site with articles concerning COVID-19, your site signifies the most crucial info on your website, and by compelling info about how COVID-19 affects your viewers, you are suggesting to people that you fully grasp the seriousness of this pandemic. Besides people, the site is also a rather valuable sign to Google (so will be your nav mentioned previously) on your website is upgraded and exactly what it could rank for.
A Couple of hints for upgrading the site masthead:
- Maintain the speech briefly to decrease a great deal of text wrap at thinner browser dimensions
- Utilize keywords terminology such as “Research the newest” or “Follow upgrades” to your button on your COVID-19 webpage
- Utilize a top Excellent picture – there is already a wealth of complimentary, quality COVID-19 pictures on Unsplash
- Notice once the content was last updated on the homepage
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Have a Key landing page for all your own COVID-19 articles
Opt for one page where you are going to post all of the most recent info about COVID-19 on your website and do not alter the URL. Just maintaining the URL of your keywords constant:
- You will not need to change your awake bar every time you find an upgrade
- Visitors can bookmark this page to quickly locate it
- Search engines may understand that’s the key webpage on your website for information about the pandemic, which will be great for SEO
The webpage should change regularly as new info comes out policies have been enacted, along with your company must change. Each upgrade could be posted in your site or news feed, but you ought to post a URL to this new content onto your principal COVID-19 page. It’s possible to observe an easy, clear illustration of a COVID-19 landing page from our buddies and customer, RTI — rti.org/rti-international-response-covid-19.
Visitors will then have the ability to observe the way you have adjusted over time into the fast-changing atmosphere.
Place ‘COVID-19’ or ‘Coronavirus’ from the URL slug for simpler monitoring later on
As your company creates more information related to this virus, acquiring a constant term from the URL of your COVID-19 articles will make certain you may readily monitor the effect of your articles going ahead.
In a perfect position, you need to post all of the associated content as kids of this COVID-19 landing page so the URL arrangement is something similar to yourdomain.com/covid-19/resource-or-article-title. By placing up the content in such a way, Google may more readily set the content collectively beneath your principal landing page.
Update your own Google My Business, Facebook, and also Yelp accounts in case your hours have changed
If your company has had to alter its hours because to remain in your home orders or even a curfew, then make certain to upgrade those hours to your site and any other programs where traffic may proceed to locate your hours. A few common areas you will want to look at are:
- Google My Business
- Yelp
- Bing Places
Keep updating your website with non-COVID-19 details
While COVID-19 has been dominating the interest of earth at this time, Google’s crawlers will keep on crawling the net and upgrading their positions. It might feel hard to compose content for your site at this time, but it is also a chance to prepare your business for if the worst of all this can be behind us.
The World Health Organization is currently compelling the term physical distancing rather than social distancing since while remaining in the home is crucial, we are still able to associate with each other as a result of the internet.
Your site is a method to communicate with the general public concerning COVID-19’s effect as well as an opportunity for you to move your company ahead in an economically difficult period — everything from the security of your property.
We are all in this together
Whether you are currently offering curbside pickup for sneakers so people may remain healthy while they are in the home, a law firm that is helping individuals browse the fallout in the emergency, or even a pork manufacturer supplying quarantine-friendly recipes for people to create at home, keep your website updated, not just your homepage or theme and keep pushing ahead.
Stay safe and be well!