• Marketing Land
  • Sections
    • CMO
    • Social
    • SEM
    • SEO
    • Analytics
    • Display
    • Retail
    • MarTech
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • Resources
  • More
  • SUBSCRIBE

Marketing Land

Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • Resources
  • More
  • Home
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Local

COVID-19 checklist for businesses: How to manage your online presence and keep customers updated in a time of crisis

Use your local business profiles, website and Schema markup to provide the latest information to those searching for your business.

George Nguyen on March 19, 2020 at 1:14 pm
  • More

The COVID-19 pandemic means that pretty much nothing is business as usual. Customers are concerned about how businesses are adapting to the situation — wondering if you’re open, have product available, if those products are safe, etc. There are several steps you should be taking now to ensure your customers can get answers when they’re searching online.

Local business listings

For local businesses, often it’s a directory listing, not your website if you have one, that’s the first thing your customers will see in Search. Be sure to update your Google My Business listings to highlight how your business operations have changed during this time.

“Businesses need to work on modifying their store hours on their key profiles (like GMB [Google My Business] and Yelp) as well as their messaging regarding what they’re doing about COVID-19 via Posts or descriptions in their GMB profile,” Dan Leibson, VP of search for Local SEO Guide, told Search Engine Land.

Review your listings across Google My Business, Bing Places as well as other directories such as Yelp and TripAdvisor where customers find you. And don’t forget about social, too. Update your Facebook page and other social profiles.

Yelp_business_description_covid
Homemade Alameda’s Yelp business description, which was updated to address health concerns during the coronavirus outbreak.

The example above emphasizes the business’ delivery service and assures customers that they don’t have to engage in any unwanted contact.

Update hours and temporary closures. Google has deployed its AI assistant, Duplex, to confirm business hours so that they’re accurate within Maps and Search. However, you don’t have to wait for Google to get in contact with you: you can manually update your hours of operation, or even list your business as temporarily closed, through Google My Business.

Create local Posts. GMB listing owners and managers can create Google Posts to keep customers informed on the status of their business. These posts can show up in Search and Maps and are live for seven days, but can be extended to 14 days. Posting at regular intervals will make customers more confident that the information they’re seeing is still relevant.

Your business site

FAQ pages. Many brands, and especially local businesses such as restaurants, need to address common questions regarding how their business practices are adapting to restrictions due to COVID-19.

For example, FAQ sections might detail who comes into contact with your products, how your workflow has changed to emphasize safety and policy changes regarding existing purchases. The FAQ section is also a good place to explain any changes in your offerings or expected fulfillment delays.

Dedicated pages for COVID-19. For businesses that are significantly impacted by the crisis, it may be necessary to explain how you’re adapting on a dedicated page or right on your homepage. Larger brands can also use the media/PR sections of their site for this purpose. In your statement, outline the situation for your customers and keep this information up-to-date.

Structured data and product feeds

Product availability. For retailers, be sure your item availability status is updated in as close to real-time as possible as consumer demand changes. That includes product schema on your product pages and in your product feeds.

The ItemAvailability structured data type is used to indicate whether a product is InStock, OutofStock, Discontinued, has LimitedAvailability, is available InStoreOnly, OnlineOnly and more.

Event status. Event organizers can set the eventStatus markup property to EventCancelled or EventPostponed on their pages. Google advises that organizers maintain the original startDate until the new date is confirmed. After you’ve rescheduled, you can update the startDate and endDate and mark the eventStatus field as eventRescheduled.

Now-virtual events. For events that have moved from in-person to online, use VirtualLocation as the location type and set the eventAttendanceMode to OnlineEventAttendanceMode.

Special announcements. The SpecialAnnouncement type was motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic and created with organizations such as schools, healthcare providers, pharmacies, police, local government and community groups in mind. It allows for date-stamped textual updates with contextualized web links to associate the announcement with a situation, such as the COVID-19 outbreak.



About The Author

George Nguyen
George Nguyen is an editor at Third Door Media, primarily covering organic and paid search, podcasting and e-commerce. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.

Related Topics

Channel: LocalChannel: Martech: CommerceChannel: SEOGoogle: Google My BusinessYelp

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Next Event: Sept. 14-15, 2021

Available On-Demand: March 2021

Available On-Demand: October 2020

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Available On-Demand: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

June 21-22, 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

December 14, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

Available On-Demand: SMX Report

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

White Papers

  • Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms
  • Selecting a Customer Data Platform For Your Organization: The 2020 Gartner Market Guide
  • The Complete Guide to Web Core Vitals
  • The New Era of Automation in SEO
  • Nielsen Annual Marketing Report: Era of Adaptation
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • Drive Customer Engagement with the Power of Personalization
  • 7 Use Cases That Prove Why You Should Implement DAM
  • Accelerate Your SEO & Content Marketing Program with 4 Key Milestones
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Attend SMX For Only $199

h
Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Channels

  • MarTech
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Analytics
  • Retail
  • Display

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • SMX

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.