Last year was very challenging for businesses. Store operations were disturbed, and a number of businesses were forced to close down. By the first half of 2020, 47% of businesses in Australia reported a decline in profits. As the months went on, more entrepreneurs reported a dip in revenue, at least until the final quarter. Between November and December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics finally reported a plateau in the decline. And by the end of the year, 25% of businesses saw an increase in revenue.

As the economy is starting to reopen, we’re looking at a more positive trend moving forward. While businesses will start to resume on-ground operations, there’s no doubt that strategies need to change to adapt to the new demands. So, here are some strategies to help you move forward.

SEO for voice search

Voice search technology has come a long way as homes worldwide are transitioning to smart homes, with an ecosystem built on connected tech — including smart speakers and smartphones. Much like standard SEO work, you’ll need to research keywords that are used in voice search, and integrate them into your content to rank. And since some of the most popular voice assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa are used by 55% of online users anyway, it may be a good idea to look into creating Actions on the Google App. That being said, they need to be content-based: for podcasts, recipes, or news, to name a few examples.

Long-form content to improve SERPs

Ranking high up the search engine results pages (SERP) guarantees clicks and more traffic to your site. There are several ways to go about this, like building backlinks, using the right keywords, and structuring your site’s architecture in line with Google best practices; but arguably the most important one right now is creating valuable long-form content. Digital marketing experts at Forbes emphasise how quality-driven long-form content typically ranks higher in the SERPs, receives more shares on social media, and gains more readers, and will likely continue to do so in 2021.

However, not all long-form content is created equal. As highlighted by global SEO specialists Ayima, this type of content shouldn’t just be SEO-rich, it also needs to resonate with your target readers. They go on to say how professionally written web content is more likely to be recognised as authority pages. As such, content needs to be actionable, relevant, and formatted correctly — with the right sections and subheadings.

Mobile-first marketing

Like we mentioned in our ‘Keen to Increase Revenue?’ write-up, one of the best ways to boost profits is by presenting an irresistible offer. However, what good is an offer when it can’t even reach the right market? Based on live data from StatCounter, the majority of people now spend more time on mobile devices, and this figure has been steadily increasing ever since the pandemic started.

Moreover, since Google rolled out their mobile-first indexing, their algorithm looks at the mobile version of a website as the “primary” version instead of the desktop version. This move is influenced by the fact that nearly 73% of all internet users will access the internet solely through mobile devices by 2025. This is a good time to start shifting your marketing efforts towards mobile-first strategies, cross-checking with Google’s free mobile-friendly test as you go along.

If trends are any indication of what’s to come, you’ll need to start investing in integrating technology into your business strategies, and expanding your knowledge by going through our other Insights to help boost your revenue in 2021 and beyond.

Exclusively written for CSQD by Wanda Mills