In a time of widespread economic uncertainty and fears of a recession in many countries, digital marketers rightly feel apprehension about entering a new year with a status-quo strategy. While the past years of pandemic-related disruptions may offer some guidance on how best to approach an economic downturn, the current environment’s lack of a possible recovery date, combined with the lingering supply-chain and health policy impacts, make operating an effective SEO program in 2023 particularly challenging.
At the same time, Forrester’s Q3 CMO survey found that 74% of CMOs plan to increase SEO budgets in 2023. What do CMOs know about the potential of SEO that all digital marketers should think about as SEO strategies are created for the next year, despite a potential economic downturn?
Here are three major questions that require answers as brands plan for SEO in 2023:
What are the likely economic impacts on the SEO program?
Like impacts from the pandemic, current economic trends can impact brands in very different ways, depending on the industry and competitive environment. For example, while some industries, such as airlines, experienced a significant profit loss during the pandemic, other sales for products like cough and cold medicines surged over 862%. On average however, brands can expect reduced demand and consumer spending in a recession, which in turn is likely to result in lower search demand. style="font-family:"Avenir Next",sans-serif">
Historical seasonal business trends may also see disruption. For example, pent-up travel demand is fueling industry’s current rebound, but will consumers still look to plan and book travel in the spring as usual? Online retailers enjoyed heavy spikes in search demand in recent years, but will rising interest rates, supply-chain struggles, and the return of in-person shopping put an end to growth? Current high engagement rates for certain industries may not carry over to 2023.
How should we measure SEO success during a downturn?
In a time of reduced demand, marketers can no longer rely on big growth percentages in visibility, sales, and revenue to tell the story of SEO success. Year-over-year performance comparisons may be moot anyway, as the pandemic its recovery do not provide a typical baseline for which to compare results. Yet marketers need to continue to prioritize a strong SEO program to remain competitive during the recession as well as to maintain strong SEO rankings that will be needed once consumer spending does increase. So how do you measure success, despite expected lower sales?
In addition to typical key business indicators, consider these additional SEO measurement opportunities in 2023 to understand the program’s impact:
· Competitive share of voice. If the size of the overall pie is shrinking, growth must come at the expense of competitors. Ensure that you are monitoring competitive search demand and visibility trends down to the segment/BU level to be able to measure and take action on opportunities.
· Channel share. Similarly, if demand is down across the board, monitor all channel performance to know if a thriving, active SEO program can drive an increased percentage of sales and revenue compared to more expensive or less targeted ones.
· Conversion rate. If the numbers entering the top of the funnel go down, converting more of the ones who do visit increases the program's impact - and prepares brands for even better future performance when economic conditions improve. More on this below.
What should be the SEO focus?
When immediate and sustained growth isn’t possible, the SEO program can still advance general business goals with actions to pursue the KPIs above. To do so, focus your SEO strategy on these factors:
· Targeted opportunities. Staffing challenges and more limited investments may make a full-steam-ahead approach impossible, but by focusing on smaller site sections or specific competitive gaps, you can improve your share of a similar overall pie.
· SEO-SEM synergy. Aligning SEO and SEM strategies is always a good idea, but particularly if resources or budgets are strained in one or both areas. Coordinating where SEO or SEM teams can align can improve performance for both SEO SEM as well as reveal opportunities for SEM to counter-act drops in SEO performance (and vice-versa). Proactively planning to ensure better SEM incrementality and cost-conscious SEO keyword coverage is ideal.
· Customer experience. SEO is unique in its application to every part of the customer journey, from helping fill the top of the funnel to being an aiding in purchase intent to post-sale support. Analyzing each part of that path and making the necessary - and sometimes small - improvements can yield both better customer experience and conversion rates.
While marketing during an economic downturn can bring limitations, SEO has the potential to improve your brand’s competitive position and emerge poised to reap long-term benefits as demand returns. Don’t allow recession fears to cloud opportunities for an even stronger SEO strategy. If you would like to learn more about how to make sure your SEO remains strong, even when the economy doesn’t, contact one of our SEO experts.