Covid-19 impact on organic searches
After about fifteen days of data processing, our report on the impact of the Covid-19 on Google searches has come to an end.
A few weeks ago we had already anticipated our commitment in this direction, releasing a new feature “Covid-19 Impact” in the section that allows us to analyze keywords.
How search volumes have changed
Search volumes, as we knew them, have been completely distorted and I tell you why: when we analyze the search volume of a keyword, search engines provide us historical information about the searches made in the last 12 months.
Unfortunately, with the arrival of Coronavirus those data have been totally invalidated: they will never be able to respect the performance of the previous 12 months as the world has changed, the needs and priorities of users have changed, so if we had not intervened, we would have found ourselves working on completely useless, albeit indicative data.
The only reliable tool in order to get real-time results
With the “Covid-19 Impact” feature we have provided the world’s first tool able to predict the search volume of each keyword based on current search trends. Surely they will not be as precise as the search volumes that Google will measure at the end of each month, the analytical data are real data, measured day by day, while the statistical data (those we must rely on in situations like this) are based on forecasts, but we believe that they are currently the only reliable tool in existence to intervene in real time on our marketing strategies, we are not interested in knowing the results when it will be too late to decide and intervene on our websites.
The study on the online fields affected the most by Coronavirus
Starting from the work done on every single keyword we analyzed all the websites’ areas of belonging trying to accurately measure the impact of covid-19 on each category and type of website.
The first and obvious piece of data emerged is that searches have globally increased by at least 40%: regardless of the industry, people use Google more to inquire. Staying at home gives us much more time to inform ourselves and research what we need.
And that is the starting point: “What do people now at home need?”.
New priorities and needs of people stuck at home
The study shows that the only sectors that suffered an actual decline in interest are those currently unable to provide the service or product, such as tourism, hotels, flights, the automotive industry.
For all the other sectors there has been an increase in researches but it is essential to understand that the intentions behind each research have completely changed. To better clarify this, many business fields are currently experiencing a huge increase in researches, as in the case of sport, but the user’s need is different and the keywords that currently dominate each individual sector are different as well. In the case of sport, obviously no one has interest in football matches anymore as they are no longer played, but the interest has shifted strongly towards autonomous training, equipments to workout at home and, for the most optimistic ones, toward winter sports, fishing (which allows greater isolation) and running.
SEOZoom data on the Covid-19 impact on organic searches
Well, I don’t want to spoil you anything else, so let’s move to the data showing you the impact of Coronavirus on organic researches we did in April. The study is based on the analysis of rich keyword samples for each belonging industry and not on keywords analyzed on Google Trends that could be done manually by literally anyone, in that case the study would have been rather poor and only based on what we could guess based on our experience.
I want to clarify this because this study does not start from our assumptions, but from the actual analysis of the best data we had available, without any prediction of what would have been the final result, and that is why I think it has great value: there are many unsuspected surprises and strongly growing sectors.
Covid-19 impact on market sectors
As easy as it is to guess, the most grown business field of all concerns home, the very place we are confined in, while the travel sector is absolutely the most affected of all, being us unable to move.
Below we will show you the details of the categories of each individual sector because, as you can see, even declining sectors have some aspects (categories) strongly growing as the interest of users has not completely waned, just postponed, so they are actually getting information and performing researches for when it will be all over.
Coronavirus impact on the Arts and Entertainment field
It will immediately jump to your attention the “Fashion and Modeling” category, it happened to me and I went to manually check the data to try and understand if there was a mistake, but there was none. In fact, even if everything about fashion shows has practically collapsed, users care about their appearance, they look for fashion products to buy online and try to maintain that resemblance of normality by looking for everything about personal look, peculiar haircuts, probably to start a new era of DIY looks.
The same situation has happened to me in various fields and every time the probable error has been refuted by simply analyzing the searches of the users: people is not giving up on normality, but must provide in autonomy, so they are trying to educate themselves and acts.
This will certainly be useful as a suggestion – if you work in certain niches – to try to find the right focus, the gold mine that brings visits even in heavily damaged sectors (at the moment).
Coronavirus impact on the Autos and Vehicles sector
As you can see, everything that is not really usable today has collapsed, basically what we cannot get, but the interest in the industry has grown, as people seek information, users want to be ready to satisfy their passion at the end of the Covid era.
Coronavirus impact on the Beauty and Fitness field
Gyms are closed! Wellness centers are closed, too. As a matter of fact, everything is closed: but users still care about their appearance and so research are increasing, the only thing that changes is the method of use in this context as well.
Coronavirus impact on the Books and Literature field
Obviously, these data do not really need any comment: we are all studying something and committing our time reading something interesting to take advantage of the forced stop period.
Coronavirus impact on the Business and Industry sector
In this case, too, users try not to miss on what they want and love, indeed they look for it more than before, but unfortunately the real estate industry (not physically usable) has suffered a significant collapse.
Coronavirus impact on the Career and Education field
As for work and career there will be better moments to wait for, and the research volumes identified by Seozoom make it even moreblatant. Today the only alternative is to come out stronger than before, more prepared, ready for the moment when the trend of these categories will be reversed.
Coronavirus impact on the Computer and Electronics sector
Needless to say: we now spend much more time on the PC and online, the sector that already excelled compared to others, has had a further (and forced) growth of interest by users.
Coronavirus impact on the Finance field
This analysis is the very one that, I must admit, brought me a veil of sadness.
The current situation shows two types of users: those who saved up, have money and want to invest to make it work in this unstable situation, and those who cannot even survive and must resort to loans to support their family.
Of course there is a decline in insurances (now almost no one circulates with cars) and everything related to physical banks.
Coronavirus impact on the Food and Drink sector
You all surely noticed that, regardless of the work you did before, now on quarantine you are the perfect candidate to be a Food blogger. Celebrities from any industry are now live on Facebook or Instagram to prepare even simple popcorn 🙂
Home DIY is one of the sectors that experienced the greatest growth in the quarantine period but, of course, everything that requires a physical presence has suffered a huge decline, as for restaurants.
Coronavirus on the Gambling field
Gambling addiction is always bad news and very hard to get rid of: if you just cannot play lottery or bet on football games, then you will be surely be looking for any other way to bet and play money online.
Coronavirus on the Games sector
Even if we are locked in, we still have to do something, right? We play more, also because perhaps we have never spent so much time with the family and children. Obvious necessity as obvious is the increase of all that concerns this field.
Coronavirus impact on the Health field
If I have to find a word to enclose this trend, I can think of psychosis. The health sector has experienced growth in any category, but more than anything else, online pharmaceutical sales stands out.
Coronavirus impact on the Home and Garden sector
A growth really remarkable, but also predictable: we are at home, how do we get busy with our free time? We make the house more beautiful, we take care of the garden, in short, we do everything we had difficulty doing when we had to leave the house at 7:00 a.m to come back at 7.00 p.m.
Coronavirus impact on the Internet and Telecommunications sector
In this case, too, the growth was obvious, being one of the sectors with more searches on the web: having more time available, it could not but even more amplify the interest and time devoted to searches.
Coronavirus impact on the Law and Government field
In this turbulent time, interest in politics has grown considerably, because users need to listen to what our government has to communicate and the most needy are in search of laws, decrees and helps for those who find themselves in serious difficulties of any kind.
Coronavirus impact on the News and Media sector
The news and media industry generally shows the same trend as many other sectors. The interest has shifted towards the only aspects “usable” by those who are locked in the house until further notic, while are considerably dropping the categories that concern aspects that, at the moment, have become almost irrelevant, if not to lay out the laundry, as for the weather.
Sports news has suffered the most decline, but it was predictable since there are no news at all.
Coronavirus impact on the People and Society sector
Personal interests, whatever they may be, have experienced an increase in interest but, unfortunately, social distancing is affecting them with a 26% drop in the field of relationships and meetings.
Coronavirus impact on the Pets and Animals sector
That’s right, our pet animals have never had so much company and attentions as in this period and data clearly show it. 🙂
Coronavirus impact on the Shopping sector
In China, when they finally got to phase 2 and people started coming out of the house again, they started talking about the term “revenge shopping”, the compulsive post-coronavirus buying spree. People spent the impossible in trying to fill their shopping withdrawal.
In the rest of the world, we probably started early by buying anything online, and in fact the ecommerce world, even the small sellers, has experienced a boom in sales never seen before.
Among the dropping shopping categories we can only find clothing (maybe we do not need them as much now?), flowers and the sale of used products, probably as a further form of social distancing (who wants used products shipped by a stranger, right?).
Coronavirus impact on the Sports field
As you can see, the “impractical” categories have suffered a very strong decline, primarily football, but individual sports or the ones that guarantee a kind of isolation/distance continue to attract interest for the immediate or near future.
Coronavirus impact on the Travel sector
As expected, it is the only business field completely on the negative side with each one of its categories, a total demise under every aspect.
This is one of the sectors that I personally bear closely to the heart and I cannot wait for it to go back grinding searches like never before.
Coronavirus impact on the Adult field
Unbelievable, right? Everyone at home and the Adult sector suffers a decline? There are two interpretations: one kind of optimistic (mine), for which the couple finally meets, spends more valuable time together and has absolutely no need of “entertainment” in video format.
A second hypothesis, more amusing, is that many will have too many people around to be able to cultivate their forbidden passion. 🙂
Final assessments on the study
I have closed this study with a joke, maybe even to breathe a sigh of relief after struggling with millions of keyword and data that often seemed “weird” to me but that actually, if we think about it, reflect exactly what we are all experiencing in these trying days.
The web has changed, the needs have changed, the research volumes have risen in any sector, it is a difficult time but when it comes to SEO and marketing in general we should also see that it is a period full of opportunities that can – and must – be caught. The data we showed you so far mirror the country where our HQ is, Italy, but we actually find them suitable for every single country out there since restrictive measurements took by the governments all around the world are basically the same.
We at Seozoom really pay great attention to the data we provide you: we sincerely hope that this analysis will be useful to you in order to understand the new dynamics that have developed in this period and the sudden change in the research focus of our users and customers.
