Coronavirus, SEO and Airport

Written by Kristina Azarenko

This is going to be not an ordinary post on MarketingSyrup.

It’s not about SEO (mostly). 

It’s personal. 

The airport comes first

As I’m writing this post, I’m sitting at the Frankfurt airport waiting for my connecting flight back to Toronto. I’ve never been to Germany before. It’s nice here as I can see from the window. But I wish I could visit this country under different circumstances.

And I wish I could visit my parents under different circumstances as well. 

I woke up today in Belarus at my parents’ place. A few hours later I was already on my way to the airport to urgently fly back to Canada. It’s closing its borders for tourists for now, but soon it might close them for everyone, who knows. 

I came to visit my parents for the first time in the last 1,5 years. And I had so many plans. Like all the people in the world who didn’t expect anything like coronavirus to happen. 

I’m not going to go into the darkest corners of what’s going on in the world, you’re pretty much aware of it. Instead, I’ll share what I’ve experienced lately. 

And first of all, the flights. They are the worst. I faced a situation when the flight for the next day is already cancelled but I haven’t been notified about it at all. That’s why I needed to jump on the only other option which doesn’t include the USA as I don’t have a transit visa. It feels like a roller-coster: you pay money, you even buy travel insurance but there’s an option your flight won’t happen and might not be refunded. So you have to buy another flight that might not happen and might not be refunded. 

Here are my updates on this trip:

But I’m happy that now I’m at least on the way back to Canada. Even though I’m at an empty airport (as you can see from the tweet above).

Honestly, I’m scared. People are impacted, businesses are impacted. 

I was negatively impacted as well. And it’s not fun.

The things that we can do now are:

  • Keep social distancing.
  • Wash. Hands. I mean really do it. For 30 seconds minimum.
  • Stay safe. Mentally and physically. 
  • Support each other

Beginning of my March

No matter what, I’m so thankful for everything. The beginning of March was THE BEST!

I spoke at the Women in Tech SEO Festival:

I’m so thankful to Areej for organizing such an awesome event. And I was also happy to finally meet the people I’ve been talking to online for a while:

My talk was on eCommerce SEO: how to create high-quality sub-categories at scale. If you haven’t caught the slides from the talk, you can find them and the summary of the 8-step eCommerce Framework here.

I was also honoured to be featured on Search Engine Land in the post about 13 stories of women who are shaping the SEO field.

Women in SEO - Search Engine Land post

There are many more women who are shaping the SEO industry. And I’m happy to be part of this powerful community <3.

So what about SEO?

People are panicking now. Many businesses are cutting their costs and move the budgets from SEO to other initiatives. 

Does it make sense? Honestly, sometimes it totally does.

But the truth is that coronavirus is a temporary thing (which is GREAT, we just need to get through).

It also shows us how important it is to be present online. Here’s a screenshot from my talk, it illustrates the state of eCommerce at a current growth rate:

But in reality, this might happen earlier. If you have just an offline location and you have to close it due to circumstances like COVID-19 or any others, you’re losing sales. 

But if you have a website, you can continue serving your customers even during such unpredictable times. Here’s an example from Urban Outfitters:

Surely, clothes are not something many people are rushing to buy right now but based on the comments to Urbanfitters IG posts, their customers are happy to shop online.

So the thing is: COVID-19 will pass (better sooner than later). But the importance of online presence will stay. Are you ready for it? Because the chances are that your competitors are not, so this is a good time to get ahead of them.

SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s about being dedicated and consistent. And if you start with it now, you’re much further ahead when the dust settles.

You can contact me here and to talk about the SEO opportunities for your business.

Remote work, maybe?

I’ve been working from home for almost 2 years. It’s not easy. And I can understand how overwhelming it might feel if you just have to start doing it without proper preparation.

Aleyda’s Solis put together a great checklist for remote work. It’s based on many years of her own experience working from home as well as tips from other people who are doing it.

Also, staying at home means you potentially have more time. It’s a great way to use this time to learn new skills. I already started going through the courses I’ve had on my list forever. And I’m relaunching my SEO Challenge course very soon, so subscribe for the waitlist to get notified when the course starts.

The summary

I like structure and I love summaries. So I can’t help here. 

  • Coronavirus is ruining everything
  • I hope I’ll come back home to Canada soon
  • SEO is not dead. And for some businesses now might be a really good time to act
  • Remote work is hard but there are tried tools and tips you can use to help you with the transition
  • Wash your hands. Seriously. Right now. 

Update

I got home! Yay!

Wait! Here is more:

Why SEO is Just Like Fitness
Design and SEO: Everything You Need to Know About Image SEO
The Hero Guide to Working From Home (ft. Iron Man and Thor)