Next month will mark one year since the coronavirus was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since that time, we have witnessed drastic changes and behavior shifts from virtually every industry and global market, as businesses and consumers alike pivoted to the “new normal.” The way COVID-19 has affected web traffic, digital interactions, and online trends are of particular importance, especially as industries and businesses all over the world are finally beginning to look optimistically to the future.
Here are five of the most important and influential ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected both what people are searching for online and how they search for it:
People are finding new ways to communicate.
Since the first recorded COVID-19 related death in the U.S. last year, traditional social media sites and platforms (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have seen relatively steady growth. Due to many worldwide mandates on quarantines, isolation periods, and social distancing, however, an increasing number of people have been searching for ways to connect with one another beyond text messages.
Source: The New York Times, April 7th, 2020
As such, commercial video-hosting platforms, such as Houseparty and Zoom, have seen exponential growth since the onset of COVID-19, especially when compared alongside more traditional social media platforms. People have been—and many still are—craving personal face-to-face interaction.
Increased searches for essentials on eCommerce websites and platforms.
Accompanying the growth of video chat platforms, particularly at the start of the pandemic, were also increased searches for home essentials, such as household cleaning products, sanitizers, bottled water, and toilet paper, to name a few. Terms and keywords such as “groceries”, “food”, and “delivery” saw a sharp increase in search quantities, especially when coupled with others— such as “local” and “near me” due to stay-at-home orders.
This change in trend has undoubtedly left a long-term impact on the grocery and food delivery industry, as we saw a boom in searches tied to these early last April, as platforms such as GrubHub, DoorDash, and Instacart rushed to take advantage of the uptake.
Search data show people are more mindful of their health.
Because of COVID-19’s rapid spread and the relatively-still-unknown long-term effects the virus can cause, millions of people the world over have become more mindful and aware of their own physical and mental health, as well as the potential effects the pandemic could have on them. For instance, the Mayo Clinic noted that the relative search volume (RSV) for most keywords related to COVID-19 symptoms, testing centers, and vaccines more than doubled between March and April of 2020.
Search trends with keywords tied to “insurance” also increased throughout most of 2020. According to one article, U.S. searches for “life insurance” and “unemployment insurance” increased roughly four-percent and 40-percent respectively, with Google reporting that searches for some insurance-related keywords exploded by more than 600-percent in a single day.
Increased searches for hobbies, especially health and wellness.
Searches related to hobbies, especially those tied to aspects of mental health and wellness, also surged during the pandemic. On May 12th of last year, U.S. searches for “hobbies to pick up during quarantine” surged by 400-percent.
Many websites and platforms tied directly to health and wellness, such as Talkspace and BetterHelp, also saw multiple-digit increases in search traffic between January and April of last year compared to the same period in previous years.
Internet use and traffic has swelled and sustains throughout the day.
Perhaps the most drastic shifts in what and how people search online as a direct result of the pandemic are tied to the many businesses and organizations that shifted their employees to work remotely. The same goes for schools and students. Because of this, many spikes in internet searches and usage that would have otherwise typically occurred after the end of the pre-COVID workday are now seeing sustained levels throughout the day.
For example, Verizon saw a 25-percent increase in week-over-week voice usage and a 22-percent increase in total traffic between March 12th and 19th of last year. Video streaming services offered by platforms, like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, also reported double-digit week-over-week growth, and online gaming surged by 75-percent during the same week.
Due to the influx of internet traffic and usage, many businesses and platforms with online digital offerings are also reporting much higher transaction and customer conversion rates in the last few months, with Statista reporting a 26.7-point increase in online transactions and a 24.7-percent increase in customer conversion rates last month when compared to January of 2020.
Of particular interest to this point is also the six-point-six-percent decline in “time per session”. This shows us that while internet traffic and usage continues to increase, and digital consumers are willing to spend more money online, the decrease in time spent making each digital transaction further hints towards a “new normal” of online consumer behaviors and trends.
About the Author: Steve Wiideman is an Orange County, California based strategic planning specialist and founder of The Wiideman Consulting Group. He has spent the past 15 years creating a powerful niche as a “scientist” and practitioner of local and e-commerce search engine optimization and paid search advertising.