Over the last few weeks, we've been keeping a close eye on how demand in online search is changing following measures taken against the spread of Coronavirus.
We work predominantly in the financial services sector, so it's a sector we've monitored closely. Thanks to tools such as SEOmonitor's COVID-19 search trends tool, we've found some pretty staggering data culminating in 14m searches and significant increases in demand.
All of the data from the tool is based on Google Ad's Keyword Tool and SEOmonitor's own 'trends' data and it compares demand from February 2019 with demand in February this year.
The most dramatic changes in demand
The biggest changes in demand came from two topics in particular.
'Fiduciary' topic searches moved from 1.4K searches last February to 10k this year, that's a rise of over 600%.
Searches for the topic of 'funds' increased by 175% from 80k to 222k, making it a very significant area of search now.
Other significant increases in demand
- Investment +99% from 301K to 597K
- Travel Insurance +88% from 1.7m to 3.2m
- Pensions +66% from 515K to 854K
- Mortgage +64% from 1.8m to 2.9m
- Banking Regulation +64% from 4.4K to 7.2K
- Financial Services +44% from 37.9K to 54.4K
- Insurance +30% from 3m to 3.9m
- Remortgage +26% from 131K to 165K
- Financial Advice +25% from 148K to 185K
- Loans +20% from 1.4m to 1.6m
- Wealth Management +20% from 19.9K to 24K
- IFA +19% from 103K to 123K
Growing demand
In total, these topics cover hundreds of individual search terms (keywords) and total nearly 14m monthly searches with an average increase of 96% in demand.
The data will soon be updated with numbers from March 2020, which is likely to signal an even more significant growth in demand.
This comes after the Financial Marketeer reported on record-breaking increases in demand for financial services through Google search, using data from Google Trends.
What should firms be doing?
According to a report from Marketing Week, nine in ten marketers are delaying campaigns in response to COVID-19, however columnist, Mark Ritson encourages marketers to buck this trend and focus by thinking long-term.
Regardless of what your approach currently is, the data suggests that now more than ever, there is a huge demand in online search and brands could certainly benefit simply by investing in some smart market/keyword research and a content strategy in order to, at the very least, ensure their brands are visible when audiences search.
