What Are Investors Searching For Right Now Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic?

As investors and financial planners try to navigate the economy and figure out their next move in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever to be “plugged in” digitally. If you are a financial advisor providing level-headed advice and putting out content daily talking about these volatile times, you are well-positioned to help many, many people. So, what are investors searching for out there, as they try to figure out what is best for their family, their business and themselves?

4 Top Trending Topics Investors are Searching for Right Now

Keep in mind that many of these same individuals that are searching, may not have a financial advisor, and they are likely confused, uncertain and looking for answers. Now is the most opportune time to drive traffic to your website and offer your services to people that are looking for answers. There is no better time than now to offer your professional advice and guidance to people looking to save their retirement nest egg, continue to contribute to their children’s college fund, save their small business, and many other things to continue to build a strong financial future amid a global pandemic.

1. “What should I do with my 401K right now”

This phrase has hit peak popularity on Google Trends and it is crucial right now as there are many Americans who have every cent of their retirement savings tied up in their 401(k) and are searching for this. Even before the new rule went into effect, allowing Americans to withdraw up to $100,000 from their 401(k)without penalty, we were seeing this query hit peak popularity. That’s because many Americans have their retirement contributions automatically deducted each month from their paycheck and automatically invested into their employer-sponsored 401(k).

Millions of these same investors do not currently have a financial advisor – and now, they are searching for this query, hoping to find guidance.

The below chart from Google Trends shows how the query really spiked in the middle of March when the coronavirus became more widespread throughout the United States and people were beginning to worry more about their 401(k)’s.

Related Search Queries:

• “Withdrawal from 401k without penalty”
• “I need my 401k money now”
• “Should i withdraw my 401k now?”

2. “Small Business Owners During Coronavirus”

Small businesses are really taking a hit and many entrepreneurs are trying to figure out where to turn next and what their best options are to keep their businesses afloat. If your niche is serving small business owners now is the time to step up and really help answer business owners’ questions about loans, operations, costs, budgets and other common questions to help their businesses survive a pandemic.

3. “What Is The Outlook For The Economy?”

This is something that is on everyone’s mind as the market has gone down 25% this month, tumbling 10% in just one day, which was the biggest drop since 1987.  Financial advisors have access to these projections and can help you figure what to do with your investments and make an assessment of your risk tolerance for the future. Even though you can see it has spiked three different times this year, the main first one in late February occurred when people were just beginning to discuss the virus outbreak in China, and then twice in the middle of March when the pandemic really ramped up in the United States.

4. “Is Now The Time To Buy Stocks?”

This is a heavy-hitter question that is very often at the forefront of investors’ minds but especially during a market downturn. Again, you can see how this search term really peaked in the middle of March. It took a big dip down, came back up and is now holding steady.

These are the types of questions and topics that people need answers to immediately and they will be turning to financial advisors for assistance with this. It’s pertinent that you are there to assist them in any way possible.

How to Leverage This Search Data in Your Content

Now that you are armed with a handy tool like Google Trends and some of the top questions searches are Googling at the moment you can really use this information to your advantage when you are creating content for your audiences. Here are three different ways you can use these trending keywords to your advantage:

1. Blogging

Think about the keywords that you are doing to be using based on these searches. Keywords are essential to bringing traffic to your website and marketing your advisory firm. They are one of the easiest ways to really boost your SEO efforts and bring in new leads.

Using a word frequently throughout your website says something about your firm, and when you are creating content at the time of the global pandemic, then it’s important to update your content to best serve your audience. Ways to use these keywords in a blog post include:

1. In blog post titles
2. Throughout the body of blog posts, especially in your header tags

Although it may be easier to rank for some types of keywords over others, you’ll want to use a combination of them all for the best chances of showing up on the first page of search results. Don’t forget to include more specific keywords like your geographic location to help boost your local SEO rankings.

It’s important that during this time, you are putting out even more content than usual. You want to be keeping your website visitors up to date with the most relevant and timely content so that they can find out the answers to their burning questions during these difficult times. Strive to create at least one blog post per week and make sure to treat each post almost as individual landing pages – leading traffic back to your main website, contact page, etc.

Lastly, continue to check Google Trends as things are changing rapidly from one day to the next, as are many of the search queries, so tailor your blog posts and content accordingly based on what people are searching for.

2. Historical Optimization

Don’t forget to check (and keep an eye on) your website analytics. Many advisors will likely see a spike in older articles you have written on topics related to market crashes, volatility, bear markets, recessions, etc. The best approach to take when you see a traffic spike on a blog post is to optimize them even further.

3. Social Media

Now is the time to increase your posting frequency on social media,  especially since people are spending even more time on social media and news outlets in the midst of the quarantine. You can continue to share your own blog posts, especially if the content that you are producing is relevant, however, work to find more graphs, charts and compelling visual information to share. In fact, studies show that when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later, however, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.

Additionally, social media profiles are a big part of search results. Studies have shown strong correlations between social signals and ranking positions as being extremely high. So not only is it important to be active on social media right now it will also boost your traffic in search rankings especially if your sharing content related to the top trending keywords your clients and prospects are searching for.

4. Create a Dedicated COVID-19 Resource Section On Your Website

We love this example from Mitlin financial – they created a separate Coronavirus subpage under their resources section on their website to house only Coronavirus updates for their clients and prospects. This is a great approach to create a “home base” of sorts that people can turn to for up-to-date information on the virus.

Here’s a quick tutorial from Twenty Over Ten’s CMO, Samantha Russell, on how to update your website with information pertinent to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Final [Pro] Tip

When creating a blog post consider titling your article as a question. Using the exact phrasing people would actually type into the Google search bar in a question-based format like this will help the search engine match your article with “user intent,” leading more people to find your article online.

In a Nutshell

Now is the time to make sure you are doubling down on your content marketing efforts. This is the MOST amount of time people have EVER spent online and not being where clients and prospects are spending their time is the biggest mistake you can make right now. People are online and on social media now more than ever, so it’s the perfect opportunity to step up your digital marketing efforts to stay connected and actually grow your advisor business.