COVID-19: MONETIZATION & SEO TIPS FOR ONLINE PUBLISHERS



What does COVID-19 mean for online publishers and content creators? Together with some leading SEO experts including Matthew Woodward, Zac Johnson and Servando Silva, we’ve put together a guide to help you navigate through the rocky waters of uncertainty. Read more to see how you can boost your SEO efforts, increase your organic traffic and keep monetizing your website during the crisis. 

How does COVID-19 affect publishers and website owners? 

The current Coronavirus pandemic will have some effects on publishers depending on what kind of websites you have. According to Neil Patel, organic traffic has had a hit in many industries as expected but at the same time there are industries who are in more demand than ever and their traffic has increased during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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Media including news and entertainment, healthcare and finance sites are doing well as people look for things to settle their boredom, boost their immune system and help with their finances. It follows a similar trend as for advertisers (read here the full analysis of how the pandemic is affecting online advertisers). There are verticals that have had a bad hit but at the same time, we’re seeing other verticals growing rapidly. That means that ad revenue from some other verticals might significantly sink as people won’t visit these kinds of websites during the Corona quarantine. But this will open the door to monetize in other verticals.

What are the new verticals during COVID-19? 

We have seen that our advertisers have already started to explore new verticals and niches to match the consumers’ #Stayhome habits and behaviours. Offers and verticals that are currently doing well are: online gaming, video on demand (VOD), health, fitness and self-education, software (VPNs, Anti-Virus software, browser extensions, health/education), online gambling (casino and betting offers), app installs (subscription-based) and finance (insurance, forex, crypto). Therefore, if you have entertainment, lifestyle, health and fitness or gaming/gambling related content on your website, then you could still effectively monetize your users. Our advanced technology will match your traffic with high-quality ads that are most relevant to your users. So, your users are more likely to interact with the ads as they are tailored to them and at the same time you will get paid for each interaction – win win! Find out more on how to monetize your website here.

What should you do with sports-related websites?

If you’re an owner of a sports-related site that has had a huge hit due to the cancellation of most upcoming sports events, don’t worry. You can still create content that is relevant for your users e.g a replay of important games, sports-related movies, top games of 2019 etc. We have also seen that online gambling and gaming has grown significantly since major sports events have been cancelled. Therefore, we have a lot of offers that will match well with your traffic to help you monetize your traffic. This way you can keep hold of your audiences and when sports games are back on, then you already have an advantage.

Focus on your SEO strategy and content creation

A solid SEO strategy is still important for publishers to keep you at the top of search engine results and boost your organic rankings. We have some tips for you on how you can focus some of your #StayHome time on growing your organic traffic, allowing you to monetize it afterwards. 
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We also created ‘The Ultimate SEO Guide’ that will help you to start from the beginning and work your way through: competitor analysis, SEO tools, on-page SEO optimization, technical SEO checklist, link-building and much more. 

Monitor Google Trends and Google Search Console Results

Use the Google Trends tool to identify topics that are trending and getting a lot of traffic. We also recommend monitoring your Search Console rankings to understand how people find your site and what’s the user intent. This will allow you to create more content around the topics that people are interested in and bring more traffic to your site. 

Create more content than ever 

As we have seen over the past month, consumer behaviour is shifting and people are changing their usual search habits. Try to think about the things that people are interested in as people are browsing on the Internet more than ever and looking for engaging content and ways to entertain themselves. Internet usage has surged by between 50% and 70% and there’s increased consumption of digital content. 
The global COVID-19 pandemic also provides opportunities for online publishers and webmasters to scale their content creation. According to Ezoic’s survey, nearly 60% of publishers said that they will push even harder to create more engaging content and it is becoming more important to be ahead of the game.
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Survey question: Will you produce more content now, or test new strategies or ideas?
We have seen that the consumption of media has increased and streaming is up by 12%. So why not create content around “Top films to watch during the quarantine”, “Top TV Series”, “Online gaming add-ons”, “Online gaming tips”, “Online poker tips”, “Top tips to boost your immune system”.  Just try to relate with your audience and understand what they are interested in and what could entertain or educate them. 
Also, more high-quality writers are available looking for work and it might be the right time to get ahead of the competition and it will definitely pay off in the long run. Try different topics and different websites to find the niche that will bring the most ad revenue and use only trustful monetization partners. Check out our guide about the shady practices of website monetization. Don’t get fooled!

How to boost your monetization during COVID-19

Most entertainment sites have seen an increase in traffic as people are stuck at home and bored. It’s a great opportunity to benefit from this and also test out different ad formats to monetize your site.
Our monetization experts are also recommending testing different ad formats during this time. For example, if you’re using pop-under, then you should also try interstitial ads that have a great user experience and something many of our publishers have achieved great results with. 
We have many campaigns running that are looking to match with your traffic. Therefore, keep your tags live and reap the benefits. Not monetizing yet? Create your publisher account now.

Adcash’s Referral Program 

Did you know that now you can earn some extra cash by recommending us to others? Every time you refer a new publisher to Adcash, you will earn 5% of their lifetime earnings. Learn more about the Adcash Referral Program.

Need some extra tips? 

Our account managers have a lot of tricks and tips on how to tackle the crisis. We’re here to offer you guidance on how to effectively monetize your website traffic with Adcash. We can also unlock features that are available for managed clients only! Contact us today!

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