Updating Your Google My Business COVID-19 Status As Your Property Eases Back To "Normal"

Google has made a variety of changes to the Google "Local Pack" since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to placing a hold on any new reviews being posted to your Google My Business listing, the search giant also added a COVID-19 Update section. This portion of your local Google listing (pictured here) allows your communities to provide residents and prospects with updates regarding your policies and procedures onsite.

As states slowly begin to open up businesses across the country, your community is likely preparing to do the same with certain amenity spaces and new touring options. As you make adjustments to your multifamily digital marketing strategies and to your tour processes, amenity openings, and onsite staff schedules in the coming days, weeks, and potentially months, be sure to update the COVID-19 section of your Google My Business listing for your properties. Doing so will better inform your prospects, educate your residents, and allow for smoother operations for your onsite teams.

Are Your SEM Campaigns Staying Up To Date With Onsite Needs?

When was the last time your onsite teams' need of two bedroom vs. one bedroom traffic impacted your digital marketing strategy? How frequently is your multifamily digital marketing agency altering their bidding based on your vacancy or absorption? Or when was the last time your ad headlines reflected the change in your upfront leasing special? As the monopolized ILS landscape continues to become less competitive, multifamily marketers' ability to be nimble when addressing digital marketing adjustments is becoming less and less of a possibility. Which is why actively managing your apartment SEM/PPC campaigns has arguably become more important now than ever, especially in our new digital world. The catch is how well you manage these campaigns based on your onsite needs.

With property website traffic and apartment searches back in line with seasonal expectations after a slight dip in March, multifamily marketers should look to monitor their search engine marketing campaigns more closely as Summer leasing season is quickly approaching. At Street Digital Media, we communicate with each apartment community we work with on a weekly basis to ensure our online strategy matches what is needed onsite. This includes updates based on retention, vacancy by floor plan type, alterations to upfront concessions, and overall traffic. Doing so, enables our campaigns to match the goals and needs of each property. We encourage multifamily marketing teams to look to do the same in our new virtual world. Managing your SEM campaigns with a property management lens will enable you and your properties to be more strategic in directing traffic to your property websites and better attract prospective renters to your communities.

Google May Postpone Mobile First Indexing Due to COVID-19

We previously wrote about the changes coming to Google in which the search giant will be shifting over to mobile first-indexing, the process at which Google crawls your website and stores its content within Google's search results. The shift to mobile-first is in line with user and website traffic behavior as mobile searches dominate desktop. Like many things in our lives these days, COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into the situation. It is not 100% confirmed just yet, but it is likely that Google will be delaying the full transition to mobile-first indexing until 2021.

For multifamily marketing teams, the delay might bring a welcoming breath of fresh air as many property management companies are in the throws of finalizing their back to work policies and procedures. Nevertheless, it is important to keep the mobile-first shift in mind. Multifamily marketing teams should ensure that their mobile sites are ready for the transition to avoid any detriment to their SEO or paid advertising campaigns. Failure to address ahead of time could result in significant drops in organic traffic and a need to increase SEM budgets to compensate. Preparing ahead of time will allow for a smooth transition for you apartment digital marketing strategies.