Impact of COVID-19 on Tradies in Australia

You don’t need me to tell you about COVID-19 and the impact we’re all seeing from this horrific virus breakout.

It is impacting everything that we do, the way that we live our lives, and our economy in ways we can’t yet fully comprehend.

Everything is moving so fast.

I know a lot of you tradies are concerned and worried about your futures - and how you’re going to get through this period, so I wanted to put together some research based on real Google data to help you guys out.

We’re going to uncover the trends that we’re seeing for Australian tradies broken down by the individual trades. 

Specifically looking at which trades are coming into demand and which are not.

We’re then going to follow up with some guidance on our recommendations to help you get through this and come out of the other end with a stronger business.

Ready to find out more?

How We Sourced Our Data

We sourced our data from Google Trends, this is a tool that Google provides and shows us how individual search terms, phrases or topics are trending around the world.

What’s more, we can then isolate that data to specific countries and/or regions – which then allows us to get pretty granular on how searches are trending for each individual trade.

For example, in this instance we are focusing on the whole of Australia.

Whilst Google do not share search volume (that is the absolute number of searches conducted), it gives us a “relative position” data set.

Relative data is useful, because we can begin to understand what the relationship or trend between each individual “tradie” over a fixed period of time –

In the case of our research, 12 months to the current date, to make the data meaningful to us.

What The Seach Trend Data Tells Us For Tradies In Australia?

So the first point to make is that we know all industries are suffering at the moment, and we can see that very clearly when we look at every trade compared to when times were much better in November.

I’d also like to add that we were also aware that the economy was getting shaky, and we all knew that interest rates were at incredible lows.

So there’s absolutely no surprise when the data shows us a massive downtrend since November across all trades, with a few winners along the way.

This data is Australia wide, and so different regions or states will trend differently when you drill down onto those.

Ah!

But before you get down, there’s some good news!

Yes, really.

When we look at the data week-on-week for the last period to date (2nd April 2020), we see some interesting trends.

We’re seeing recovery across a lot of industries and trades compared to last week, and that certainly is refreshing news for you Australian tradies!

Check this out...

Pretty cool, huh?

This may have been impacted by Scott Morrison announcing that every single working individual has an essential job, or it may just be that demand hasn’t completely gone out the window.

It’s hard to say or determine, but the important thing is that there is still demand and search volumes are seeing an uptick across the board.

And that's awesome! There is light.

What Should You Do About COVID-19 If You're A Tradie?

Well we obviously know that these are unprecedented times, but what we have seen many times in previous economic recessions are that those who make the smart moves (now), will rebound back much harder at the other end of this.

In other words, play your cards right now for the next few months and get ahead of your competition in a massive way.

Looking at the data, we recommend focusing your attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) whilst there is still the window of opportunity for you.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is how we get tradies to show up at the top of Google listing for things like “Plumber in Sydney” or “Electrician Northern Beaches”.

Why?

Let's look at the facts.

·      State Government Lockdowns are in place for the next 90 days (end of June 2020)

·      Federal Government advice is 6 months for life to return to normal (Sept/Oct 2020)

... And Good SEO takes around 6 months to get to a solid top 3 position.

With SEO, you’re going to start seeing results within the first month, but more importantly – you’re going to be primed when your industry is on the up again.

Which it definitely will be, and you too know that it will be.

Now is definitely the time to invest in your business and make the smart long-term moves to put you in a stronger position than you’ve ever had.

Wrap Up

Wrapping up, we have seen the data and we know that there is now an uptick in activity, and an uptick of search trends.

And that’s a good thing!

We also know that this COVID-19 situation is here to stay with us for the next 3-6 months.

And we can use it in our favour if you focus on long term results for your business.

Getting SEO right now, means the difference of killing it in September/October or missing the boat on the rebound.

So, do you meet at least a few of the below criteria?

·      You have a website

·      You have a genuine business

·      You want to survive and thrive after this economic downturn

·      You take your business seriously enough to invest in your success

You want to get found on the internet by customers who are searching for your service.

It’s a no brainer.

Get in touch now, and let’s have a quick 5 minute chat.

You’ll be glad you did.