For much of 2020, the entire world has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Economies have been affected; businesses both large and small have faced falling revenues and the challenge of diversifying their income streams to make up for a loss in walk-in custom.
Overall, there has been a tone of everybody being in this together. Governments, charities, and individuals the world over have been doing their part to help their communities where they can. Many major corporations have done the same, and tech giants Google are no exception.
Here are five things Google has done to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google Ads – COVID-19 relief credits
Google itself is financed in part by paid advertising on its search results. Whilst the bigger corporations pay more on a company-by-company basis, small and medium sized businesses contribute far more in terms of sheer volume. To aid those smaller enterprises during the pandemic, Google has provided Google Ads credits worth $340 million to SMEs across the world.
Loaded Google Search results
Google is the main point of information for many of us when it comes to learning about the current status of the pandemic. Aware of this, the company has incorporated additional information into search requests that include COVID-19 related terms. This allows users across the world to not only access huge swathes of information from reputable sources, but can also filter them to match their query precisely.
Reducing misinformation on YouTube
Being an unmoderated medium, the Internet is prone to misinformation. The major social media platforms have taken steps in one way or another to ferret out the bad advice regarding COVID-19, but it has been a constant battle between public safety, free speech, and a barrage of millions of new posts to be checked each day. With their YouTube platform, Google has taken a different approach. Whilst their moderators diligently try to weed out deliberately misleading videos, they have tweaked their algorithms to ensure that news from legimate sources such as national governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are displayed prominently on home pages and in search results.
Free access to Hangouts Meet video-conferencing
Hangouts Meet is Google’s video-conferencing application – comparable to Zoom, Skype, and other similar software. Normally a paid subscription service, Google made Hangouts Meet free any customers on their G Suite and G Suite for Education platforms through to the start of July. As part of this initiative, they also added resources to YouTube allowing more people to publicly livestream events, classes, and more.
Google My Business temporary change updates
Even without a pandemic, Google My Business is a great tool for any company. It allows you to keep your customers informed of any changes to your business’s working hours or other circumstances. With the disruption caused by COVID-19, it has become an invaluable way to keep your clientele in the loop. It allows you to mark your business as temporarily closed, a measure that does not affect search results or rankings. It also allows you to leave a message for existing and potential customers, informing them of your current position.
Google has made these tools available for everybody and, here at 123 Ranking, we have a team of digital marketing specialists ready to help you use them to your advantage. For more information on what we can do for you and your business, contact the team today.
