Diet & Nutrition Search Trends Today, in Light of The Coronavirus Pandemic

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has altered almost every single aspect of people’s daily lives in at least 177 countries (and counting) across the globe. As seen in empty grocery store aisles and “Not in Stock” labels on Amazon, people’s buying habits have drastically shifted right alongside the spread of the virus. Along with hand sanitizer and toilet paper (here’s an interesting read on the psychology behind the current toilet paper panic-buying phenomenon), interest in and desire for healthy, non-perishable foods has skyrocketed almost overnight. 

For brands across the health food industry,  this is an opportunity to help current and potential customers find the nutritious foods they need during this challenging time. By keeping on top of relevant keywords and rapidly evolving search trends, health food companies can reach more households in need of their products. 

Writing Timely, Optimized Content for Search Engines

With so many Americans now staying at home and grocery stores being unable to keep up with demand, families throughout the country have been turning to non-perishable goods. Canned and non-perishable foods generally have gotten a bad rap over the years, and many are in fact laden with excess sugar, sodium, and preservatives. However, many of our clients and other health food companies provide much better alternatives. That is why we feel it’s especially important to keep these health food products high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), where people can easily find them. 

When we conduct an SEO audit for a client, we follow a process crafted around the four pillars of SEO: accessibility, relevance, reach, and health. During the relevance phase of Parallel Path’s SEO process, our team researches to find top and trending keywords and to review the primary keyword markets where our client is competing. We then determine current visibility, and look at the biggest opportunities for our client to gain a higher share in organic search. We also have a dedicated content team that is experienced in writing for search engine optimization (SEO) specifically, since substantial and well-optimized content is a key factor search engines consider when deciding which pages to rank. 

Incorporate These Top Nutrition Keywords to Increase Your Visibility

We took a look at how people tended to be searching for information on Coronavirus (people were and are mostly using ‘Coronavirus’ as their key search term, or ‘Covid-19‘) to help folks across healthcare marketing ensure timely and critical information makes its way to patients and customers. So far it’s looking like search trends today for terms related to ‘non perishable’ and ‘protein’ are quickly becoming top nutrition keywords amidst a wave of health food industry trends related to the coronavirus and COVID-19. 

Now, let’s take a look at some of the trending keywords people are using to search for healthy, non-perishable food on Google. Try writing for SEO by incorporating these keywords into your blog or web content to drastically increase your chances of being found via search

Figure 1. Overall monthly trends for a selection of ‘non perishable’ related search terms, from Google:

*Note: graph does not include March since the month is not yet complete, however we expect these trends will continue throughout the month, if not accelerate.

Figure 2. Selected ‘non perishable’ related keyword volumes and trends, as of March 23, 2020, according to Google:


Figure 3. With meat and frozen foods in low supply (or unusually high cost) in many grocery stores, we are also seeing some hot search trends for ‘protein’ and ‘protein powder’ related keywords in Google:

This is a difficult time for all of us. However, it is also a critical time for our country’s health, wellness, and lifestyle companies to lead the way. By providing high quality, nutritious products to the public and using top search trends today to make them easier to find, companies can maintain their business while helping consumers maintain good health.

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