How we are helping in the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccine research and development usually lasts two to five years, with up to a decade before the vaccine is ready for public use, but with COVID-19 causing disruption and deaths worldwide, teams across the globe are pushing boundaries to deliver one much sooner.

In August, ‘Race Against the Virus: Hunt for a Vaccine’ aired on Channel 4. The programme follows a team at Oxford University and their work to develop a vaccine at unheard of speeds and gives detailed insights into the pressure each individual is under to create a vaccine in record time.

Oxford University’s research sits within a separate sub-domain to its main website, meaning they must compete against both the ac.uk site and third-party news publications for visibility in the SERPs. The site itself is difficult to navigate so users who do land on the sub-domain find it difficult to access information on the coronavirus research.

We have provided a pro-bono SEO health audit, which highlights technical areas for improvement, including the use of schema mark-up, canonical tags, improved site structure hierarchy, content optimization and improved UX. We will also be working with Oxford University to improve how they track their multiple websites in analytics.

By helping the research team improve their online visibility, we hope to help Oxford University keep the public up to date with accurate messaging about their vaccine research and development. Having access to the correct information is crucial in times like this and we are proud to play a part in improving the team’s accessibility.