I built a COVID Lookup Website in 2025

When COVID-19 made an unexpected comeback in 2025, panic and confusion followed. As a developer, I felt the urge to do something useful—so I built a real-time COVID lookup website that ended up helping thousands of users across Europe and the U.S.

This is the story of why I built it, how I built it, and how I made sure it reached the right audience.

Why a COVID Lookup Site Still Matters in 2025

Even with years of pandemic experience, reliable public health information was still:

Scattered across dozens of websites
Hard to find on mobile
Often outdated or too localized

⚠️ During the first 10 days of the 2025 outbreak, Google searches for "covid symptoms 2025" and "new variant USA" spiked by over 600%.

The Tech Stack That Powered It

I kept things simple but fast:

Frontend: Next.js + Tailwind CSS
Backend: Node.js (Express)
Data: Public APIs from CDC, ECDC, NHS
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish
SEO tools: sitemap.xml, structured data, Open Graph meta tags

Making It Useful for Europe and the U.S.

✅ Multilingual Support

Users automatically saw content in their browser language, with manual toggles. This increased session time and trust.

✅ Location-Aware Results

The site auto-detected location (with consent) to show:

Local case counts
Nearby test centers (where available)
Country-specific regulations (masking, travel)

✅ SEO + Speed = Traffic

Optimizing for long-tail queries like:

"is covid back in France 2025"
"cdc mask update may 2025"
"covid lookup site real-time"

…helped my site rank on Google page 1 for several localized terms within 3 weeks.

Results After 30 Days

👥 100K+ visitors
📍 Top traffic from: 🇺🇸 U.S., 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇮🇹 Italy
⏱️ Avg. time on site: 3.2 minutes
💬 120+ messages from users thanking for easy access

What I Learned

Speed + clarity beats fancy features.
Trust comes from transparency and linking to official sources.
Developers can create impactful public tools with just a few weekends of work.