Intro

From wireless headphones to small business voip solutions, some products and services are just necessities all year round, come rain or shine, summer or winter. Others, however, are seasonal. Meaning they’ll be searched for more often, depending on the time of year or on a specific date.

We can split these seasonal products into two categories:

Time oriented – A broad period of time; think seasons and months. For example, shorts and linen shirts are searched more in the summer, while hot chocolate and scarves will yield more searches in the winter.

Event oriented – Referring to specific dates and holidays like Christmas and Easter.

But even if your products aren’t strictly seasonal, you can still adjust your SEO strategy in preparation for those specific times so that you're high on those essential search engine rankings.

Adjusting your strategy might sound complicated, but it’s really not that difficult. And to help you do just that, here are five tips to maximize seasonal SEO for your website.

SEO Keyword Research

SEO keyword research is a true necessity. Search engine analytics can show you the most frequently searched phrases during any time of the year. This will help you understand the customer’s needs so that you can meet them.

Analytics can tell you which of these terms is the most commonly searched for, so you can use these to make your content more relevant and boost its position on search engine results pages.

(Image source: Pixabay)

It’s worth remembering that different keywords will be more prevalent in different regions. So narrow your analytics to specific regions, and adapt your content to each of these.

For example, Thanksgiving will be a huge keyword in the US, but less so in the rest of the world. Similarly, some countries celebrate holidays on different dates, like Mother’s Day.

And finally, remember that seasons are different depending on the hemisphere, so people in Australia will be searching for bathing suits while people in the US are searching for gloves and scarves.

Adapting your content and keywords to your target audience by staying on top of important dates is among the most basic SEO practices, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your brand’s visibility.

Plan Seasonal Content

If you sell candy canes and fireworks, you probably won’t have to worry too much. However, the vast majority of websites that aren’t selling them can easily produce content that leans into a more seasonal theme.

Promotional offers

People love a good deal, especially around holidays when things can get expensive quickly. Offer festive discounts and promotions.

(Image source: Pixabay)

Content

Seasonal blog posts concerning your industry, with relevant backlinks, are a great way to divert traffic and gain vital search engine authority.

Having relevant seasonal content will boost your SEO rankings and entice people to buy from your website. Seasonal shopping often involves a lot of browsing, so it’s worth considering a retargeting strategy to convert traffic into actual sales.

Optimize Existing Content

Creating new content is a great idea, but you don’t have to produce an entirely new URL. Not only will this take a lot of time, but the URL itself also won’t have much authority and probably won’t be able to gain enough traction to be relevant in such a time-sensitive exercise.

Also, having similar web pages, but one with seasonal content can look like duplication. Google doesn’t like this, as it’s a sneaky tactic used to try and cheat SEO rankings.

Instead, use existing URLs and simply optimize them for seasonal periods.

For example, let’s say you provide customer support software all year round. It’s a simple case of marketing this with reference to the season –

“Deliver exceptional customer service this Christmas.”

“Customer support software for the start of term.”

Make sure the URL you’re optimizing isn’t date specific but rather a page that’s commonly used. It’ll already have high traffic, authority, and won’t be ignored because of an old time signature.

Once you’ve chosen your evergreen URL, add seasonal keywords and internal links to seasonal content, like those blog posts or promotional offers we mentioned earlier.

Finally, make sure any changes you make don’t affect mobile compatibility, as you can’t afford poor performance on mobile platforms. Using AMP SEO will let Google know that your site is supported on mobile devices.

Once you’ve made these seasonal changes, update your product map to help search engines find your newly optimized content. Getting this right will combine your regular traffic with the seasonal surge that you’re trying to capture, which will, in turn, boost your overall rankings.

Social Media Campaigns

If you want to funnel the maximum amount of traffic back to your website, you’re going to want to expand your reach to social media platforms. It’s become an invaluable digital marketing resource for businesses of all sizes.

Keywords and hashtags

Many of the same crucial SEO rules apply. So, you’ll want to include relevant keywords and tags in your social media posts.

Different phrasing for different platforms

Think about which platforms are most likely to reach your target audience. If you have an expansive target demo, make sure you present your content slightly differently to suit each platform’s audience. Every app has its own unique tone. And using the same tagline for each one can look lazy.

Backlinks

Of course, include backlinks to your page and products. This will divert traffic and increase your domain authority on search engine results.

Keep an Eye on the Competition

Fighting for that prestigious front-page listing is not an easy thing to achieve, so it’s good to know what your competitors are doing to muscle their way to the front.

Notifications

To keep yourself in the loop, there’s software that will send you notifications when your search engine ranking has changed, for better or worse. If it’s the latter, you can see who’s creeping ahead of you, what they’re doing, and react accordingly.

Subscriptions

It’s also a good idea to subscribe to any mailing list or newsfeed your competitors might have. This way, you can keep track of their SEO strategy and see how yours compares. Is it too similar? Have they included something you’ve overlooked?

Any way you look at it, knowing their strategy can help you make the best tactical decision for your own SEO campaign.

Planning ahead

You can’t always predict online trends or customer behavior. Luckily, there are things you can predict, like the seasons!

So, follow the steps above to get prepared and maximize seasonal SEO for your website

About Author

Jessica True - Senior Director, Marketing Strategy, Dialpad

Jessica True is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, an AI-powered cloud communication platform that offers PBX for small business and takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns.