How to work seasonal SEO?

From Black Friday to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, special occasions like these bring surges in web traffic as people hunt for gifts or take advantage of seasonal offers. These spikes present prime opportunities to boost conversions and drive sales. So, how do you take full advantage of these moments? The answer lies in optimizing your SEO strategy for seasonality, helping your brand climb the search engine ranks during peak times.

If you’re looking to optimize your website and tap into the profitability of seasonal searches, you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’ll cover the benefits, the best times to implement a seasonality strategy, and actionable tips to help you achieve,  and exceed, your business goals. Keep reading to learn how to make the most of these seasonal opportunities!

¿Qué es la estacionalidad en SEO? 

SEO seasonality refers to the fluctuations in keyword search volume that occur at specific times of the year. In other words, it’s the increase in search interest for certain terms during peak periods, driven by seasonal trends and events.

Some examples include:

• The search for ‘Christmas gifts’ will increase in November, December, and early January, as this is when the holiday is celebrated.
• The search for ‘carnival costume ideas’ will rise in February.
• Searches for ‘swimsuits’ or ‘sandals’ will intensify during the summer season.

As we’ve seen, seasonality significantly influences users’ search intent. This intent is shaped by factors like the time of year, holidays, or emerging trends, making it possible to anticipate and leverage these shifts. A key element in aligning with this intent is understanding your brand’s target audience and their seasonal needs and behaviors.

Why work seasonal SEO?

Enhancing seasonal SEO can lead your business to:

Gain visibility

Aligning with key events and emerging trends throughout the year enables your brand to stay relevant and become a part of the social conversation. By working on SEO, the chances of becoming a choice for consumers increase, and if their experience is positive, it strengthens the brand image. Additionally, you will gain more visibility by addressing the audience’s needs.

Competitive advantage

If you can anticipate these search peaks and prepare for them, you can gain a competitive edge. A useful recommendation would be to analyze your competitors to understand how they approach SEO.  You can enhance this strategy with market research to identify emerging trends and optimize your website ahead of time.

If your competitors are optimizing for seasonal SEO and your brand isn’t, when search volumes for your products peak, their offerings will dominate the search results increasing their chances of making sales. Your goal, however, should be to ensure your brand stands out and captures that traffic instead.

Attract new customers

With a seasonal marketing campaign focused on SEO, you can attract new customers. If your business’s website climbs search engine rankings, there’s a higher chance that traffic will increase and new users will discover your products or services.

To ensure they stay on the site and move through the conversion funnel, it’s ideal for the website to be visually appealing and easy to use. At Redegal, we have a team of web development experts who can assist you with your company’s website, and ensure a seamless user experience.

Consumer spending increases on special days

Many of these special dates are tied to gift shopping or the availability of promotions and discounts on products and services. For example, Black Friday or Cyber Monday. During these times, people often wait to make planned purchases, eager to take advantage of lower prices. During these times, people often wait to make planned purchases, eager to take advantage of lower prices.

When should you focus on seasonal SEO?

Seasonality in SEO can be worked in two different, yet complementary, ways:

• Time-Based Focus. In this case, the strategy is created for a specific time period, which may correspond to the seasons of the year or particular months. For example, in an ecommerce store selling clothing, it is advisable to focus SEO efforts on four seasons: summer, spring, autumn, and winter. The goal is to sell season-specific products during each of these periods.
• Event-Based Focus. This approach is centered around specific dates on the calendar, such as Christmas or Easter. There are also more concrete days like Halloween, Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, and others. These events drive increased search activity and can be leveraged through tailored SEO strategies targeting those specific occasions. 

This approach focuses on key dates throughout the year, such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Black Friday, and Valentine’s Day. These occasions drive increased search activity and can be leveraged through tailored SEO strategies targeting those specific occasions.

4 Tips for Success in Seasonal SEO

1. Planning is Key

Los motores de búsqueda también necesitan tiempo para clasificar el contenido. Por tanto, de nada servirá publicar contenido escasos días antes de la fecha señalada porque la visibilidad no será la misma a que si se realiza la estrategia meses antes. En periodos como Black Friday, la consultora GfK estimó que el tráfico web puede incrementarse hasta un 20% en ese día y un 11% las jornadas previas. Estas cifras demuestran la necesidad de trabajar con antelación porque será un beneficio asegurado para tu empresa. 

Planning is essential to anticipate and know how to act. One of the key strategies is to create a calendar at the end of the year with the key dates for the following year, allowing you to develop strategies well in advance and ensure greater effectiveness. Remember, time is always an ally for success.

Search engines also need time to index content. Therefore, posting content just a few days before the key date won’t have the same visibility as if you plan the strategy months in advance.

2. Combine the Strategy with Other Communication Channels

 Social media can significantly enhance your seasonal SEO strategy, as long as it aligns with your goals. Beyond boosting visibility, social media plays a crucial role in driving traffic to your website, helping you reach a wider audience and capitalize on seasonal trends. Key points to consider for optimal results:

• Focus on content: Create specific, valuable, relevant, and useful content for the user on each key date, but also ensure it’s high-quality content year-round. Tailor your content to engage your audience, which will encourage them to follow your brand and remain loyal. For example, on Father’s Day, you can share customer experiences or product suggestions that would make great gifts for fathers.
  (Note: Each social media platform has unique features and audiences. Study each platform to incorporate them into your strategy and achieve the best results.)

• Create campaigns: Promote posts that have been published on your company’s profile to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your site. 
• Use hashtags: Hashtags are another tool to help position your brand on social media. Use tags related to the season or event you are targeting, such as #Christmas, #Spring, or #BlackFriday.
• Organize contests and giveaways: Running contests or giveaways has a direct impact on user interaction. It can be an opportunity to give visibility to your brand and connect with your audience, for example, by offering discount codes or free products.

3. Conduct Good Keyword Research

Choosing the right keywords is essential in SEO to achieve results. This is why it’s important to conduct thorough keyword research. It helps identify seasonal keywords that will peak in popularity at certain times of the year. Strive to balance high-traffic, competitive keywords with more specific, lower-competition ones to build a well-rounded SEO strategy.

Tools like Google Trends or Google Ads can help you find the right keywords. Once you have identified the keywords, incorporate them naturally into your content. Try to include them in product descriptions, meta information, URLs, titles, or images. The goal is to create valuable content for the user.

4. Optimize Your Website

Boosting SEO is great, but if it’s paired with an attractive website, it’s even better. Ultimately, SEO will help people find you, but your website is what will keep them there and convert them. It’s no use attracting seasonal organic traffic if the user experience on your website isn’t positive.

Want to work on a seasonal SEO strategy? At Redegal, we’re here to help! Our team of SEO experts can elevate your business to the top of search results. Shall we talk?