Seasonal SEO: Beginner’s guide for ecommerce
Whether you’re buying a gift for Mother’s Day, or shopping for new swimwear for a vacation, seasonal shopping is a common practice among customers. It’s why so many brands plan far in advance for events like Black Friday, and why people set reminders for upcoming sales.
Seasonality is a huge part of ecommerce, and it extends to search engine optimization also. Much of the time in SEO we talk about the long-term, and how to make sure your content gains authority over time. But in seasonal SEO, we’re talking about how to make a big impact in the short-term while search users are most interested and engaged.
In this article we’re going to go over a quick introduction to seasonal SEO, how to identify the seasonal periods most important to your brand, and how to optimize your site.
Introduction to seasonal SEO
What is seasonal SEO?
The term “seasonal SEO” refers to a form of search optimization that focuses on different periods of time throughout the year. That might be around an event like Black Friday, or a longer period of time like summer. It’s somewhat the opposite of evergreen content which is relevant year-round and most often the type of content that you’ll read advice about. Seasonal SEO focuses on satisfying search intent at a specific time of year.
Why seasonality matters in SEO
Search intent is one of the most important factors in attracting new visitors to your site. Keywords are only one half of the puzzle - you know the terms they’re using, but search intent tells you why they’re conducting that search. For example, the keywords might be “ballpoint pens” but what is the intent? Is it informational, to learn more about pens? Is it transactional, to purchase pens? Search intent is that all important puzzle piece in understanding users and providing them content which will satisfy their needs.
Seasonality is another way to understand search intent. By identifying key periods throughout the year that are relevant to your brand, you can create content and prioritize keywords that will attract users and turn them into customers. It allows Google to provide a better user experience, also. This is important to Google, and in turn should be important to your SEO strategy.
For example, if a user searches for “cocktail kit best black friday deals” they want to see deals for the year they’re searching in. They don’t want to see information about last year’s Black Friday deals, and they don’t want to see just a standard product catalog with no deals present. So, the content they’re searching for is seasonal - it’s only relevant then and there for a limited time.
By optimizing for seasonal SEO, you provide a better user experience that truly satisfies search intent.
Seasonal SEO and ecommerce
Throughout the year, you likely see your sales rise and fall. Sometimes a rise in sales might be the result of a promotion, such as an end of season sale or a special discount code. And other times it will be seasonal, whether it’s due to a specific event or time of the year. The end of the year, for example, is generally a period where merchants see an increase in sales due to people buying gifts or participating in Black Friday weekend. With these seasonal events, you want to find a way to draw more customers in and SEO is a solid strategy to do that. 49% of shoppers surveyed say they use Google to find new products.
However as with SEO any other time of the year, you’re still competing with other brands in SERPs. So you need to find creative ways to climb the rankings, and seasonal SEO strategies can help with that. You’ll be better servicing the customers using seasonal search terms, providing them with more relevant content, and Google will take notice. This will help your store to climb SERPs and catch the attention of your target audience more easily than just sticking to your year-round site content.
How to identify important seasonal periods for your store
There are some seasonal periods which will be obvious to target. These include Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, and the holiday season, plus any other holidays and events that are relevant to your brand for instance Father’s Day or back-to-school. If you already know these are relevant, then you can start by targeting these. However, here are a couple of additional tips to help fill out your seasonal SEO calendar.
Use Google Trends
A great way to see what’s relevant at different times of the year is to use Google Trends. This will give you information about keywords which are rising or falling in popularity throughout the year. It can help you to identify keywords or even products which might perform better at certain times of the year that you might not have originally considered. For example if you sell different types of shoes, and you see sneakers growing in popularity around a certain time of year consistently, you can look to target those products with seasonal SEO.
Analyze your own data
Generally speaking, your sales combined with Google Analytics will be able to tell you the most information about which products, pages, and times of year are more relevant to your seasonal strategy. By noting periods of rising sales and connecting them with increased site visits, clicks, etc. you can create a sort of calendar that highlights important periods for your store. These may line up with things like Black Friday, or summertime. Or they may not - in which case you can do some extra research to see if there’s a seasonal event or audience you haven’t considered.
How to optimize for seasonal SEO
1 - Find keywords and prioritize search intent
Many good SEO strategies start with identifying keywords and search intent. This tells you what you need to know about your audience that will allow you to create the kind of content they’ll be interested in and will catch Google’s attention.
Start by looking at the keywords you currently target, and consider how these may be adapted to different seasonal events and periods. For example, if you’re looking for Black Friday keywords then it might be your usual keywords plus any modifiers related to Black Friday e.g. “deals”, “Black Friday”.
Then look at your own data - are there any keyword trends from previous years you can target? Are there any terms which saw a rise in use at specific times of the year? Consider also the kind of audiences looking at different times of the year. For example if the seasonal event primarily focuses on gifting, then it’s likely to be a different audience with different terms and intent to your usual target audience.
2 - Create a variety of fresh, relevant content
Next up - adding seasonal content to your store. Users expect seasonal content to be recent and relevant, which means Google expects the same. Adding seasonal content can include writing blogs, creating landing pages, adding temporary collections, and adding content to your homepage.
Blogs and landing pages allow you to add more targeted seasonal keywords to your site. Especially with blogs, you can create a few different articles to target different audiences. For example, a gift guide can target gift buyers whereas a how-to article might attract more people buying for themselves.
3 - Schedule time in advance to review and improve technical SEO
Having a technically well optimized site is essential for SEO in general, and especially during seasonal periods where you expect more traffic. That’s why it’s important to schedule time in advance where you can properly review, analyze, and improve upon your site’s technical SEO.
Look at issues you perhaps faced during previous seasonal events, or issues that regularly arise. For example if you notice certain collections or pages are slow to load, or if you had a high bounce rate on certain products or at checkout. Using tools like PageSpeed Insights and SEO Manager will help you determine where to focus your efforts.
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Seasonal SEO is a great strategy to have in your optimization tool kit for your store. You’re likely already planning sales and marketing content seasonally, so adding SEO will enhance your chances at acquisition through a high value channel.