Seasonal SEO and Content Calendars to Boost Your Search Rankings

In SEO, Timing is Everything, Particularly in the Festive Season

It’s not just the ecommerce stores that see seasonal spikes. Is your business leveraging the opportunities that the holiday season brings?

From the moment Halloween was consigned to history for another year, the major retailers declared open season on the Christmas shoppers. It was obvious from their TV campaigns and the seasonal displays that started to appear in high street store fronts from the beginning of November. However, with online shopping accounting for a larger proportion of sales with every passing year, it should be clear that it is just as important to adjust the digital marketing strategy as it is to work on these more traditional channels.

Seasonal SEO is a way of attracting the extra traffic that can come your way during the holidays, and it does not just apply to ecommerce sites. This is a time of year when people will be searching in all sorts of areas, whether it is how to cook their turkey to perfection or tips for combatting loneliness during the festive season. Thinking about the seasonal searches that potential visitors might make at this time of year is the first step towards implementing new SEO strategies to boost traffic, search rankings, and conversions.

Create an SEO Content Calendar

The first step towards taking advantage of seasonal SEO opportunities is being prepared for them. A content calendar is one of those things that every business knows it should have but few properly implement. Yet there is nothing magic or complicated about it. There are numerous content calendars that you can download, ranging from a simple WordPress plugin that is free to install to more complex paid solutions.

Whichever you choose, having a content calendar and starting to use it is the first step towards implementing seasonal SEO techniques that can pay dividends. After all, the calendar does more that remind you when you need to add content. It also provides the opportunity to plan out in advance the blog categories that you are going to be covering.

Themed Content with the Right Keywords

Seasonal SEO can be as simple as creating themed content, whether it is on Christmas gift ideas or how to throw the perfect New Year party. Sometimes, however, it can be an even simpler matter of thinking about the keywords on which your target demographics will be searching. For example, the ecommerce world flies into a frenzy over the phenomenon of Black Friday every year. Adding these words to your keywords with phrases like “Black Friday free shipping” or “Black Friday mobile phone deals” will drive more traffic to your site.

Outside the ecommerce sector, the same rules apply. A site that provides support for those battling anxiety or depression can add seasonal keywords to their content to accommodate the additional traffic that the stresses of the festive season inevitably bring.

Update The Main Landing Pages

Seasonal SEO is not all about creating seasonal content, important though this is. Remember, the homepage and primary landing pages are your website’s focal points and this is where most new traffic will arrive first. Make sure those seasonal keywords are incorporated here, too, update the main images and alt text, and finally, include plenty of internal links to that carefully constructed seasonal content.

Of course, with SEO you need to work well ahead of the events. Start any off-site seasonal campaigns 3-6 months beforehand, publish the first seasonal blog posts on your website several weeks in advance and continue to create new content throughout the season. While Christmas is by far the most important shopping season, do not ignore other events and dates throughout the year.