Valentines Day… and Many Other Reasons Why You Should Use Seasonal SEO

Quick question – what have you prepared for Valentines Day? Any plans? I’m sure you do. In this article will not talk about the best ideas on how to plan the perfect evening with your date, but rather about the best ones how to use it for your business (yeah, I know – it’s not a very romantic statement, but let’s leave this kind of of stuff for a less commercial occasions;).

Seasonal SEO

People online are constantly searching for information online, but the number of searches concerning seasonal events like Valentine’s Day or for example – Mother’s Day, is going sky high.

Seasonality is about changes in the way people interact with search engines throughout the year. Seasonal SEO focuses on optimizing your site for seasonal keywords and their variations, in order to get more exposure in SERPs during a specific period of time.

Let’s analyze the potential traffic volume and competition level for the most popular keywords. As you can see the potential traffic is pretty decent and the competition for the keywords below is quite low. It could be quite easy to get some exposure in the first search results page. I hope you don’t mind generic examples – a proper keyword research probably would reveal many other great keyword opportunities associated with this particular date. Why not use it then? Seasonal SEO is a really good chance for every business owner to increase awareness around his company and fortunately – number of sales. This applies especially to local businesses, e.g. restaurants or any kind of stores that offer products or season-specific merchandise.

How to utilize seasonal SEO in your strategy

1.Plan in advance

The preparation is the key to success in using seasonal SEO as a part of your marketing strategy. If you’d like to appear in Google and get some additional traffic to your website you need to plan in advance. Trying to rank for a keyword just before the big day starts will end up in missing the big wave of seasonal traffic. Notice how the seasonal traffic disappears right after the end of the day.

2. Prepare a list of seasonal event over the year

If you have a publishing schedule try to plan content especially for the seasonal events. Valentine’s Day is just an example – there other special occasions around the year that are even more business-centric. For example, check out how beloved Black Friday compares to Valentine’s Day:

3. Know your keywords

Like said before, a really comprehensive keyword research is essential. The more time it will take, the more keyword and content ideas you will be able to create. It is a good practice to have some inventory for other keywords and their variations around, rather than a single piece of content (even if it would be really great one in terms of quality).

4. Create relevant content

As for the content… if you’ve prepared a keyword list it doesn’t mean that you ought to create a set of generic, look alike websites, targeted for different keywords. More content isn’t always the answer. Always think in quality over quantity way – most of the times it pays off.

5. Create a list of seasonal SEO events

Every industry has its peak seasons and once you identify these trends and opportunities, you’ll be able to create content or landing pages around them and optimise your web pages to reflect those special occasions. When used in the right way, seasonal SEO can be a great tool to help you get an edge over your competitors.

Try to prepare a list of seasonal opportunities. You can start with this little help:

• Valentine’s Day
• Easter Season
• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day
• Graduation Season
• Summer holiday season
• Back to school season
• Christmas and New Year’s Eve

Once the season is over, leave the pages as they are and don’t delete anything. They will work for themselves throughout the year until the next season. You could refresh them from time to time with new elements, new offers and… if you’re an affiliate partner – new links. This is especially recommended to do just before the next season starts.

Did I miss something? Please feel free to share your thoughts below!