By Website Seasonality we mean two things:

(1) Adapting your website to the seasons to better connect digitally with your visitors.

(2) Understanding Internet searches which often vary with seasons or time periods.

=1= Adapting your website to seasons:

Website seasonality is not something web designers or online marketers often speak about even though it can be crucial to the success of your website. It is obvious that online retailers and eCommerce websites experience seasons. If you sell a clothing line, buyers would most likely start to buy Summer style clothes around Spring time and Winter clothes when Summer ends. Therefore you have to update your website by putting forward the clothes that are “in season” so that your site stays relevant.

If you are a service based company, website seasonality may also apply to you. For instance if you provide HVAC services, you are most likely to do air conditioning unit installation or repair during the Summer and heater type services during Winter when it is cold.

Understanding the seasons for your website and adapting its content and design accordingly will give your site the extra edge it needs to stand ahead of your online competition.

Once you have determined if your company is prone to online seasonality, you have to develop a marketing plan for your website.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• When are my website’s seasons?
• What type of changes should I make and in what time frame?
• Are these changes textual, visual or both?
• Am I currently able to handle the changes myself or do I need to schedule my web designer to make these seasonal adjustments?
• How extensive do I want those seasonal changes to be?
• Should they be throughout the entire site or just on a few selected pages?

=1= Understanding seasonal Internet searches:

Every website should have some sort of analytics in place that analyzes its visitors, how long they are staying on each page, which pages they tend to visit and in which order, etc. Google Analytics is the one we recommend for the simple reasons that it is free, easy to install and is a Google product (aka the most important search engine you want your website to “impress”).

Looking at the monthly data for your visitors and especially prior years compared to current year can clearly show you the seasonal trends. You will be able to see that certain keyword searches are more popular during specific months. Based on your findings, you can adjust your marketing efforts to match the seasonal searches.

In conclusion organic website seasonality should be without a doubt a part of your SEO analysis, online campaign preparation, launch and monitoring. If your Internet marketer has not mentioned it yet, make sure to bring it up to his/her attention; this way you ensure that you have a successful website and that your online marketing efforts are maximized.

For additional questions email us directly.