A Reason for the Season
Search Engine Optimization is an integral part of any business endeavor. As a business, you want your name to constantly appear at the top of the rankings. Once you’ve optimized your web site for SEO purposes, you may feel like you can sit back and relax. Well, if you do, you’re probably missing out on a large opportunity.

The Reason?
People are constantly searching for things online. But what you may be failing to capture is seasonal traffic. For example, during Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day there is a spike in traffic for searches related to these days.

The Season
Seasonality is the way that people interact with a search engine throughout the year. When you implement Seasonal SEO, what you’re doing is focusing on specific seasonal keywords and their variations. This will grant you more exposure to SERPs during a particular period of time.

By taking advantage of this potential traffic volume, you will garner more traffic and gain exposure. I would recommend performing some research to go beyond generic keywords. This may reveal great opportunities that your competition might overlook.

Seasonal SEO represents an opening for any business to increase awareness of their brand and product, and increase the number of sales. This is even more important for businesses that specialize in season specific merchandise and services.

How to Implement
So, you’re sold on the idea of Seasonal SEO. As well you should be. Well then, how do you get started?

Plan Ahead
Preparation is key. If you’re aiming to capture traffic on a specific day like Valentine’s, then you need to be ready weeks in advance. You see, the seasonal traffic spikes a couple of days just before the targeted day – and will then drop right after. If you’re not ready, you’ll completely miss it.

Make a List
So far, I’ve mentioned Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day in this post. But they’re not the only ones out there. Do your research as to which days represent the best business opportunities for you. Every industry has its own peak seasons. Identify these trends and you’ll leave your competition in the dust.

I’ve prepared a little something to get you started:

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

Keywords
There’s nothing more important than comprehensive and exhaustive keyword research. Let me say this again: nothing is more important than… well, you get the idea. Also, have a variety of keywords ready to capture what your competition lets slips by with generic terms.

Content
Content is king my friends. And the better written it is, the better. Make sure to offer your potential clients rich content that resonates with their needs. The last thing you want is for them to click back after all the hard work it took to get them there!

After the Season
The best part about Seasonal SEO is that once you’ve put in the work upfront, you’re pretty much set. Think about it; the seasons don’t change! They’ll be coming back year after year and you’ll be ready for them. So don’t delete your pages and links.

A caveat though; I would recommend doing a little refreshing from time to time. It never hurts to stay updated!

Conclusion
Seasonal SEO is another asset to add to your ever growing toolbox. If you implement it well, you’ll be ready to sail upon the ebb and flow that comprises Internet traffic.

As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome. Let me know if there’s a new topic you’d like for me to cover or perhaps even dig deeper into a past one.