Summer SEO changes
Some market sectors are clearly more competitive during the summer months. In fact, it’s fair to see that some businesses fall away dramatically at other times of year.
This is clear to me when I hear an ice-cream van pass at this time of year. Where are they in December and January? I can only assume that they have alternative jobs for part of the year – maybe they spend the winter months selling electric heaters? Or maybe the ice cream business is more lucrative than I’d realised, so it could be a good time to get into it!…and tasty too!
But I digress. Thinking about seasonal markets got me thinking about seasonal SEO requirements. Some businesses are really keen to hold great search engine positions during one part of the year. The rest of the year is considerably less important.
Although few ice cream retailers are looking for search engine optimisation services (at least – not small retailers who drive vans), there are plenty of other businesses specifically looking to hold positions in June, July and August. You might imagine, for example, that those selling camping accessories might see these as being the key months of the year.
So why should a business owner involved in such a sector spend money on SEO throughout the year? It’s a good question, but is it simple to answer?
One of the big issues that some people have with organic SEO is that it takes time. Some SEO consultants might tell you otherwise, but it really is the case that search engine optimisation takes months, rather than days or weeks.
It’s also true that most SEO companies (including ourselves) have no direct way of telling how the search engine results will change. Unfortunately, that’s all in the hands of Google (and their rivals).
So it might be nice to simply “turn on” an SEO campaign in the summer, but the reality is that it’s extremely difficult to do so. What if you turn it on too late? More importantly, what if all of your rivals are concentrating on their web marketing strategies throughout the year? That could certainly make it difficult to compete.
There may be some great examples out there of companies that have had success from using traditional SEO methods in short bursts, but I must admit that I’m not aware of them. This seems to be an area that could be of rather more interest to social media experts though – we know that social media lends itself rather better to last minute marketing (in some instances).
This is a case of where search engine optimisation can feel complex. Things are far more simple with PPC campaigns.
I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts!
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