We’re trained as Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs) to explain to clients that SEO should be viewed as a way to build long term value for a website. This is especially important when establishing relationships with clients, as traditional SEO tactics generally take a great amount of time to reflect changes in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). But what happens when a client has a highly seasonal business or has a yearly recurring event they would like to promote?
Understanding Recurring Demand
When first creating an approach for a seasonal SEO project, it’s important to understand the search volume and demand, and confirm that it does, in fact, have a highly seasonal type of interest. As an example, let’s take a look at Google news headlines for the term “NCAA Tournament” in Google Trends:
Source: www.google.com/trends
As you can see, “NCAA Tournament” searches peak on a yearly basis right around March, as expected, and fall in line with the release of brackets and the start of the tournament itself. As an example, sites like CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and ESPN should highly consider a strategy that allows them to take advantage of this expected demand. We know their general marketing tactics already take this into consideration, but what about SEO?
Creating Seasonal Content
Many business owners look at seasonal content as something to incorporate into a website (like a slider on the homepage or blog posts) only just before and during the actual event. This is not the approach I would recommend. As we know, it generally takes a good amount of time to build search rankings for new pages on a site.
The best strategy for this type of situation would be to find a permanent place for yearly/seasonal content to live on a site. For the example of the NCAA Tournament, let’s take a look at CBS Sports, as they have created a permanent location for NCAA Tournament coverage:
Source: www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/ncaa-tournament
As you can see, the URL remains the same, year round. After all, big basketball fans may refer to the site throughout the year, so keeping this section dedicated to the annual event can help provide photos, dates, and information whenever visitors are looking for it. This is the permanent location of the CBS Sports NCAA Tournament coverage. By utilizing this approach, CBS has created an environment where they can consistently focus on both their on-site and off-site SEO tactics. By simply adjusting content on this page to match what is currently happening with the tournament, they are providing visitors with the timely content that they are looking for.
Additionally, we know that SEO is set up to “catch” visitors at the point at which a search is made. So what becomes most important here is creating that landing page which will be set up to accept that traffic most effectively when the time of year comes for the seasonal peak. Business owners should not focus on off-peak metrics closely as the goal is to be ready when the large amount of search traffic hits and have an optimized site ready to go to accept that traffic.
Using our example from before, CBS Sportsline ranks in the 7th position on page one in Google searches for “NCAA Tournament” (as of 3.19.13). Within this highly competitive search category, which is rich with fresh news content, this is a great result (especially considering that it ranks above Wikipedia, which is not easy to do!)
Source: www.google.com
Taking this approach may be a bit of a sell to some clients, especially since it can be common to allocate budget to what’s happening here and now. But if you can prove the benefits of creating a “permanent placeholder” for peak times, top products, or periodic events for seasonal businesses, this year-over-year, long-term tactic, will show results that are consistent with standard SEO approaches and expectations. Also notable, this is a great way to establish a lasting relationship with clients, create loyalty, and demonstrate brand value beyond increasing general website traffic and leads.
What seasonal SEO situations have you encountered? What was the approach?
Source:
http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/march-madness-understanding-seasonal-seo-ncaa-mens-college-basketball-tournament
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