Most types of businesses experience some affect by seasonality. Even if the company is not affected as much as say a lawn care company, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have some affect from it. The key is to recognize these changes so that you can notice trends and changes and improve your business strategies to get you through these times.
There are going to be some months out there that are slower than the others. This is true, no matter how you manage your SEO. If your sales are dipping down, then you shouldn’t assume that your SEO strategies are not working for you. This might not be the case at all. It could just be a seasonal change.
One thing that you need to do is understand that seasonality can play an important role in the volume of searches done. IF there are not as many people searching for what you have to offer, you will likely not have as much traffic to your site. Even if your SEO campaign is going full force, you may find yourself with fewer visitors than you are used to having. You can use tools such as Google Insights to help you determine the consistency of search volume throughout the year.
There are some keywords that are specific to certain times of the year, such as holidays. These keywords will usually not get much search volume until the holiday season rolls around. This is something that you must keep in mind.
There are a few keywords out there that you would think would not be affected by season changes, but they still are. For instance, consider “IT services”. This is something that people need year round; however according to Google Insights there is a dip during the months of November and December. This is probably because people are away a lot due to the holiday seasons. Many businesses won’t start on new IT projects during these months due to vacations and such. The searches then pick back up in January due to budget changes, and the fact that people are back in the office.
The key is to not panic during the slower months. You should account for some seasonal changes and make sure that you don’t have to redo your SEO strategies every time you see a dip in your marketing plan.
