Is your search in season?
The internet has revolutionised the way we shop but has not changed the key motivators behind consumer behaviour. People buy flowers for Mothers Day, book summer holidays, buy gifts at Christmas and take out loans and credit cards in January.
The Interactive Media in Retail Group last month reported a record year for online spending in 2005 as UK consumers spent £19.2 billion on goods and services, 32% more than in 2004.
Growing evidence of the ecommerce up-rise should not be ignored: roughly half of all buyers use a search engine before their online purchase (DoubleClick); 74% of online consumers use the internet for one of its most valuable functions to research and compare (Henley Centre); and Christmas saw a 300% rise in traffic to comparison shopping websites (MarketingSherpa).
Boost the effectiveness of your search marketing strategy by targeting seasonal buying habits. Hitwise, the online data intelligence providers, last week reported a 28% rise in visits to flowers and gifts websites for the week ending February 11th. Along with Valentines Day, marketers can streamline their search marketing according to relevant consumer driven seasonal peaks and trends.
Time is certainly of the essence. If you want to make sure your website is positioned in line with your seasonal search peaks, consider these top tips for a successful seasonal search strategy:
Plan your seasonal search calendar
Pre-planning is critical if you want optimum traffic and sales from search engines. Your calendar may include the more traditional peaks times such as Mothers Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas, but bigger consumer influences should not be ignored.
Best Western Hotels planned a promotion around the World Cup in order to boost traffic from world cup related searches.
Choose your search terms carefully
Thorough search term research relevant to each of your seasonal peaks is essential. Analysing historical data is the most effective way of understanding and planning for seasonal trends. Hitwise provides data on over 500,000 business across 160+ different industries and based on the internet usages of more than 25 million people in six different countries. These search terms can then be used to add new content and inform your paid search strategy.
Avoid the bottleneck
For top natural search listings at the time of highest demand, it's more effective to establish a presence throughout the year for each peak. It's tough to rank high if you start optimising your website just a short time before a seasonal peak you want to be found top for, as competition will be strong. Similarly, the cost per click from the paid listings rockets closer to and during each seasonal peak, in line with demand. Start bidding on relevant terms earlier for optimum value, before costs soar and competition intensifies.
Online betting website Bluesquare keep pages relevant to their seasonal calendar all year round. Albeit at different levels, but interest in events such as the Winter Olympics, Grand National and World Cup occurs throughout the year.
Add relevant content
Write and integrate content relevant to your seasonal calendar into your website now for a long-term presence in the natural listings. The content should be based around your search term research and can double-up as deep linked landing pages for any paid search activity.
Keep it fresh
To boost your seasonal traffic in line with your calendar, it's best to re-write the content on each relevant page approximately four to six weeks before the seasonal period or activity you want to rank for. This will boost visibility and visits when it really counts in the natural listings and promote a user-focused website. Link to these pages from the sponsored listings before and during each seasonal event for maximum presence and value.
We re-fresh content specific to Valentines Day for online florist Post-a-rose.com straight after Christmas. A six week lead time ensures high visibility in the natural listings, maximising traffic and sales in time. Content for Mothers Day is re-freshed immediately after Valentines Day.
Government campaigns such as next week's No Smoking Day on 8th March will heighten searches by people looking to stop smoking. GSK website click2quit.co.uk recognises this as their busiest time, along with the post New Year's resolution period, and step up their search activity.
Widen your online community
Gain links from websites relevant to your seasonal calendar to help boost your link equity. When search levels rise, a stronger link equity will help position you as an authority on each seasonal topic and boost your natural listings.
Horses for courses
Each industry follows specific trends that will need to be considered. Marketers of travel websites should factor in the common latency trend (the length of time between browsing and buying) of up to 120 days for travel bookings.
Families searching specifically for holidays in Lapland at Christmas search throughout the summer. Travel website Iglu.com adapts their search strategy to achieve full visibility for such holidays during these high search demand months.
Seasonal opportunities are endless, but both natural and paid search offer plenty of opportunity to target your most profitable seasonal peaks. If you would like to discuss seasonal search opportunities, please contact a member of the Spannerworks team on 01273 828100.
Good luck, we look forward to seeing you at Christmas!
Article by Charlotte McDougall, Marketing Manager at Spannerworks. If you have any further comments or queries please contact Charlotte on +44 (0)1273 828137.
