Some keywords always remain relevant and popular all year long and will benefit you immensely, year after year, especially if your goal is to create evergreen content; other keywords undergo spikes and rises in popularity during different parts of the year—i.e., they trend seasonally and are thus referred to as “seasonal keywords” because people search for them mostly during certain times of the year.
Holidays are good examples: more people purchase Christmas trees or ornaments in December than any other part of the year; more people look for bathing garments during the months that precede summer, and they look for snowboards during winter; the majority of costume sales occur before Halloween.
Other good examples are the seasons for different sports: many people search for information about the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl early in the year; many people search for information about the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals in April and May of each year.
Generally, many people search for some keywords and phrases at certain times of the year than they do at other times of the year. So, when looking for keywords for your internet business, always remember that certain keywords are more capable of supporting a brand or niche and result in more sales than other keywords. It’s crucial to consider seasonal traffic when building your website.
Importance of using seasonal keywords
Although seasonal keywords and seasonal keyword trends are highly relevant and popular for short time periods, they can help your business strategy to reach new audiences, boost or attract high seasonal traffic, and receive a lot of revenue from seasonal purchases.
In addition, since it’s not every business that uses seasonal keywords, there tends to be less competition among businesses that use them. Using seasonal keywords can really be worth it, but this depends on both your long-term and short-term goals. Ensure that when using seasonal keywords in the short term, it won’t distract you from achieving your long-term SEO goals.
Important advice to consider before using seasonal keywords
- use Google Insights or other tools to discover the seasonal keyword terms that are highly relevant.
- shortly before the season you are targeting, create and publish original content that shall consist of seasonal keywords: certain keywords and keyword phrases (Christmas tree, jewelry, honeymoon, etc.) should be considered before or during a given holiday (Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day). Take note that they will likely spike or rise in popularity around or during holiday periods.
- look for many keywords that can give conversions: if possible, look for hundreds of good seasonal keywords, instead of a few—but this depends on your goals and the size of your site.
- be wary of selecting and using a bunch of irrelevant or low-traffic keywords: get rid of them and focus on the relevant medium- and high-traffic keywords that are capable of converting visitors to customers or making visitors open their wallets.
- don’t discard or neglect your long-term SEO goals when producing seasonal content.
Tools for conducting research on seasonal keywords
When figuring out how often seasonal keywords are being searched for, you can use various tools to monitor them and make your evaluation. Some tools have to be paid for, while others are free. Two examples of free tools include:
1. Free search engine keyword planners (Google, Bing, etc.)
You need a Google AdWords account to gain access to the Keyword Planner keyword research tool which is located at https://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner. You can make use of the end‐of‐the‐year reports of Google Trends www.google.com/trends which provides information on how often a seasonal keyword is used during a given day and when spikes occur.
Bing’s tool page can be accessed at www.bing.com/toolbox/keywords. Even Microsoft has a keyword tool that can be accessed if a user should have an account.
Each individual keyword planner provides additional suggestions based on seed keywords, the level of competitiveness of keywords, and the average number of searches for keywords. Keyword planners go a long way in revealing keyword popularity by mobile devices and the location of search engine visitors or users.
2. Free KSP tool for search engine optimization
Bruce Clay Inc. provides a free keyword tool that can be accessed at https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/free-keyword-research-tool/. You need to simply enter or type seasonal keywords into the “Please Enter Keywords” box and click the “Run KSP” button to get results about keyword counts and demographic information.
When the results appear, you can place your mouse over each seasonal keyword or keyword phrase to view demographic information concerning the type of individuals that are searching for seasonal keywords or keyword phrases.
You can run the free KSP tool as many times and with as many keywords as you wish. There is actually no limit, and you can enter 12 seasonal keywords at the same time.
On the other hand, if you wish, you can go for the following paid tools or services—but you would have to pay at least a bit of cash to use them:
3. SEOToolSet
In addition to the free tools offered by Bruce Clay Inc., you can subscribe for paid fully-integrated SEO tools which are far more equipped than the free version or tool. The paid pro version of SEOToolSet is available at a certain price per month and for up to two domains: www.bruceclay.com/seo/tools.htm.
4. Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com)
Wordtracker is a keyword tracking service that people usually pay for when selecting either the monthly or annual pricing plans. But before paying to use it, you can test the free trial that is on offer.
5. Keyword Discovery (www.keyworddiscovery.com)
Keyword Discovery is a paid keyword tracking tool or service that was created by Trellian and can be subscribed for at a price that is quite higher price than the price for subscribing on Wordtracker.
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