Different times of the year yield different searching patterns. The biggest example is the explosion of searches around Christmas time, as people have last-dash present buying sessions online, as they desperately try and impress their un-impressible loved ones.
Easter, Black Friday, Halloween – there’s loads of events every year that warrant changing search habits with different trends attached that can affect your customer’s behaviour. And the seasons keep on coming. Again and again. And again *repeat until death*
As the popular awful fizzy drink beverage advert proclaims (you know the one), the ‘Holidays are coming’ which is the most crazy shopping window ever, obviously. So, which tools can you use to work out what people are searching for and how can you piggy-back on changing search terms?
Competitive Analysis Tools
You can take a look at some of your competitors SEO performances to assess what trends they’re experiencing. This is possible with tools like SEMrush. You can search for their specific seasonal performance and generate some useful tips on what’s working for them or what you can do differently to stand out from your competition.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a tool you can use to show you the changing interest in specific terms over time. You can track the fluctuating popularity of terms and assess which times of the year items are popular. You could have a look at the success of particular food types or ingredients in search; some items might appear to be consistent products but Google Trends can tell you a different story.
Narrow searches down to location and intent too, so you can work out which search queries lead to purchases.
Google Keyword Planner
This tool allows you to assess which search queries and terms are popular too. It also offers related terms to help you find even more relevant search queries. Google Keyword Planner doesn’t allow you to get into really detailed, specific trends, but it helps you to identify larger, more general trends and gives you some direction and idea about which areas you should focus on.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console uses real-time data to give you an idea of what search queries are being frequently used for your website. It can give you a comprehensive report on the types of clicks and impressions you’re getting, as well as ranking performance and info about devices being used to view your site. It lets you track trends over the last 90 days.
You can identify high-quality search terms and lets you assess keyword performance. It’s an effective analytics tool that you can link up with Google Analytics too.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics lets you get super detailed information about your customers and their intent. You can decipher which seasons and events are most successful for your brand and which search terms are bringing users to your site. This can help to shape your content strategy.
You can get a really localised, individualised picture about what’s influencing customer behaviour and provide solutions to their unique searches.
Final Word
Instead of just reacting to changes as and when they happen, being able to look at your long-term strategy and map out big events and seasonal holidays etc can help you to prepare and shape your strategy to include specific changes in searcher behaviours. I’m not doubting that you don’t know when Christmas is, but keeping it in mind and planning content months before, instead of churning out last-gasp reindeer puns, is a good shout.