Winter is almost over, and Canadians are beginning to long for warmer days. At this time of year, everything is challenging – including finding enough business blogging ideas to write about and post. That’s where seasonal trends can provide you with inspiration and subject matter, make your posts relevant in real time and leverage the benefits of seasonal SEO.
Using seasonal trends is a fairly obvious strategy if you’re in a field like retail, but how do you apply this kind of thinking to engineering? What about pest control services? Or the sale of insurance policies? Here’s how—and why—you should consider the time of year even if your business doesn’t have a seasonal component.
Play on “Frame of Mind”
“Seasonal” doesn’t just mean the holidays, although that’s the main one that comes to mind when we hear the word. It also refers to the calendar, the weather, school openings and closings, special dates such as Valentine’s day and events like the Super Bowl, the elections or the Grand Prix. At any given time users are searching online for particular topics, and just because your product or service doesn’t fit neatly into those categories is no reason not to make the most of the prevailing frame of mind.
You’ll notice how I began this post with a reference to winter? That’s specifically designed to appeal to the frame of mind of users wondering “will it ever end?” I’m sure I’m not the only North American who feels this way, and linking the post to a common mindset is a way of establishing a rapport, acknowledging mutual circumstances and creating that human connection that’s so vitally important in business blogging.
Leverage Human Trends
People conduct their online searches based on the topics that are top of mind at the time, and by applying those trends you can ensure your business blogging ideas remain relevant to your target audience.
Here’s an example: Statistics from Click Optimize, a Raleigh NC-based marketing firm, show that searches relating to weddings over the past 7 years spike significantly in January and again in June and July. Why? Probably because the Christmas period is a good time for couples to get engaged during family celebrations, following which they start planning their wedding once the holiday is over. The same thing applies to summer, with the added advantage that June is wedding month and attending friends’ nuptials can spark ideas that need further exploration. If you offer any of the following, those are the times to be posting regularly:
- Event management services
- Wedding planning
- Function venues
- Catering services
- Wedding dresses
- Wedding cakes
- Honeymoon travel
- Legal services
- Document registration services
- Jewelry sales
- Beauty products
- Decoration services
- Flower arrangements
- Clothing and accessories
- The list goes on and on…
Get Ahead of the Game
Ok, you say. This makes sense. But what if I’m in engineering? Or pest control? How does that apply to summer, Valentine’s or any other time of year? Pest control, for example, is busier during the warmer months than it is during winter. But that’s no reason why you should only be posting during spring. In fact, spring could be too late if you want to capture the summer customers.
To reach the SERPs and generate any sort of rank, you need to post optimized content well enough in advance that it has time to be recognized by the algorithm. That doesn’t happen overnight, and experts calculate that it takes around six to eight months of blogging regularly to do so. Sure, you can speed up the process with a few strategically-worded Google AdWords, but sponsored SEM doesn’t have quite the same credibility as organic search does. So to benefit from seasonal trends, you have to be, well – less seasonal. Get ahead of the game by posting your optimized blog content long enough in advance of the season you want to tap into that the copy has time to settle, get indexed and generate some traffic.
Using seasonal trends to inform your business blogging ideas requires some basic research using tools such as Google Trends, which helps you to know what users are searching for and when. Cross-referencing this with your keyword research will inspire topics you can use, and posting regularly will build the ranking you need to make your business blogging work for you.
