Keyword Seasonality
People search for different things at different times.
For example, Valentine’s items are searched for from early January to mid-February. The rest of the year no one except for the occaisonally confused person will be searching for such items. Thus, keywords that pertain to Valentines have a particular season in which they will attract traffic. Don’t expect much traffic to a Valentines based site in July!
Of course, the seasonality of holiday based keywords is easy to see. However it pertains to other items as well. For the most part, keyword seasonality correlates with general retail trends. People don’t search for patio furniture in October.
Some keyword phrases that don’t seem to have a seasonality factor probably actually do. Technology does not seem to take any breaks. However, don’t forget that summer times when people vacation or Christmas time when people are focused elsewhere, that searches for particular phrases can dip.
Being aware of keyword seasonality is essential. First, it helps explain certain traffic patterns. Second, it can be an excellent targeting tool for marketing. Third, understanding seasonality helps avoid keyword performance disappointment.
The only tool that tracks this seasonality is Keyword Discovery. It tracks keyword usage up to the prior twelve months. It is easy to see the ups and downs over the prior year for any given keywords.
[tags]keywords, keyword seasonality[/tags]
Posted by Paul Flyer on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 in Keyword Analysis
