Understanding Seasonality in Search Marketing

Search marketing is never static. Trends shift, behaviours change, and one of the most significant factors influencing performance is seasonality. Whether you’re managing SEO, PPC, or both, understanding when your audience is most active (and when they’re not) can make the difference between a campaign that flies and one that falls flat.

What is Seasonality in Search Marketing?

Seasonality refers to the predictable fluctuations in search demand that occur throughout the year. These might be driven by:

• Weather (e.g. heating systems in winter, air con in summer)
• Holidays and events (Christmas, Easter, Black Friday)
• Industry-specific trends (back to school, wedding season, tax return deadlines)
• Cultural or sporting events (Wimbledon, major football tournaments)

Some businesses are heavily impacted by seasonality (think retailers in December), while others may see smaller peaks and dips that still affect results over time. Even in industries that feel “evergreen”, small shifts in user behaviour can impact lead generation, cost-per-click, and conversion rates.

Why Seasonality Matters

Failing to account for seasonality can lead to misjudging performance. For example:

• You might pause a campaign because performance is dropping, not realising it’s a quiet period.
• Or you might underinvest at a peak time, missing out on high-converting traffic.
• You could panic over a drop in organic traffic, when in fact it’s just the usual seasonal dip.

When you understand your seasonal patterns, you can align your SEO and PPC efforts with when people are actively searching, make informed budget decisions, and avoid reactive mistakes.

Being proactive rather than reactive helps you optimise your spend, better serve your audience, and hit your marketing goals more efficiently.

How to Identify Seasonal Trends in Search

1. Use Google Trends

Start by plugging in your key product or service keywords into Google Trends. Select your country (e.g. United Kingdom), and view data over 12 months or even 5 years. Look for recurring patterns. Are there specific months where search volume spikes? Any dips that happen every summer or during school holidays?

Google Trends is also great for comparing terms. You might find that one phrase gains traction seasonally, while another remains steady year-round.

2. Analyse Your Own Data

Look at your website analytics (Google Analytics, Search Console, or your PPC dashboard) and pull year-on-year data.

Ask:

• Are there consistent months where traffic or leads increase?
• When do conversion rates peak?
• Are there drops you previously thought were underperformance, but could be seasonal?

If you have several years of data, even better. Overlay your traffic with known seasonal events in your industry to spot correlations.

SEO vs PPC: How Seasonality Affects Each

While SEO and PPC both live in the search space, they respond to seasonality in slightly different ways.

Seasonality also affects what kind of content people engage with. Optimising blog posts, guides, or product pages for seasonal relevance can give you a visibility edge when demand rises.

Top tips for SEO during seasonal periods:

• Refresh existing pages (don’t create new URLs every year – update and republish)
• Internally link seasonal content to keep authority flowing
• Add structured data (e.g. for offers or events) to stand out in the SERPs
• Repurpose content – turn a guide into a video, a checklist, or an email sequence

PPC

The beauty of PPC is flexibility. Ads can be switched on, scaled up, or paused instantly. This makes PPC a powerful tool for capitalising on seasonal demand.

But you still need to plan:

• Increase budget for high-performing campaigns during peak seasons
• Write seasonal ad copy (including urgency, offers, or key dates)
• Test new ad formats, like Performance Max or Discovery ads, to reach new audiences
• Use ad scheduling and bid adjustments to focus spend during high-conversion windows

In low season, PPC can also help bridge the gap and keep visibility steady. You may not want to stop advertising, but instead shift focus to lower-cost brand awareness or retargeting campaigns.

Building a Seasonal Content & Campaign Plan

To get the most out of seasonality, you need a forward-looking plan. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Map Out Key Periods

Create a simple calendar of the key seasonal events relevant to your business. This could include:

• Industry-specific milestones (e.g. year-end tax deadlines, construction cycles)
• Public holidays and cultural moments
• Past traffic/conversion spikes you’ve noticed

Step 2: Align Your Content

Plan content around these moments:

• Evergreen content for long-term ranking
• Seasonal content that’s updated and optimised annually
• Promotional content for PPC and email campaigns

Step 3: Set Budgets & Goals

If you know when demand is highest, plan your budgets to reflect that. There’s no point spreading spend evenly across the year if your best leads come in Q2 and Q4.

Set KPIs that make sense for the season – awareness campaigns during quiet months, and conversion targets during high demand.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Starting too late: Especially for SEO, late is the enemy. Get ahead of Google’s indexing.

Not aligning SEO and PPC: These channels should support each other, not compete.

Forgetting to pause seasonal content: Outdated landing pages can harm trust. Keep things current.

Assuming every year is the same: Seasonality isn’t always exact. Use your data as a guide, not gospel.

Timing is a Superpower in Search Marketing

Seasonality isn’t a marketing hurdle. It’s a strategic advantage if you know how to use it. The most successful businesses plan ahead, adjust as they go, and stay flexible with their marketing approach.

By aligning your search marketing strategy with seasonal patterns, you’re not only giving yourself a better chance of success – you’re giving your audience what they’re actually looking for, at the moment they want it most.

If you’re tired of reactive campaigns or underwhelming results, maybe the missing link isn’t effort – it’s timing.

Need help building a seasonal plan that actually delivers? Let’s talk.