Fall 2020 Seasonality Trends in SEO + Back to School Bonus

August is the perfect moment to prepare for the upcoming change of seasons. Although a lot of businesses are currently at their sales peak, in terms of SEO now is the time to take steps towards achieving the best visibility in search engines. Apart from a seasonal overview, I’m giving you bonus tips for this year’s, slightly unusual “Back to School” period just so that you can make the most of the last quarter of 2020 in your e-commerce.

Current trends in e-commerce industry show a keen demand for travels and a range of travel accessories and services such as suitcases or cheap flights. Due hot weather, air conditioners sales also gain popularity. Interestingly enough, the trends don’t indicate any growing demand for summer garments or shoes which suggests that consumers are slowly getting ready for the fall season without giving much thought to their summer wardrobes.

Upcoming Trends

The upcoming fall season is marked not only by transitioning from your summer to fall wardrobe but also by higher infection rates. In September, consumers will already be searching for fall clothing and shoes, so online sellers may expect more traffic in categories dedicated to fall fashion.

The upcoming trends also show a larger demand for cold medicines as well as fall books that are meant to bring more coziness into the longer and longer fall evenings.

Not to mention Halloween. Celebrated at the end of October, it generates the demand for costumes and accessories already in September.

A bit later, since the beginning of October, people start getting interested in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the other two crucial (in terms of e-commerce) events.

1. Prepare your shop for the upcoming season by bringing the relevant categories to the forefront. It’s a good idea to create a brand-new category for products which are usually used in fall, e.g.  “Fall fashion”, or section “Cold and flu” if we talk about shops selling medicinal products. Displayed in the main menu, seasonal categories will be reinforced by the SEO value of the main page so that it will increase your search engine visibility.

2. The creation of seasonal categories should be followed by their optimization. First of all, make sure they contain content optimized for seasonal keywords that should be put in the headline tagged H1 in the code as well as in sub-headings. In the process of choosing seasonal optimization keywords, pay attention to long-tail phrases as well as the so-called Question keywords that are usually used in voice searches. The latter will come in useful when creating mini guides attached to a certain category with ready-made answers to the key questions such as “What is the best medicine for flu and cold?” or “What shoes to wear in fall?”. You should also place keywords in title tags and meta descriptions as well as ALT attributes to photos of products. This has a great influence on visibility in image search results.

3. In case of nearly any e-commerce business, you may think of creating a special offer dedicated to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. During that period, users are actively browsing the Internet trying to find the best bargains. In case you can offer attractive discounts to your customers, make sure you are well prepared for the sale period.

What can you do right now? First of all, you need to create a separate landing page with your special offer. Similarly to the seasonal categories, it should include content optimized for keywords, i.e. “Black Friday sales”, “best Black Friday deals”, “Black Friday deals online”, “Black Friday deals online”, “Black Friday shopping” (the same goes for a landing page dedicated to Cyber Monday). The main and all the other important pages in your online shop should have a link to the landing page to reinforce its SEO value and increase its chances of appearing higher in search engine results.

4. Before entering a new sales season, check your online shop in terms of technical SEO features. Pay attention to page loading speed; look through messages in Google Search Console and fix any possible errors; make sure your shop works as well for your mobile visitors as it does for your desktop users.

Back to School, being a reference to the upcoming school year, is a good chance of increasing online sales for many e-commerce businesses. Shops selling stationery and other school supplies should be prepared well ahead of time to keep up with skyrocketed last-minute demand usually generated by parents. In August, there are some frequently asked questions when it comes to the Back to School period:

“Back to school” (search volume: 246 000)

“Back to school supplies” (search volume: 49 500)

“Back to school sales” (search volume: 90 500)

“Back to school shopping” (search volume: 27 100)

“Back to school deals” (search volume: 8 100)

“How to choose a school bag for a girl”
“How to organize a study space for a child”
“X school accessories that you should buy for your kid”

Such guidance notes do not have to be very detailed, yet they should be relevant enough to answer users’ key questions. There certainly could be links to product offers but stick to the advice format as added-value benefits for readers should be essential when creating this type of content.

I am sure that the above tips will empower organic traffic on your e-commerce – whether you aim at back to school or other fall occasions. Remember that the preparations should be consistent with the marketing activities if you plan them. Then you can be sure that your shop is ready for the upcoming months. If you want to learn how to use the potential of SEO even more or check if your e-commerce is fall-ready let us know. We will be happy to share insights with you.