The first snow flakes fell today, here in Fergus, Ontario, Canada. So this seemed like a fitting subject ;o)

OK, I said “snow flakes” - not winter storm. We still have to wait for a few months before the busloads of white stuff will arrive…

Anyhow,

when seasons change, you have to prepare yourself. Did you rust-proof your car, clean out your eavestroughs, stock up on salt?

Fall is here, and Winter is near.

OK, you don’t have to clear the entry to your website with a snow shovel, but most websites (and businesses) do face seasonal trends. Here are some tips to take advantage of them:

• Is your peak season just around the corner – Christmas perhaps? Rely on Pay-Per-Click advertising from Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to make your website temporarily more visible in the search engines – immediately. PPC advertising is flexible and immediate, soo that people searching for your type of products or services can find you when it matters most: your busiest time!
  • Coupon for $50 in free Google Adwords clicks or $25 in free Yahoo clicks? (for new accounts only)
    Host your website with Bluehost - like we do! Bluehost is also the favourite webhost of super-affiliates like Rosalind Gardner [from The Supper Affiliate Handbook fame; How I Made $436,797 In One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online] and Jeremy Palmer [who taught all the PPC stuff in Anik Singal's PPC Classroom v 1.0])

• Take a close look at your website from a visitor’s perspective. Are the opening hours of your store easy to find (if you mention them at all)? How about your address, phone number? Modern consumers research on the Internet before they go out the door; make sure you don’t disappoint them.
  Consider a website usability evaluation.

• With these current economic unstable time: do you offer time-limited discounts? People love discounts and coupons, and the limited availability forces people to act now!

• When it is your peak season (maybe it is the summer, perhaps Christmas is when you are busiest?), you cannot do anything else than maximizing the potential that this period has to offer. But don’t rest on your laurels once it is over. Use this time to breathe some new life into your website. Review your content – is it still accurate and fresh? Perhaps plan a redesign. Start thinking about a website promotion plan. Maybe it is time for a Content Management System (CMS), so you do not have to rely on your web developer to make changes for you. Review your peak season’s statistics and see whether you can find any error pages that need fixing. Maybe you feel inspired enough to start writing a blog (online journal)? The possibilities are endless, but you need to come up with a solid plan.
  If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there…

Review – plan – ACT. Your lull time should be the time to review your current website, strategize your promotion and optimization strategies and then of course: don’t forget to implement them!

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