Make the most of summer search behaviour

What can you still do this summer to get more traffic?

Fortunately, you do not have to wait an entire year, as there are strategies you can apply now to attract more organic visitors to your website during the summer.

Increase CTR

This is low-hanging fruit and takes approximately 30 searches, but has the fastest short-term effect. Take the top 15 pages on which you already appear on the first page. These are pages that already generate traffic. For each page, enter at least the primary search term into Google and, where relevant, also the next most important search term. Unless you know that visitors mainly access your website via desktop/laptop, the advice is to carry out this analysis in the mobile view, as this provides the best picture of your search result.

Go through this checklist for each search query for the discoverable page:

• The page title is displayed in full;
• The meta description is displayed in full;
• The available space for the page title is used in full;
• The available space for the meta description is used in full;
• The most important search terms appear on the page and/or in the meta description;
• The Unique Selling Points (USPs) appear on the page and/or in the meta description;
• The USPs are at least as compelling as those of the competitors.

Based on each ‘no’, you can adjust the content so that the chance of someone clicking on your result is as high as possible. This is the most worthwhile approach, as it generally requires no technical changes and you also optimise the pages that are already bringing in traffic.

Content optimisation

This requires a greater time investment than the previous method, but it is certainly worthwhile if you select the most important pages. It is particularly advisable to carry out a content analysis if you know that the amount of content on your top pages is on the low side or if you have not conducted a content analysis for some time.

When you are talking purely about text and conducting a text analysis, it is advisable to use a tool that allows you to compare multiple texts and then see what is missing. This way, you can focus primarily on writing and further optimising a page, while saving time on the research. In addition to a textual analysis, it is also important to check how other parties handle tables, images and so on.

When you have no tools at your disposal to compare the textual content, you could compare your page with the top 3. You can then look at whether, and in which areas, the content is more complete. Some aspects you could consider include:

• Use of subheadings and their content;
• The amount of text and its readability, for example through the use of a bullet list;
• Use of images, tables, audio and video.

Once you have made the changes, we recommend asking Google Search Console to fetch the page, as this means the search engine will process it as quickly as possible, allowing you to benefit from it as soon as possible too.

External optimisation for your top pages

This too can be implemented quickly without having to make technical changes to your website. It is generally worth the ‘effort’, as you will usually see the effect within 2 to 3 weeks, meaning you can still benefit from it this summer.

If important pages are at the bottom of page 1 or at the beginning of page 2, a difference of 2 to 4 positions can already generate significantly more traffic for you. An extra boost through external optimisation can work well, particularly for more competitive search terms. It gives the search engine an additional signal to consider the page for better positions, because other sites are discussing that page within a relevant context.

To ensure that the search engine takes the signal seriously, it is important that high-quality platforms talk about you. Websites with hardly any traffic are no longer platforms that provide that extra boost.

For anchor text suggestions, it is always a good idea to consult Google Search Console as well. This makes it easier to become more visible for related search terms that you might not otherwise have thought of.

At Aspen Digital, we work with publishers. This provides complete flexibility to select the most relevant platforms, is efficient and gives you full control over the use of anchor text.

Steps for next summer

The previous steps focused on what you can do this summer, but there are also various long-term activities you can undertake to lay a solid foundation.

Evergreen content pages focused on summer

These are pages, for example, blogs or content pages within a category, that respond to search behaviour in summer and whose content remains relevant every summer. If, for example, you sell safety products, certain themes are topical during the summer. Consider questions such as: “how do you put out a barbecue?” or “is a lifebuoy compulsory?”

You could also create a content page with an accessory checklist for people buying a boat, so that they can sail safely. You could also create a blog page with tips on what to consider when sailing with young children. This allows you to build authority around “safe sailing.”

In addition to generating search traffic, and this will be more significant for some topics than for others, these pages also provide an opportunity to link internally to your category pages. By using different anchor texts, you can give your commercial pages additional support, as you give them more link equity.

Unless the competition is very low, in practice you will need a lead-in period to reach the first page. This is why it is generally a long-term strategy. This strategy does not, of course, have to be limited to one theme; you can make it as extensive as you like, as long as the content is of high quality. It should not become mass production of pages of 250-300 words.

Trend content pages

Trends are topics that return every year, but whose content is different each time. If you set this up intelligently, you can benefit from it every year. What you often see in practice is that, for example, the following URLs are created: /korte-broeken-trends-2023 and for the following year you get /korte-broeken-trends-2024. You can also choose to keep one fixed URL: /korte-broeken-trends and only update the content annually.

This approach has 2 advantages. Firstly, you build authority on a single URL and also provide predictability for the search engine. Although you can of course redirect the page from the previous year, this allows you to work consistently on building the authority of one URL. In addition, you only need to go through the indexing process 1 times and you start each year with a URL that has already been indexed. You only need to update the content.

Conclusion

Summer offers many opportunities for organic search traffic. For a short-term approach, it is useful to see which pages are currently generating traffic and improve the CTR by means of the page title and meta description. In addition, it is advisable to carry out a content analysis for pages that rank in the top positions and are important to you. Then implement the findings and fetch the pages in Google Search Console, so that they can be assessed as quickly as possible. You can also improve the visibility of specific pages by applying smart external optimisation.

For next summer's plan, it is advisable to create informative pages alongside your commercial pages that can attract visitors. This not only generates additional visitors, but also creates more internal linking opportunities for your commercial pages. By taking these steps, you can give yourself an extra boost this summer and lay a good foundation for attracting even more organic visitors next summer.

At Aspen Digital, we can support you throughout the process, from the initial keyword research to content advice, writing content and accelerating visibility through external optimisation. Curious about what we can do for you? Fill in the contact form and we can carry out a initial scan.