2 builders who never spoke to each other

Ship the seasonal page before the season

Look up the calendar shape of demand in search data, then build the page and the inventory far enough ahead for the index to catch up. A holiday category needs its own destination page plus a matching article published weeks early. Read a good month against that shape too, since a January baseline flatters everything and a seasonal peak is not growth.

The method

1. 01

   Check whether the keywords you rank for are seasonal before you read a good month as growth, and discount your forecast for the off-season slump that follows.

2. 02

   Find the weeks of peak search volume for your category and ship inventory aimed specifically at them.

3. 03

   Look up the calendar shape of demand in search data and stock up ahead of the peak, because seasonal inventory sells while the season lasts.

4. 04

   Build the product structure that gives each search term its own destination page, then write a matching article, and do it far enough ahead of the season for Google to index it.

5. 05

   Do not read growth measured from a January baseline as real progress, since January is a seasonal trough for search traffic.

What it returned

• $298.55

  November revenue of $298.55 came during the Thanksgiving and Christmas peak for place card searches; Zue expected a large drop after the holidays and refused to raise his milestone above $300.

• 27

  US Thanksgiving and the holidays are the annual search peak for place cards, and Zue's seasonal designs sold well into a record week of 27 sales and $56

• $130

  Google data told Zue Thanksgiving would be a high-traffic period for place cards; that week brought almost $130 in revenue against a normal week of well under $80, and November closed just under $300

• Zue added template category filtering so he could publish a dedicated holiday place card templates page plus an article, aiming to rank before the holiday season

Sources

• August 2023 Core Google Algorithm Update Analysis - DetailedGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · The Same 188 Sites And How They’re Performing Year-to-Date (January 2023 vs May 2023) · 2018-05-22
• The Long Road to Passive Income Part 2: Getting from $100 to $1000 in Monthly RevenueCory Zue · coryzue.com · From $100/month to $200 $300/month: Riding Momentum · 2017-12-07
• Week 35 RetrospectiveCory Zue · coryzue.com · Place Card Stats · 2017-11-20
• Week 37 RetrospectiveCory Zue · coryzue.com · Place Card Stats · 2017-12-04
• The WaitCory Zue · coryzue.com · The week past · 2018-10-22