Your website did not get worse, it became August

Every year, businesses panic in the quiet season and congratulate themselves in the busy one, and in both cases the website behaved exactly as it did the year before.

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Compare the same period against the same period last year, not against last month, because nearly every business has a seasonal rhythm and month-to-month comparisons mostly measure the calendar. Two years of records is enough to see your own pattern, after which the comparison becomes obvious.

The pattern is stronger than most owners think

Roofers in storm season, accountants before tax deadlines, gyms in January, florists in February: the obvious cases are obvious. The less obvious ones are just as real, including holiday periods, school terms, and the weeks either side of them.

Once you have two years of records, your own shape appears clearly, and a great deal of anxiety disappears with it.

Compare like with like

The rule is short: this month against the same month last year, this quarter against the same quarter last year. Month against month is a comparison between different seasons wearing the same clothes.

Where you have made a change, note the date and look at the year-on-year comparison before and after it. That is as close to a controlled comparison as most small businesses can get, and it is usually enough.

Watch demand as well as your own numbers

Sometimes a quiet month is your website and sometimes the whole market is quiet. Distinguishing between the two saves a great deal of wasted work.

Free tools that show search interest over time will tell you whether people are searching for your service less this month than usual. If demand fell everywhere, your site is not the problem.

  • Check whether search interest for your service is seasonal.
  • Ask peers or trade groups whether their season matches yours.
  • Look at whether the drop is in visitors or in conversion.
  • Compare against your own equivalent period last year before concluding anything.

Publish ahead of the season, not during it

The useful consequence of knowing your rhythm is timing. Search visibility takes time to establish, so a page about a seasonal problem published at the start of the season arrives late.

Publish it well before demand rises, so that it is indexed, linked and settled by the time people start searching. In practice that means writing about winter problems in late summer, which feels strange and works.

Use the quiet season for the work you never have time for

The slow months are when the improvement work actually gets done, because nobody has time in the busy ones. Rewriting service pages, gathering photographs, collecting reviews, fixing the contact path.

This is also when a fair test is possible, since fewer things are changing at once. Make the change, note the date, and let the year-on-year comparison tell you next season whether it helped.

Beware annual conclusions from a single season

One unusual season is not a trend. Weather, a local event, a competitor's campaign, or a change in the search results can all move a quarter without saying anything about the direction of your business.

Two comparable years before concluding anything structural is a good discipline, and it prevents the expensive habit of rebuilding a website every time a quarter disappoints.

How Licheo handles seasonality

Reports compare against the equivalent period rather than the previous month, so a quiet season is described as a season rather than presented as a decline.

Content is planned ahead of demand rather than during it, since a page published as the season starts has missed most of it.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Revenue per visitor. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Why did my website traffic drop this month?
Before assuming anything is wrong, compare with the same month last year. Nearly every business has a seasonal rhythm, and month-to-month comparisons mostly measure the calendar rather than the website.
How do I know if a drop is seasonal or a real problem?
Check whether search interest for your service is down generally, compare against your own equivalent period last year, and look at whether the fall is in visitors or in conversion. Those three usually settle it.
When should I publish seasonal content?
Well before the season starts, because search visibility takes time to establish. Publishing as demand rises means arriving late, so winter material is usually written in late summer.
What should I do in my quiet season?
The improvement work you never have time for: rewriting service pages, gathering photographs and reviews, fixing the contact path. It is also the easiest period in which to test a change fairly.
How many years of data do I need?
Two comparable years gives you a usable picture of your own rhythm. One unusual season, driven by weather or a local event, is not a trend and is a poor basis for rebuilding anything.

Read the numbers in context

Year-on-year comparisons, content planned ahead of demand, and a quiet season described as a season rather than a decline.

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