Seasonal Content for a Trades Business

The questions change with the weather

Every trade has a calendar. Furnace calls arrive with the first cold week, gutter calls after the leaves come down, deck enquiries with the first warm Saturday in spring.

The questions customers ask change with it: is this noise normal, how often should this be cleaned, is it too late to book before winter.

Most trades websites stay the same all year. The pages that would answer the season's questions either do not exist, or appear in a rush once the phones are already busy.

A seasonal page written a few weeks ahead is there when people start looking, which is earlier than they start calling.

Why a few weeks early

A new page is not found the moment it is published. Google has to discover it, read it and decide where it belongs, and for a competitive search that takes time.

A page published the week demand arrives spends much of the season being discovered. One published a month or two earlier is settled in when the searches begin.

People also read before they act. Many homeowners look up gutter cleaning in October and book it in November, and the page they read first is often the business they call.

And the weeks before the rush are when there is time to write. During it, there is not.

Seasons in common trades

• Late summer: furnace and chimney checks before the first cold week.
• Fall: gutters, drainage and roof checks before the heavy rain.
• Early winter: frozen pipes, snow clearing and storm damage.
• Late winter: booking spring projects while calendars are still open.
• Spring: decks, fences, exterior painting and irrigation start-up.
• Early summer: cooling, outdoor projects and lawns in dry weather.

The fourth is the one most trades miss. Spring work is often booked in February and March, and a page explaining when to book, and why, reaches people while there is still room in the calendar.

Useful, not a sale

A seasonal page that works answers the season's questions: what to check, what is normal, what is a warning sign, what can wait, and when to call.

A page that is only an offer, a fall discount with a booking button, expires with the offer and teaches nobody anything. Next year it has to be written again from nothing.

Put any offer at the top, where it can be removed when it ends, and let the useful part carry the page.

One address, every year

Many businesses publish a new page each season, titled with the year, and delete the old one. Each new page starts with no history, and every link to last year's version ends in an error.

Keep one page at one address, with no year in it, and update it each season: this year's dates, prices and deadlines, any changed advice, and a visible line saying when it was last updated.

Out of season, leave it up with a sentence saying when the service resumes. A page that exists all year keeps whatever standing it has earned.

A worked example

A snow removal company in an Interior city clears driveways and small commercial lots on seasonal contracts, which customers sign in the fall.

For years it posted a new page each autumn with the season in the title, and deleted it in spring. The page usually went up in late November, once the first snow had already made the phones busy.

Each new page started from nothing in search, and links to the previous year's page from a neighbourhood newsletter and a community group led to an error.

The company replaced them with one permanent page about seasonal contracts: what is included, how much snow brings the trucks out, how driveways are prioritised, what happens to lawn edges, and how to sign up.

It is updated every September with that winter's prices and sign-up deadline, and linked from the home page from October to March.

Last season's address redirects to it, and a second page, on preparing a driveway before the first snow, sits beside it.

When to publish

Work back from when the calls start. If furnace calls begin with the first cold week in October, the page should be current by early September.

Four to eight weeks ahead suits most seasons. Longer suits work people plan well in advance, such as decks and renovations; shorter suits work prompted by the weather on the day.

Put each update date in the calendar like any other job, with the person responsible named beside it.

Where the pages sit

Link each seasonal page from the service page it belongs to, all year round. During its season, also link it from the home page, near the top.

Share it in a Google My Business post when the season starts. Most posts stay up for a week, so a short series through the season keeps it visible.

Use the same page as the basis for the fall newsletter and the notes the office uses on the phone, so everybody says the same thing.

Careful with safety advice

Seasonal advice often touches safety: furnaces and carbon monoxide, ladders and gutters, roofs after a storm.

Say clearly what an owner can safely check and what needs a qualified person. Make no promises about what a check will prevent, and keep to what you know from the work.

Review the advice each year when you update the dates. A tip that was sound three seasons ago may not be now.

The counter-case

Some trades have little seasonality. An electrician doing mostly indoor work sees steadier demand, and one or two seasonal pages may be all that makes sense.

A business fully booked every season by referral has less to gain from attracting more, though a page answering the season's questions still saves time on the phone.

And there is no need for a page every month. Two or three that match real peaks in demand, written well and kept current, do the job.

This month

1. List your three busiest seasons and when calls start.
2. Write down the questions customers ask in each.
3. Write one useful page per season.
4. Publish each four to eight weeks ahead.
5. Keep the same address every year.
6. Link it from the home page during its season.
7. Book next year's update in the calendar.

Step five is the one that makes the work add up. A page kept at one address builds on every previous season, while a new page each year starts from nothing every time.

Seasonal advice about furnaces, roofs and ladders needs the care described in writing carefully about health and safety.

Frequently asked questions

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