What type of Web traffic trends in the mid and late summer months?
Knowing what users are searching for at any given time can (and should) influence your content marketing, social media and advertising campaigns which is why it's an important consideration to make when planning. Let's take a look at last year's monthly reports from Comscore for July and August 2011 to see if we can't manage to get an edge on the competition. Editors note: Comscore just released their May 2012 rankings of the top U.S. Web properties.
July: The dominant trend in the month of July 2011 was within the retail category and related primarily to event tickets with the category experiencing a 23 percent increase over June 2011. But consumer goods and apparel also made a strong move as marketers and advertisers began their back-to-school promotions around this time (see search volume index on the "back to school" phrase from Google below) and users were seeking them out. Interestingly, July 2011 also saw a dramatic increase in beauty/fashion/style community driven sites as Web users began to look forward to fall season fashions (which likely also played a significant role in the success of back-to-school promotions).
August: The back to school trend continued in the month of August 2011 and was dominated by the surge in popularity of education information sites which experienced a 19 percent growth over the July 2011 time period. It was not just traditionally defined students ramping up their Web searches and online activity (retail book sites consequently experienced an 11 percent increase month over month) but Web users were also seeking out career resources - namely training and education. The category experienced a 12 percent increase in the time. But that's not all - not by a long shot. Seasonal allergies and weather spurred a traffic increase to pharmacy and weather sites within the U.S.
What traffic trends do you see, and what do you expect for July and August 2012?
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