online traffic summer

5 Ways to Avoid the Summer Web Traffic Slump

Between the backyard barbecues, swimming trips, and kids summer camps, it’s no surprise many businesses and marketers see a dip in traffic and engagement during the summer months. It’s something that affects businesses from all industries, as consumers are busy with summer vacations and outings. If you’re already experiencing a summer slip—or if you want to ensure one doesn’t happen to you—we’ve got a few tips below for how to re-engage your summer audience.

1. Maximize summer holidays

Most consumers and audiences know to search for sales and special discounts during holidays. Whether you’re offering a discount or not, consider placing a holiday-specific message on your site to recapture your audience’s attention while they’re relaxing at home or perusing the online sales. The summer months are still full of seasonal content ideas: Memorial Day Weekend, 4th of July, Back-to-School, Labor Day Weekend, Summer Solstice—you name it!

2. Change your message (or your audience!)

Tap into your audience’s mindset by changing the message of your marketing. Recapture your customers’ interest with mentions of the season or upcoming events they may need to consider soon. Think about what will feel relevant to your business, such as summer traveling, kids going back to school, or fall activities. Depending on your business or product, also keep in mind the audience you’re targeting. For example, if your product happens to be more winter-focused, try targeting an audience in colder regions of the country or world.

summer web traffic

3. Streamline your site

Take advantage of the downtime by doing some behind-the-scenes work on your WordPress site. From refreshing your photography on key pages to fixing broken links, doing some maintenance on your site is always a good idea. Start by taking stock of what has the most impact on your site, both functionally and aesthetically. Refresh copy and photos on pages that feel stale or outdated, delete inactive Widgets that you haven’t used in years, or add a new Widget to scan your site for broken links. This is also a good time to do any big migration projects you’ve put on the back burner.

4. Optimize your social media

While your audience may be busy on summer vacations, it doesn’t mean they’re not active on social media. Make sure to keep up your posting regimen on your active social media channels—this will also help keep your site fresh if you have any dynamic social media feeds on your site. Consider starting a paid social ad campaign to bring more visitors to your site as well—this is a great place to have a special offer or discount to help draw people in while they’re browsing their friends’ latest summer photos.

5. Create a game plan

Use this time to evaluate your site in its current state, and make a plan for how you want to optimize it for business going forward. Do your product pages need better information or rewritten copy? Does your e-commerce widget need tweaking to offer a better user experience? Take stock of what those key areas are and create a plan and budget for how you want to tackle them throughout the next year.

While experiencing a dip in traffic in the summer is never ideal, there’s still plenty of opportunity to make the most of the downtime and regain your audience’s attention. See our posts on finding the right social media audience for your business and how to brainstorm content ideas for more inspiration.