Driving Year-End Growth: How SEO Can Boost Your Brand In Q4
Consumers are actively looking for products, services, and promotions, making it essential to rank highly for seasonal and relevant keywords. Updating content, optimising product pages, and building backlinks during this period can significantly boost visibility and organic traffic. With heightened competition, focusing on SEO in Q4 helps ensure your brand stays top-of-mind, driving conversions and maximising revenue during the busiest time of the year.
The importance of staying ahead of trends in the digital landscape
Staying competitive — Keeping your site competitive in organic search is about doing your best to stay on (or ahead) of the curve, not lagging behind it — so keeping an eye on the immediate horizon is always a worthwhile exercise!
Emerging Trends
Google AI overviews for broad and top of funnel queries — It’s live in the USA and very difficult to track. It’s estimated to currently impact around 7.5% of queries in the US. Keep an eye on your top broad query targeting pages and ask yourself what role they really play in your user journey to conversion — are they just traffic spinners? Super broad targeting isn’t always the way, aim for a niche that you know works well.
ChatGPT has announced SearchGPT — could this be a real world challenger for the Google organic search throne? Time will tell, we’re in the very early stages of the prototype for now. One to watch.
Upcoming changes
Another core update is coming from Google soon — These are very regular nowadays and are impacted as much by user experience and the ‘intent’ behind searches as they are from conventional SEO considerations. Worried about your site’s performance? Get in touch for a chat through what modern ranking factors mean in a core algorithm update.
Ranking volatility — Expect ranking volatility, especially as seasonal SERPs roll in for key events like Black Friday and the holiday rush, will likely escalate. Stay calm, don’t panic, and focus on your YoY growth patterns rather than panicking about daily or weekly fluctuations as rankings flex and shift.
Quick snappy summary
Avoid broad queries — Google AI overviews are out but with less impact than expected, hitting around 7.5% of searches at last estimate. Steer away from very broad queries and aim for meeting your audience where they need and want to find you.
SearchGPT — Keep your eyes open for ‘SearchGPT’ as a new prototype from ChatGPT.
Updates — More core updates are (as always) on the horizon — get in touch if you need a refresher on modern ‘ranking factors’ on Google.
Stay calm — Don’t panic about volatile rankings over peak eCommerce season — this is normal and you should focus on bigger picture YoY trends rather than short term fluctuations over days or weeks.
3 quick takeaways for luxury brands in Q4
Targeting — Make sure your search targeting is up to scratch, bring in those luxury and premium qualifiers to onpage targeting to attract the right kind of high intent traffic.
Familiarise yourself — Don’t forget the intent of searchers. Get familiar with the competitors occupying your target organic SERPs and make sure it’s who you’d expect to see. Can’t spot any peers there? You may well be targeting the wrong queries.
User experience — Remember the cost of living crisis hasn’t gone away, so lean into a frictionless user experience to make the most of those wanting to splurge over the peak shopping season, and focus on the USPs that will convert best for your brand.
