SEO festival trend and camping season report – who’s winning in Google UK?

With the festival and camping season upon us, we have taken a look at search trends and SEO, to see what people are searching for and which brands are performing best in organic search.

Britain's most famous weekend gig, Glastonbury Festival may have come to an end, but we have a whole summer of festivals to look forward to, and high street shops are now showcasing the very best in festival trends, resulting in a huge online buzz.

Search behaviour: 'Festival Clothing'

The festival market has grown rapidly over the last few years. In fact, the idea of 'festival outfits' simply didn't exist before 2010 - meaning the festival phenomenon has changed the way we search, and thus impacted upon the content made available on brands' sites.

These terms peak around June each year, in time for Glastonbury. However, 2010 was a bit of an anomaly in terms of search growth, but this is likely because Glastonbury didn't occur that year.

This just goes to show how much of an impact Glastonbury has on search - and therefore Ecommerce - every year.

The chart below shows the level of interest around 'festival clothing', 'festival clothes' and 'festival outfits' (categorised by Shopping related terms):

Source: Google trends UK

How many searches are made in Google UK for 'festival' terms?

Festival wear search growth:

• Festival wear terms peak yearly in May, June, July and August
• In July 2014 ‘festival clothing’ was searched 22,200 times
• In 2015 ‘festival clothing’ peaked in August and was searched 33,100 times
• In May 2016 'festival clothing' was searched 40,500
• ‘Festival clothing’ has risen 82% from May 2015 - May 2016

Research vs purchase

Search data is invaluable to help you plan your marketing and content strategy around seasonal events.
1) Planning - content published
Ideally - your content needs to be published a couple of months before consumer research begins. This will give you time to optimise your content and for it to gain traction in Google. In most ecommerce businesses, you release online content a season ahead.
(If you are not planning on having a landing page all year round)

2) Consumer consideration increases, influence period for brand
It’s important for brands to influence consumers when they are in the consideration phase, with the opportunity to get a lead on the competition. You should always plan your marketing and content strategy around when consumers are researching, rather than when they are buying. If you leave it too late to publish content, to when purchasing begins, your potential customers are likely to already have been influenced by other brands and you have missed your window of opportunity. Additionally, research phases are a less competitive time to bid on terms so it is more financially efficient.

3) Peak purchase point
This is when consumers are most likely to buy this product. However if you have not already influenced them by this point, it could be a lost sale

4) Discount period
This would be a good time to discount your product, when interest is still relatively high but declining. This allows you to clear stock.

5) Continuous landing page
Google seems to like long-termism with URL’s and consistent landing pages, predominantly due to the amount of links you can garner over time. Therefore, it is advised to use the same URL for seasonal landing pages that you know will be used again next year, rather than create a new URL every year. Don’t delete the page.

Who performs in SEO for the term ‘festival clothing’?

The top performing sites:
1. Boohoo
2. ASOS
3. Pretty Little Thing
4. Missguided
5. New Look
6. River Island
7. Topshop

All top performing ‘festival clothing’ sites have a well-optimised festival shop landing page

The top performers have curated and optimised a dedicated festival clothing page with healthy amounts of relevant copy, which pleases Google bots as well as the user. With a lack of specific copy there is less chance of being found for multiple search terms.

The top trending questions around the Glastonbury Festival

Adding questions to a site's content regarding the Glastonbury Festival could pull in more new potential customers. Even utilising the most obvious questions such as "Where is the Glastonbury Festival?" could aid with acquisition and ultimately translate as conversions in the long run.

Who performs in SEO for the term ‘festival essentials’?

The top performing sites:
1. Gigwise
2. Mountain Warehouse
3. Skiddle
4. Tesco
5. Her Packing List
6. All Noise
7. Go outdoors

Mountain Warehouse shows consistent performance, with a dedicated festival checklist landing page

Brands such as Mountain Warehouse realise SEO is an ideal way of introducing the festival audience to a brand and the breadth of the products available. With such brands, auxiliary products such as entire camping kits and accessories can be purchased in one go, and have repeat purchases for future years.

The term 'festival essentials' seems to be, at least initially, an informational request, in terms of user intent. Having informative copy with tips and suggestions, is likely, therefore, to provide added value. Mountain Warehouse has provided a reason for users to return to the page / site with a checklist and relevant content. Google seems to like it too.

Search Behaviour: festival related products

With this opportunity to perform better for entire ranges (with greater volume and competition) we've taken a look at 'festival' related terms and compare with ‘festival clothing’ search behaviour.

How many searches are made in Google UK for 'festival' relevant terms?

Festival and Camping Accessories Search Growth Stats

• July 2015 the term 'tents' peaked to approx 165,000 searches
• The term 'tents' has risen 23% from May 2015 - May 2016
• In August 2015 and November 2015 'wellies' hit the highest amount of searches of approx 60,500
• 'Tents', 'sleeping bag', 'camping equipment' and 'festival clothing' all peak yearly in May, June, July and August.

Which brand performs in SEO for the term ‘wellies’?

The top performing sites:
1. Sports Direct
2. Joules
3. Office
4. Welly Warehouse
5. Hunter boots
6. M and M Direct
7. Decathlon
8. Schuh

The top performers for the term 'wellies' all have a dedicdated landing page themed around 'wellies'.

Who performs in SEO for the term ‘tents’?

The top performing sites:
1. Go outdoors
2. Cotswold outdoor
3. Decathlon
4. Halfords
5. Vango
6. Argos
7. Blacks
8. Millets

July is the peak time for tent purchases, hitting a volume of over 150K per month. To be above the fold at this period is greatly beneficial.

Who performs in SEO for the term ‘camping equipment’?

The top performing sites:
1. Go Outdoors
2. Tesco
3. Cotswold Outdoor
4. Mountain Warehouse
5. Argos
6. Decathlon
7. Blacks
8. Halfords

All the top performers for the term 'camping equipment' all have a dedicated landing page with appropriate theming around the term.

Conclusion

• Festival clothing terms have risen 82% from 2015 - 2016
• All seasonal events should have a dedicated landing page to maximise search performance
• Theme landing pages around the event -as we can see from the above examples some sites have a dedicated landing page, however aren't returning above the fold for key terms
• Make sure all other web pages on the same topic link back to the dedicated landing page
• If you don't have a dedicated festival or camping landing page this year create one ready for next year

Find out how Pi Datametrics can help with your strategy:

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Want more insight? Read our free search trend market performance report.