Summer time slow down?

A lot of people think summer is slow and not the time to focus on their websites.

So many people are out of town, some businesses slow down. Not to mention we all have concerns about the economy right now.

I want to propose a different perspective.

1. People are sticking closer to home because of high gas prices. You've all heard the term "Staycation" thrown around by the media. If you watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart you heard John Hodgeman (the PC guy from the commercials) create his own new word for the "stick closer to home because gas is way too expensive" phenomenon: "Holistays".

No matter what you call it, people are sticking closer to home. People are shopping online even more.

It's a great time to offer a shipping special. With the cost of shipping going up, again due to the cost of gas, a shipping special is much appreciated right now.

You can tap into this situation by playing it up. Just as The Daily Show created a segment that was funny and garnered a lot of attention; you can find a way to make the current situation work in your favor.

2. If things are a little slow, it is actually the perfect time to devote some of your time to your website.

It is suggested that you review your website and refresh it at least once a year. Just a handful of suggestions for you:

- Now is a good time to check the links and pages within your site and make sure everything is in working order. Get rid of those pesky 404 errors from broken links.

- You could also come up with a summer special.

- Jazz up the site.

- Add some testimonials.

- Look at your web stats and see if you can increase conversions.

3. Now is when you absolutely must start focusing on your upcoming holiday campaigns.

No one wants to think about the fall and then winter and the holiday season, while enjoying the sun and probably some time off. However as we all know, time passes quickly and I hate to be the one to say it, but holiday season will be upon us before we even know it.

- Start planning your campaigns

- Write your ad copy

- Design your graphics

4. Top rankings don't happen over night. It takes time for the engines to rank your site for your top keywords. It is not too soon to start your optimization in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season.

On the flip side; if summer is your busy time, you don't want to ignore optimization now. When the busy time settles down a bit, you want optimization in place to help bring in traffic to boost what would normally be a slower time for you in the fall.

No matter which way you look at it, and no matter when your busy time is, the truth is putting off optimization is never a good idea. If you don't need free targeted traffic from the search engines, then this won't apply to you. I don't really know of any website that isn't looking to increase traffic and get more sales though.

So take a look at getting your site optimized and prepare for the upcoming change in seasons. You aren't going to be happy if the holiday season approaches and you aren't positioned to benefit from it.

For those reasons and more now is actually the perfect time to focus on your website's growth and improvement.