If your business depends on Scottsdale customers, winter visitors, snowbirds, holiday shoppers, or seasonal demand, September is not the time to say, “We’ll deal with it later.”
Later is here.
And it is bringing tourists, snowbirds, holiday shoppers, Google searches, phone calls, website visitors, appointment requests, online orders, and approximately 47 things nobody remembered to prepare for.
Welcome to Scottsdale.
Every year, businesses across Scottsdale, Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Tempe, and the surrounding Valley watch the calendar move toward fall. The temperatures finally start becoming survivable, patios come back to life, seasonal residents begin returning, and businesses start preparing for one of their busiest stretches of the year.
The smart businesses started preparing months ago.
The rest start looking for their website password on December 14.
Don’t be the second group.
If your business relies on local customers or seasonal traffic, now is the time to make sure your website, SEO, Google Business Profile, technology, security, and digital marketing are ready for the next wave of business.
And yes, there is still time.
But there is a big difference between getting everything ready now and trying to fix everything when your phones are already ringing.
Why September Is the Perfect Time to Prepare Your Scottsdale Business
Scottsdale has a very different business rhythm than many markets.
The summer months are slower for many businesses. Then fall arrives, the weather improves, events return, visitors increase, seasonal residents begin coming back, and the entire market starts getting busier.
Experience Scottsdale identifies fall as the transition into the winter season, with winter running from December through mid-February and spring continuing into April. Scottsdale’s tourism market has historically been strongly seasonal, with winter visitors and snowbirds contributing significantly to demand.
That means September is your opportunity to…
Review your website when traffic is manageable.
Fx SEO problems before the competition gets more aggressive.
Update your Google Business Profile before customers start searching.
Test your contact forms.
Make sure your phones actually ring where they’re supposed to.
Update your services and pricing.
Make sure your employees have access to the systems they need.
Back up your data.
Create holiday promotions.
Build landing pages.
Have TLD USA do all of this so you can actually think.
Once the season is in full swing, finding time for all of that becomes considerably harder.
Your Website Should Be Ready Before Your Customers Are
Let’s start with the obvious one.
Your website.
If you haven’t looked closely at your website in six months, there is a very good chance something needs attention.
Maybe your contact form doesn’t work.
Is your phone number is wrong?
Maybe your services have changed.
Are half your images are enormous?
Does your website looks fantastic on your desktop but makes absolutely no sense on a phone?
Maybe Google isn’t indexing the pages you thought it was. Why?
Your website loads like it is being delivered by carrier pigeon.
Or perhaps everything technically works, but the website doesn’t actually convince anyone to contact you. Do you know why?
That last one is particularly expensive.
A website isn’t successful because it exists.
It is successful when it helps people find you, understand what you do, trust your business, and take the next step.
That means September is an excellent time to review:
- Website speed
- Mobile responsiveness
- Contact forms
- Phone numbers
- Calls-to-action
- Service pages
- Location pages
- Pricing information
- Testimonials and reviews
- Images
- Internal links
- Google indexing
- Analytics
- Search Console
- Security
- Backups
- Website software and plugins
If your website needs more than a quick tune-up, TLD USA website design and development can help get it ready before your busiest season arrives.
Your Scottsdale SEO Should Be Working Before the Rush
Here’s the part many businesses misunderstand.
You don’t start SEO when you need customers.
You start SEO before you need customers.
Google doesn’t operate like a light switch.
You don’t publish a page on Tuesday and magically dominate Google on Wednesday.
SEO takes time.
Google needs to discover your pages, crawl them, understand them, evaluate the content, compare them with competing pages, and determine where they belong in search results.
That’s why businesses that know their busiest season is coming should be working on SEO before the season starts.
If you are a Scottsdale business targeting searches such as:
- Scottsdale plumber
- Scottsdale dentist
- Scottsdale attorney
- Scottsdale HVAC
- Scottsdale IT support
- Scottsdale marketing agency
- Scottsdale restaurant
- Scottsdale contractor
- Scottsdale real estate
- Scottsdale home services
…you don’t want to wait until January to decide you should probably rank for those searches.
That’s like opening a restaurant after everyone has already ordered dinner.
Your Scottsdale SEO strategy should be working now.
That can include:
- Local keyword research
- Service-page optimization
- Scottsdale location pages
- Google Business Profile optimization
- Internal linking
- Technical SEO
- Schema markup
- Content creation
- Image optimization
- Citation development
- Local authority building
- Google Search Console monitoring
- Conversion optimization
The goal isn’t simply to generate traffic.
The goal is to attract people who are actually looking for what you sell.
Your Google Business Profile Needs Attention Too
Here’s another one businesses love to ignore until something goes wrong.
Your Google Business Profile.
When customers search for a business near them, your Google Business Profile can be one of the first things they see.
That means your profile should accurately communicate:
Who you are.
What you do.
Where you serve.
When you’re open.
How customers can contact you.
And, importantly, why they should choose you.
Before the busy season, review:
- Business categories
- Services
- Business description
- Hours
- Holiday hours
- Phone number
- Website URL
- Service areas
- Photos
- Posts
- Reviews
- Review responses
- Products or services where applicable
And don’t forget holiday hours.
Get Your Holiday Marketing Ready Now
Holiday marketing shouldn’t begin when Thanksgiving leftovers are already in the refrigerator.
If your business runs holiday promotions, special events, seasonal services, gift cards, packages, discounts, appointments, or limited-time offers, start planning now.
That gives you time to build:
- Landing pages
- Promotional graphics
- Email campaigns
- Social media content
- Google Business Profile posts
- Paid advertising campaigns
- Retargeting campaigns
- Seasonal blog content
- Holiday service pages
It also gives Google time to discover those pages.
More importantly, it gives your customers time to discover them.
A good seasonal campaign isn’t:
“OH NO, IT’S DECEMBER 20. LET’S RUN AN AD.”
A good campaign has a strategy behind it.
Know what you’re promoting.
Know who you’re targeting.
What page they’re landing on.
What you want them to do after they arrive at the site.
And you know how you’re going to measure whether it worked.
That’s a much better way to spend marketing dollars.
Don’t Forget the Snowbirds
Ah, yes.
The snowbirds.
Love them or hate them, if your Scottsdale business depends on seasonal customers, you definitely want to love them.
Scottsdale has a long-established seasonal market, with winter visitors commonly arriving during the fall and staying through the spring.
And here’s the important part for local businesses:
Seasonal customers are still customers.
They search Google.
Visit websites.
They read reviews.
Compare businesses.
They call.
Book appointments.
They buy things!!!
They ask friends for recommendations.
Use their phones to search.
In other words, they behave suspiciously like normal customers.
Your business needs to be visible when they start searching.
That means your website should clearly communicate:
- Your location
- Your service area
- How to contact you
- What services you offer
- How to schedule
- Your hours
- Your credentials
- Your reviews
- Why customers should trust you
If your website currently requires someone to hunt through six pages to figure out how to contact you, this would be an excellent time to fix that.
Your Technology Needs a Pre-Season Checkup Too
Here’s where many businesses focus entirely on marketing and forget about the technology underneath it.
More customers can mean more calls.
More calls can mean more employees using systems.
Increased website traffic can mean more server resources.
More online orders can mean more transactions.
What about needing more employees? That can mean more devices.
More activity means more opportunities…for something to break.
And technology has a remarkable sense of humor.
It rarely breaks when you’re sitting around thinking, “You know what? I have nothing going on today.”
It breaks when:
Everyone is busy.
That’s why a pre-season IT checkup makes sense.
Review your:
- Computers
- Wi-Fi
- Network
- Printers
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
- User accounts
- Password policies
- Multi-factor authentication
- Backups
- Antivirus and endpoint protection
- Cloud storage
- Business applications
- Remote access
- Website hosting
- DNS
- Domain registrations
If something fails during your busiest week of the year, you don’t want your IT strategy to be:
“Have you tried turning it off and back on?”
“Jiggle the Cord?”
Sometimes that works.
Sometimes it absolutely does not.
A proactive IT support plan can help businesses identify problems before they turn into expensive emergencies.
Backups Are Not Optional
Let’s have a quick conversation about backups.
If your business would be significantly damaged by losing its files, systems, website, customer information, accounting data, or other digital assets, you need reliable backups.
Not:
“I think Dropbox has some of it.”
Not:
“It’s on someone’s computer.”
Not:
“My nephew said he backs everything up.”
Actual backups.
And those backups should be tested.
Because a backup you have never tested is a little like having a parachute you have never opened.
Technically, it’s there.
But wouldn’t you like to know whether it works?
Before the busy season, verify that critical business data is being backed up properly and that you know how you would recover it.
Security Should Be on the Pre-Season Checklist
The same goes for cybersecurity.
Businesses become increasingly attractive targets as they become busier.
Employees are handling more email.
Customers are submitting more information.
More transactions may be taking place.
More people may need access to systems.
And someone will eventually receive an email that says:
“URGENT! YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IN 30 MINUTES!”
They will panic.
They will click.
Next comes the panic call to you.
And everyone will have a bad afternoon.
Before the season gets busy, review your security basics.
Make sure important accounts use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.
Remove former employees.
Review administrator access.
Update software.
Check backups.
Review email security.
Make sure devices are protected.
And make sure your employees understand how to identify suspicious messages.
You don’t need to turn your business into Fort Knox.
But you should probably make it harder to walk through the front door.
Your Website, SEO & IT Should Work Together
This is where businesses can gain a significant advantage.
Your website shouldn’t operate independently from your SEO.
SEO shouldn’t operate independently from your marketing.
Marketing shouldn’t operate independently from your technology.
Technology shouldn’t be something you only think about after something catches fire.
These pieces should work together.
Your SEO brings qualified visitors.
The website converts those visitors.
Technology keeps your business operating.
Your analytics show you what is happening.
Your marketing brings people back.
IT protects the systems supporting the business.
That’s the bigger picture.
At TLD USA, we call it being your first call for IT, web, and online presence.
Because sometimes the problem isn’t just your website.
Sometimes your website is fine, but nobody can find it.
Other times people can find it, but nobody contacts you.
Sometimes people contact you, but your internal systems aren’t ready.
And then there are the times everything works perfectly until Bob in accounting clicks something he absolutely should not have clicked.
It happens.
The September Scottsdale Business Checklist
If you’re reading this in September, here’s your homework.
Website
☐ Test every contact form
☐ Test your phone numbers
☐ Check your website on mobile
☐ Review your service pages
☐ Update outdated information
☐ Check page speed
☐ Review calls-to-action
☐ Verify analytics
☐ Verify Google Search Console
☐ Check website backups
SEO
☐ Review your target keywords
☐ Optimize important service pages
☐ Review Scottsdale location pages
☐ Add useful internal links
☐ Check Google indexing
☐ Review technical SEO
☐ Optimize images
☐ Create seasonal content
☐ Review your Google Business Profile
Holiday Marketing
☐ Plan promotions
☐ Create landing pages
☐ Prepare email campaigns
☐ Schedule social media content
☐ Prepare Google Business Profile posts
☐ Review advertising campaigns
☐ Set a marketing budget
☐ Establish conversion tracking
IT
☐ Review computers
☐ Check network performance
☐ Review Wi-Fi
☐ Verify backups
☐ Review user accounts
☐ Remove old accounts
☐ Verify MFA
☐ Update software
☐ Check cybersecurity
☐ Confirm you know who to call when something breaks
Don’t Wait Until January
Here’s the biggest takeaway.
You don’t want to prepare for the busy season while you’re already in the busy season.
September gives you breathing room.
October gets busier.
November brings holiday activity and more seasonal visitors.
December brings the holidays.
Then Scottsdale moves deeper into the winter season, when tourism, events, seasonal residents, and outdoor activity all contribute to a much more active local business environment.
That’s why now is the time to get your digital house in order.
Not because something is necessarily wrong.
Because something eventually will be.
And wouldn’t it be nice if you found it first?
Need Help Getting Your Business Ready?
If your website needs work, your SEO needs a strategy, your Google Business Profile needs attention, or your technology needs a pre-season checkup, TLD USA can help.
We’re an Arizona-based full-service digital agency providing website development, SEO, digital marketing, IT support, cloud services, cybersecurity, and technology consulting.
You don’t necessarily need a massive project.
Sometimes you need a few hours of cleanup.
Sometimes you need a new website.
You certainly need an SEO campaign.
Everyone you need ongoing IT support.
And sometimes you just need someone who can look at everything and say:
“Yep. Here’s what I’d fix first.”
That’s what we’re here for.
If you want to get ahead of the holiday rush and the seasonal Scottsdale crowd, let’s talk before everyone else realizes they should have done the same thing.
Ready to Get Your Business Ready?
Schedule a 30-minute consultation with TLD USA and let’s identify what needs attention before the busy season arrives.
Because the best time to fix your website, improve your SEO, secure your technology, and prepare your business for more customers is before you need all of it working at once.
And if you’re reading this in December thinking, “We really should have done this in September…”
Well.
We tried to tell you.
TLD USA – Arizona’s Full Service Digital Agency
Websites. SEO. IT Support. Digital Marketing. Technology.
Your first call for IT, web & online presence.