Be Aware of Your Audience and Their Forthcoming Holidays
Use Google Analytics map overlay to make sure you know which countries most of your readers come from. Lets say, for the purpose of this post, that most of your readers come from the UK, USA and Canada. Its a good idea to have a list of the major holidays in each of these countries. Earth Calendar is a great resource for finding out about international holidays.
Once you know the holidays you'll be tailoring content for, you can start to plan the content itself. Here are three ways in which you can make the holidays work with your websites content.
Wish Your Readers a Happy Holiday
Even if you don't necessarily want to write something specific about a given holiday, wishing your readers a happy holiday is a great idea! It shows your readers (particularly when you reference a holiday that isn't celebrated in your own country) that you're aware of their celebration and its a pleasant, personal gesture to mention it on your blog or website.
Lists and Resources
Give your readers something useful for the holidays! At Christmas, for example, get together some festive recipes or a list of e-stores offering bargain gifts. You could provide them with a list of websites with downloadable templates for creating Christmas cards or even offer lists along the lines of Five ways to keep the kids entertained at Thanksgiving. Essentially, offer your readers something useful and holiday-specific.
Tell Them Something New
We all like to think we know everything about our biggest holidays, right? But there will always be some obscure and little known facts about international holidays that you could pull together and publish on your site.
An example related to US Independence Day? Well, did you know that there are 11 places in the USA that have Independence in their name? The most highly populated is Independence in Missouri, which has just under 117,000 inhabitants.
It's always great to create holiday specific content. It can be fun, light hearted and a great way to engage your readers. The holidays can be a perfect excuse to wander from your usual topic matter and post something a little different!