Find your real season in your own data
Your season starts when people begin searching and calling, which is often earlier than opening day. Look at three sources from past years: Search Console's Performance report for when impressions on your main searches start climbing, Google Ads or analytics for when inquiries pick up, and your booking records for when deposits arrive. The gap between the first searches and the first bookings is your warm-up window.
Region and trade change the calendar completely. A snowmobile rental or a trailside motel works a winter season; the Michigan DNR counts 6,311 miles of snowmobile trails among more than 13,700 miles of state-designated trails. A marina or a lakeshore ice cream stand runs the opposite way. Do not borrow a calendar from a business that serves different customers.
Off-season: build
This is when you have time, so spend it on the work that is hard to do once the doors open:
- Update the website with new photos, current prices or packages, next season's dates and working booking links.
- Write or refresh a page for each service, package or attraction.
- Grow your email and text list, and draft the messages you will send before opening.
- Clean up your listings on Google Business Profile, Bing Places and any tourism or trade directories.
- Review last season's ads: which searches and campaigns produced bookings, and which wasted money.
Closing for the season: tell Google and customers the truth
Google's Business Profile guidelines cover seasonal businesses directly. While you are open, set your regular hours, and you can say in your business description that you operate only during a specific season. During the off-season you can mark the business as temporarily closed, then set regular hours again when you reopen.
Keep the website up. Google's advice for businesses that pause temporarily is to keep the site online with limited functions and a clear notice, because removing a site from its index can take quite some time to recover from, and fully disabling a site should last a few days at most. A banner with your reopening date and a way to book ahead or join a waitlist keeps the off-season useful.
Pre-season: warm up
Restart ads before you open, sized to the searches you saw rising last year. Google treats a campaign budget as a daily average, and with ad scheduling on it paces toward a monthly total of 30.4 times that daily amount, so set the daily figure from the monthly spend you want. Reopen your Business Profile with regular hours, post your opening date and fresh photos, and send your list the first booking message.
In season: run and measure
Keep hours accurate, especially around holidays; Google's special hours feature handles closures lasting six days or fewer without changing your regular schedule. Reply to reviews while the visit is fresh. Check weekly which campaigns and pages produce bookings, and move budget toward them while demand is high. Write down what happened, so next year's plan starts from facts instead of memory.
Businesses that switch seasons
Many Michigan businesses never fully close; they change what they sell. A lawn company plows snow, a landscape supplier sells salt or firewood, a marina stores boats. Keep one Business Profile and one website, update the featured services and description as the season turns, and run separate ad campaigns for each season's services so each one can be paused and restarted cleanly. Modern Apex is based in Michigan and plans this kind of calendar with owners on video or phone calls, starting with a free 30-minute strategy call.
| Phase | Website | Google Business Profile | Ads and outreach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Banner with reopening date; update pages and photos | Mark temporarily closed if fully closed | Review last season; draft messages |
| Pre-season | Booking links live; new season's details | Set regular hours again; post opening date | Restart campaigns; email and text your list |
| In season | Keep prices and availability current | Special hours for holidays; answer reviews | Shift budget to what books; track weekly |
| Season change | Swap featured services | Update services and description | Pause last season's campaigns; start the next |
Related questions
Should I mark my Business Profile closed in the off-season?
If you are truly closed, Google's guidelines say you can mark the business temporarily closed during the off-season and set regular hours again when you reopen. If you still answer calls, take bookings or sell another seasonal service, keep the profile open and update the hours instead.
Should I take my website down when we are closed?
No. Google recommends keeping a temporarily closed business's site online with limited features and a clear notice, because removing a site from its index can take a long time to recover from. Add your reopening date and a way to book ahead.
When should I restart Google Ads before opening?
When last year's data shows searches starting to rise, which is often weeks before opening day. Check when impressions climbed in Search Console and when inquiries arrived, then restart a little ahead of that point with a modest budget and raise it as calls come in.
Is it worth advertising in the off-season?
Sometimes. Gift cards, early-booking offers, season passes and off-season services can justify a small campaign. Otherwise, put off-season money into the website and your customer list, which keep working when you reopen.
Sources
- Michigan DNR: Trails
- Google Business Profile guidelines, including seasonal hours
- Google Search Central: Pause or disable a website
- Google Ads Help: About ad scheduling
- Google Ads Help: Set and change an average daily budget
- Business Profile Help: How to set special hours
- Search Console Help: Performance report