In short
- Google recommends reusing the same URL every year for a recurring event (/soldes/ rather than /soldes-2026/).
- A seasonal page is prepared weeks in advance: Google must have crawled it before the search peak.
- Permanent categories also capture seasonal demand, as long as their tags and texts contain nothing outdated.
- A dated collection left online after the event becomes a zombie page.
Sales, Black Friday, Christmas, Mother's Day, back to school: every sector has its peak periods, which concentrate a large share of annual sales. On the SEO side, many sites treat them as one-off operations: a page created at the last minute, deleted after the event, recreated the following year. That is the best way to start from scratch every time.
A recurring URL, not a dated URL
Google recommends it explicitly for recurring events: reuse the same URL every year. Prefer /black-friday/ to /black-friday-2026/, and /soldes/ to /soldes-ete-2026/.
The benefit is simple: the page accumulates its history, its links and its authority from one year to the next. A new URL every year starts with nothing. Simply update the title and the content for each edition, including the year if it is useful to visitors.
Prepare the page in advance
A page published the day before the event has little chance of being crawled, indexed and ranked in time. Google advises publishing a page presenting the event ahead of time, even if the offers are only revealed on the day, then requesting a new crawl once the page has been updated.
In practice: the event page stays online all year, with useful content out of season (dates of the next edition, permanent selection, alert sign-up), and ramps up as the peak approaches.
Permanent categories also capture the season
Not everyone searches for "soldes" or "Black Friday". Many people simply search for the product when they need it: "garden furniture" in spring, "warm duvet" in autumn, "stroller" all year round. It is your permanent categories that capture this demand.
Two conditions for them to benefit:
- timeless tags and texts: a meta description announcing "-30% until 15 January" becomes false on the 16th, and will disappoint visitors for months;
- seasonal emphasis inside the page, rather than in the tags: banner, sorting, current selection.
That is also a rule unblind applies: its reviewer flags and removes from category texts any mention of a current collection, a promotion or a date that will be outdated the following season, so that the texts stay true over time.
After the event
The worst reflex is to leave dated, empty pages online ("Summer sales 2024", "Christmas 2023"): they become zombie pages. With a recurring URL, the question no longer arises: the same page switches to out-of-season mode.
For dated collections that already exist, redirect them to the event's recurring page or to the closest permanent category.
The standard calendar
| Timing | Action |
|---|---|
| 2 to 3 months before | Check the recurring page, update its title and text, link to it from the menu or the home page |
| 2 to 4 weeks before | Announce the event on the page, request a new crawl |
| During | Offers live, emphasis in the relevant categories |
| After | Switch to out-of-season mode, remove dated mentions from categories |
Frequently asked questions
Should a new page be created for every sales event?
No. Google recommends using a recurring URL, without the year, and updating its content for each edition. The page then keeps its history and its links from one year to the next.
What should be done with the seasonal page outside the event?
Keep it online with useful content (next dates, permanent selection, alert sign-up) rather than deleting it. It stays indexed and ready for the next edition.