If you're a joiner, sash window specialist, or any kind of tradesperson who works with your hands rather than a laptop, you've probably noticed it: those dead-quiet spells in July and again in December. One minute you're turning down work, the next you're refreshing your inbox like it's 2011 and you've just joined Gmail.
These seasonal slowdowns are no coincidence. During summer, families go on holiday, schools break up, and home improvements get put on the back burner. Around Christmas, people are more focused on turkey, tinsel, and avoiding spending any more money than absolutely necessary. Spending £4,000 on a timber door restoration doesn’t quite fit into the festive spirit.
But it’s not just you.
According to Rated People’s annual Home Improvement Trends Report, 31% of tradespeople say they experience a slowdown in enquiries around the Christmas period, and summer isn’t far behind.
People are distracted. Priorities shift. Even emergency repairs often get postponed because clients are either away, hosting relatives, or hoping a stuck sash window magically unsticks itself come spring.
"Most trades don’t realise these quiet months are the perfect time to outpace your competitors. The ones who act now will be dominating search results by autumn," says Rob Gould, founder of Local Trades Websites.
Understanding why these slumps happen is the first step. The second? Doing something about it.
We’ve all had that awkward moment in July or December where you stare at your phone, check your emails, then check them again… just in case Outlook's broken. You’re not the only one. Across the UK, joiners, glaziers, and tradespeople from every corner of the country report the same eerie silence when summer or the festive season rolls in.
According to Federation of Master Builders data, many small construction and home improvement firms experience significant dips during holiday periods, with over 40% citing “seasonality” as a major threat to their business stability.
“It’s not a slump in your service, it’s just a seasonal pause,” says Rob Gould, lead SEO strategist at Local Trades Websites. “Most trades panic and pull back their marketing, but that’s the worst thing you can do.”
While your phone might be quieter, it doesn’t mean customers aren’t browsing. People still search for services, save websites for later, and research who they might call in the new year. Google searches for things like “sash window replacement” or “bespoke wardrobes for January” don’t completely disappear. They just shift in intent, from urgent bookings to future planning.
This is your moment to get in front of those planners.
If you disappear from the search results during the quiet season, guess what? You’ll still be invisible when the rush returns. The trades that grow year after year? They stay visible even when things go quiet.
While some joiners and window firms treat summer and Christmas like an extended nap, others treat it like off-season training. These are the companies who stay fully booked even when it’s freezing, raining sideways or half the country’s in flip-flops.
Here’s what the smart ones do when it goes quiet:
“When the work slows down, the marketing should speed up. That’s the rule,” says Rob Gould from Local Trades Websites. “If you’re not building online visibility when others are sleeping, you’ll always be catching up.”
Data backs this up. A study from HubSpot found that websites that post fresh content weekly receive 3.5x more leads than those that don’t. That’s not theory, that’s real business growth, even during slow months.
If you're already less busy on-site, why not finally sort out your site? This is the perfect time to fix what’s been ignored: slow-loading pages, outdated galleries, missing service areas, or that “Coming Soon” blog you promised to write in 2022.
You don’t need to drop thousands or rebuild your entire website from scratch. If you're a joiner, window restorer, carpenter, or any kind of skilled tradesperson, you can take big steps with small actions. Here’s how to start making moves, even during a slump.
“We’ve helped dozens of trades get to the top of Google without spending mega money. It’s all about structure, relevance, and consistency, not just throwing cash at ads,” says Rob Gould from Local Trades Websites.
These small steps, taken during a lull, can put you miles ahead when the phones start ringing again in spring. Trades who wait for the work to come back often find that it doesn’t. Trades who prepare? They’re already booked up by March.
If enquiries have slowed to a trickle, don’t panic!!! plan. Every trade goes quiet sometimes. Whether you're a sash window specialist in Surrey or a carpenter in Cornwall, seasonal dips are part of the job. But what separates the thriving tradespeople from the struggling ones is how they react when the phone stops ringing.
Instead of slashing prices, signing up for dodgy lead-gen schemes, or scrolling through Facebook groups in a panic, take a breath and build a strategy.
Here’s what smart planning looks like:
“Too many trades react when it's already too late,” says Rob Gould, owner of Traditional Carpentry. “If you want the work waiting for you, you need to start planning before you need it.”
By treating your slow months as your growth months, you’ll not only survive the slump, you’ll come out swinging on the other side, higher up in Google, better prepared, and ahead of the competition.
Summer and Christmas slowdowns aren’t a sign that business is drying up, they’re just seasonal blips. The demand for joiners, glaziers, and tradespeople doesn’t disappear, it just pauses while people sunbathe or eat stuffing. And when they come back, they come back hard, but only to the trades that stayed visible.
Whether you install sash windows in Sevenoaks, fit kitchens in Croydon, or do custom carpentry in Camden, the work is out there, and SEO is how you get it.
You can’t always control how many people are searching in December, but you can absolutely control who they find in January.
“We’ve helped over 50 trades dominate local search by doing the work when others were taking their foot off the pedal. That’s how you win,” says Aimee Lycett of Local Trades Websites LTD.
So if you want more leads, more bookings, and more predictable growth, even during the quiet months, the answer isn’t to wait. It’s to act.
👉 Book a free website and SEO audit today with Local Trades Websites, and let’s turn your seasonal slump into long-term success.