Southport Air Show: Sky-High Search Traffic

My kids dragged me down to the Promenade for the Air Show last year. Spectacular display. Red Arrows, Spitfires, the works. But what really caught my attention? The restaurant we tried to get lunch at—packed out, 45-minute wait, turning people away.

Curious, I checked their website later that evening. Zero mention of the Air Show. No special page. No "book ahead for Air Show weekend" CTA. Nothing. They'd just lost dozens of advance bookings from families who Googled "restaurants near Southport Air Show" the week before and found... their competitors.

The Southport Air Show pulls 200,000+ visitors. But here's the kicker: those visitors start searching 4-6 weeks early. Searches for "hotels near Southport Air Show" spike 1,800% in July. "Things to do Southport" goes up 600%. And most Southport businesses? Not even trying to capture it.

Let's fix that.

The Search Spike: What Happens Online

Search interest in "Southport Air Show" follows a dramatic and predictable pattern. It's essentially flat for most of the year, then spikes sharply in the weeks before the event. Here's what people search for:

The critical insight is that the planning searches happen weeks before the event. If your content isn't indexed and ranking by then, you've missed the window. You can't publish an "Air Show guide" the day before and expect it to rank.

How Local Businesses Can Capture Event Traffic

1. Create a Dedicated Event Page

This is the single most effective thing you can do. Create a page on your website specifically about your business and the Air Show. For example:

• Restaurants: "Dining Near the Southport Air Show—Reserve Your Table"
• Hotels/B&Bs: "Stay for the Southport Air Show—Book Directly"
• Shops: "Visit Us During the Southport Air Show Weekend"
• Attractions: "Combine the Air Show with [Your Attraction]"

This page gives Google something specific to index for Air Show-related searches. Without it, your generic "About Us" page simply won't rank for event keywords.

2. Publish Supporting Content

Go beyond your own business. Write genuinely helpful content about attending the Air Show:

• "Where to park for the Southport Air Show"
• "Best viewing spots for the Southport Air Show"
• "What to do in Southport on Air Show weekend"
• "Southport Air Show with kids—a family guide"

This content attracts visitors to your site, establishes your local authority, and creates natural opportunities to mention your business. It's the kind of helpful, informative content that Google rewards—and the kind of content that good SEO is built on.

3. Update and Reuse Annually

Here's a trick that saves time and compounds results: don't create new event pages each year—update the existing ones. A page that's been live for three years and updated annually has far more authority in Google's eyes than a freshly published page. Change the dates, update the details, keep the URL the same.

4. Leverage Google Business Profile

In the weeks leading up to the Air Show, post regularly on your Google Business Profile:

• Special Air Show menus or offers
• Extended opening hours for the event weekend
• Photos from previous years
• Tips for visitors (parking, best routes, viewing spots)

These posts appear directly in Google search results and Maps. They're free, they're effective, and almost nobody in Southport is using them consistently.

Temporary Event Pages and Seasonal SEO

The Air Show strategy isn't unique—it's a template you can apply to every major Southport event:

• Southport Flower Show
• Food and drink festivals
• Southport Comedy Festival
• Christmas markets and light switch-on
• Halloween events

Each event generates its own search spike. Each spike is an opportunity. Create a page, optimise it, update it annually, and you build a library of event content that drives traffic to your website throughout the year.

The Bigger Picture

The Southport Air Show is a brilliant example of how event-driven search traffic works. But the real lesson is broader: your website should be a living, breathing asset that responds to what's happening in your local area. The businesses that treat their website as a static brochure miss these opportunities entirely. The ones that actively publish, update, and optimise capture traffic that their competitors don't even know exists.

The next Air Show is coming. The question is whether your website will be ready for it.

Air Show Marketing: Your Questions Answered