Halloween. A night of trick-or-treating, jack-o’-lanterns, and cool costumes. Speaking of costumes, a lot of people have Yelp to thank for their getups of choice this year. Why? Well, if October 2015 taught us anything, it’s that searches in the ‘Costumes’ category on Yelp surged, with 1.8 million more searches compared to the month prior.

This is great news for business owners. Since the volume of Yelp search queries in certain categories depends on seasonal trends, businesses can actively target consumers during key periods like Halloween. It’s the same for Thanksgiving, too. Yelp experienced a 21% increase in searches in the ‘Meat Shops’ category in November 2015 as users shopped for their Thanksgiving birds. This is because Yelp has the ability to put businesses in front of consumers who are actively searching for their products or services and intending to make a purchase.

Not surprisingly, current events also impact search volume on Yelp. Beyonce’s 2016 Super Bowl performance of her hit song ‘Formation,’ in which she mentions eating at Red Lobster, led to a 66% increase in page views of Red Lobster’s Yelp Business Pages during the days following the game. If Beyonce eats at Red Lobster, Yelp users follow suit.

Increases in Yelp search volume, such as the Red Lobster phenomenon incited by Beyonce’s lyrics, may be difficult to predict; however, if there’s one thing retailers can anticipate and leverage, it’s holiday shopping searches to drive customers in-store. In December 2015, there were over 60 million searches in the ‘Shopping’ category on Yelp. One large national retailer nearly doubled their monthly Yelp Ads budget in December to attract holiday shoppers on-the-go. As a result, they drove approximately 24,000 customers to map directions to nearby stores during December. Now that’s click to brick.

Here are five ways businesses can capitalize on seasonal search trends on Yelp:

1. Update your Specialties section.
2. Create a Call-to-Action button or Check-In Offer based on seasonal trends.
3. Invest in Yelp Ads around key periods.
4. Update your business hours on Yelp.
5. Add photos of seasonal products and caption them accordingly.

Interested in attracting holiday shoppers on Yelp? First things first, explore our free tools and targeted advertising options by visiting biz.yelp.com/advertise. If you represent a national business interested in partnering with Yelp, please contact yelpnational@yelp.com