What local customers search for in December: Google Trends data for trades and shops, and what to change before January
Lawn care and pest control searches hit their low in December, while storms bring week-long spikes. The 2025 to 2026 data, and what to change.
In December, US searches for most local services fall to their lowest point of the year. In Google Trends data for November 2025 to August 2026, lawn care searches in December ran at 35 percent of their April peak and pest control at 44 percent of its June peak. Weather searches behave differently: they arrive in spikes of a week.
This page is for owners of local service businesses and shops. It shows what their customers search for between November and January, and what to change on the website, the Google Business Profile and the ads because of it. The numbers come from Google Trends, with the method and its limits set out near the end.
The short version
- In Google Trends, December 2025 US search interest was 35 percent of each term’s peak month for lawn care and 44 percent for pest control. It was 63 percent for roof repair, 64 percent for plumber and 66 percent for electrician.
- Weather drives spikes, not seasons. “Snow removal” searches jumped about elevenfold in the week of 25 January 2026, the week a major winter storm hit from Texas to New England.
- Holiday shoppers did about a quarter (24 percent) of their holiday shopping in the two weeks before Christmas 2024, according to a Google and Ipsos survey.
- Google says special hours should be confirmed for official holidays even when they match your normal hours.
- Lawn care searches more than doubled from December to March. December is when pages for spring work should be written, not when SEO should stop.
What do local customers search for in December?
Fewer searches for planned outdoor and pest work, and roughly two thirds of the peak for urgent trades. In US Google Trends data for lawn care, pest control and roof repair and for plumbers, electricians and snow removal, every term’s December 2025 average sat well below its peak month.
| Search term | December 2025 vs its peak month | Peak month (Nov 2025 to Aug 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Lawn care | 35% | April 2026 |
| Pest control | 44% | June 2026 |
| Roof repair | 63% | June 2026 |
| Plumber | 64% | July 2026 |
| Electrician | 66% | June 2026 |
The table shows two groups. Seasonal outdoor and pest work loses well over half its searches in December. Trades people call when something breaks lose about a third, because pipes and wiring fail all year. Each figure is the December weekly average divided by the average of the term’s busiest month.
Two searches went against expectation and are left out of the table: “furnace repair” and “heater repair” were higher in spring and summer 2026 than in December 2025. Broad terms catch other meanings, such as water heaters, so check your own exact service terms before planning around them.
Why do weather searches come in spikes rather than seasons?
Because people search when the pipe bursts, not when winter starts. “Snow removal” averaged about 8 on the Google Trends scale in the first half of January 2026, then hit 89 in the week of 25 January. That was the week of a major storm the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center described as bringing ice storm warnings from East Texas to the western Carolinas (NOAA WPC).
The same week moved other searches too:
- Frozen pipes went from under 1 on the Trends scale in most weeks to 17.
- Plumber rose from 57 to 63 in early January to 72, then 74 the week after.
- Snow removal fell back to 20 the following week.
The cost of the damage explains the urgency. State Farm says it received more than 20,000 frozen pipe claims from 2024 through June 2025 and paid over $628 million. It says the average claim exceeded $30,000, with Texas among the five states with the highest totals (State Farm). For a plumber, the year’s best week may be one nobody can schedule.
What do holiday shoppers search for before they visit a shop?
Whether you have it and whether you are open. A Google-commissioned Ipsos survey found 85 percent of in-store holiday buying was researched online first. Another found 66 percent of Americans planning holiday shopping would confirm online that an item was in stock before buying, according to Google’s December 2025 retail article.
The same article reports that shoppers did about a quarter (24 percent) of their holiday shopping in the two weeks before Christmas 2024, from a survey of 1,177 US holiday shoppers. So the last fortnight is not a wind-down for a shop. It is a quarter of the season, done by people in a hurry.
Spending held up. US holiday retail sales from 1 November to 31 December 2025 grew 4.1 percent on the year before, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor. That figure is based on card transaction data and is not adjusted for inflation.
What should a local business change on its website and profile in December?
Change the things a December searcher checks first: hours, availability and the emergency number. Google’s help page says it is a good idea to confirm special hours for official holidays even when they match your regular hours. That way customers can see they are accurate (Google Business Profile Help). Special hours cover closures of up to six days in a row.
The December list, in order:
- Set special hours for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, on the profile and the website.
- Put the emergency number at the top of every page if you take out-of-hours calls, and say whether there is a holiday call-out charge.
- Write the storm page now. A plumber’s frozen pipe page or a roofer’s ice dam page should be live before the cold snap, because the spike lasts about a week.
- Show stock and pickup if you are a shop: what is in, until when, and whether you hold items.
- Sell gift cards on the site if you sell services people give as presents, such as cleaning, detailing or a spa visit.
- Draft the spring pages. Lawn, pest and roofing pages written in December are ready before demand returns.
The local SEO checklist covers the rest of the profile.
How should Google Ads change between November and January?
Follow the demand, not the calendar. For a seasonal trade, a budget that ran out by midday in summer may not spend in December, so move money to the services that still get searched. For a one-week storm, Google’s seasonality adjustments tell Smart Bidding to expect a short change in conversion rates, and Google says they suit events of 1 to 7 days (Google Ads Help).
- Use seasonality adjustments for a storm or a sale, not for the whole of December. Google warns they may not work as well beyond 14 days.
- Schedule ads to the hours you answer over the holidays, so calls on Christmas Day do not ring out. The plan post on Google Ads ad scheduling sets it up.
- Keep emergency campaigns funded for the cold weeks of January and February, when snow and frozen pipe searches spiked in 2026.
Moving budget between services as demand shifts is ordinary Google Ads management work, and worth doing monthly rather than once a year.
Shops running promotions should also read the Black Friday Google Ads checks, since the same freeze-and-watch logic carries into December. Seasonal trades have their own plans: HVAC budgets by season and landscaping ads in the off-season.
Why is December the month to work on SEO for spring?
Because demand for seasonal work comes back fast and pages need time to rank. In Google Trends, lawn care searches went from an average of 15.2 in December 2025 to 35.4 in March 2026, about 2.3 times as many. Pest control went from 41.5 to 87.5 in April, about 2.1 times. A page written in March meets that demand late.
A worked example, assuming your share of searches stays the same: a lawn company getting 10 enquiries a month from search in December could expect about 23 in March. The extra 13 a month only arrive if the pages for spring services exist and are indexed by then. How long that takes is covered in how long SEO takes.
December is quiet for crews and loud for searchers who are planning. Owners who use it to write service pages, answer reviews and fix the profile start spring ahead. For help with the pages themselves, see SEO services for local businesses.
What are the limits of this data?
Google Trends shows relative interest, not search counts. Each term is scaled from 0 to 100 against its own busiest week in the period, and terms in the same comparison share one scale. A 35 percent December does not say how many people searched, only how December compared with that term’s peak.
- One season. The figures cover November 2025 to August 2026. A mild winter or a hot summer shifts them.
- National, not local. A Texas plumber and a Minnesota plumber see different winters. Change the region in Trends to your state.
- Short terms catch other meanings. As the heater repair result shows, check your own exact service words.
For your own business, your call log and Search Console are the better guide. Trends tells you when the market moves, your data tells you how much of it you won.
Questions people ask about holiday search trends for local businesses
Do people search for local services during Christmas week?
Yes, but less for planned work. In Google Trends, plumber searches held steady through Christmas week 2025, while electrician searches dipped from 60 to 49 that week and recovered the next. Urgent trades keep getting calls, so an answered phone and correct holiday hours matter more than an advert for a planned job.
Should I pause Google Ads over the holidays?
Pause only what you cannot answer or deliver. If nobody picks up on Christmas Day, schedule ads off for that day rather than pausing the account, so the campaigns keep their history. Emergency services usually do the opposite and keep ads running, because the few people searching on a holiday have a real problem.
When do Christmas light installation searches peak?
Before December. In US Google Trends data for November 2025 to August 2026, “christmas light installation” was highest in November and had fallen by the second half of December. Installers who start marketing in December are late; the profile, pages and ads should be ready by early November.
Does a business lose rankings if it closes for the holidays?
Setting special hours for a short closure is the right way to show it, and Google allows special hours for closures of up to six days in a row. For a longer closure, Google’s help says to mark the business as temporarily closed instead. Either way, keep the hours accurate rather than leaving the profile saying open when nobody answers.
Which local businesses get busier in December?
Shops, gift-friendly services, and trades tied to cold weather. Snow removal searches in 2026 peaked in January, and frozen pipe searches spiked with the January storm. Shops get about a quarter of holiday shopping in the last two weeks before Christmas, according to the Google and Ipsos survey.
How do I check search trends for my own trade and town?
Open Google Trends, type your main service as people would say it, set the region to your state or metro area, and choose the past five years. Look for the months it rises and falls, then compare against your own call log. Use five years rather than one, so one odd winter does not set your whole plan.
The bottom line
Treat December as two businesses. One is a quiet month for planned work, used to build the pages and reviews for spring. The other is a possible storm week that needs the phone answered and the emergency page live. Set holiday hours now, keep emergency budgets ready for January, and do not stop SEO in the slow month.
If spring is when your phone should ring, get your website checked for free before the season turns. You get a written list of the pages and profile fixes to finish in December, usually within one working day.
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