Ames has a rhythm most towns don't. Iowa State University sets the pace for a big part of the year: students arrive, football Saturdays fill the town, breaks empty it out, and summer goes quiet. A business that updates its website and Google Business Profile before each of those moments gets found. One that updates during them is already late.
This is a plain planning calendar for Ames shops, restaurants, salons, repair shops and service businesses. It isn't built on statistics, because we don't have any to give you. It's built on the schedule you can already see: the university's published calendar, the athletics schedule and your own sales records. We're HIVEMIND SOLUTIONS, a studio based in Ames, Iowa, and this is how we'd walk through the year with a neighbor.
Step zero: get your three calendars
- Iowa State's academic calendar (published on the university's website): move-in, first day of classes, fall and spring breaks, finals, commencement.
- The athletics schedule: home football dates matter most, but check other home events that affect your block.
- Your own year: open last year's sales records or your gut memory. Which weeks were slammed? Which were dead? Mark them. Your numbers beat any generic advice, ours included.
Dates change from year to year, so write the dates for this year on one page and keep it where you'll see it. Then work backward from each date: the website and Google changes below should be done two to three weeks ahead.
Summer: fix the slow stuff while it's quiet
When foot traffic dips, use the time for the jobs that take longer than a day. Update your photos with real shots of your space, team and work. Check your Google Business Profile categories, services and description. Read your website on your phone, start to finish, and fix what annoys you. If the site is old enough that fixing it is a bigger job than starting over, summer is the time to decide that. Our guide on redesign or start over can help you choose.
Late July to August: be ready before move-in
New students, families and staff arrive knowing very little about local businesses, and they search on their phones: “barber near me,” “pizza near campus,” “oil change Ames.” Before move-in week:
- Confirm your address, phone number and opening hours on your website and Google profile match exactly.
- Add your fall hours, and set special hours in Google for the dates you'll be open late, closed or different.
- Make sure your homepage shows what you do, where you are and how to reach you in one phone screen. Visitors who can't tell in a few seconds will tap the next result.
- Post a short Google update about anything new for fall: a menu change, a student-friendly service, new hours.
- Reply to the reviews you haven't answered. A profile with polite, recent replies looks cared for.
September to November: game days and the long middle
Home football Saturdays change who's in town, when they're hungry and which roads they take. Set special hours in Google the week before, not that morning, and put a line on your homepage if your hours or parking change on game days. Visitors who aren't from Ames won't know your normal rhythm, so state it. Outside game weekends, the long middle of the semester is a good time to ask happy customers for a review the right way, following Google's rules. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers that without breaking policy.
Thanksgiving to mid-January: holiday hours and the empty weeks
Much of campus empties for Thanksgiving and winter break, and your regular customers may shift to the people who live here year-round. Do three things before the break starts: publish your holiday hours on Google and on your site, tell your own opted-in customers (an email or text to people who asked to hear from you), and decide whether a short closure is a good time to refresh photos or prices. When classes resume in January, a fresh wave of searches begins. Check that your January hours are live a week before.
February to April: steady months and spring break
Use these months to catch up on the things the busy seasons pushed aside: broken links, an out-of-date price or menu, a contact form you haven't tested lately (send yourself a message), and photos from the past few months. Set special hours for spring break and Easter if they differ from normal.
May: graduation and the summer slide
Commencement brings families to Ames, often from out of town, and many of them search for restaurants, hotels and things to do the same week. If you serve visitors, make sure your hours, address and a menu or price list are easy to find without a PDF download. Then publish your summer hours. Many businesses in a college town run a different schedule in the summer, and customers should know before they drive over.
What stays the same all year
Ames isn't only a campus. Residents, Research Park employers and people from Story County towns like Nevada, Huxley and Story City keep local businesses going all twelve months. The year-round basics are the same ones in our local SEO checklist for central Iowa: a complete Google profile, one consistent name, address and phone number everywhere, a fast mobile site, and honest reviews.
Your one-page Ames calendar
Copy this onto a single sheet and fill in this year's dates:
- Three weeks before move-in: fall hours live, photos fresh, unanswered reviews answered.
- The week before each home football weekend: special hours set, homepage note if parking or hours change.
- Two weeks before Thanksgiving and winter break: holiday hours posted, a note to opted-in customers.
- One week before classes resume: January hours live.
- Two weeks before spring break and commencement: special hours set, visitor info easy to find.
- Early May: summer hours posted.
If you'd rather hand it off
Keeping a calendar like this takes about an hour a month, and many owners would rather spend that hour on customers. If that's you, we can do it with you. The $79 Main Street Tune-Up cleans up your Google listing once, and Google Listing Care keeps it current month to month. We don't promise rankings or reviews, and you keep ownership of your listing at all times. To see how we work with Ames businesses, start at web design in Ames or ask for a free homepage mockup.