You’ve still got a few days until Easter Sunday or organise your Easter treats. What do you have planned? Make sure before you and your family dig into the indulgent side of Easter you understand the meaning of Easter and why it is celebrated.

While Easter is a fun time for kids, adults can indulge in a little chocolate too. Check out the chocolate shops on NZS.com for some inspiration!

If are keen on making your own Easter eggs (it’s easier than it sounds) check out our Easter egg recipes. For those who want to enjoy Easter without the super-sweet tooth, how about some homemade hot cross buns? Easter baking isn’t restricted to chocolate, so get the oven firing this weekend.

Image from Flickr.

Analysing seasonal trends in search and keeping an eye on what’s coming up on your seasonal keyword list can produce solid results for the in-bound traffic to your website. Are you planning an Easter promotion and have a page targeting Easter keywords on your website?

For NZS.com, the largest spike we’ve seen over the last year was in relation to the Olympic Keyword Searches that were being searched on. These searches were across the widest range of user demographics that we’ve seen in some time.

Here’s a helpful list of Easter-related keyword searches which have gained popularity on NZS.com over the last week:

• easter activities
• easter ideas
• easter baking
• easter recipes
• easter crafts
• meaning of easter
• how to make easter eggs
• easter cards
• easter symbols
• easter bun recipe

NZS.com also has a set of useful Easter related Articles: Easter Gifts, Easter Activities and Easter Baking.

If you have a statistics package attached to you website (like Google Analytics, which is freely available) it’s a good idea to look back at Easter 2008 and see if people found your site by searching for Easter related terms. Re-cycling those terms this year within your website copy may help increase your traffic on them.

You might be surprised at the extra opportunities that present themselves by following other seasonal keywords that your visitors are using through-out the year.

How do New Zealanders celebrate Easter?

This holiday, traditionally a time for remembering the death and resurrection of Christ, is now celebrated as a time of new beginnings… and chocolate.

Chances are, even if you don’t consider yourself religious in any way, you’re probably still celebrating Easter with some of the most ancient symbols of new life – eggs, baby chicks and rabbits. These are all symbols of fertility, life and newfound hope. So, while you’re enjoying some hard-earned chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs and hot cross buns this year – think about the meaning behind all those delicious Easter treats!

This Easter…

Activities for Easter - Get creative with Easter crafts, go on an Easter youth camp, make gift baskets and cards, or throw a themed Easter party.

Easter baking - Nothing beats homemade hot cross buns, and they’re easy for kids to make too!

Make your own Easter eggs – Who knew it was so easy to make

Easter gifts - Give a little something at Easter to friends, family or corporate clients. Try Easter flowers, gift baskets, Christian gifts or the traditional favourite – Easter eggs.

Learn about Easter – Learn more about the traditional meaning and stories of Easter, and celebrate with others at your local church.