Here are some ways to prepare your online retail business to capture holiday shoppers.
Get Started On Your Holiday SEO Promotions As Soon As Possible
You will want to be prepared for the holiday shopping season to begin on Black Friday and Cyber Monday so make sure that you have special offers, coupons, and targeted landing pages for each event. According to the article, “9 SEO Tips to Maximize Your Holiday Ecommerce Traffic,”
“…a business must post content to their website 45 days ahead of their desired ‘maximum impact’ window in order to participate in 90% of the search traffic for that keyword.”
So, if you want to make the Search Engine Results Page for a particular holiday keyword, you’ll need to publish around a month and a half ahead of time. For example, for an offer or article promoting Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you will want to publish it around mid-October.
Don’t Forget Your SEO Basics
If you want your SEO plan to be successful, you have to start from the basics. Make sure your website has a reasonably low load time and is able to be easily accessed by a variety of mobile devices. Also, make sure you are using alt tags on images, when appropriate. If you are promoting a particular offer or product, be sure to build targeted landing pages so that the customer is immediately brought to a relevant page when they click on your advertisement or offer.
It is also helpful to use your past overall search trends and holiday site performance to help guide your efforts in choosing appropriate target keywords.
Social Media Is Your Best Friend For Holiday SEO Success
Social media has a huge impact on a brand’s public image. Make sure you are using this to your advantage. Choose posts that will engage your customers and share specialized landing pages for events like your holiday open house or Cyber Monday. Also, social media is a great place to advertise any new content on your website—whether it be a new festive blog, a new product or service, or even a new promotional offer or coupon code.
Continually Monitor Your Performance And Adjust As Needed
If you have any experience with SEO, you know that it is a long-term commitment rather than a quick fix. Share on X However, you should still monitor your performance throughout the holiday season and make adjustments where it is needed. You can use Google Analytics as well as Google Search Console to keep track of search term performance and user behavior. Using these tools, you should be able to see areas which may require a bit more focus as well as help you weed out any strategies that are not working.
It may be September, but it is never too early to plan for a successful holiday SEO campaign. Feeling the crunch? Our Troupe of elves is ready to get your SEO in holiday shape–contact us here.
Written by TinaKay Oliver || Google Analytics & SEO Consultant