As summer nears its end and fall begins, ’tis the season for holiday SEO planning. While it may seem premature to start thinking about holiday shopping season when there’s still pumpkin spice on the shelves, you want to ensure your website is prepared for the influx of holiday shopping come November, especially those with significant buying power. In fact, eCommerce sales hit $10.8 billion in 2020 from Cyber Monday alone. It takes a concerted effort and some strategic thinking that can’t be rushed to ensure you can capture every dollar possible during the largest shopping season of the year.
With stiff competition to rank for queries involving “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” having a strong comprehension of how to prepare correctly is your only chance to capture organic traffic from these high-intent shoppers and become an expert in digital marketing for the holiday season.
Follow these holiday SEO tips below and eCommerce SEO tips to get your website and landing pages ready for the holiday season and take advantage of the biggest eCommerce shopping season of the year:
Plan Your Timeline
The first step for an effective holiday SEO strategy is to develop a timeline of when you need to publish and promote your content. This will ensure that your holiday landing pages and info articles are published and promoted at the right time. You don’t want to wait until the week of Thanksgiving to start promoting your Black Friday collection – that’s too late! By then, your competitors will have already taken the search results.
Your timeline should look something like this:
- Early October: Research holiday keywords with high search volume and check Google trends to start planning your blog posts and landing pages around these related keywords.
- Mid-October: Begin writing blog posts and creating product pages.
- Late October: Publish blog posts and product landing pages.
- Early November: Promote content through social media, email marketing, paid search, and SMS marketing.
- Late November: Monitor content performance in Google Search Console and Google Analytics, then make changes as needed.
If you stick to this timeline, you’ll be in a much better position to rank high in search results come Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Keyword Research
Now that you have a timeline, it’s time to start thinking about the holiday keywords you want to target. This is where your research from last year’s holiday season will come in handy, like any historic SEO Christmas results. Look at the terms you ranked for last year in Google Search Console and see if there are any obvious gaps in your content. If you didn’t rank for any particular terms, look at what your competitors are ranking for and figure out why.
Once you understand the target keywords you want to target, start planning your content around these terms. This could mean creating new blog posts or revamping your product pages to include the relevant keywords.
Some ideas for blog posts include:
- How to Style a Holiday Outfit for Under $100
- What to Get the Person Who Has Everything
- The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide
And don’t forget to include relevant keywords throughout your content, such as:
- Best Black Friday deals
- Cyber Monday sales
- Holiday shopping
Promote Your Content
Once your content is published, it’s time to start promoting it. The best way to do this is through social media, email marketing, and paid search.
Social media is one of the fastest ways to increase organic traffic and promote your content for free. Make sure to post regularly and target holiday season hashtags, such as #BlackFriday or #CyberMonday.
Email marketing is another excellent way to reach your audience and promote your content. Send out a few emails leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday with your latest blog posts and product pages.
And finally, paid search ads are a great way to reach new people and drive traffic to your website. Target relevant keywords with your ads, and make sure to link to your holiday collection pages or blog posts.
Monitor Your Content Performance
Once Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, it’s important to monitor the performance of your content. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are both excellent tools for this. Look at which blog posts and product pages performed the best and figure out why. Make a note of what worked well and use that information to plan your content marketing for next year. Some key metrics to look at include:
- Organic traffic: This is the number of people who visited your website from a search engine that did not come from paid media.
- Social media engagement: This is the number of likes, shares, and comments your content received on social media.
- Email engagement: This is the number of people who clicked through to your website from an email campaign.
- Paid traffic: This is the number of people who visited your website from a paid ad.
- Conversion rate: This is the percentage of people who visited your website and took the desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter.
- Time on page: This is the average amount of time people spend on a particular page indicating how engaging your content is.
- Bounce rate: This is the percentage of people who visited your website and immediately left. A high bounce rate indicates that people didn’t find what they were looking for on your website.
Use this data to improve your content strategy for next year and make sure you’re prepared to take advantage of the holiday season. With the proper planning and execution, you can make the most of this busy time of year and see a significant increase in traffic and sales.
What Messaging Considerations Are Important for Cyber Monday?
When creating your content for Cyber Monday, it’s essential to consider the messaging that will resonate most with your audience. Some things to keep in mind include:
- Urgency: Create a sense of urgency by promoting limited-time deals and discounts.
- Scarcity: Promote deals available for a limited time or in limited quantities.
- FOMO: Use the fear of missing out to encourage people to take advantage of your deals before they’re gone.
These tactics are some of the most effective ways to get people to take action and enter your purchase funnel on Cyber Monday. Some creative ways to implement these tactics include:
- Countdown timers on your website or in your emails
- Promoting deals that are only available to the first set of customers
- Offering discounts that expire at the end of the day
How To Get More eCommerce Sales During the Holidays
The holiday season is a great time to boost your eCommerce sales. Here are a few tips to help you get started during this busy time of year:
- Offer free shipping: Free shipping is a great way to encourage people to purchase on your website. It can be difficult for consumers to justify spending money on shipping when they would prefer to drive in person and use that extra money on another item. Offering free shipping can help tip the scales in your favor.
- Run a holiday sale: Offer discounts on your products to help entice people to shop with you. This is a great way to clear out older inventory or promote your newest products. People expect to find deals during the holidays, so if your business doesn’t offer them, it will likely encourage them to shop elsewhere and return to your store after the holiday season.
- Create holiday gift guides: These are a great way to showcase your products and show people how they can be used as gifts. This is especially effective if you have unique or hard-to-find items. Gift guides are designed to make holiday shopping easier for the consumer, and if your guide is helpful, they’ll be more likely to remember your business when it comes time to make a purchase.
- Offer holiday-themed products: If your business sells physical goods, consider offering holiday-themed items. This could be anything from Christmas-themed mugs to Hanukkah-themed candles. Offering holiday-themed items is a great way to show your customers that you’re in the holiday spirit and get them excited about shopping with you.
- Advertise on social media: Promote your holiday deals on social media to reach a wider audience. This is a great way to reach people who may not be familiar with your business. Use relevant hashtags so people can easily find your posts and be directed to any holiday landing pages on your website that promote your deals.
Start Preparing Today
If you want to be prepared for the holiday season, start planning and executing your Holiday SEO strategy today. Without the proper planning, your website will likely get lost in the search results, and you’ll miss out on the increased traffic and holiday sales that come with the holiday shoppers. Leveraging these tips will help you get ahead of your competition and make the most of the holiday season.
If you are a company that could benefit from some help with your Cyber Monday SEO strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out to the experts at Zero Gravity Marketing. We are a team of digital marketing gurus that would be more than happy to help you plan and execute a holiday SEO strategy to increase search visibility and sales for your business. Contact us today to get started!
