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:
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:
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.
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:
And don’t forget to include relevant keywords throughout your content, such as:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
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:
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!