The Christmas spending season begins with Black Friday. For businesses with an online shop, it is crucial to prepare ahead to ensure you take advantage.
You can’t improve your Google rankings overnight, so it is worth ensuring now that you are prepared.
This year Black Friday falls on the 25th of November, and Cyber Monday is on the 28th of November.
This guide will explore some ideas to help you maximise your SEO for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the upcoming Christmas season.
2022 Shopping Habits
Post-pandemic, internet sales have remained higher than before as a percentage of total sales. Internet sales are around 25% of all sales in the UK, according to Statista.
With this figure in mind, you can be sure that people will do a good deal of their shopping online.
What do we know about Christmas shopping?
Microsoft produced some key insights last year about Black Friday.
- Shoppers start early.
- Shoppers demand alternative payments and delivery methods.
- There is a growing trend for sustainability.
- Advertising competition is high.
Click and collect will likely remain popular, along with speedy, reliable deliveries and pick-up points.
Online shopping means that consumers are prepared earlier, so it is worth extending holiday deals to capture those looking early.
Steps to improve your SEO for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and The Christmas Season
1. Be Prepared
Data is your friend. Look at last year’s data now to give you time to make improvements.
It is worth remembering that content takes a while to rank. Set up a schedule to help things go smoothly:
45 days ahead: Put your promotion on your website, social media, and email newsletter.
7 days ahead: Post your upcoming events on social media and via email. Encourage sharing.
1 Day Ahead: Post reminders on social media.
2. Set Up New Pages
Consider the landing pages that work for this season. Include ideas such as “Top Ten Gifts for…” and “Best Gifts For…”.
Ensure your categories are relevant and that page titles and meta descriptions are geared towards Christmas and this Black Friday season.
It is a good idea to check your internal links to relevant pages to enable Google to find them quickly.
3. Make the Most of Social Media
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are essential outlets for promoting your products and offers.
Your seasonal gift pages and gift guides are great ways to connect with your audience.
Don’t forget email. Newsletters are effective ways to draw consumers to your website.
4. Promote New Products
If you have identified a new product as a potential bestseller, get some content published about it now.
Writing about new products helps them rank in advance and generates interest. Ensure your content links to the product page so that when it is released, you will be ready.
5. Optimise Your Pages
When creating your new product pages for Christmas, it is essential to optimise them using structured data.
Structured data produces rich content that can help you beat your competition.
6. Be Efficient
Recycling is not just for rubbish. Save time by reusing and updating last year’s guides. Just change the date on the URL and redirect traffic.
Not only does this save time, but it also makes the most of existing inbound links.
You can also reuse old posts and content or recycle them into new categories.
7. Optimise Your Mobile Site Speed
It is easy to forget to check your mobile speed separately when you check your website speed. However, mobile speed is increasingly important as many more people shop on mobile devices.
Use Core Web Vitals from Google to check speeds and make relevant improvements.
8. Measure Your Success
Make sure you have established some relevant KPIs that you can track and measure your performance against.
Analysing your sales performance and SEO over this crucial period for sales is the best way to make further improvements next year.
Any business looking for growth must have analytics in place that can help them to beat the competition.
Final Thoughts
National World says that Black Friday has become one of the biggest shopping days in the UK. This year, with the cost of living crisis hitting hard, it is even more likely that shoppers will be looking for bargains.
Ensure that your business is not missing out by using SEO to rank your promotions and offers higher.
If you want some help with improving your SEO, get in touch with us at SEO & Web. We are experienced at getting businesses to rank at number one, driving more traffic and sales at the busiest time of year.
