Black Friday spells a lucrative opportunity for retailers, whether they sell online, offline, or both ways. According to Statista, it is the busiest shopping day during the holiday season in the US. In 2023, Black Friday witnessed a massive online spending of $10.4 billion in the US. The numbers will likely increase in 2024.
While the holiday season still seems a couple of months ahead, retailers can expect buyers to start their shopping sprees sooner rather than later. A Gallup survey in 2023 suggested that one in four shoppers start holiday shopping as early as September. That means retailers must start planning promotions and sales without waiting too long.
When it comes to selling online, last-minute preparations may fail to deliver optimal results. What if your website is not visible to the holiday shoppers? What if your buyers find nothing that entices them when they land on your website? What if competitors tap into your market with a well-planned strategy before you start?
A smart pre-holiday-season SEO strategy can address all these questions. In this article, we will share a list of SEO best practices to get your website ready for the Black Friday rush.
Start with a Website Audit
A thorough review of your website can give you a head start with the holiday season sales and profits. With a comprehensive audit, you can identify the gaps in your site’s user experience and conversion funnel before the Black Friday surge arrives.
User expectations are bigger than ever, with the average website loading time being just 2.5 seconds on desktop devices and 8.6 seconds on mobile devices. If your site is slower than these estimates, you will miss out on the Black Friday sales opportunities. Even worse, there are chances of a crash during sudden traffic spikes.
An audit is the best way to find where your website stands. It also shows issues with content, on-page elements, backlinks, and technical aspects. You can work on these issues to prevent high bounce rates and cart abandonment.
When selling in the holiday season, you don’t just compete with online sellers but also with retail stores. Let us say that you run a business in Los Angeles, a city with over 164,200 stores from every segment. That means you will probably have hundreds of competitors in your niche.
A robust SEO plan is essential, and it should start with an audit. Fortunately, there are agencies that offer a free SEO audit in Los Angeles as a part of their service package. With this, you know where to start and what to address to prepare your site for the traffic rush.
Everzocial highlights the benefits of working with a full-service digital marketing agency. Besides offering SEO recommendations, they can help you fine-tune your website design to give it a festive look and feel.
Work on SEO Essentials
Once you get an SEO audit for your website, it is time to get started with the actual work. The audit may show some lags you need to address before the festive traffic surges. Conversely, you may want to do some aesthetic touch-ups to welcome your visitors with holiday vibes. Here are a few things you should do.
Optimize for Black Friday Keywords
According to Performance Marketing World, optimizing your website with Black Friday keywords is essential for maximizing the opportunity. Use keywords around Black Friday and Cyber Monday in your headers, meta descriptions, titles, and throughout the content. Think of long-tailed variations such as Black Friday sales, Cyber Monday deals, best Black Friday sales for 2024, and so forth.
The more organic they sound, the better because search engines do not like spammy content. Remember that these keywords will likely be incredibly competitive, so you might not rank for them immediately. Starting early can help you build on these keywords. Consider optimizing your website pages and publishing relevant blog posts as a part of the strategy.
Create Dedicated Landing Pages
A Statista report showed that Cyber Monday witnessed the highest e-commerce conversion rate in 2023 in the US. The desktop conversion rate was an impressive 7%, while mobile devices registered 3.5%. Black Friday was a close second, with the conversion rates for desktop and mobile being 6.5% and 3.2% respectively.
Did you know that dedicated landing pages can help you significantly boost your website’s conversion rate? ASOS, for example, had a dedicated Black Friday and Cyber Monday page to showcase discounts and starting days. A great-looking page with the right keywords can pull the crowds and entice them to visit when the deals go live.
Leverage Early Promotions and Content
Optimizing your content with the right SEO keywords can get your website high rankings and more traffic. Landing pages can do the same. However, you need to go the extra mile with early promotions and content. Create blog posts with creative ideas such as holiday gift ideas, shopping guides, and festive tips to attract your visitors.
You can also promote your Black Friday deals with social media content as a large segment of customers follow deals and brands on these platforms. According to Forbes, 76% of users buy products based on the social media posts of brands. Blending your SEO strategy with social media marketing this Black Friday can give your brand a winning edge.
Sending email newsletters to highlight upcoming sales is also a good idea. Timely action does more than build anticipation. It also gives traction to your site with search engines indexing the content well ahead of time.
Utilize Structured Data Markup
When it comes to Black Friday SEO, you cannot undermine the importance of structured data (schema) markup. Search engines use it to understand how to display your website’s content to web users.
By implementing schema markup on your product pages, you can enhance your listings in search results. For example, this can show additional information such as product availability, prices, and ratings. Your buyers will likely find your offers more attractive with this information, leading to higher Black Friday click-through rates.
With Black Friday falling on 29th November this year, business owners may think they have a lot of time to prepare for the traffic surges. However, it will be around the corner before you know it, leaving you in a fix if your website is not ready.
Imagine what can happen if your site loads slowly or crashes when the surge arrives. What if your website does not have the right design, content, or keywords?
This SEO checklist can help you implement the right measures to be ready ahead of time. Get started with an SEO audit and take the right steps to make the most of festive shopping sprees this Black Friday.
