Is Your Site Optimized for the Holidays?

Eric Brantner
SEO Content Writer

In a little over two months, families will come together to celebrate the biggest holiday of the year, Christmas. But long before Christmas day arrives, they’ll be online searching for gifts for all of their loved ones. When they go to the search engines, will your site turn up?

It’s time to start optimizing your site for the holidays. From the first week of November until just a few days before Christmas, shoppers will spend hundreds of millions of dollars online for Christmas gifts. If you optimize your site now, you could get a little chunk of that cash.

Here are a few things you can do to make sure your site is holiday-ready.
• Identify  Seasonal Keywords- Is there a particular product that your business tends to sell a lot of around Christmas time? Are there seasonal keywords you should be targeting? Use Google Trends to help you determine which relevant keywords tend to go hot during the holiday season. Optimize your site for them now, and you’ll be ready for the online shoppers.

• Update Home Page- You need to start planning now for how you’re going to change the design and content of your home page to appeal to holiday shoppers. When the shopping season officially starts, your old content just won’t cut it anymore. Your design and content need to let visitors know immediately that your site is their source for Christmas shopping.

• Create New Landing Pages- This goes hand in hand with the above point—you need to update and optimize your landing pages for the holiday rush. When people land on your site form a PPC ad or email marketing message, they need to know this offer is specifically for the Christmas season. Reflect that in your call to action and headline. Also, be clear about the shipping deadline for holiday purchases. This builds trust with your customer so they know when to expect their packages.

• Publish a Press Release- Since press releases tend to rank so well in the search engines, it’s a good time for your business to publish a new one. Whether you’re offering a special discount for the holidays or you simply want to announce your page redesign, a press release can be a great way to increase your online visibility during the holidays. Be sure to optimize it for seasonal keywords to get the most out of your online press release. 
Take the time now to make sure your site is ready for the holiday rush. You could see a huge increase in sales if you optimize properly.

What do you think? Are there any holiday optimization tips you like to implement during the holidays? Let’s hear about them in the replies.