Black Friday and the holiday season is the busiest time of year for most retailers. But it is also one of the most exhausting and stressful times for SEO specialists. Because there are so many things you need to consider and optimize to do well in search.
In addition, Google is always changing its algorithm, which means that you have to constantly stay up to date and adapt your strategies. How to survive the holiday season as an SEO specialist
So if you want to make it through this holiday season successfully and increase your sales, take some of these tips to heart.
Create special landing pages for Black Friday
To increase visibility for searches related to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it is beneficial to create a special optimized landing page for for Black Friday.
This should contain the most relevant keywords for the search and have a clear call-to-action (CTA). For example, the CTA could read, “Get the best Black Friday deals now!”
To find the best deals, users often search for keyword combinations that include [Markenname] or [Produkt] as well as the words “deals,” “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday.”
Using the historical results of Google Trends, you can find out which offers are popular in certain product categories. If you want to offer discounts on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it may be worth dedicating a separate page to each product or service.
If you have the opportunity, you should plan the creation of these landing pages and their content as far in advance as possible.
Then, until those pages are actually needed, you should set up a 302 redirect (a temporary redirect as opposed to a permanent 301 redirect). This gives you enough time to prepare the pages for your customers, and Google can check the website thoroughly.
Even better, create a “mini-site” with Black Friday/Christmas-themed pages that can be hidden from visitors until the holiday season approaches.
Once the pages are created, they need to be added to your XML sitemap and navigation. Remember, the purpose of creating these new landing pages is to attract visitors via Black Friday related searches.
However, make sure that returning visitors can see the updated pages to take advantage of your offers. By adding the new pages to your sitemap, you ensure that the Google bot can find and index them quickly.
By taking these two actions, you will increase the visibility of your Black Friday landing pages to both visitors and search engine crawlers.
Remember: Black Friday URLs on your website are not temporary. Therefore, it is important that these sites remain as long as possible.
Combine SEO and SEA for Black Friday
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) represent the most important long weekend of the year for retailers, it’s important to align your organic search strategy with paid search. This way, you offer your users the most consistent omnichannel experience possible. This means that you should target your search ads for the BFCM season not only on the main keywords, but also on combinations of main keywords and product names. This is especially important when it comes to products that benefit greatly from price promotions and discounts.
Your paid search campaign, like your SEO strategy, should be built on a combination of historical ad performance data and new keywords.
At the same time, you should optimize your organic search to ensure that you rank for as many relevant search queries as possible. This can be achieved by creating or editing metadata. The goal is to rank high in search results for those searches that are most likely to result in a sale.
This way, you can ensure that you are well positioned in both paid and organic searches to reach the maximum number of customers.
Optimize your Google business profile for Black Friday
Whether you’re a small business or a big brand, GBP can be a revenue-generating channel if optimized properly.
With these actions on your Google business profile, you can increase your revenue during the Black Friday Christmas period:
Market your Black Friday offer to bloggers and influencers
In the days leading up to and during Black Friday, there will be a lot of articles that feature the terms “Black Friday,” “deal,” or “offer.” This just goes to show how hungry journalists are for Black Friday material.
Over the next few weeks, be sure to promote your e-commerce company’s Black Friday deals to relevant media outlets.
Sit down with your team and plan out some good content to publish before and during the holidays. This could be a report that can be promoted in the media, a collaboration with an influencer, a PR stunt, an event, or more.