'Tis the season for online shopping! This time of year, people literally don't stop buying gifts for their loved ones until their banks are in overdraft and their credit card companies send them angry letters. That being said, there's no better time than now to make sure that your holiday SEO game is on point. Improve your visibility and click rate with better optimization that reaches those customers who are looking to fill up that space under the Christmas tree with a mountain of presents.
#1: Deck Your Content With Seasonal Keywords
Think of the millions of searches users tap into their phones every day. What is the one thing they all have in common? Well...just that! Give your future customers exactly what they want by making sure that your content contains key phrases and long-tail keywordsthat feature holiday themes. If you're having a store-wide sale for Christmas or you're offering free shipping on orders over $100, be descriptive as possible. The more keyword-rich your content is, the better chance users have of finding you.
#2: Time Your Email Marketing to Improve Holiday SEO
Email marketing is a tricky business, but if done correctly, you can reach holiday shoppers all the way to Christmas Eve. Send too many emails this time of year and you run the risk of your customers throwing those carefully crafted online discounts into the trash. Send too few, and your customers may forget about you. Here are a few email marketing tips:
- Include links to your website
- Prioritize your content. If your emailing them about a sale, make sure that's the visual focus (i.e. big, red font)
- Holiday emojis never hurt
- Entice them with a subject line that makes them click
For more help with your email marketing plan, check out last year's post "
5 Holiday Content Marketing Tips for a Holly Jolly Christmas".
#3: Update Your Local Profile
Basically, your site just doesn't exist if it isn't listed in local listings like Google and Yelp. Yes, people still very much leave their houses and take to the streets to find great deals in brick-and-mortar stores. But before they even walk through your door, they want to make sure the trip is worth the effort by looking for you Online. If your local profile isn't there, contains the wrong information, or looks shady as heck, this may act like a big red warning sign to stay away. Improve your local SEO by remembering these important things:
- Take ownership of your local listings. Don't leave fields blank.
- Ensure that the information is correct, current, and consistent across all listings.
- Your correct business phone number, website link, and physical address should be on all listings, and on all your own website pages.
- Upload pictures of your brick-and-mortar business.
- Update your listings with important holiday information, such as extended store hours.
For more Local SEO tips, click here.
#4: Ensure Website Speed with AMP
Take advantage of the millions of people using their smartphones to buy presents Online by improving your website speed. Wherever our phones go, the opportunities for spending go. But if your site is slow, unresponsive, or annoying, you better believe that those potential customers will drop you like a stocking full of coal. Boost your holiday SEO by making sure your website is fast, accessible and easy to use. In other words, enable accelerated mobile pages (AMPs).
AMPs remove website clutter and provide your customers with seamless, simplified, and speedy access to your pages. If you have AMP properly set up, then your customers will be more inclined to spend on the go.
#5: Go Offline for More Exposure
There are many ways to improve your holiday SEO that have nothing to do with on-page optimization. 'Tis the season of giving, is it not? This year, gain exposure by being present in the community. Donate time, money, services, or products to a charity; host a fundraiser, partner with a local shelter, and get involved with a cause. It may not boost your search ranking, but this off-page SEO technique will increase traffic to your site and improve your company's public image. Most importantly, you'll be getting involved with a cause and putting a smile on people's faces.
If that sounds like just a few too many notes to take, why not hand it over to the experts?
Awkward Media will work with you to improve your Holiday SEO game. We've built a reputation for helping websites reach the top of SERPs using the most up-to-date SEO methods.
Contact us today to find out more.
