We’ve almost made it. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner, which means now is the best time to start thinking about your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
Not sure where to start? The good news is that our CAKE team has come up with a few tips to help you prepare for a boost in sales and traffic right after Thanksgiving.
We promise, no turkey talk. Just actionable items that are as sweet and easy as pumpkin pie. Let’s get started!
1. Create Landing Pages for Sale Day Offers
One of the first steps in preparing your eCommerce store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is to create landing pages for those offers. Add in specific keywords like your brand, product name, and any other identifying factors.
But also be sure to include terms like discount, sale, or promotion in your keyword string. These are often things people search for when looking for those big holiday deals during these two key shopping days.
And here’s the thought behind creating this type of content now — you don’t want to wait to launch it on Thanksgiving. Create the pages and add them to your XML sitemap as soon as possible. This allows crawlers to find and index the pages well before the sales start.
To keep shoppers from making purchases now, use a 302 redirect to temporarily route customers back to the main page and keep the deals hidden until the right time.
2. Do a Technical SEO Audit of Your Online Store
Another way to boost sales and traffic for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is by doing a technical audit of your online store.
Consider reviewing elements like page load speed and overall on-page optimization efforts to ensure you’re in a favorable light with Google. But also look for duplicate content issues, broken links, and any outdated or redundant pages across your website — you should be reviewing all technical aspects of your SEO throughout the year but definitely want to address them before the holiday shopping surge.
You should also check your mobile-friendliness score to ensure your page is optimized for smartphone and tablet devices. This matters to Google, and you don’t want to miss out on ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs) because of it.
3. Look at Bestsellers and Trends
To help gear up for this year’s Cyber Monday and Black Friday traffic, take a little extra time to look through the bestsellers and trends from last year's Google Analytics and Google Search Console reports.
How were shoppers finding your business? Did it match up with the various digital marketing campaigns you ran? Evaluate these ideas and come up with your new strategy for this season’s organic and paid traffic campaigns.
4. Create Holiday-Themed Content for Your Website & Social Channels
Don’t forget to create tons of holiday-themed content to help boost your search visibility and organic traffic over the end-of-year shopping season. Things like gift guides, evergreen education pages, and more are all great opportunities to rank for year-round keywords before the push.
And remember that good organic SEO translates to your social media pages, too. That means getting those Pinterest pin descriptions, Instagram captions, and YouTube video summaries optimized is just as important as the effort you place in your eCommerce store.
Another tip? Update your images to seasonal ones with alt tags reflecting the best holiday shopping keywords for your niche.
5. Address How to Compete with Big Brands with SEO Content
Another super important Black Friday SEO tip to consider is to address how your online store will compete with big brands.
During this crucial time of year, massive retailers are making the same push for the same shoppers. Instead of trying to take them head-on, consider looking at how you can attract repeat buys from those who are already familiar with your company or product line.
Utilize keywords that are maybe smaller or a little more specific instead of the broad terms that the giant corporations are using.
You can also use content marketing and search engine optimization to attract new shoppers with gift guides. These are people who might not be familiar with your product line but have friends and family members who are already fans.
Conclusion: Tips for More eCommerce Sales on Black Friday & Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. If you want to take advantage of growing your organic traffic, now is the best time to start. By implementing these five tips, you should see a boost in visitors and customers for the gifting season.
Need a little help getting going with your digital marketing plans? Our CAKE SEO experts are here to assist. Please contact us today for more information.
