Why does SEO matter during the holidays? Here’s how to prepare

Seasonality is a factor that can make or break businesses, especially during the holidays. This is because it is also synonymous with the “shopping season” and therefore offers great opportunities for businesses to achieve incredible sales. Many shoppers rush to online stores to get their hands on deals and sales. That is why an online campaign matters so much, especially as we are reaching the end of the year. Here are a few tips to help you prepare and get the most out of the holidays by revamping your SEO!

1. Look at last year’s trends

First things first. Before starting with this year’s SEO, it is advised to analyze last year’s trends that worked for your brand (or other brands). This can also help you look at relevant keywords (which we talk about later) that worked for your brand last year or find new ones to enhance the quality of your holiday SEO.

2. Be aware of your competitor’s strategy

If you want to ace your game, then it is crucial to be aware of your competitor’s strategy. This will help recognize who your competitors are, what they are offering and in turn help you make your products or services stand out in the market. This will also help you define your company’s position in the market.

3. Updating local listings

SEO is significant for local listings because it helps with the visibility of the business and with high-authority backlinks. It’s good to note that not every listing will have a backlink, but it will direct new users to your website and make Google aware of your business. That is why during the holiday season it is important to update your local listings regularly as users might check them frequently!

4. Assess your site

This includes loading time, page speed, and performance as research says that website visitors are more likely to leave a site if it takes more than five seconds to load. That is why during the upcoming holiday fast, easy, and accessible website pages are crucial. For Google, slow load time, page speed, and performance are indicators of a bad website, and this can cost you potential customers and also risking your ranks in the algorithms as well. A fun tip is to have a holiday-themed landing page, which can give you an edge in the market.

5. Identify seasonal keywords

Keywords are one of the key players in SEO and each holiday brings in a new set of seasonal SEO keywords into the front row. For example, Thanksgiving brings keywords such as Thanksgiving decorations, Black Friday giveaways, Thanksgiving desserts, etc. The first thing you must do is to optimize your online store with the trending set of festive-specific keywords. Once the perfect keywords are identified, group them by user intent and match these keywords to an existing web page. These will be your roadmap for the optimization process and make customers find your products/services during seasonal purchases.

6. Optimize content

It’s important to leverage creative content during the festive season. According to the 45-day rule, publishing your content 45 days in advance will likely get you 50% engagement from the search engine traffic.

The holidays may be the most wonderful and busiest time of the year for small business. So, these SEO tips can make a big difference to your sales, online reputation, and more. If you want to learn more about how SEO can be the most cost-effective while powerful advantage for your business, contact our team today!