Most of us decorate our homes and business for the holiday season, but aren’t there things you need to do to get your website ready?
For e-commerce retailers, the holiday rush is all about beefing up websites for peak traffic and tuning up the systems and processes that attract, maintain and allow customers to seamlessly make transactions online.
Websites have become increasingly important for taking advantage of this time of year, not just for online retailers, but for offline retailers as well, since 94% of shoppers find information online before making a purchase at a bricks-and-mortar retail store.
In a year where U.S. online sales are expected to reach $400 billion or more in 2018, now is the time to start thinking about how your business is going to get its share of the pie.
Adding to this urgency is the need to engage increasingly-savvy online consumers with an increasingly-busy online environment. The proliferation of mobile platforms has presented more competition than ever for consumer attention and revenue.
Not only do you need to make sure that you are still providing what Google wants from your website, you need to appeal to shoppers.
By starting preparations now, you can set your business up for success when the onset of holiday shopping rolls around.
If your company hasn’t started you may have a few weeks to get things in order before it’s too late. We have listed below 5 must-do steps to help you get on your way to prepare your website for the holiday season.
1. Think mobile.
Mobile usage is growing steadily, and if you don’t have a mobile strategy this year it’s likely you’ll be driving customers into the arms of your competitors. Thinking mobile means having a responsive website, mobile site or mobile app or a combination. Google specifically recommends you use responsive design, but it’s important to consider how your customers want to interact with you, and act accordingly. Simply ignoring mobile users should not be an option as it can cost you a lot more than a sale.
2. Fire up your PPC campaigns.
Start building landing pages and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns now so when the holiday season comes around you are all set. You can start with those campaigns right now, as there’s no such thing as a “too early sale”. Chances are your competitors have already started, plus your customers won’t ignore pre-holiday discounts.
3. Work on your SEO.
For a new website it takes months to get SEO going, but we have good news – you can still get a substantial return from this holiday season by investing in paid Google advertising to get your website found. However, if your website is already well-established, then you might be able to get good rankings by creating and implementing a quality, SEO-friendly content strategy.
4. Make your content appealing.
When producing content for the holiday season, you have to strike a balance between making something that gains clicks, but that also aids the sales funnel. It’s important to ensure the content topic is relevant and visually appealing, resonates well with your audience and also creates a positive affinity with a potential customer.
5. Get social media content ready.
Start writing and scheduling social media posts. You’re going to be busy once the season starts with everything else you need to do. If you have all the content planned out, written, and optimized, when time comes you can focus on interacting with followers rather than writing posts.
Optimizing your website for the holiday rush is not just a good thing to do — it is a necessity. With these tips, you are hopefully on your way to getting a robust holiday-themed website that can withstand the holiday rush.
Need help evaluating your web presence? Want some expert tips on what should be improved before all the holiday fuss kicks in? Get in touch for a FREE web evaluation and 30-min consultation with one of our Conversion Gurus.
We will help you lay out the strategy for making more of your visitors take action on your site.
