9 SEO Tips to Maximize Your Holiday Ecommerce Traffic
It is no surprise that search engine optimization is a vital step for newly launched businesses. But for growing SMBs, being diligent about maintaining your SEO is just as important.
SEO might not be at the top
of your priority list when it comes to preparing for the holiday selling
season. Keep in mind that no matter the size of your business, SEO is
never a task that is fully complete. Instead, SEO requires periodic
attention over time with calculated trial and error. Use this
approaching holiday season as a reminder to revisit and re-optimize your
search engine strategy.
To earn higher page rankings
and conversions when it matters most, start the process well before the
holiday season. While November might be okay to whip up a last minute
blog post, it can take a few weeks for Google’s bots to scan your site
and for you to fine tune your keywords. Below, we’ve gathered a few best
practices to help you start the SEO update process early and make sure
your products and promotions are seen this holiday shopping season.
Analyze Where You Are
Before
you start changing title tags and purchasing Adwords, analyze the
current state of your SEO. Without a quick check of your organic search
performance, you can do more harm than good. Explore which pages are
yielding the most views and longest time on page from Google Analytics.
Cross-check these results with your top performing keywords. This will
give you a good idea as to what you are already doing well.
Remember, there are certain pages, such as your homepage,
that are most likely already doing well. Tweaking your keywords might
not impact your overall performance too much. Instead, focus on
optimizing pages that are performing in the middle of the pack.
Know Your Keywords
You
already have a list of top-performing keywords for your business.
However, forming a list of holiday-specific keywords will help your
business attract new customers searching for the perfect gift. Dig into Google Trends reports to discover which search terms customers are frequently using and update your keywords for these changes.
Write Now, Not Later
Once
you have a list of holiday-specific keywords, it may be tempting to
push off your blog writing until later in the holiday season. But, the
longer you wait to put those keywords into action, the less impactful
they will be on your store’s search success. In fact, it takes time for
Google to scan your changes.
According to the 45-Day rule,
publishing your content a week before a major holiday will allow you to
engage in 50% of the search engine traffic, while starting 45 days in
advance will help you participate in over 90% of the search traffic.
Hint Toward What’s to Come
In
the theme of starting early, create holiday preview pages to tell your
loyal customer base what is coming soon. Even if you haven’t completely
finished your online merchandising for your holiday line, post a few
buzzworthy styles as a sneak peak.
Not only will this
excite your customers, but it will work in favor of your SEO. Use
“Coming Soon” pages to start building links and begin ranking on
relevant holiday search queries. Better yet, the Google bots like to see
well-ranking pages that are consistently updated. So, launch with a few
items or a “Coming Soon” message, and then update it as regularly as
you can during the holiday season. This will boost traffic to that page
and ultimately drive increased holiday sales.
Be Smart with Your Links
SEO
is all about links, both internal and external, that increase both the
credibility of your content and the chance that people will find your
page. As you take inventory of your existing SEO performance, make a
note of which pages are already doing well. As you strategize where to
include internal links, use these landing pages to display holiday
promotions and optimize exposure that already exists.
To build up your external links, use the holiday season for blogger outreach. The more trusted voices you have talking about your product, the better your product pages will perform on search engines.
Create Holiday Gift Guides
Gift
guides do particularly well because they offer a wide variety of
products shoppers are likely searching for or will share on social
media. In addition, prominently advertised gift guides decrease the
number of clicks between your homepage and your holiday product pages.
This is a plus for SEO bots scouring your site, as well as a helpful
tool to convert shoppers who search by general terms such as, “best
holiday gifts for girls” or “top technology gifts.”
Be
sure to use a gift guide technology or create a new webpage rather than
launching a micro-site. The difference here is in where this page lives:
- Webpage: www.yourstore.com/holiday
- Micro-site: holiday.yourstore.com
This
might not seem like a big difference, but for SEO it is huge. The first
link will reap the benefits of all the SEO your site has already
gained. The second has to start from scratch. Opt for webpages, not
micro-sites.
Revisit Your Load Times
Every one-second delay
in page load time decreases customer satisfaction by 16% and conversion
rates by 7%. Use the holiday season as a reminder to revisit the load
times of your top landing pages. In Google Analytics, visit the Site
Speed tab to monitor load times and cross check this with your page
performance.
Your photos could be the culprit if you
site load time lags. Remember to save all images for the web (you can do
this in Photoshop) or use a converter tool to compress large images. TinyPNG and jpeg-optimizer are good options.
Aim Toward Google Shopping
Getting your product feed into Google Shopping
is a sure way to gain visibility from potential buyers and improve
customer loyalty. Not only do Google Shopping feeds have a higher
conversion rate than other forms of PPC, but they also have a lower
cost-per-click.
Don’t Forget About Mobile
Last year, 28% of all holiday retail sales
were influenced by shopping-related mobile searches. Similar trends
have continued this year as omnichannel selling becomes the standard of
the retail industry. Therefore, it is more vital than ever that
businesses adhere to Mobilegeddon’s responsive mobile site mandate for this holiday season.
Indeed, 75% of shoppers
use their mobile devices in-store to research products while 25% make
purchases on their smartphones in-store. And, as on-the-go shoppers will
be in a hurry to complete their shopping, local SEO
will influence whether your business appears at the top of their mobile
search. Before the holiday season begins, be sure your store is ready
for mobile shoppers.
There is no denying that the
holiday season is the busiest time of year for both online and
brick-and-mortar retailers. However, don’t use this as an excuse to let
your SEO performance slip through the cracks. Set aside some time to
revisit how your website is ranking on Google and if your mobile store
is ready for the holiday rush. If your organic search results are not
what you would hope, remember that the earlier you start making updates,
the better.
source : business2community
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