The holiday shopping season is right around the corner for UK businesses. With Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the December holidays approaching, now is the time to start preparations to maximise your website’s sales potential through search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns.
In the UK, over £2.4 billion was spent online during Black Friday 2022, a 14% increase over 2021 according to IMRG. Additionally, UK retailers saw a 10.6% year-over-year increase in holiday ecommerce revenue in 2022 based on data from Savvy. Getting your SEO campaigns ready ahead of time is crucial to tap into this seasonal success.
Is your business prepared for the holiday rush? At UTDS Optimal Choice, we design tailored holiday SEO campaigns to ensure your website ranks higher and attracts more customers during peak shopping seasons. From optimising seasonal keywords to creating targeted content, we help you capture the holiday traffic and convert it into sales. Contact us today to launch your holiday SEO strategy and make this season your most profitable yet!
Prepare Your Holiday SEO Campaigns Now
Timing Your Holiday SEO Campaign Preparations
Ideally, you should start your holiday SEO campaign planning in advance according to SEMrush data. This lead time allows you to conduct technical SEO improvements, create optimised holiday content, and build themed links before the seasonal rush hits.
Here are some recommended time frames for key holiday SEO campaign tasks:
- August/September: Perform technical SEO audits and improvements, update sitemaps and robots.txt files, address site speed issues.
- September/October: Create targeted landing pages for holiday promotions and products. Optimise product category pages for seasonal keywords.
- October: Build internal links between relevant pages on your site. Publish blog content focused on holiday shopping topics.
- November: Focus on link building outreach and guest posting on relevant holiday-themed sites.
Holiday Keyword Research
Thorough keyword research should inform your technical and content optimisation SEO campaigns. Look for rising seasonal keywords and buyer keywords related to:
- Specific holiday shopping dates Cyber Monday, Boxing Day, etc.
- Holiday gifts and products Christmas presents, advent calendars, hampers
- Holiday shopping habits gift guides, deals, discounts
Tools like Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and SEMrush can uncover popular seasonal keywords and long-tail versions to optimise for.
For example, Google Trends shows searches for “gifts for dad” surge each November and December in the UK. Targeting keywords like this, is key for holiday SEO campaigns.
Optimising Site Content
Create dedicated seasonal landing pages for holiday sales and promotions. Optimise your product and category pages for holiday keyword versions like “Christmas toys” “Halloween candies” instead of just “toys” or “candies“. Check here to know more about competitive keyword research
Publish blog posts focused on gift ideas, holiday shopping tips, recipes, and more seasonal content. Internal link these posts with your holiday product/landing pages.
For example, an ecommerce site could create a blog post on “Top Christmas Gifts for Teens” and link to related products.
Providing visitors with relevant holiday-focused content improves on page SEO while showcasing promotional products.
Technical SEO Audits
Conduct a full technical SEO audit holidays to identify and fix any issues hurting your site’s performance and holiday SEO campaigns.
Some key areas to check:
- Site speed Pages should load in under 2-3 seconds. Optimise images, minify CSS/JS, and leverage caching.
- Mobile optimisation Test site on mobile devices. Improve responsiveness and load times.
- Indexation issues Check for crawling errors in Search Console. Submit new sitemaps, fix broken links.
- Duplicate content Consolidate redundant or thin content to avoid penalties. Update canonical tags.
- Site security Install an SSL certificate and enable HTTPS across the site.
Fixing technical issues early will ensure your site is primed for the spike in holiday traffic and give your SEO campaigns the best chance of success.
Optimising for Featured Snippets
Earning featured snippets can drive significant organic website traffic from holiday keyword searches. To optimise:
- Include questions/answers in content “What are the top gifts for kids this Christmas?”
- Use formatting like bullet points, numbered lists, and tables to stand out.
- Craft compelling meta descriptions summarising the content.
- Target featured snippet keywords during optimisation.
Ranking for featured snippets will make your site more visible to gift-seeking searchers during the hectic holiday season.
Updating Site Navigation
As part of your holiday SEO preparations, update your site’s information architecture:
- Create clear main nav links to seasonal landing pages and product categories.
- Improve faceted on-site search to help visitors filter holiday gifts and deals.
- Structure category and subcategory pages to make seasonal items easy to find.
- Implement breadcrumbs and filter/sort options for gift-finding flexibility.
Optimised site navigation improves visitor experience and internal linking for holiday SEO campaigns.
Driving Traffic with Holiday Email Campaigns
Well planned email campaigns can complement your organic holiday SEO campaigns by driving additional traffic to seasonal landing pages and product promotions.
Send targeted emails leading up to peak holiday shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Offer time-limited sales and discounts to motivate action. Personalising emails and segmenting your list by factors like purchase history and product interest can improve open and click-through rates.
Leveraging Social Media for Holiday Promotions
- Social media campaigns should align with your overall holiday SEO and marketing efforts.
- Create seasonal social posts showcasing holiday gift ideas, special deals and sales.
- Use holiday-themed creatives, videos, and stories to grab attention in feeds. Engage followers with polls and contests.
- Run paid social media ads targeted to your buyer personas. Retarget past customers.
- Add social share buttons prominently on product pages and blog content.
Optimising Site for Mobile
- With smartphone purchases continuing to rise, ensuring your site is fully mobile first web design which is critical for holiday SEO campaigns.
- Test site speed on mobile devices and improve page load times. Reduce image file sizes.
- Confirm site is mobile-friendly through Google’s test. Leverage AMP if needed.
- Check usability of navigation menus, CTAs and forms on smartphones. Increase tap target size.
- Implement voice search optimisation for mobile queries like “holiday gift ideas“.
- Mobile optimisation gives shoppers a seamless experience and boosts organic reach and conversions.
Promoting Holiday Content on Pinterest
Pinterest is highly used for gift ideas, recipes and DIY projects. Promoting your holiday content on Pinterest can complement your SEO campaigns.
- Create Pinterest holiday boards showcasing gift guides, recipes, decor tips and more.
- Tailor pins to seasonal keywords like “stocking stuffers” and “Christmas crafts“.
- Link pins back to your optimised holiday content for SEO benefits.
- Engage followers by commenting on holiday pins and contributing to group boards.
- Use analytics to identify and double down on high-performing holiday content.
How Can We Help You With Holiday SEO Campaigns?
As a leading SEO and PPC agency, UTDS Optimal Choice has the expertise to manage every aspect of your holiday SEO campaigns.
Our team can handle technical SEO audits, keyword research, content creation, link building outreach, and much more.
We develop fully integrated holiday marketing plans tailored to your business goals. Our data-driven approach ensures optimal performance and ROI from your seasonal campaigns. Let our holiday marketing experts handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on other priorities through the busy holiday season. Contact Us Now..
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