SEO Tips for Spreading Holiday CHEER

Get into the spirit with these helpful tips for optimizing your website during the holiday season.

Customize your logo and calls-to-action.

Add festive images, such as snowmen or candy canes to your company logo and call-to-action buttons.
Place a countdown to Christmas on your homepage. Not only will this send a spirited message to consumers, it also helps to create a sense of urgency.
Schedule the takedown of your holiday-related content on your site. This will prevent you from accidentally leaving a reindeer on a landing page until February.

Have a sale! Don’t limit yourself to deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

With so many online shoppers looking for the perfect gift, there’s no better time to discount last season’s merchandise. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to trim the pricing on some of your products, this is it!
Package related items together to create custom gift sets. Bundled items are perfect for consumers looking to ship the perfect package directly to friends and family.
Promote gift cards on your homepage. Include a seasonal design and holiday greeting on the front of the gift card or allow customers to include a customized message on a gift certificate.
Make sure the deadlines for special offers, seasonal discounts and merchandise returns are clear, concise and visible. The holidays may be the most wonderful time of the year, but they’re also the busiest. The last thing you want to do is create confusion for your customers.

Ease up on shipping! According to comScore, e-commerce sales in the United States topped $46.5 billion during the 2013 holiday season. Don’t let shipping terms become the reason one of your customers went with the other guy.

Offer free shipping for orders over a specific dollar amount. Let’s face it: everyone is looking for the best deal. When a customer finds the right product on your site, the worst mistake you can make is surprising them with an outrageous shipping fee on the last step of the checkout process.
Make sure that your shipping terms and refund policies are visible on product pages. This will limit frustration for both you and your customers.
Test your checkout process and make sure tracking information and shipping fees are clearly defined. There are several tools in Google Analytics that provide step-by-step visualizations of each purchase. Look for inconsistencies in the checkout process and make any necessary technical edits to ensure a seamless buying process.
Include a time table of expected delivery times for orders placed in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Make sure the deadline for Christmas Day deliveries is prominently displayed throughout the site. This will reassure customers that their packages will arrive by December 25th.

Entice customer loyalty and encourage further interaction.

Take advantage of the seasonal spike in traffic by urging new visitors to take part in a customer loyalty program. Whether they purchase a product or not, offering special discounts to program members is a great way to generate leads and build up your customer database.
Jazz up your calls-to-action and make sure that you’re creating a conversion path. Direct users to top-performing pages that have historically produced the highest amount of conversions.
Analyze your average page speed, and identify images that load slowly or appear fuzzy. Image quality and file size can dramatically site speed and overall user experience. Use Google Webmaster Tools for page speed recommendations and image optimization tips.

Refresh your on-site content and resubmit a site map.

Give your content a face lift by sprucing up your headline tags and limiting outdated information. In anticipation of the rise in traffic, be sure to optimize all of your existing content. Conduct a content analysis to identify opportunities to improve user experience.
Write a holiday-themed blog article and promote the post on social media accounts.
Once you’ve revamped the content on your website, submit a site map through Webmaster Tools. This can send a signal to Google that fresh, compelling content has been added to your website.

Be proactive this holiday season by optimizing your website before the influx of online shoppers. The best way to drive quality traffic and boost sales is to prepare and promote sooner rather than later.

At Full Media, we help our clients grow their online presence through web design and Internet marketing. Contact our team for more information on search engine optimization and pay-per-click management services.