Holiday Preparation Checklist – Get Site Ready For 2020 Holiday Season

Having a website for your business has become unavoidable even though most of your products are sold offline. Websites are not for selling goods only, but they are also used to provide information that helps customers make buying decisions. Every website owner will agree that they get massive website traffic during the holiday season. Undoubtedly, this is the best time for branding and sale. We would like to know how your holiday time website preparation was in the last year. This article would provide you some holiday preparation checklist ideas for next year’s holiday season if it were not your expectation.

Why Should Your Website Be Prepared for a Holiday? – Preparation Checklist

Holidays are the perfect time to create a relationship with online customers. You will find positive emotions everywhere, and this is the high time to make them feel special. People are free from work and in a festival mood. Keeping your website prepared for holidays is crucial because it will develop a positive vibe between your brand and potential customers.

Most people are intended to buy gifts or necessary things. They will visit your website willingly and shop online because the moment of celebration is too near. According to Statista, the holiday retail sales in the USA in 2019 were 729.3 billion USD. No smart online store owner would like to miss the chance in the next year. It has been a tradition for the last few years that online business owners prepare their websites, focusing on the upcoming holiday. If you own an online store, you should go the same way to maximize profit and branding. Here are a few approaches you can follow as a holiday preparation checklist for your website.

Holiday-Themed Web Design

Web design is not just about appearance. It is a way of visual communication. Your website should be adorned with the upcoming holiday theme. You don’t need to redesign the entire website overnight. Changes on the home page or creating a specified landing page would be a good idea. Use a holiday preparation checklist visually based on your website.

The logo design is the first element you can modify for occasional purposes. Besides, add images, GIFs, banners, or videos on web pages to make them attractive. The CTA button or text on the sale page needs extra attention because visitors must click it. Use convenient color and sell a copy to draw peoples’ attention. Social icons are other key parts to enhance social sharing. Most e-commerce websites create and add Christmas social icons on the sale page and experience massive sharing. There are a lot more ideas to equip your website for the holiday season. But, make sure the design is responsive at the final point.

SEO and Blogging Strategy

Did you notice that people search on Google differently during the holiday period? For instance, people who need RAID data restoration normally search like – raid recovery services. But, they search “RAID recovery off coupon” during black Friday to have the discount. There are diverse SEO and blogging strategies to nail the holiday. A study finds that optimized websites published Christmas content one week before the target day, and they got 50% of holiday traffic. Use Google Trends to capture “holiday keywords” and write enthralling blog posts for the next occasion. The plan has to be implemented a few days earlier from the target day since SEO takes time.

Note that you do not have to change SEO strategies or write a brand new blog post each time. If you have any relevant blog post, which is already on Google’s first page, you still have opportunities to work on it. Find holiday relevant keywords and update the existing post. Rewrite the meta title such as “Best Gift Item Review in 2020 – Christmas Special”. This is an excellent way to keep your content fresh and updated.

Holiday Preparation Checklist Content Creation

Content is still the king, and we find no alternative to great content. Though we have mentioned that creating brand new content is unnecessary in all cases, creating holiday dedicated content is even better. E-commerce website owners may utilize content creation as a sale booster. If you own a T-shirt online store, you can create great content regarding the latest styles, trends, reviews, and more. Be cautious so that the content does not seem self-promotional only. The focus should be on helping people.

Good content strategy starts with audience research. Find out their persona and create content accordingly. If you lack ideas of content, try Google keyword planner and Google Trends. These free tools provide thousands of keywords that people are continually searching for. Creating quality content based on these keywords is quite easier because search engines show what your content should answer. It definitely saves your energy and time. Do not forget about SEO and UX during content creation since it attracts organic traffic. Try to equip your content with holiday themes as much as possible. We always suggest optimizing the title tag for better CTR, such as “Thanksgiving unique T-shirt designs in 2020”. This is quite a basic title tag. But, you can brainstorm and create very eye-catching titles.

The Social Media Ad Campaign

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter sound like a busy road on holiday. Research by Birdsignals shows that 75% of users on Twitter expect more from brands at Christmas. This can be a great promotional opportunity. Focus on the social platform that works better for your brand and run a paid ad campaign. Remember that spending money on ads is not sufficient. It would help if you had a detailed social media content strategy.

Combine your social media profiles and website for a better outcome. Create a holiday sale landing page on your website and promote it through your preferred social platforms. Social media content should be short, informative, interesting, and shareable so that people can consume them quickly, like small bites. Some social media content ideas may include live video, promo code, giveaway, photo caption contest, short tips, podcasts, and more. Visual content works better on social platforms. So, make graphical elements attractive and entertaining.