Optimising Your Website For Online & In-Person Shoppers This Christmas
We’re clearly all hoping for a jollier Christmas after last year’s locked down and decidedly muted celebrations. However, with cases rising, the emergence of the Omicron variant and new restrictions imposed, a second festive lockdown, while seemingly unlikely, cannot be completely ruled out. Further announcements are expected between now and December 25.
So, understandably, people remain cautious when it comes to venturing into busy town and city centres to do their seasonal shopping, even if, unlike last year, physical stores remain open. Indeed, new research from a finance comparison website released this month reveals that one in five of shoppers will be purchasing their presents for friends and family exclusively online, ditching the traditional High Street expedition.
For the purposes of SEO, what all this means is that your website will need to be optimised for both online and in-person sales, so that you boost rankings, generate a higher volume of sales online and boost foot traffic to your geographical stores.
The good news is that there are a few things you can do easily and quickly to maximise your chances of a prime organic-search ranking:
Don’t get caught NAP-ping
NAPs are your basic name, address and phone number details, along with holiday opening hours. While it may seem a no-brainer to keep this information (including any active enquiry forms) accurate and up-to-date, you’d be amazed at how many businesses don’t.
Make sure all your landing pages have the right info and check your social media, Google My Business and any local business directories you feature in. If you have a physical store, make sure people know where you are and how to find you.
Optimise for seasonal keywords
Using Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Keyword Planner and so on, you can identify the keywords driving people to your site – and the pages they visit after arrival. Remember how often keywords and trends shift. Consider optimising for a good mix of brand-specific and generalised seasonal keywords to drive searchers directly to your website.
Looks may not be everything – but they do matter.
Your website is, of course, more than just a pretty face. However, if your pages are cluttered, unattractive, confusing or hard to navigate, you can expect fewer sales and a higher ‘bounce’ rate.
Keep things simple and visually striking and break content up into easily digested pieces of text. Users should know straight away where to go for the information they need. And don’t forget to add some nice festive images alongside your keyword optimised content, which should again not be overly long. Include some great product images which showcase the goods you sell in the most attractive light.
Interact with reviews and complaints
Quote your most positive Google reviews and respond to any criticism or less-than-glowing feedback promptly and professionally. This could be especially important or challenging at this time of year if you are experiencing a higher volume of traffic as people buy seasonal gifts and so are busier than usual.
Finally, as we mentioned this time last year, you also need to think about promoting clearly targeted seasonal offers. Equally, make sure you have both the web and logistical capacity to handle extra demand and orders, not to mention a higher volume of web traffic.
Get in touch
Talk to us at Front Page Advantage if you want any help with seasonal promotions or optimisation. After all, it’s what we’ve been doing for years.
Finally and most importantly, we hope you enjoy the festive season yourself and make the most of the holiday to take a much-needed break (safely) celebrating with family and friends! Happy Christmas.