With Halloween only a few weeks away, the 2014 holiday season is officially underway. According to The Atlantic, Americans spend an average of $228 billion each holiday season, buying candy for All Hallows Eve, turkey and booze for Thanksgiving, and decorations to go with their frosted window panes come Christmas time. In other words, the next three months represent a potential windfall for any company that knows how to get their products and services in front of holiday shoppers.
You likely already realize how important search engine optimization strategies are to your success in the digital age, but did you know that there are some holiday-specific SEO strategies that can help you stand out? Read on to find out about some of the most effective holiday SEO techniques.
How to Boost Your SEO This Holiday Season
- Update Your Title Tags for Holiday Items and Sales
- Develop and Stick to a Themed Content Calendar
- Write Attractive Meta-Descriptions for Your Products
One of the most common recommendations you’ll hear from many a small business SEO company come holiday time is to update your title tags with seasonally appropriate titles. For instance, if you sell remote-controlled cars and you’re planning on running a holiday sale, you should update your product page from “Personalized RC Cars for Little Gear Heads” to “Personalized RC Cars Holiday Sale — 15% Off and Free Shipping.” These little holiday touches will help you stand out in the holiday shopping rush.
It’s no secret how important great content is to efficacious SEO; there’s a reason the average business is increasing their budget for the content marketing strategies offered by their small business SEO company this year. As Search Engine Watch suggests, developing a themed content calendar and sticking to it can greatly increase your website traffic, not to mention your conversion rates. Imagine you run a candle company. Why not write a great article on the “Top 5 Spooky Ways” your consumers can use your candles in their Halloween decorations? No matter what your industry, chances are you can put a holiday spin on it.
While great content and optimized title tags can have a significant effect on your holiday traffic and revenue, you need to go one step further and also update your meta information for the holiday season, as Search Engine Land points out. Your meta-descriptions — the little blurbs that appear below your title tags in Google — as any small business SEO company worth its salt can tell you, are an essential part of getting customers’ attention and generating clicks. Try writing each piece of meta-description copy with key words and phrases like “spooky,” “silver bells,” and other evocative language to help attract holiday shoppers in droves.
How do you incorporate the different holidays into your general and local SEO strategies? Let us know in the comment section below.
Great references here.