How to Dominate Google This Holiday Season: Local SEO Guide to a Very Profitable Holiday
· BlueHat Marketing
With the holiday season coming just around the corner, companies are jockeying for position across the web. With B2C and B2B customers sales more profitable than ever, you don’t want to miss out on your slice of the more than 100 million consumers that will be looking to buy online this holiday season. This quick guide will give you 5 actionable tips that will instantly help you become more visible and make more sales.
Local SEO and the Holidays: the Cold Hard Facts
Being able to kick back, relax, and order everything on your kid’s wish list from the comfort of your couch is the greatest thing to happen to the holidays since spiked eggnog. Don’t believe us? Check the numbers:
- Holiday shoppers spent a record-setting $91.7 BILLION dollars online last holiday season. That’s an 11% increase over 2015 ( source ).
- The average consumer will spend nearly $1,000 dollars online this year ( source ).
- over 40% of consumers start holiday shopping in November, and 21% start in October. It’s never too early! ( source )
- Research is as important as buying - 65% of consumers research online before setting foot in stores ( source ).
Local Holiday SEO Guide: 5 Quick Tips
We’ve put together five actionable strategies that will ensure you are ready to get ahead of competitors before the holiday shopping frenzy gets into full swing. Take the time to do each and you’ll be well on your way to total domination.
Ensure your local listings are accurate
The last thing you want is for shoppers to find you only to be sent to the wrong address or get the wrong idea about your store hours. Name, address, and phone (NAP) accuracy across the web are priority number one along with other details, images, and reviews.
Don’t rank in the local area yet? Find out how you can here.
Add Special Hours to Google My Business
Extended hours around the holidays make you more money. Let online shoppers know about them. Google has special extended hours options for a wide range of holidays. Be sure to maintain accuracy for EACH location.
Revamp Your Website
Your website speed is key to converting customers , so make sure it is up to par. Now that it’s holiday season, be sure to update images (with accurate descriptions for the holidays!), information, and even colours if you want to get festive. Special landing pages for seasonal products are a surefire way to send buy-ready traffic to your site and drastically increase conversion rates.
Update your social profiles
Use your presence on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and other social sites to broadcast your holiday giveaways and other information (holiday-themed content is a great way to attract customers and rank in Google for holiday-themed searches). Have your messaging pre-planned and have a plan in place to respond to consumer feedback.
Use holiday-focused analytics
Having analytics in place like Google Analytics is a great way to measure holiday success. Knowing which traffic is coming from where and which landing pages are performing up to par will help you hone in your campaign and use your marketing budget more efficiently.
Ready to dominate local SEO this holiday season and attract your share the 100 million shoppers taking to the web this year? Talk to BlueHat Marketing’s team of local SEO experts to get ready for the holiday frenzy today.
