It’s Christmas time, and we at Corporate Conversions wish our clients and you great 4th quarter sales. This year looks very promising for businesses. eMarketer is predicting that total retail sales in the U.S. will be $1.002 trillion as a result of the Christmas holiday, with ecommerce sales growing by 16.6 percent. Here we’ll go over how to use holiday keyword research to increase sales and profitability so that your company can dominate the Christmas season, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween, and any other retail holiday you market products or services for.
Most people are aware that Christmas decorations and merchandise now begin appearing in stores in September. This seems extreme, but if your company has an ecommerce component or relies solely on ecommerce, you’ll have to begin your Christmas preparations even earlier. This is because in order to effectively harness SEO, the holiday-related content has to be posted as much as six months before the holiday itself. It takes some time for search engines to index new content and factor that into their online search rankings.
So how should companies strategize for holiday SEO? There are three vital steps companies should take. In order they are:
Research holiday keywords – Every holiday will have its own unique keyword combinations that can be used to harness searches. Seasonal keywords often involve a seasonally related topic – “Best gifts” – and a target population – “for Mom.” There is no shortage of combinations to use, and your holiday keyword research doesn’t have to be an actual holiday. Companies with seasonal demand might use keywords for back-to-school sales, weddings, and color tour getaways, for example.
How do you find the best keywords to use? The Google keyword planner is your friend for this. It will estimate how much volume certain keywords will generate during different seasons or times of the year. You can plug in your ideas and see which ones are more (and less) likely to harness consumer demand.
Create landing pages and blog posts using those keywords – Once you’ve identified which keyword combinations you will use, you need to create landing pages and other unique content on your website. That way, some months down the line, when a potential customer types “Halloween costumes for dogs” your webpage will appear in the search responses, and she can click on the link and onto your site.
Create as much specific content as you like. Google loves unique content, and the more of it you create, the higher your website will rank for keywords across the spectrum. Remember to use your keywords in the titles of your posts. The more intriguing these titles are, the more likely you will get people to read your content. Who wouldn’t click on a blog featuring “10 Hilarious Halloween Costumes for your Grumpy Cat”?
Market your unique seasonal content on your social media when the holiday approaches – Once you have the content up and the time is right, you can promote it on your company’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook page, or any other social media outlook. You can link to it in your bulk emails or your newsletters. Your holiday keyword research does triple duty here – not because it affects SEO, but because it’s still in sync with what people are looking for.
Holiday SEO is essential for any business that does any kind of ecommerce. It may not seem much like Christmas in July, but that’s the time to nail down your holiday keyword research for best results. If you follow the above steps your company is much more likely to have a great 4th quarter and a very Merry Christmas!
