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The Best SEO Strategies for Black Friday

By Snap Agency September 25, 2018

Ask anyone who works in the retail sales industry what the biggest profit day of the year is, the answer will come instantly: Black Friday. Every year, the day after American Thanksgiving, shop-goers from all over the world, some still stuffed with last night’s turkey and pumpkin pie, crash websites and flock to malls, searching for the best deals of the year.

For every sales-driven website, the potential for ROI increase should motivate every digital marketer to think carefully about their digital marketing efforts around Black Friday. For us introverts who feel safer typing words behind our screens, just the thought of Black Friday can be stressful. However, by planning your SEO for Black Friday 3-6 months out, you will not only be eliminating some of that stress (yay planning), you will be way ahead of your competition when the time comes.

As you plan your own SEO for Black Friday, keep in mind that your competition is planning, too. If you have a specific niche in the market that allows you to tap into some unique keywords, or to lean heavily into your ecommerce offerings this holiday season, focus your efforts there.

How SEO Effects Black Friday Sales

According to recent research, it takes 90 days – at a minimum – for Google to rank content. In addition, Smart Insights reports that 95% of newly published content doesn’t even hit the top 10 within a year.

The common denominator amongst the most successful content is keywords. This keyword research represents the process of researching your target demographic thoroughly and picking up on phrases and “buzzwords” that people are searching for. This allows you to cater your content to these popular keywords, which increases your website traffic and could lead to a more favorable ROI.

Though they have decreased slightly in effectiveness over the past few years due to changes in Google analytics, keywords have forever changed SEO. The more keywords you throw out there in your content, and the sooner you do so, the more profitable your ecommerce holiday season will be.

The Digital Shift in Black Friday Shopping

Adweek research shows an increased number of  shoppers are researching products before buying them in stores. If you can work hard on producing content 3-6 months before the holiday shopping season, your SEO for Black Friday shopping will skyrocket. Even Forbes admits that online research and its correlation to in-store purchases is growing substantially – and will continue to. Sara Spivey, CMO of Bazaarvoice, shared with them, “The big surprise to me was the rise in what I would have considered low consideration categories before that are getting a lot of action in terms of research online buy in-store. That could be because they’re going to mass retailers and they’re buying a bunch of stuff. They’ve researched coffee makers but they’ve also researched which pod is the best.”

With nearly every American walking around with a smartphone in their pocket, having the capacity to “Ask Siri” or “Google” any question under the sun, your SEO ecommerce holiday strategy just got a whole lot sweeter. By initiating a good content strategy and tapping into keywords, you can specifically tailor your SEO for Black Friday and other holiday traffic.

How to Optimize your Content for Black Friday

When all is said and done, follow these two simple rules to dominate your industry when it comes to 2019 Black Friday sales. First, do thorough research and plug your keyword-filled content into Google 3-6 months before you want it to be effective. This strategy will give the current Google algorithm time to distribute your content to the highest point of search results pages as possible. This way, when your customers ask Siri or Google where to go for the best, local, products, your company pops up first. The better your content is, and the more content you can produce, the higher your ROI will be.

Next, gauge the competition in your direct market. If yours is the only business in your area offering your products or services, you don’t need to expend as much effort to blog/post/sell your services or products. However, in a capitalistic economy where direct competition controls most markets, we need to keep our SEO and ecommerce efforts strong, especially surrounding Black Friday and the ecommerce holiday season.

If you would like to learn more about optimizing your website or online presence through content creation for Black Friday, give our team of SEO experts a call today! We’re always happy to talk all things ecommerce.

Your SEO for the holiday season and your ecommerce platforms have incredible potential to take your business to the next level. We hope this post has made you more confident in prepping for the craziness that is the SEO ecommerce holiday season. Still feel like you need help to make your business more successful? Contact Snap. With a swarm of self-titled analytic nerds, proud extroverted creatives, dedicated developers and magnetic businessmen and women, we would love nothing more to sit down with you, and develop a plan to help your business grow.