web analytics

Getting your website ready for Christmas

By Brian, Friday, 15th November 2013 | 0 comments
Filed under: UX/Design, Web Development, SEO, General News, Responsive Design.

With five weeks to go till Christmas, it’s a good time to have a look at your website and make sure that it is ready for the Christmas period.  Every company will have a different reason for having a website, but a lot have common goals. In this blog I’m going to try and give you some sound advice that will help you in the run up to Christmas, but can be used all year round.

SEO

SEO

This is something everyone should keep an eye on throughout the year. In the run up to Christmas, in particular with eCommerce websites, it’s important to analyse what people are searching for and alter your SEO accordingly. It might be something seasonal that you offer that needs to be highlighted, or a product that you want to push. With 5 weeks left there is plenty of time for Google to pick up your changes and hopefully your website will rank higher.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing

You may have a big database that you never use, or you might have a database of client names that you send things to every now and then. With Christmas fast approaching it might be time to send everyone on your database a message (closer to the 25th) wishing them a Happy Christmas.
Alternatively you might send them a newsletter announcing some things that have happened over 2013 and what the plan is for 2014. You may also want to announce some special offers they can avail of in the run up to Christmas e.g. a sale, seasonal discount code or a service that you provide to certain people. 
It’s all about leveraging the audience you have and speaking to them directly, with something that raises their interest.  Keep the message simple and relevant.

Christmas Banners

Banners

This is where you can show people visiting your site that your site is up to date. Last year Dave, in our office, ran an online training session on “how to create banners for Christmas” as part of our monthly training sessions (It’s available in our client help site in case you missed it). It showed that with some minor changes to your banners you can add a little bit of festive cheer to the website.  If you have a graphic designer, get them to design something for you. For our own clients we can design something for you if required.

eCommerce Websites

For eCommerce Websites

Think about your products and make sure 1. They are in stock, 2. You’ve written you own description of each and finally 3. You have them SEO’d correctly. Don’t just copy and paste descriptions provided by a supplier, give it your own twist. Take the time to SEO each product individually as you’ll improve your chances of getting each product found.

PPC

PPC

As a late last resort, I would suggest Pay Per Click (PPC). It’s a very competitive area to try and compete in, so you need to be very smart about how you go about it. If you’ve already invested in your content and SEO and you’re appearing organically, I’d think long and hard about using PPC. When it comes to PPC you need to have a budget (sometimes you need a rather large one) and the time to monitor how each campaign is performing.
 

Final thoughts

At the end of the day being prepared for what people are looking for and keeping your website fresh and up to date are things you should be doing all the time, but in the run up to Christmas it gives you a reason to invest some time in your website. It’s also a good time to reflect on your current site and how you’d like it to look for 2014.

If you want to have a quick chat to us about your website just pick up the phone and call either Joe or Brian on 01 2990655 or email sales@webtrade.ie.