Although the Saturday before Christmas is the day when online shopping reaches its annual peak, Black Friday remains a very valuable opportunity for e-shops to boost their traffic and convert it into sales.
Black Friday marks the official debut of seasonal discounts and price cuts in online shopping. However, taking into consideration the varied offers e-shops have during this period, what can you do in order to stand out? Here are 6 SEO strategies which will help you improve your Black Friday marketing campaign and maximize your sales' volume:
1. Set up the basics of on page optimization
Before you officially launch your Black Friday campaign, it's important to set up your website in terms of on page optimization, in order to make sure pages can be easily indexed by Google's crawlers, and the users' navigation experience is as smooth as possible and will guide them to complete an order.
Therefore, it is recommended to:
- set up a 404 Error page, so that it is as user friendly as possible and it will redirect the users to the page he wants to visit;
- insert a 301 Redirect for broken links;
- make sure the page loading speed is optimal;
- make sure that the server can handle a large number of users on Black Friday;
- optimize meta titles and meta descriptions using the keywords you target during Black Friday;
- insert call to actions both in meta tags, as well as in the content, in order to facilitate conversions;
- ensure an internal link structure which offers users the possibility to interact as easily as possible with your site.
2. Keyword strategy
When you make the keyword research for Black Friday, you have to analyze last year's campaign. Check Google Analytics to see which pages got the most traffic, most conversions and which got the best Google positions on the targeted Black Friday keywords last year. Use the obtained data in order to lay foundation for this year's strategy.
Obviously, the most targeted word will be "Black Friday", but it is redundant to say you can't list on top with this keyword only. Therefore, starting from this keyword, you can target long tail expressions such as "Black Friday offers", "Black Friday discounts", "Black Friday promotions" in combination with products/services from your industry. For example, if your e-shop sells appliances, some long tail expressions you can target are "Black Friday blender offer" or "Black Friday fridge discounts".
3. A Black Friday landing page
A landing page dedicated to Black Friday is an effective method to attract visitors and promote the products you want to sell during this period. A Black Friday landing page should include meta tags optimized using specific keywords and an attractive content for visitors, which should offer a clear description of the products and the advantages they bring. Furthermore, you can use expressions such as "Limited offer! Buy now!", in order to urge visitors not to miss this opportunity and buy your promotional products as quick as possible.
Also, it's recommended to start building links to your Black Friday landing page some time before the actual event, so it will list as high as possible on Google's results pages.
4. Optimize your website for mobile
Taking into consideration that Google launched "Mobile-first index" this year, which prioritizes mobile versions of sites in Google's results pages, it is important that your website is optimized for mobile. The truth is that, today, more than 55% of internet's total traffic comes from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, with this percentage growing each year. Therefore, make sure that:
- your site has a responsive design, which will allow an easy and effective navigation experience for users;
- your site's page loading speed is optimal;
- your landing page has a fluid layout, with a simple design, so that visitors can easily access all interesting areas of your site.
5. Reviews are crucial
Since there is an explosion of offers and promotions on Black Friday, consumers tend to research more on the internet before buying a product during this period.
According to a study conducted by BrightLocal, 92% of buyers check online reviews and 68% state that positive reviews make them trust a brand more.
Therefore, positive reviews and testimonials are more than welcome on your Black Friday landing page since they can influence visitors' buying decision. However, take care how you integrate them in your page's structure, in order not to interfere with other elements which can influence user experience.
6. Don't forget backlinks!
Last but not least, quality backlinks have an important role in helping your Black Friday landing page outrun competitors in Google's organic results pages.
Therefore, 2-3 weeks before Black Friday, it is recommended to create quality articles, with attractive content for users, which you should publish on sites with high authority and which link to your landing page. Also, it's a good time to contact bloggers from your field of activity, which can promote, in their articles, the products you offer discounts for on Black Friday.
