The holidays are quickly approaching, which means it’s time to get your website ready! Not only should you promote your holiday specials, but also confirm that your website can handle the additional traffic. If it can’t, people will leave frustrated and likely won’t return. This isn’t good for holiday business – or long term business!
Below are some of our best tips for preparing your website for the busiest time of year!
Learn from Last Year
Take some time to look through your business’s performance from last year’s holiday rush. Some of the reports you might have are from sales, new customers and website traffic. This will refresh your memory on what you did well and what you need to improve. Also identify which pages received the most traffic and which products sold fastest. This way, you can direct your attention to the right places.
Refresh Your Web Design
You can easily give your website a new look for the holiday shopping season thanks to templates, themes, web elements, forms, landing pages and more. You don’t have to know how to code to take advantage of them, but if you don’t have time, reach out to your website management company. This way, you can give your website some holiday flair and get people in the mood to shop.
Create Holiday-Related Content
Drive traffic to your site by creating holiday-related content like gift guides. You can even use content from last year or the year before. Just be sure to refresh the dates, remove outdated information and include the latest keywords. Share this content to your blog and social media channels, or include it in your monthly newsletter.
Give Holiday Freebies and Discounts
With a list of people to buy for, holiday shoppers actively look for good deals. If you sell products that are similar to other brands, you’ll need to be competitive with your holiday promotions. You want people to choose you and not your competitors, so consider big discounts, extra loyalty perks and add-on services like free gift wrapping or free shipping.
Prioritize the User Experience
Driving traffic to your website is great, but your website must be prepared to handle it. Use your website from the user’s point of view. Is the navigation clean and simple? Can people find what they need easily? Do all of your links and buttons work? Are your forms easy to fill out? Also, make sure that your website is optimized for all devices, as more people are shopping from their mobile phones.
Run a Speed Test
Don’t forget to run a speed test on your website using Google’s PageSpeed Insights. If there are any issues you need to know about, the test will tell you. Do this early so that you have time to address problem areas on your website. Not only should you check your site’s speed, but also make sure that all images are optimized and appear correctly on all screen sizes.
Need help getting your website set up for the holiday season? Contact WSI Internet Partners and let’s talk! Whether you need a quick refresh or a full makeover, we can build a site that drives in the right traffic while helping you grow!
