A lot of people take vacation days during the holidays, but local SEO never stops working overtime. People are always making online search queries and the holidays are the most popular time of the year for increasing profits. From online shoppers looking for the perfect holiday decorations, gifts, and stocking stuffers to people looking for great deals on holiday getaways, the number of search queries exponentially increases during this time of year. And it’s extremely prudent and sensible for online marketers to take advantage of this undeniable uptick in online searches, regardless of the type of industry you work in.
In fact, this is the perfect time of year to find out what drives up your online traffic and sales conversions by examining your Google Analytics and adding important information to your Google My Business (GMB) profile. Keep reading to learn more about how you can improve your local marketing statistics during the holiday season.
Update Your GMB Details Regularly
Update your NAP (name, address, and phone number) as well as email and hours of operation as needed. It’s not enough to simply put a disclaimer in your GMB knowledge panel stating that “the holidays may effect these hours” like some businesses tend to do. Customers need to know exactly when you’ll be open, so that they can plan their shopping trip to your brick-and-mortar locations at their convenience. There’s nothing more frustrating for customers than travelling to a certain store location thinking they’re open only to discover that their online hours of operation were inaccurate upon getting there.
Actually, there is something more frustrating than that. It’s having that happen and then not being able to reach an employee or store owner via phone because their phone number is also outdated. For that reason, it’s important to update your contact information regularly, so that customers don’t wind up attempting to contact an outdated phone number or email that’s no longer working. Your business could lose a lot of credibility this way.
Failing to update your online information isn’t just frustrating for your customers, it’s also sloppy business management and it demonstrates to your customers that your business is unreliable. This type of mismanagement can effectively lead your customers straight into the qualified arms of your competitors. Lack of communication, updates, and proper marketing especially during one of the busiest seasons of the year could cause you to lose customers for life.
Optimize Your Web Content for the Holidays
Driving up web traffic, sales, and conversions is the primary goal of local marketing and there’s no better way to do that during the holiday season than to create holiday-themed content that appeals to your audience. Most people spend a lot of time looking for holiday-related content because they have gift shopping and holiday decorating on their minds. Essentially, the holidays are the perfect time of year to give the people what they want. At the risk of further commercializing a beloved annual tradition, the holiday season is the gift that keeps on giving in the digital marketing industry.
Holiday trends change from year to year, so it’s important to do your research and stay on top of them. Find out what gifts, decorations, colour schemes, clothing items, and toys are currently popular in your country and region specifically and try to apply these concepts to your local SEO strategy.
Include Information about Holiday Offers and Specials
On that note, you can use your online research to attract more web traffic by advertising your holiday specials. Even if you’re not an online retailer selling holiday goods, you could offer holiday specials, grand prize draws, and giveaways that’ll get people excited about supporting your business. For instance, you could offer customers who spend a minimum amount at your web store or brick-and-mortar location a chance to win a special popular gift item or holiday getaway.
Not only will this help drive up sales and brand awareness, but it’ll also help you build up a strong online reputation for your company. Just be sure to work out all the kinks of the offer before going live with it on your website or business app so that every customer can gain access to it.
This is also a great opportunity to offer incentives to new customers to get them to support your business and to keep existing customers interested. Invite prospective customers to sign up for branded email newsletters, create profiles on your website, or download your app so that you can keep them updated on special offers. Provide existing customers with exclusive in-store or online offers so that you can demonstrate how much you appreciate them, and they’ll continue supporting your business.
Make Announcements Via Google Posts
Google posts is an incredible and easy-to-use online local SEO and marketing tool that you can use to advertise your holiday specials including Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day deals. Google posts are a form of micro-blogging in the sense that you can use trending holiday-related keywords to announce upcoming sales and promotions.
These announcements will show up in tandem with your business’s knowledge panel on Google’s search engine results page whenever people search for your company or keywords you’re targeting. They should be bright, colourful, and attention grabbing so that more people will be attracted to them.
Upload New Images of Festive Celebrations at Work
Leveraging various social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter is a great way to share all the fun of the holidays with your existing and prospective customers. By utilizing all of these different platforms you can substantially widen your customer base and target audience. Uploading pictures of your staff holiday party makes customers feel as if they have a more personal connection to your business, which will make it easier for them to support it.
Need help enhancing your local SEO strategy this holiday season? The sooner you get started, the better. The digital marketing experts at Numero Uno Web Solutions can help you increase your holiday revenue through strategic and targeted online advertising campaigns. Contact us to learn more.
