Optimising your website & digital marketing

With the Christmas holiday season fast approaching and with Christmas promotions starting in the shops already, here are five top tips for you to make your website more visible in search engines around the world. Don’t forget online sales as a key part of your strategy this year!

Tip 1: Christmas starts in September

Believe it or not, people start searching for Christmas in Google in the summer! There have already been nearly 2 million searches on Google for ‘Christmas’ in August 2014 – that really is starting your Christmas shopping early, but as they say, the early bird catches the worm. A recent survey by ChannelAdvisor says that 42% of their retailers start their Christmas push in September.

It’s not too late if you’re just starting now, but give your website that ‘Christmas’ angle right away. There is no time to waste as around 25 million searches will be for ‘Christmas’ in November and a whopping 62 million in December!

Tip 2: Include Christmassy product descriptions

It’s not just the exact word ‘Christmas’ that people are searching for either. Update your website product descriptions by combining it with other popular searches from around the world and you’ll be attracting more potential visitors to your website. Try some of the top search terms like Christmas songs, Christmas tree, Christmas decorations, Christmas movies, Christmas cards, Christmas pictures, Christmas jumpers, Christmas lights and Christmas games to name but a few! Love it or hate it, don’t forget to include the abbreviation ‘Xmas’ too – there were over 30 million searches for it last year.

Tip 3: Blog on a gift giving theme

On top of the word ‘Christmas’ and ‘Xmas’, people also searched for gifts … for everyone! Gifts for men, gifts for her and gift ideas. So put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and write a blog entitled ‘Gifts for men’ or ‘Gifts for her’ and feature your bestselling products for the whole world to see!

Tip 4: Localise your Christmas language

If you’re adding in some Christmassy product descriptions or a few blogs, think about the differences between different versions of English. We’d be very happy to receive a ‘personalised gift’ in the UK, but in the USA they would probably prefer a ‘personalized gift’! We’d be giving a gift to ‘Mum’ and they’d be giving a gift to ‘Mom’.

Tip 5: Offer free international delivery

A big pull this year for increasing visitors and conversion has been ‘free international delivery’ – even if you have to slightly increase the selling price of your product. Make this a prominent part of your Christmas marketing campaign as you approach Cyber Monday, Black Friday and the Last Free Shipping Day in the week before the big day!

Make a change:

Day 1: Add a banner to your home page, including the word Christmas
Day 2: Update your bestselling products to include the word Christmas or Xmas
Day 3: Write a blog about your Christmas gifts
Day 4: Check for differences in vocabulary between the UK & the USA
Day 5: Offer free international delivery to your top navigation

We wish you all a very merry and prosperous Q4 and a relaxing Christmas before the sales start!

To find out more, please contact:

Sarah Carroll
Grow Global

http://www.growglobal.com | hello@growglobal.com | @growglobal