SEO Tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

As the holiday season approaches, e-commerce stores prepare for two dates that can make or break their quarterly (and annual) earnings: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As the two largest shopping days of the year, you must try and get as much of the pie as possible. However, as an e-commerce store owner, traffic mainly comes from one source: search engines.

SEO for e-commerce sites is already a crucial component to ensure you see robust sales throughout the year. However, Black Friday SEO is even more critical as you only have one chance to capture more customers and strengthen your bottom line. Fortunately, CSP is here to help. So, let’s break down why Black Friday and Cyber Monday are so important to your business and how to leverage e-commerce SEO solutions to maximize your online sales.

Optimizing Your E-Commerce Store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

In 2023, shoppers spent $9.8 Billion on Black Friday and a record $12.4 Billion on Cyber Monday. In 2024, those numbers are expected to increase to $10.8 and $13.2 Billion, respectively. But you can’t wait until Thanksgiving to start working on your Black Friday SEO strategy. Most shoppers start browsing deals in October, so you have to work hard to catch up to meet demand.

This year, Black Friday falls on November 29th, and Cyber Monday falls on December 2nd. So, the time between these shopping days and Christmas is short. You have to make every site visit count.

But it’s imperative to understand how consumers will be shopping these days and how you can cater to their preferences. For example, the average conversion rate is twice as high on a desktop than on a mobile device. On Black Friday, the conversion rate is 6.4 percent for desktops and 3.2 percent for mobile. On Cyber Monday, those numbers jump to 6.9 and 3.5, respectively.

Given that most people make purchasing decisions on desktops, you want your site to be optimized for the typical user experience. While shoppers may use mobile devices to find and research online deals, they’ll browse and fill their carts on a laptop or PC.

Technical SEO for a Stable Site

As you start implementing SEO for e-commerce sites, you might start imagining how many products you’ll sell over five days. However, before you can start counting transactions, you must ensure your site can handle large amounts of traffic. After all, getting thousands of new customers doesn’t mean anything if your site crashes and no one can finish checking out.

Now is the time to start working on technical SEO elements, such as:

• Small Image Sizes – While you don’t want low-resolution photos, they should be optimized for mobile and desktop screens. Large image file sizes can slow the overall site speed, leading to frustrated shoppers and abandoned shopping carts.
• Server Load Capacity – If you’re running an e-commerce site through a third party, make sure it can handle the excess traffic. Platforms like Shopify and Magento are built for such situations, but other smaller platforms may crash and burn.
• Website Audit – Run a free audit of your website and look for things like broken links, uncached pages, and slow site speed. Now is the time to boost each function so your online storefront runs as smoothly as possible.
• Site Traffic – You should already have data on how people move through your site. You can leverage this data to determine where bottlenecks can happen so you can alleviate the problem. For example, if you have a long, complicated checkout process, you’ll likely churn more customers. Now is the time to streamline the entire shopping process to make it as frictionless as possible.
• Mobile Responsiveness – While most conversions will happen on a desktop computer, you should still focus time and energy to ensure your mobile site is as quick and responsive as possible. You don’t want to leave money on the table because shoppers can’t buy a product on a smartphone or tablet.

Streamlining Product Pages and Navigation

Even if you’re a relatively new e-commerce store, you should know which items are more popular than others. As more people visit your site, you should promote these “best-seller” items to maximize your earning potential. You should also conduct a site audit yourself by navigating through different pages and listings as if you’re a new customer. Here are some top tips:

• Be Consistent With Meta and Title Tags – If you have a naming convention for your products, you should maintain it across all product listings. Also, if possible, make sure the photos and videos for each product are laid out similarly so there’s better congruency between one page and the next. If everything looks different, it can be confusing and off-putting for your customers.
• Use CTA Buttons – You should have buttons leading visitors to your best-selling items on the home page. Overall, it should be as easy as possible for new visitors to find what they need without endlessly searching and clicking.
• Double-Check All Product Details – Read through product descriptions, pricing, bundle prices, etc. You should also have an idea of inventory so you can keep track of when an item sells out (if applicable).
• Run Through the Checkout Process – If you haven’t checked out an item from your digital storefront in a while, do so from a new device. If there are any snags or problems, address them ASAP.
• Invest in a Chatbot – Visitors will likely have questions. Automated chatbots allow you to answer basic queries and guide customers to the most helpful pages. While chatbots aren’t perfect, they’re far better and more efficient than trying to handle these things manually.

Promotions, Deals, and Bargains

Consumers expect stores and e-commerce businesses to roll out Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. The better the bargain, the more likely you’ll increase traffic to your site. Now is the time to start promoting these discounts. Even if the deal is only valid on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday, you want customers to plan accordingly. That said, you can boost your brand reputation by offering special deals early. For example, subscribers may be able to save big before Black Friday while everyone else has to wait.

Paid ads will be your best friend at this time because competition is fierce. Everyone will be promoting their specials and deals, so you have to cut through the noise and reach your target audience. Now is the perfect time to ramp up your subscriber list so you can send reminders and retargeting emails before, during, and after these shopping days.

Actionable Steps: Preparing for the Holidays

Don’t get overwhelmed by the work you have to do to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Take it all one step at a time and realize that there’s still time to get your site optimized for an incredible sales boom. Plus, you don’t have to manage these details by yourself. You can prepare your site for peak season in 2024 and beyond with help from CSP. Chat with an SEO expert and discover what we can do to boost your bottom line this holiday season.