With the holiday season approaching fast, small businesses in the US are gearing up to make the most of the opportunity. After all, this is the time of the year when they can expect their cash registers to ring. Moreover, many local businesses rely on a good holiday season to survive and thrive in the long haul.
The AMEX Small Business Trendex survey 2023 showed that that two in three small businesses think that holidays are important to their financial situation. Also, 89% of retail businesses highlight the season’s significance to their bottom line. Hence, local businesses, big or small, should invest time and effort in holiday season marketing.
While displaying your top products and offers in store windows is a good start, it isn’t enough to pull the crowds for festive shopping. No matter what you sell, you must invest in digital marketing as most buyers search for sellers and products online.
Local SEO is critical as local searches make up 22.6% of website traffic. Statistics show that the traffic for location-based businesses surged from 19.2% to 28.8% between 2020 and mid-2021. That means you cannot overlook this element of digital marketing.
If you are still wondering about ramping up your local SEO plan for the holidays, now is the time to get started. We have a complete checklist to get your strategy on track before the festive rush arrives.
Update Your Google Business Profile
Google notes that a complete Google Business Profile makes buyers 2.7 times more likely to see a business as a reputable one. While your GBP should be on point throughout the year for a robust local SEO plan, it is even more significant during the holidays. Take time to update and refresh it for your customers before the festive season.
According to Fire Us Marketing, an optimized Google Business Profile can boost your local rankings and bring in more customers. Keeping it up-to-date and accurate means that your business will be easy to find and reach for your buyers.
This is crucial, considering that most buyers these days check the listings to research a company, its products, and reviews online. That’s how they decide whether your store is worth visiting.
Here are a few things you need to optimize in your GBP:
Local Business Contact Details
- Check the store address and phone numbers and update them if needed. Add multiple contact details if your stores operate across different local locations.
- Ensure that your hours of operation are correct.
- Add holiday closures in the special hours section.
- Add links such as an Appointment link (for example, if you run a local salon or spa)
Profile Photo
- Update your profile photo with a current one (for example, with Christmas décor).
- Ensure that it has curbside appeal, even if it means hiring a professional photographer.
- Add multiple exterior photos from different directions.
Business Description
As a part of your local SEO strategy for the holidays, make your business description relevant to the season. Of course, you may switch back to your evergreen description once the season is over.
Right now, include the shopping categories (such as holiday gifts) that deserve attention. Also, add updated deals and offers to ensure shoppers know about them.
Products
Adding some of your top-selling products to your profile is a great idea. This will make them visible in local searches and results pages. Remember that these images should be attractive and mobile-friendly.
Data shows that 76% of buyers visit a store soon after conducting a local search on their smartphone and 28% of those searches culminate in a purchase.
Google Ratings and Reviews
Regardless of the time of the year, Google ratings and reviews are the star of the show when it comes to local SEO. Forbes notes that 98% of consumers check reviews before making a shopping decision.
To get your GBP holiday-ready, check the reviews and respond to them, even the negative ones. By doing so, you can win the trust of your audience. Also, work on getting positive ratings and reviews well before the holiday season. Look for authentic buyers ready to share a good word, and incentivize them if needed.
Questions and Answers
Consider adding Q&As to explain how your business handles holiday-specific areas. These include festive schedules, availability, product pricing, shipping, delivery, refunds, and returns.
You can add them proactively to address the common sales and customer service questions. The measure shows that you are genuinely keen to help your buyers.
While optimizing your GBP might seem like a lot of work, every ounce of effort is worthwhile. You can hire local SEO services to handle the complexities of the job if you lack the expertise. Do not compromise here because a solid business profile is the foundation of an effective local SEO strategy.
Update Local Citations
Local citations are a key aspect of local SEO, and you should keep them in mind while fine-tuning your strategy. This involves mentioning your business information across relevant review sites, directories, and online platforms.
When you refresh them before the holidays, ensure consistency of your information and holiday updates. By doing so, you enhance the visibility in local searches and the overall credibility of your business.
Accurate details like holiday hours and special offers across directories and review platforms help buyers quickly find the information they need.
Optimize Your Website
Updating your GBP and citations gets your local SEO plan on track for the festive season, but it is only half the work. Is your website ready for visitors with the intention to purchase? You need to implement several steps to optimize your website for the season. These include:
Give it an Aesthetic Touch-Up
Capturing the festive flair with an aesthetic design touch-up for the holidays is the first step. Add color to your landing pages, bring in design elements like Santa and snowflakes, and give some animation effects.
The first impression is often enough to make the visitors stick around, explore, and shop.
Refresh with Festive Content
Besides investing in a festive appearance, creating the right feel with holiday-ready content and keywords is essential. Research relevant search keywords and add them to your website’s content.
For example, if you run a bakery, your website should have content on Christmas cakes with keywords like “Christmas cakes near me”. You can also add compelling content like gift guides to hook the visitors.
Add Actionable CTAs
Did you know that the call to action (CTA) is among the quick wins in optimizing your website for conversions? Think beyond the regular ones like “click here” or “buy now,” and take a personalized approach with “claim my discount.”. Even the smallest changes can make your website conversion-ready.
Prioritize Speed and Responsiveness
Local buyers are impatient, even more, during the festive rush. You cannot expect them to wait for more than a few seconds for your website to load on a computer or smartphone.
HubSpot, for example, notes that lack of responsiveness is the reason 53.8% of designers cite for a website redesign. If you think your site lags in these areas, refresh it ahead of the holidays.
Set Up a Special Holiday Landing Page
Besides decking up your website for the festive season, you must have dedicated landing pages to strengthen your local SEO strategy. You can use them to highlight exclusive holiday offers, events, limited-time deals, and promotions. Ensure they have location-specific keywords that your local audience may be searching for.
Here are a few tips to design holiday landing pages that do the trick:
- Keep them simple and easy to navigate for buyers looking for quick deals.
- Write compelling CTAs that cater to the shopping impulses of holiday shoppers.
- Ensure fast loading and responsiveness to make the visitors stick.
- Use crisp yet descriptive content to highlight your products and deals.
- Add high-quality images and videos of your products.
- Create urgency with limited deals and countdown timers.
- Mention shipping, return, and refund policies clearly.
- Highlight social proof and trust badges.
Collaborate with Local Influencers
Statista highlights that the global influencer marketing value was a massive $21.1 billion in 2023. The number has tripled since 2019. Surprisingly, the market includes not just celebrities and big names, but also micro-influencers working with relatively small yet targeted followings.
The idea of such influencer collaborations is to reach a small local audience and win its trust.
Consider boosting your local SEO strategy by partnering with local influencers this festive season. With their strong local following, they can help you amplify the reach of your holiday messages within the community. Moreover, having a word of recommendation from them can generate buzz around your products and promotions.
Look for influencers with values aligning with your brand and audience matching your target demographic. Be ready to shell out a bit on reviews, sponsored posts, or giveaways. Just an endorsement from a local influencer can take your local SEO plan to the next level.
Look for influencers with values aligning with your brand and audience matching your target demographic. Be ready to shell out a bit on reviews, sponsored posts, or giveaways. Just an endorsement from a local influencer can take your local SEO plan to the next level.
Conclusion
The holiday season is a big time for small and local businesses as they can earn enough to sustain and thrive during the festive shopping rush. Preparing and implementing a local SEO plan is the key to a successful selling season.
With the season just a few months ahead, you should have a plan in place right now to win customers and stay ahead of your competitors. Follow these best practices to maximize your selling potential this year.
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