Google Search Tips to Attract Holiday Shoppers
You are no doubt preparing your business for the holiday season rush. For many businesses, this is the time of year that generates a large percentage of their annual profit.
According to the National Retail Association, holiday sales represent an average of 20% of annual sales for most businesses. This year, sales for November and December are expected to rise between 3.8% and 4.2%, backing the association’s claim that holiday sales have been increasing an average of 3.7% over the past five years.
Because Google plays such a large part in the way shoppers search for gifts online, here are four tips to help give you the edge this holiday shopping season.
Use Google Trends
According to Google, traffic on the search engine is 22.11% higher on Thanksgiving, 23.11% higher on Black Friday, 26.11% on Cyber Monday, 25.12% on Christmas, and 31.12% on New Year’s Eve. So, how do you take advantage of this increase?
Use Google Trends.
One of Google’s many featured tools geared toward marketing, Google Trends can help you with content creation and SEO for the holiday season, as well as help you understand how your industry is doing overall.
Here’s how it works.
Google Trends lets you compare search volume patterns across regions, time frames, categories, and properties. Need to see which keywords are popular in a particular area? Google Trends can deliver. This tool provides you with compelling data so you can make sure the content you’re creating or the keyword you’re targeting is relevant in that region or for that particular type of business.
It also shows you the rising search terms related to the keyword you’re researching. You can use this to write new blog articles, optimize your website, or make sure your keyword strategy is heading in the right direction.
Get more out of your ads
Get ready for the onslaught of holiday shoppers by preparing your ads so you can get more from Google Adsense. Use responsive ads so they look the same no matter what device your audience uses. eCommerce shopping on mobile devices, otherwise known as mCommerce, is expected to reach $203.94 billion this year, making up 34% of all U.S. eCommerce sales, according to eMarketer. While desktop purchases are still leading the charge, mobile shopping is quickly catching up. If you don’t have responsive ads, you risk long load times, which can lead to high abandonment rates.
To get even more out of your ads, use Ad Balance. This tool will allow you to show only your best performing ads, which will create more space for your holiday content.
Speaking of ads, make your ads more noticeable by placing them in multiple locations and sizes for your audience.
Attract more users to your site
While this is one of the most challenging marketing aspects for small business owners due to the stiff competition from other small and large retailers, there are ways to drive traffic to your website.
One of them is to figure out what stores are similar to your store or brand and include them in your keywords so your business will appear when searchers are looking for them.
You can also increase your mobile presence by creating a mobile site or app just for the holidays. As we mentioned above, more folks are shopping on their mobile devices. A mobile app is a great way to get them to your online store.