Black Friday is approaching, is your site ready for the huge influx of traffic? Below we have prepared a list of tips to make sure your site is ready for the huge traffic on Black Friday.
Create a special landing page for Black Friday
In recent years, it has been found that the phrase “Black Friday” has become one of the top 20 searched keywords. Needless to say, this particularly emphasizes the importance of creating a dedicated landing page where all the great deals for the day in question are listed.
Research shows that consumers do preliminary research on the bargains that will be available during Black Friday and on the day itself they already have a clear decision about what they want to buy.
- What to include on your Black Friday landing page:
- Sales start date
- Counter with clock and timer
- Email subscription invitation
- Delivery methods
- Product return policy
- Price offers
If the special landing page is not yet “live”, add it to your site’s XML sitemap so that Google can discover it earlier and index it to start appearing in search results.
Prepare your homepage
Your homepage is the hub for displaying all of your offerings and guiding visitors to the pages they need. The homepage should include key offers and deals so that visitors can quickly navigate to the products.
You will also need to rethink the navigation and temporarily add a link to the page dedicated to Black Friday so that shoppers can easily reach and use it.
Prepare your site
1. Page Speed
Optimizing page load time is now more important than ever. Thousands of users will visit your site in a day, which is great, but will it be able to handle the sudden influx of such traffic? Loading speed is now essential; visitors not only want to make a good purchase, but they expect the merchant to provide them with a good experience, which means they don't want to wait for the site's pages to load.
There are now a number of tools available, such as Load Impact, to check your server capacity and Google's PageSpeed tool to check page load times. Your focus should be on the pages that will receive the highest levels of traffic and the key pages for generating conversions.
2. Queueing System
This is basically a page that notifies customers that there are delays and apologizes for the inconvenience. Last year, there was a trend among many sites to show a notification to shoppers that there is a huge demand and that they will have to wait. This is a good way to reduce congestion and improve the user experience.
In 2015, 60% of Black Friday traffic came from mobile devices, and this trend is expected to continue to grow this year. Due to the nature of the sale, visitors need to act quickly, so your website needs to run smoothly. Make sure your website looks good and is easy to navigate on a mobile device.
There are a few simple checks you can take to ensure your site is optimized for mobile devices:
Optimize the speed of your pages;
Don't block CSS, Javascript, or images;
Don't use flash; use HTML5 instead;
Avoid using pop-ups during this busy time;
Increase the size of your buttons.
4. Fix broken URLs
No one wants to come across a broken page at the best of times, especially when the customer is in a hurry and wants to grab a bargain. Broken pages not only provide a poor user experience, but they also eat into your profits.
A good option to improve the on page seo status of your site is to crawl the site using tools like Screaming Frog to find all broken pages containing a product that is being offered. They may have been broken by changing the URL, but without creating the necessary redirect.
We suggest you fix them immediately, with priority being given to the pages with the most visits and those generating the most sales.
Once you've found them and redirected them to a suitable replacement, mark them as fixed in Search Console so Google knows they're fixed.
5. A/B testing of the website
Change the language, use or change the images or graphics, and test the effect in both models, which is a great way to see how customers react.
By doing this every year, you will be able to get to know your audience better and how they behave during Black Friday.
It is important to remember that buyers browse and make decisions based on their habits, so that is where the emphasis should be placed.
6. Know your Keywords
Now is the great time to reach those customers who are looking to purchase special Christmas gifts and holiday-related goods, such as furniture and appliances, to make their holiday season special.
It’s helpful to do some keyword research for some of your main landing pages. Shoppers may search for certain seasonal terms and discounts, such as Christmas gifts, Black Friday, special discounts, sales, and the like.
Making some small, subtle adjustments to your text and keywords can drive a lot more targeted traffic to your best landing pages, helping to increase sales and profits.
Once you've pinpointed the keywords you need to focus on, it's time to review your current meta data and optimize your meta titles and descriptions so that they target seasonal and special offers.
7. Speed up the ordering process
Time is of the essence; visitors need to be able to quickly add products to their cart and order them quickly before they run out.
The registration process needs to be removed on this day so that shoppers can shop quickly. If you haven't already, consider signing in as a guest and help speed up the checkout process and reduce cart abandonment.
8. Stand out with a simple and clear call to action
Use simple, concise language that will grab the attention of those customers who scan the page for words and catchy phrases. Phrases like “get the discount now” and “hurry up – limited stock” catch shoppers’ eyes and entice them to make a quick decision.
People are in a hurry, so this is a great opportunity to guide the still undecided consumer towards making a purchase.
Another great way to do this is to display stock levels on your product pages so that visitors know how much of your product is left. If they don’t buy the item now, they’re likely to miss out on the opportunity later.
9. Create interactive charts
Create eye-catching images so that your deals are easily noticed by users. You don’t need to be a designer, and simple and creative banners are also effective. These graphics can be created using tools like Canva, which allow you to create custom templates.
You can use these graphics to build anticipation before Black Friday so that you get excited customers, excited about what's coming.
10. Optimize images
Optimizing your images is just as important as your landing pages. Some users may search for products via Google Images, so it’s pointless to lose out on that traffic, and that can happen if you don’t optimize your ALT tags.
11. Create email notifications for cart abandonment
Shopping during Black Friday gets a little crazy, as a result of which visitors tend to frantically abandon the order process halfway through.
A study from last year showed that the average cart abandonment rate on Black Friday 2015 was a whopping 65%. To reduce this rate, you can send emails to people who have abandoned their cart, gently reminding them that they have abandoned their cart and that you expect them to complete their purchase.
Combining it with a large amount of product images will help you rekindle the initial positive emotions in the buyer.
12. Boost your PPC campaigns
PPC is a great way to draw attention to your offers and create a sense of urgency. Preparation is key when it comes to getting your ads noticed. There are a number of steps you can take to get ready.
1. Increase your budget and bids
2. Run special campaigns for mobile users
3. Rewrite your ads to include the phrase "Black Friday"
4. Schedule campaigns during peak times
5. Create a remarketing campaign
