Black Friday 2020 is about to become the biggest Black Friday in history for online shopping due to the current global pandemic and restrictions which have led to temporary store closures. This means it is more important than ever to make sure your site or online shop is ready to compete for business online but also that it is appearing where it needs to within the search engines. This makes SEO the most important channel for your online business in preparation for Black Friday and you need to start preparing your Black Friday organic strategy now. Here are SEO tips so you can make the most of Black Friday online in 2020.

1 – What worked for your site online last year? (or what didn’t work)

It is important to review data from Black Friday 2019 before you begin your organic strategy for Black Friday 2020. There are a few simple ways to do this such as:

• Review your best selling products from Black Friday 2019 by pulling this data from Google Analytics or your CMS. This will give you an idea of which category or type of products customers typically search for in Black Friday sales and then you can target relevant keywords for these categories or products.
• Pull your top non brand search queries from Google Search Console using the date range your online Black Friday sale started and ended last year. This will give you an idea of the keywords which brought in the most traffic and the most relevant traffic. It may also give you an insight into any keywords that may have brought in irrelevant traffic or important keywords that didn’t bring in enough traffic due to low rankings or poor CTR. Either way it will give you an insight to which actions you need to repeat or improve for Black Friday 2020.

Useful tools for this tip – Google Analytics, Google Search Console

2 – Keyword Research – An essential part of every SEO Strategy

According to Backlinko, “Keywords are like a compass for your SEO campaigns: they tell you where to go and whether or not you’re making progress. Researching keywords help you better understand your target audience because keyword research gives you insight into what customers are searching for and the exact words and phrases that they use.”

As mentioned above in the previous tip, you can start your keyword research for Black Friday by pulling your top search queries for Black Friday 2019 from Search Console. Once you have done that, it is time to find new opportunities for Black Friday 2020. You can do this by doing some research into what is going to be popular for Black Friday 2020 and which of your site’s products you think will be best sellers for Black Friday 2020. Compile these categories or products and then find the search value for each relevant keyword for the most important categories and products. Finally, find some generic Black Friday keywords such as ‘Black Friday Deals’ or ones relevant to your industry such as ‘Black Friday Laptop Deals’ or ‘Black Friday Shoe Sale’. 

Useful tools for this tip – Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends

3 – Improve Rankings for Low Hanging Fruit Keywords 

Low Hanging Fruit Keywords are keywords which are currently ranking on page 2 or 3 and with a bit of optimisation, they can be pushed on to begin to rank on page 1 where you want to rank for as many of your most important keywords as possible. When you have completed your keyword research, it is important to note where you currently rank for those phrases. Once you have done that you can then analyse which keywords you can realistically compete for and which ones you can put to the side. Analyse which landing pages are ranking for the keywords you can compete for and then begin to optimise those pages so you can push on those rankings. Make sure these landing pages include their most important keywords in their title tag, alt tags, H1 and within the content multiple times (as well as semantic content).

Useful tools for this tip – SEMRush, RankTank or any other ranking tool

4 – Create a Black Friday dedicated category or page

Customers are not going to waste time browsing through all of your categories to find Black Friday deals so make it easy for them. Compile all of your best Black Friday deals into one category so users can find all of your best deals in one place and it may even encourage them to buy multiple products. Having a Black Friday dedicated category can also give you an opportunity to optimise that category with Black Friday focused keywords. Try to include the most relevant Black Friday keywords for your industry so you can bring in the most relevant traffic as well as high intent traffic.

5 – Create a Black Friday blog post

According to makewebbetter.com, “SEO without content is like an ice cream cone without ice cream”. In other words, every strong SEO strategy needs strong content and a Black Friday dedicated blog post can give you an opportunity to share more information about your Black Friday offers and deals. It also gives you another way of driving Black Friday shoppers to your site by targeting more generic keywords such as ‘Black Friday Deals’. This may bring in traffic from higher up in the funnel but with internal links back to your site’s product pages, you can lead some of those users to go on to convert on your site. Blog posts around Black Friday are also ideal for creating shareable content so you can compile all of your top Black Friday deals into your blog post and then share the blog post across your social media. As well as that, shareable content can also attract natural backlinks so other sites may link to your blog post which can bring in relevant referral traffic. A Black Friday blog post is the perfect way to improve your brand awareness in the search engine for Black Friday searches so that online shoppers can become familiar with your brand and your online shop.

6 – Gain Online Shoppers Trust by Giving Clear Information

Once your SEO strategy for Black Friday begins to bring in traffic, customers will want as much information as possible so they know they can trust your brand before they decide to convert. This means your site needs to communicate your unique selling points, services, product information and delivery/returns/cancellations policies as clearly as possible. If your business offers delivery then make sure your site has a dedicated delivery page and a dedicated returns policy page. Within these pages, be as clear and concise as you can about delivery charges, delivery times and returns processes. If your business takes bookings then make sure you have a dedicated cancellations policy page. An FAQ page is also really useful to have to answer those top queries that customers ask you about your business regularly. It also gives you an opportunity to implement FAQ Schema which can help you show your FAQs within the search engine and extend your search result for your FAQ page which can improve the CTR for that page. 

A contact us page with clear contact information such as phone number, email address and social media links will help customers trust your site a bit more which can be an important factor as they decide whether to convert on your site or not.

Useful tools for this tip – FAQ Schema Generator

7 – Review Technical SEO for User Experience

Creating an easy, slick and speedy experience for site users is key for a successful Black Friday online in 2020. This means you need to look at how you can improve user experience for your website. Here are a few things to look at:

• Resolve 404 pages by making sure they are redirected to the most relevant page on your site.
• Make sure there are no broken links and if you do find broken links then replace them with functioning links or remove them.
• Make sure your site is Mobile Responsive by using Google’s Mobile Friendly Test
• Compare your site speed with competitors and if yours is slower than the average speed of your competitors, use Google Page Speed Insights to find opportunities to improve speed. 
• Have your developer carry out the actions to improve speed whether it be compressing images or fixing code issues. Also ask them to check that the servers can handle high load traffic. The last thing you want for Black Friday is to attract a lot of traffic and then your site crashes. 

Useful tools for this tip – Technical SEO Audit via SEMRush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking etc, Google Search Console, Google Page Speed Insights, Pingdom, Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.

8 – Use your Google My Business Listing to direct to your website

Google My Business is useful to attract footfall in usual circumstances but for Black Friday 2020, most shoppers will be shopping online due to current Covid-related restrictions. This does not mean that your Google My Business listing becomes useless. In fact, it is another way to bring in more traffic to your site by doing the following:

• Make sure the URL on your listing is correct and working
• Add your most popular products to the ‘products’ section on your listing where you can also add category, price, description and then a link to the product page
• Add a Google My Business Post. In the posts section, you can add an ‘Offer Post’ which allows you to post an offer image, date start-date end, offer title, offer details and then link to a relevant page. It would be ideal for Black Friday.

Useful tools for this tip – Google My Business

Following these 8 steps will help your SEO strategy for Black Friday 2020 but it is also important to start your Black Friday SEO strategy as early as you can so you can get one step ahead. If you need help with improving your digital marketing or if you are looking to grow your business online then contact Core Optimisation today.