Crafting a Winning Formula for Holidays eCommerce Triumph

Set yourself up for holiday retail success with these SEO tactics. Learn how to leverage data from previous holidays, stay on top of the changing holiday SERP landscape, and more!

2. About Me
Associate Strategist at Amsive
SEO for 6+ years
Live in the Philly suburbs
Expert online shopper

3. Holiday retail ecommerce sales will
account for 19.8% of total holiday
retail sales.
EMarketer, "US Holiday Shopping 2024"
Average monthly online sales during
the holidays will be 43.0% higher
than during the rest of the year.
EMarketer, "US Holiday Shopping 2024"

4. Ecommerce
Holiday
Preparation

5. 3-4 months
The minimum amount to
give yourself of holiday
preparation time.
Leave room for:
Google to crawl and index
changes
Time to meet with
stakeholders
Prioritization of previous
commitments
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
When is the best time to start?

6. The holiday season you
prepare for is dependent on
your business.

8. Holiday Preparation
What to get started with?

9. Performance
Data Analysis
Keyword +
SERP Analysis
Technical +
Content Analysis
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
What to get started with?

10. Review performance
from last year.
Which holidays mattered?
What worked?
What didn't?
10
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Performance Data Analysis
Think about
what's important
to know for your
business and
customer.

11. HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Performance Data Analysis
Questions
to Ask:

12. Don't forget your
internal search data!
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Performance Data Analysis

13. Have a pulse on what product categories
Google associates with your brand.
Don't assume that if you're successful in one, you're successful in all!
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Performance Data Analysis

14. Performance
Data Analysis
Keyword +
SERP Analysis
Technical +
Content Analysis
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
What to get started with?

15. Pages to focus on:
•Holiday-specific pages like
Black Friday and Cyber Monday
•Shop All pages
•Gifts for "x" pages
•Blogs or content that help
generate revenue
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

16. Customer-centric on page
ideas:
•Targeted internal linking (e.g.
“Gifts for her”
•Leverage UGC (reviews,
customer photos)
•Gift finders/quizzes
•Answer customer questions
(leverage Reddit)
Get creative! Think about what makes a
great digital experience.
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

17. Gift Guides

18. Key Technical Considerations
Leverage your site navigation for amplification.
Targeted pages also make for great email and social content!

19. Establishing canonical URL
Optimize URL structure without year in URL, put year in
title and H1 (/black-friday).
Internal Links
Anchor text on inbound links is descriptive. The correct
canonical URL is set.
Site Navigation
Leverage your site navigation to support holiday by
displaying holiday pages in main navigation &
homepage.
Mobile Friendliness
Make sure CWVs are scoring well (errors addressed).
Ensure that checkout is free of errors on mobile.
Schema Markup
Use schema markup to provide more information to
Google on products, especially price, deals, and
inventory.
Pages are Indexable
Remove "noindex" tag if previously applied. Ensure URLs
are in sitemap.
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

20. Structured data
markups to review
Product and ProductGroup
oHasVariant/isVariantOf
oA product belongs to a productgroup as a variant
PriceValidUntil nested under Offer
oUse for PDPs
oInclude URL property in the Offer and supply the
product description page’s URL, not the holiday
special pages.
LocalBusiness
Breadcrumbs
Organization
Review
VideoObject
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis
"Include structured data relevant to
ecommerce" - Google Search Central
Documentation

21. To quickly increase site speed,
review and remove unnecessary
third-party analytics
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

22. Assess out-of-stock (OOS) implementation
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

23. Recommendation
for handling
temporary OOS
Programmatically update copy to
reflectcurrent product status
Provide an email capture form for
customers to be notified when in
stock
Link to similar, relevant products to
keep customers on site
Ensure proper Schema markup and
feed updates
Avoid internally linking until product
becomes available
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

24. Recommendation
for handling
permanent OOS
24
If the page has traffic, backlinks or rankings, redirect
it to the closest relevant product
If there is no traffic or backlinks, just remove it (410)
Remove the product from the sitemap
Remove any instances of internal links to the page
We want the page up long enough for Google to realize
the product status, but not too long that we’re wasting
customers' (and Google’s) time.
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

25. Holiday Preparation
25
Technical & Content Analysis
#WTSFest
Flowchart by @Aleyda - X.com

26. Amplify your loyalty
programs on your
holiday pages
26
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

27. "Accessories label Brandon Blackwood New York had signed up
300,000 members to its loyalty programme as of May 2024
after introducing it for Black Friday in 2023.
Since the launch, purchases by loyalty members have
increased overall sales by 15 percent, while the average order
value of members has been 10 percent higher than
nonmembers over that period. "
27
Business of Fashion, Case Study: Building an Effective Loyalty Programme
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Technical + Content Analysis

29. Merchant Center
data will play a
huge role in
holiday SERPs.
MERCHANT CENTER

30. How Google uses your
Merchant Center Data
MERCHANT CENTER

31. 31
Prime your
Merchant
Center by:
Getting all applicable deals into your feed
Getting new products into feeds
Hit all scorecard items
Titles are descriptive and inclusive of non-
branded keywords
Try out AI features such as image backgrounds
to help with CTR
MERCHANT CENTER

32. To check if your website has seller ratings (or check your
competitors), replace your domain
in the following URL. Update US to your country:
https://customerreviews.google.com/v/merchant?q=uncommon
goods.com&c=US&v=19
MERCHANT CENTER

33. MERCHANT CENTER

34. MERCHANT CENTER
Ensure that schema.org markup is available
on your website first and foremost.
Source: Lets Talk Shopping Markup, Sept 5th, Search Off the Record Podcast

35. Things Merchant Centers
cares a lot about:
MERCHANT CENTER
Promotions
Pricing
Shipping speed
Shipping cost
(free shipping)
Returns
Seller ratings
Locality

36. Add your loyalty
program if applicable.
MERCHANT CENTER
To see if adding a loyalty program is available to
your store in, go to:
Settings > Add Ons > Loyalty programs

37. Performance
Data Analysis
Keyword +
SERP Analysis
Technical +
Content Analysis
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
What to get started with?

38. Research your seed
holiday keywords.
What ideas can come from it?
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Keyword + SERP Analysis

39. Ways to find
seed keywords
+ new ideas

40. HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Keyword + SERPAnalysis
Before building new pages, ALWAYS check the SERPs for intent and
relevance to your business.
Each page should be a new spin on existing products. (Don't just relist the same
products with a different title tag!)
Gifts under $25
White
elephant gifts
under $25
Unique gifts
under $25
Gifts for
women under
$25
Gender neutral
gifts under
$25

41. Brand sentiment:
how are your customers talking about
you? How can you incorporate that into
the shopping experience?
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Keyword + SERP Analysis

42. We proposed to our client to
create a "Stocking Stuffers" page
to capitalize on product popularity.
It went live on 10/30/23 and
helped to generate an additional
$1,391 in revenue.
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Keyword + SERP Analysis

43. Adding new pages and products to the
site is a multi-channel effort.
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Keyword + SERP Analysis

44. SEO
Ensures that important
metadata exists.
Makes sure that pages
are implemented
correctly, added to
sitemaps, lives in the
correct section of the
site, has appropriate
internal links (all of the
"seo things").
Merchandising
Ensures the right product
placement and inventory
of products. Overseeing
promotional campaigns.
Ensuring optimal user
experiences.
Email, Paid
and Social
Crucial amplification
channels to help
promote new products
and drive traffic to the
site. Collaborates on
new holiday pages, can
champion customer
personas.
HOLIDAY PREPARATION
Keyword + SERP Analysis

45. Things to Consider
45

46. The emphasis of
Google Deals
when people are
shopping this
holiday season. "New features to help merchants stand out this holiday season“ -
The Keyword, Nov 1, 2023
THINGS TO CONSIDER

47. Google will
continue to
leverage
Merchant Center
for SERPs.
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/14998338?hl=en
THINGS TO CONSIDER

48. Nearly a third (31%) of US
adults value “wish list”
features, including save-
for-later or share-with-
others functions, as part
of a personalized
shopping experience.
EMarketer, 5 key stats on holiday retail
THINGS TO CONSIDER

49. For brands with
physical locations,
what are ways you
can leverage your
DTC website?
THINGS TO CONSIDER
4%
12%
13%
35%
41%
51%
74%
Third-party same-day delivery (e.g., Uber Eats,
DoorDash)
Online shopping through social media shops
(e.g., TikTok Shop)
Same-day delivery through a retailer's app or
website (e.g., Target)
Buy online, pick up in-store
Online shopping through retailers' mobile app
Online shopping through retailers' website*
In-person shopping
Nearly Three-Quarters of Shoppers Buy Holiday
Gifts In-Store
Q: How do you purchase holiday gifts?
% of US Consumers, May 2024
Source: Bryj, June 20, 2024, eMarketer
Note: n=1,000; *via mobile or desktop browser

50. For DTC brands
without physical
locations, ensure
your "Where to Buy"
pages are updated
and operating
correctly.
THINGS TO CONSIDER

51. For DTC brands with
physical locations,
leverage your GBP:
-Update holiday hours
-Connect GBP to GMC
-Create holiday-
specific GBP posts
THINGS TO CONSIDER

52. DON'T DELETE YOUR BLACK FRIDAY
ORCYBER MONDAY PAGES ONCE THE
SEASON IS OVER
52
Things to Consider

54. Leverage data
from last holiday
for 2024
opportunities
Stay on top of
the changing
holiday SERP
landscape
Make your pages
easy to crawl and
customer-centric
FINAL TAKEAWAYS

55. Thank you!