Friday, December 24, 2010

While the weather outside may be frightful, launching new SEO campaigns for the Holidays can be incredibly delightful. And like any other marketing campaigns, competition for keywords can be fierce. Here are a few tips on how to get your site ready for the Holidays.

Cater Campaigns around Special Offers

Speak to your affiliate manager to find out about the Holiday promotions they have going on. Once you know what you have that you can market that is going to be competitive, you can begin to research keywords to use and create content around those things.

Do Your Research

It should come as no surprise that Holiday search terms are very competitive. Competition for phrases like “Christmas gifts” is high, and with some terms, getting even more generic ups the ante just that much more. So, how does one beat those Christmas keyword blues? Specialize your keyword phrases, but be very specialized. Phrases like “unique Christmas gifts” face even tougher competition, but if you were to get even more specialized, then the competition is lessened. The bottom line here is that the research is key to your Holiday campaigns. Find out where you can compete, and go for it.

Embrace the Seasonal Flu Virus and Get Viral

Not every video will, or even can go viral. If you can get your video to do so, you have staged a major coup. And even if you can’t, people love helpful videos. Product reviews and helpful tips will help you create buzz, and if you have these videos embedded on your site, you have a chance to engage your audience for a little while longer than you would with text.

Provide Value

The name of the game, no matter what time of year it is, is still relevance and uniqueness. Provide surfers with something that they’re not going to find somewhere else. Give them a really good reason to read your content. A really big reason for people to read content during the Holidays is savings. Use terms like discount, sale, or savings in your copy along with the keywords that you are optimizing for. You should, however, never forget that content is king, and always will be.

Get Meta

If you are using Meta Keywords, all you are doing is telling your competition what keywords you are after. It has been quite a while since search engines have looked at this at all. What they do look for, and what your potential visitors will see, is the Meta Description. This gives you 150 characters to reach your audience. Use the keywords you have optimized the page for in this description, and make sure that you are using copy that convinces people to click. This is your first introduction to surfers, and first impressions are everything. Make sure you’re giving the searchers what the searchers want.

Get Social

If you’re not using social media as a way to reach out to your potential customers, the only question at this point is, why not? This is an excellent way to grab your customers’ attention and keep them engaged. And if you can provide special sales or incentives for people to follow you via social media venues, then you are sure to find that people will be even more likely to sign up.