8 Hot Tips for Holiday SEO in Searchlight
Busy day? If this post is TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read), watch the video below. You’ll get all 8 tips on holiday SEO from Katherine in about 90 seconds.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that total spending for Halloween 2014 is expected to reach $7.4 billion (opens in a new tab). That’s a lot of dollar signs up for grabs. If your marketing team hasn’t optimized its digital strategy to get in front of consumers during the holiday season (that’s Halloween to New Year’s), chances are you aren’t going to get your share of those holiday bucks. Boo.
But fear not! The holiday season comes every year and you always have time to devise a strategy and create the content you need to be successful. Here are some ways you can leverage Searchlight and search data to win those holiday dollars:
1. Create holiday-focused categories for your keywords.
Think about different age groups, products and stages of a gift-giver’s buyer’s journey as you reorganize categories. Then, use Category Market Share (Conductor Searchlight‘s tool for determining search competition) to identify your biggest competitors for each category since chances are they’ll differ. Next, drill down into the keyword level to see the type of holiday content they’re publishing and use it to inform your content strategy.
2. Assess which categories are going to give you the biggest return on investment.
Time is ticking, so using the Business Case Builder gives you the ability to identify keywords that have the most potential to impact revenue and traffic.
3. Identify the high MSV (monthly search volume) keywords of last year’s season.
Use the Keyword Planner to anticipate this year’s trends and create content similar to buyer’s guides. What size hat do I wear? What kind of video games do 11-year-old boys play? Help buyers solve a problem with your content, and they’ll be more likely to buy something from you.
4. Do your competitive research.
Clients who have been on Searchlight for multiple years can view historical competitive data by using the date selectors on the keyword and category level. Even if you reorganize your keywords into new holiday categories, you’ll still be able to see the historical data as long as you’ve been tracking those keywords.
5. Track terms around coupons and discounts and create dedicated pages.
Go to the Opportunity tab and click into the Visibility Explorer. Check off competitors on the left hand rail and use the smart search at the bottom of the table to search for “coupon,” “discount” or “sale.” See what content is available.
6. See which affiliates are stealing your clicks for your products.
Leverage Category Market Share’s Top 5 view to see which affiliates might be stealing your clicks for your products. Use this data to work with them or, of course, outsmart them.
7. Monitor rankings closely.
Consider using the Daily Performance Manager functionality this season to make sure any slips in rank can be addressed ASAP. While we don’t always recommend day trading ranks, one unexpected drop during the holiday season can really cost you.
8. Stay on top of priority keywords.
If you see mission-critical keywords not ranking on the first page, pass that data onto the paid search team so they can give them a boost. Create a weekly or daily alert workspace to keep your eye on important keywords. Make sure these alerts are emailed to the whole team; being on the same page is especially important during the busy season.
