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Is Your Site Ready For The Holidays?

Sure they fall at the same time every year, but the holidays always seem to sneak up on us. For a business, that can be problematic. If you sell primarily to consumers, raising your profile during the holidays could greatly impact your annual sales. Even if you are primarily a B2B vendor, staying in customers’ minds during this time of year is important. Your first weapon to combat the holiday haze is your website. It is typically the first stop for many customers to find out more about you, your products, and your offers. Below are some ways to ensure an increase in website traffic for the holidays.

Is Your Site Ready For The Holidays?

Google Shopping Feeds

Google is the world’s largest search engine and the cornerstone of many business’ marketing plans. You can make their reach work for you by using a trio of services that will put your product images front and center during relevant searches. You will need your shopping feed, Google Merchant’s Center, and your Google Adwords account working in tandem to take advantage of the added exposure of these feeds.

Holiday-Specific SEO

Effective search engine optimization is a marathon, not a sprint; but you can optimize some pages on your site specifically for the holidays. Consider adding a few landing pages specific to your holiday offerings and make sure the SEO on these pages is targeted to holiday shoppers. Also, spend some time clicking around your site to test for things like load time, image quality, and calls-to-action. You don’t want a consumer to have any reason to leave before making a purchase, so be on the lookout for areas that might hinder a conversion. Slow load time is often the key culprit to consumers clicking out of the site, ultimately resulting in less valuable website traffic.

Pay-Per-Click Holiday Campaigns

Similar to shopping feeds, PPC campaigns can put your products in front of consumers who are searching for specific keywords. This gives you a direct line to consumers who are ostensibly looking for your product. Remarketing campaigns are also highly effective during the holidays. Customers who have previously visited your site, but haven’t purchased, will see ads for your products while they’re clicking around the Internet. It’s a good way to stay top of mind.

Make Social Work For You

Lastly, don’t forget about your social media feeds. These channels can pump up your promotional efforts with interesting content and clever community building campaigns. Just make sure that your site is ready to handle the traffic from a social media push.

No matter what tactics you use, the holidays can be a huge opportunity for you and your business, and they can generate website traffic you don’t normally see throughout the year. If you have any questions regarding how to make your site holiday-ready, please contact us at Energyhill today. Happy Holidays!

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Use Testimonials To Build Site Visitors’ Trust

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Let’s talk about trust for a moment. It’s perhaps one of the most important elements of engaging customers and inspiring a purchase. This makes sense because trust is earned, not bought or given. So how does a brand earn it? And more importantly, how do you use your consumers’ trust in you and your products to enhance sales? One of the key ways to do so is with website testimonials.

Testimonials To Build Site Visitors' Trust

What is a Testimonial?

Briefly, a testimonial is a statement that testifies to a person or a company’s character or quality. Testimonials should always be positive. They can also be product reviews, but with one caveat – a review can be negative.

What Makes a Good Testimonial?

An honest testimonial by someone whom other potential consumers can relate to is key in effective website testimonials. Testimonials operate on the basis of a psychological concept called ‘social proof.’ This means that when others read about the experience of one of their peers, they are inspired to copy that behavior. In the case of products or services, that means purchasing the product, downloading the app, or requesting information. Specificity is also the mark of a good website testimonial. While five star reviews look great, if they lack details about what exactly makes the product amazing, they’re sort of an empty endorsement.

How Can You Up Your Testimonial Game?

If you’ve already seen the power of testimonials on your site, then chances are you’re looking for a way to make them even more effective. One way is to be sure they have a prominent place on your site. Don’t make them hard to find. Perhaps include a side bar that features a few website testimonials every day or directly under the products they are touting. Additionally, make sure you’re getting testimonials by reminding people to submit them. Make it easy for site visitors to submit a testimonial so that you have a variety to feature on your site.

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to incorporate testimonials into your site, please contact us today. Energyhill is dedicated to making a positive impact in the digital world, and we’re committed to helping our customers build consumer trust and reach their goals.

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