fully maximizing the return on your marketing efforts if SEO isn’t on your top priority list. By tweaking your product pages and adding a few SEO-focused tactics into your online marketing strategy, you might surprise yourself with a jolt in holiday sales. Last week’s #SEOchat focused on the best practices to incorporate SEO into your e-commerce marketing strategy. Here are some of the highlights from what we covered:
Q1: When should a brand begin an SEO campaign for the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays?
A1: In my experience, you need to have your content plans in place by August – and then start seeding URLs by September for SEO #SEOChat
— Eric Lander (@EricLanderSEO) December 3, 2015
@AJUTAH A1: Really the effort should be ongoing/year round, and I’d look at holiday-centric content marketing campaigns #SEOCHAT — Andrew Pincock (@pincock) December 3, 2015
Q2: What does your content strategy look like for the holidays?
A2: The trick is not being hokey or flippant. Let the holidays color your content, not replace it. #seochat
— Jacob McEwen (@jvmcewen) December 3, 2015
A2 Repurposing is a big EOY strategy–we’re combining our industry research and offering ‘X Tips We Learned in 2015’ posts #SEOchat — Andrea Lehr (@AndreaMLehr) December 3, 2015
Q3. Let’s pretend you’ve been hired as an SEO consultant for a website that sells cameras and camera accessories. How would you begin competitor research?
A3. Use Tools like @BruceClayInc‘s free SEOToolSet, @spyfu @Topsy + @Moz‘s @followerwonk #seochat
— Navah Berg (@Navahk) December 3, 2015
Pinterest is now a leading place for holiday themed ecommerce. Black Friday stats prove it @EricLanderSEO #SEOCHAT — FIGorout (@FIGorout) December 3, 2015
Q4: Which area of the customer buying cycle do you execute on? Do you outsource anything?
@AJUTAH outsource the hard parts to niche firms who make that piece of your puzzle. Common in SEO, link building is a good example #seochat
— Devin Kostrzewski (@dmak_11) December 3, 2015
Q5: Walk us through your auditing process. Our camera site sells 26 brands. Would you optimize every product page? Why/why not?
A5: Depends on how many products you have. If it’s a few hundred, yes. If it’s a few hundred thousand, prioritize. #seochat — Tanner Petroff (@tannerpetroff) December 3, 2015
A5: Talk with sales and find out which brands bring in the most revenue, then see where the quickest wins are. #SEOCHAT — Andrew James (@AJUTAH) December 3, 2015
Q6: What’s the right balance of transactional and informational keywords you should target?
A6: Targeting more info-kws than transactional may lead to high increases in traffic without high increases in conversions #SEOCHAT — Michelle Jernigan (@mchellejernigan) December 3, 2015
A6: Also depends on time of year. Holidays + high intent. Focus shld still include trans and info, but weigh it 60-40 depnding #SEOCHAT — Matt O’Connor (@OC2015) December 3, 2015
Q7: How would you recommend organizing category pages in the navigation? By BRAND, by TYPE or other?
A7: Both – Users for UX & SEO for search engine as they will need separate landing pages for brand vs category keywords. #SEOCHAT — imnotadoctor (@imnotadoctor) December 3, 2015
Since there are more types (variable count) sort by that but index or tag brands (which there are fewer of) #seochat — FIGorout (@FIGorout) December 3, 2015
Q8: What linkable asset would you create for the camera site to drive traffic and social shares?
Q8: Proof of product quality & usability. Much like @GoPro & the content they push is all user generated using the cameras #SEOCHAT — Matt O’Connor (@OC2015) December 3, 2015
Q9: What’s your favorite site to shop from for the holidays?
@AJUTAH A9: always a ton of fun shopping @thinkgeek makes for a very engaging experience #seochat
— Rob Bonham (@Rob_Bonham) December 3, 2015
A9: Amazon and EBay. I know what I’m looking for, just need to find the right price #seochat — Jacob McEwen (@jvmcewen) December 3, 2015
If you blog, you can sell t-shirts through @SunFrogShirts. Good way to make some extra $$$ during the holidays! #SEOCHAT
— Andrew James (@AJUTAH) December 3, 2015
Trends in SEO are constantly on the move. Let’s keep up on #SEOchat! Join in every Thursday at 1 pm ET.
Thanks everyone! Watch for a recap of today’s #SEOCHAT soon. — Andrew James (@AJUTAH) December 3, 2015How are you using SEO as part of your holiday marketing strategy? Share your thoughts below!]]>
Kirsten Metcalf
Kirsten is a graduate of Brigham Young University, earning her print journalism degree in April 2012. Before coming to Stryde, she was a sports reporter and then the sports editor for BYU’s newspaper, as well as a remote sports editor for Deseret Connect. Although she’s from Missouri, she’s a die-hard Kansas basketball fan. When she’s not watching KU play or pumping out content for Stryde, she’s most likely watching movies or Netflix in her workout clothes whilst drinking a Pepsi and eating popcorn.
