The holiday season may still feel a few months away, but September is a good time for businesses to start preparing.
Many companies wait until November to think about holiday promotions, website updates, and year-end marketing. By then, there may not be enough time to identify problems, make improvements, test changes, and build awareness before customers begin searching.
Holiday website preparation is not only important for online retailers. Service businesses, professional firms, contractors, restaurants, and local businesses can also see changes in customer behavior during the final months of the year.
Before the holiday season gets busy, take some time to look at your website from your customer's point of view.
Check Your Website on a Mobile Device
Your website may look great on a desktop computer, but when was the last time you actually used it from your phone?
Go through the website the same way a potential customer would.
Can you easily read the text? Is the navigation simple to use? Are buttons large enough to tap? Can visitors quickly find your phone number, contact form, products, services, hours, or directions?
Pay particular attention to pop-ups, forms, menus, and other interactive features. Something that works perfectly on a desktop can create frustration on a smaller screen.
Do not simply confirm that your website loads on mobile. Make sure it is actually easy to use.
Test Your Contact Forms
This is one of the simplest checks a business can perform, but it is often overlooked.
Fill out your own contact form.
Then verify that the submission reaches the correct person.
If you have multiple forms for estimates, appointments, consultations, downloads, or other inquiries, test each one.
A form can appear to work correctly while notifications are being sent to an old email address, caught by a spam filter, or not delivered at all.
Finding this problem now is much better than discovering it after potential customers have been trying to contact you.
Make Sure Your Business Information Is Current
The holiday season often brings changes to business hours, availability, shipping schedules, appointment times, and promotions.
Review the important information throughout your website.
Check your:
- Phone number
- Email address
- Business hours
- Location
- Staff information
- Product and service descriptions
- Pricing, when applicable
- Shipping or delivery information
- Appointment availability
If you will have special holiday hours or deadlines, determine where those updates should appear before you need them.
Customers should not have to search through your website to determine whether information is still accurate.
Review Your Website Speed
Holiday marketing can bring additional visitors to your website, but getting people there is only part of the job.
They also need to stay.
A slow website can make the experience frustrating, particularly for someone browsing on a mobile device or trying to make a quick decision.
Large images, unnecessary plugins, outdated software, and other technical issues can contribute to poor performance.
Test important pages, especially your homepage, service pages, product pages, landing pages, and contact page.
Website performance is not just a technical issue. It affects the customer experience.
Look for Broken Links and Pages
Websites change throughout the year.
Pages get deleted. URLs change. Products disappear. Employees leave. Outside websites move content.
The result can be broken links that lead visitors to error pages.
Check your website for broken links before increasing your holiday marketing activity.
Pay particular attention to important paths through the website. If a visitor clicks Contact Us, Schedule an Appointment, Request a Quote, Buy Now, or Learn More, make sure that link takes them exactly where they expect to go.
Make Your Next Step Obvious
When someone reaches your website, what do you want them to do?
That answer should be clear.
For an online retailer, the next step may be purchasing a product. For a contractor, it may be requesting an estimate. For an accounting firm, it could be scheduling a consultation. For a restaurant, it might be making a reservation.
Whatever that action is, visitors should not have to search for it.
Review your calls to action and make sure they are easy to find and easy to understand.
This is particularly important if you plan to drive additional traffic through email, social media, advertising, or seasonal promotions.
Review Your Most Important Website Content
Holiday preparation does not necessarily mean rewriting your entire website.
Focus first on the pages customers are most likely to visit.
Ask yourself:
Does the page clearly explain what we offer?
Is the information still accurate?
Does it answer the questions customers frequently ask?
Is there a clear next step?
Your website should help customers understand how your business can help them, not make them work to figure it out.
Real Time Web Marketing has previously discussed how website messaging can affect whether visitors become customers. The same principle becomes especially important when businesses are competing for attention during a busy season.
Check Your Website Security and Updates
Website security should be part of your preparation as well.
Make sure your website software, plugins, themes, and other components are being properly maintained. Review administrator accounts and remove access that is no longer necessary.
Backups are also important.
If something goes wrong during a busy period, having a recent, reliable backup can make recovery much easier.
The goal is not to wait for a problem. It is to reduce the likelihood that one interrupts your business when your website matters most.
Make Sure Your Tracking Is Working
If you are planning holiday marketing campaigns, make sure you can measure what happens afterward.
Check your website analytics and any conversion tracking you use.
Depending on your business, important actions might include:
- Contact form submissions
- Phone calls
- Purchases
- Appointment requests
- Quote requests
- Email signups
- Downloads
Traffic alone does not tell you whether a campaign is successful.
Understanding what visitors do after arriving on your website can help you determine which marketing efforts are producing meaningful results. RTWM has also covered this distinction in its articles about measuring digital marketing performance and turning website traffic into leads.
Don't Forget About Service Businesses
"Holiday shopping season" often brings retail and eCommerce businesses to mind, but website preparation matters for service businesses too.
The final months of the year can create different customer needs.
Homeowners may want projects completed before guests arrive. Businesses may need to use remaining budgets before year-end. People may schedule appointments before holiday travel. Professional service companies may begin receiving questions about year-end planning or the coming year.
Your website should reflect what your customers need during this period.
That does not necessarily require a holiday sale.
Sometimes being prepared simply means making it easier for people to find the right information and contact you when they are ready.
Start Preparing Before the Holiday Rush
The best time to discover a website problem is before your busiest period, not during it.
September gives businesses time to test their websites, correct outdated information, improve important pages, prepare promotions, and make sure tracking is working before the holiday season gains momentum.
You do not necessarily need a complete website redesign.
Start by going through your website as if you were a customer. Test it on your phone. Submit the forms. Click the buttons. Read the important pages. Check your contact information.
A few preventative improvements now could make a significant difference when more customers begin looking for your products or services.
Get Your Website Ready Before the Holiday Rush
Not sure whether your website is ready for the months ahead?
Real Time Web Marketing can review your website and help identify technical, content, usability, or marketing issues that may need attention before the holiday season.