During the holidays, consumer spending is at an all-time high, and you want your business to be prepared as your customers start swiping their credit cards.
Your business website is often the first calling card that potential customers look to when deciding to spend. Even if you don’t have an eCommerce website with a shopping cart, potential customers are online researching where to shop, who has the products they’re looking for, and what discounts are available.
Whether you sell online or at a brick and mortar business, you need to optimize your business website for the holidays (and beyond). This webinar will help you with the tools to do just that. Our guest speakers, Josh Steimle, CEO of MWI and Hassan Bawab, CEO & Founder of Magic Logix, will cover:
-What every small business website must include
-How to use use past holiday website data & capture new data to spot trends
-Tips on holiday digital marketing: SEO, PPC, social media & content
-How to optimize your website for increased holiday traffic
-Must-dos to prepare your business website for the mobile revolution
-Website design tips – home page design, shopping carts
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How to Optimize Your Business Website for the Holiday Season
1.
2. Andres Thomas
Customer Success
Kabbage, Inc.
Meet the speakers…
Josh Steimle,
CEO
MWI
Hassan Bawab,
Founder & CEO
Magic Logix
• Website
data
to
spot
trends
• MODERATOR
• Website
holiday
promo9ons
• Tips
on
holiday
digital
marke9ng:
SEO,
PPC,
social
media
&
content
• Op9mize
for
increased
holiday
traffic
• Mobile
revolu9on
• Website
design
9ps
3. Watch the entire webinar live…
• The next SlideShare slide will feature an
embed of our live video webinar on
YouTube.
• All of the presentation slides are located
after this video embed
28. “With the start of spring and
change of weather, many
Americans visited pharmacy sites
for helping battling seasonal
allergies and colds.”
Source:
comScore
Media
Metrix
Ranks
Top
50
U.S.
Web
Proper9es
for
March
2013
29. Using Past Data Trends to
Improve Website Marketing
for Cyclical Opportunities
39. 2 Questions to Ask
1. Why is this happening?
2. How can we take advantage of it?
40. How to Get the Advantage
1. Understand the trend
2. Create your plan a year ahead of time
3. Execute on time (6 months ahead of time for SEO)
4. Measure and analyze, repeat
41. Extra Tips
1. Promote top products from previous season
2. Promote top categories from previous season
3. Offer promotions on previous peak traffic days
4. Step up social efforts before and on peak days
42. Using Simple Tools to Improve Website
Marketing for Cyclical Opportunities
43. The Tools
1. Google Trends
2. Google Instant Search
3. Google News
4. Haro
51. a. Avoid dates in URLs
b. Keep URL live all year long (no 404!)
c. Modify content immediately after event
passes to avoid confusion for visitors.
Free Tip: Recycle Seasonal Pages
61. 6. Begin Content Marketing
People read good content.
People pay for great content.
Create great content and give it away for free.
62. 7. Prep Social Media Posts
People read good content.
People pay for great content.
Create great content and give it away for free.
63. 8. Public Relations
Become an expert (hint: “experts” are people who know
slightly more than whoever they’re talking to).
Develop relationships with journalists.
Become an expert source.
64. 9. Collect Data
It’s never too early, or too late, to start collecting data.
67. Have an Initial Checklist
a). Have your site ready as soon as possible.
b). Implement HTML5 and CSS3
c). Make sure your site is secure.
d). Have graphics ready before holiday rush.
e). Check with your web hosting to make sure
you have enough bandwidth and solid server.
(Stay away from shared hosting)
68. Check Website Load Time
• Quick load time is everything
on the web.
• Best practice = have your
pages load in under 2
seconds (otherwise, users go
to your competitor).
• Long load times are irritating
and aren’t conducive to
holiday shopping.
Hint: It is not only about optimized
images, but it depends on code,
server and technology behind it.
69. Website Must be Responsive / Adaptive
Of American adults:
• 91% have a cell phone
• 56% have a smart phone
• 34% own a tablet computer
If your website isn’t responsive or mobile
adaptive, it needs to be!
• A responsive website adapts to different
screen resolutions to provide an intuitive
user experience.
• Mobile adaptive sites use predefined
layout sizes based on your device
screen.
• Mobile SEO
70. Page Speed Insight Rules
Speed Rules
• Avoid landing page redirects
• Enable compression
• Improve server response time
• Leverage browser caching
• Minify resources
• Optimize images
• Optimize CSS Delivery
• Prioritize visible content
• Remove render-blocking
JavaScript
• Use asynchronous scripts
• Usability Rules
Avoid Plugins
• Configure the viewport
• Size content to viewport
• Size tap targets appropriately
• Use legible font sizes
71. Compressing JavaScript with Closure Compiler
Spriting/Image Compression
• Minimizes the number and size of images
GZIP/HTML Compression Tools
• Lets you reduce size of HTML files
JavaScript Minimization Tools
• Reduces overall download size removes
unneeded spaces and comments
Closure Compiler
• Finds ways to compress your JavaScript
code even further than existing
minimization tools.
• Can condense several files into one single
file, and can easily reduce the size of your
JavaScript in half.
72. Claim your business on Google Maps
Look your business up on Google
Maps and claim it. Once you have
verified that you are the business
owner or a representative, you can
add store hours, average prices, etc.
Mobile users are mobile; that means
that they’re looking up your business
on the go and want quick answers to
questions!
73. Text Links vs. Easy-To-Press Buttons
Common Frustrating Mobile Problem: With your fat thumb, you try to
click on one link, but you end up clicking on something else instead.
Text links matter for search engine optimization, so you don’t want to get
rid of them altogether. However, supplement those links with big buttons
that are easy for mobile users to press.
Buy
NOW
Vs.
74. Optimize Your Checkout
Checkout process should be easy, painless and optimized.
• Secure site
• As little steps as possible
• No hoop jumping – you’ll lose business
• One page checkout
• Allows for multiple forms of payment
75. Customer Experience Buying Process
• Custom designed site will add to
experience
• Most important info is “above the
fold”
• Breadcrumbs help with your site’s
search, functionality aid the
customer experience
• Add zest to the purchase process:
o Multiple quality images
o Thorough and interesting
product descriptions
o Interactive experiences
where applicable
o Virtual fitting rooms, design
your own features, etc.
76. How To Optimize Your Website For
Increased Holiday Traffic: Part 1
Microformatting/Microdata HTML coding
• Advanced Schema.org markup
• Open Graph Protocol (OG) Meta-tags
• Geo Meta-Tags for location-based Products/Services
• TwitterCard Meta-Tags
• hCard Generation and Implementation
Google+ Integration
• Google+ Authorship tags
• Google+ Publisher tags
• Per Page Google +1 Button with +1 Counts
77. How To Optimize Your Website For
Increased Holiday Traffic: Part 2
Sitemaps
• XML and traditional format
• URL List .txt File
• Implement an XML sitemap generator
to auto create a new sitemap and call
search spiders when new content is
uploaded on the site
78. How To Optimize Your Website For
Increased Holiday Traffic: Part 3
Image Tags
• Search spiders cannot read image files, Ajax
files or video files without this
• Further optimize to better index and increase
visibility on SERPs (search engine result page)
W3C Coding Errors
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Compliance is vital for search engines to
properly crawl and index a site
• Regular validating of these standards is
crucial to prevent any potential warnings
and/or errors