An Ebow Christmas wishlist for your website

15/11/23

Inspiration

Prepare Your Website for the Christmas Season

Ho ho ho! Halloween has been packed away, so we are on the countdown to Christmas. But is your website ready to work it’s magic? This is one of the busiest times of the year for many businesses, and your website is no exception. Our team of digital marketing professionals are here to help you make your website the shining star of the holiday season. We’ve put together a Christmas wishlist for your website to get it in shape for the busy festive season ahead.

In this blog, we’ll explore how optimising your website across five areas—Speed, Content, UX, UI, and SEO—can make it a true holiday hero!

Something you need: speed and mobile optimisation

Put a speedy, secure and mobile friendly website on top of your Christmas wish list to propel you through the busy festive season. Here are some tips to get you started.

Test your website hosting. The holiday season is a time when website traffic typically spikes. Make sure your website can handle traffic vagaries by testing it under load and, if necessary, upgrading your hosting and infrastructure.
Optimise your website for speed. A fast website makes you rank better in both customers hearts AND search engine results. Make sure your website loads quickly by optimising your images, minifying your code, and leveraging browser caching.
Check your website on mobile devices. Is it fast and easy to use? Use Google’s Core Web Vitals to improve your website’s mobile experience. This this benefits user engagement, search engine rankings, and conversion rates.
Update your website security measures. Not everyone bears good-will for all mankind with the Christmas period being a prime time for cybercriminals. Make sure your website is protected by updating your security software and plugins, and using strong passwords.

“Google uses download speed, presentation on mobile and responsiveness as one of their factors when deciding which sites to show towards the top of results, so this is another reason to optimise your site.”

Eamonn Rohan, Director of Technology

Something to read: the gift of compelling content

Another must have for your wish list. Craft a Christmas content calendar that is relevant, engaging and fun for your audience. Feeling stuck? Here’s some ideas to get you going.

Create a Christmas content hub. Curate your top holiday related content on a festive landing page. Use it to boost brand engagement and customer loyalty.
Look at what you did last year. There is no shame in updating quality existing content with a fresh eye for 2024. Plan for reuse. Staying on the reuse theme plan your videos, blogs and infographics with an eye on how to repurpose or reuse them on social channels.
Try something new. Run a Christmas customer survey and use the results to design infographic style content for your channels.
Create a guide to the holiday season. From mindful drinking or top recipes to gift ideas, everyone is searching for a well thought out guide at this time of year.
Update your product descriptions. If you are selling online be sure to update your product descriptions to highlight the benefits of your products as gifts.
Read your copy out loud. Is it consistent, on brand, understandable and free from mistakes? Poor writing and grammar affects your trustworthiness and authority.

“Use Generative AI to brainstorm ideas or proofread your copy. But remember that authenticity, empathy, and creativity matter the most. They are things which humans do best.”

Sinéad Clandillon, Director of Content

Something you want: Valuable keywords and an optimised site

SEO, like Christmas decorations, involves a thoughtful arrangement of elements to create a visually appealing and welcoming environment. Just as ornaments, lights and garlands work together to adorn a Christmas tree, keywords, content and backlinks combine to enhance your online presence. But SEO is not random – it should fully align with the thematic relevance of your website’s content and ensure that it resonates with your intended audience.

Neither SEO nor Christmas decorations are one-time endeavours; they require ongoing attention, adjustments and creativity to stay relevant and vibrant.

Ultimately, just as a beautifully adorned Christmas setting sets the festive mood, effective SEO sets the stage for your website to attract and engage visitors in the vast digital landscape.

Here are some of the most proven ways to improve your website SEO.

Keyword ornaments. Just as ornaments adorn a tree, strategic keywords are crucial to ensuring your website stands out from the crowd.
- Top tips.
  - Identify the core keywords you want to bring visitors to your site
  - Carry out comprehensive keyword research (start with free keyword research tools)
  - Understand user search intent (carry out searches in incognito mode to see where your website is ranking for certain terms)
  - Target long-tail keywords in your blog to bring in visitors that may be more likely to convert
  - Regularly review keyword performance and update in line with business needs
Countdown to conversion. ‘Tis the season for cultivating sustainable optimisation and ensuring your site consistently attracts increased traffic and fosters continuous improvement in conversion rates. How can you do this?
- Top tips.
  - Identify the conversions you want to happen on each step of the user journey
  - Consider whether there are obstacles to goals being completed
  - Simplify forms and the checkout process (check out these CRO best practices)
  - Embed trust at each step of the process (think trust signals, customer reviews, badges, testimonials and clear communication)
  - Implement exit-intent popups to re-engage visitors who are about to leave your site

Check your metadata twice: Just as the right gift tag makes finding presents under the tree a breeze, crafting impeccable metadata ensures search engines understand and present your content accurately.
- Top tips.
  - - Create unique page titles for all pages within the recommended character limit (50-60)
    - Write compelling meta descriptions for all pages with your page’s primary keyword used within the first few words. Aim for 150-160 characters
    - Consider user intent and use keywords likely to attract keywords
    - Quickly analyse competitor metadata using SEO extensions
    - Review and refresh regularly!

Something to give – a user experience that sparkles

It’s the season for giving so don’t get left out in the cold, ensure you provide a great user experience.

Run some research. Use data or user testing to discover how your customers really use your site, then fix anything getting in the way of conversions.
Fix any broken links or errors. Broken links and errors can create a frustrating experience for visitors and damage your website’s credibility and reputation.
Use and test your website on mobile devices. In general 50% plus of your visitors will be on mobile devices, don’t leave them off your Christmas list.
Pause the pop-ups. Reduce the number of pop-ups and reduce customer frustration.
Attend to accessibility. Don’t exclude potential customers. Check that you have clear content with correct use of capitalisation, heading styles, descriptive titles and link text. Ensure good colour contrast and that you have added image alt tags and video captions. Behind the scenes, use the correct HTML markup to structure your content.
Clear calls to action. Use clear and descriptive text for buttons and links to indicate their purpose and destination.

“You may love your website but, more importantly, you need to know if your users love it as much as you do.”

Barry Mac Evilly, UX/UI Designer

Something to behold: a festive welcome with bows on top

Put your website visitors in a festive mood by adding some custom elements or imagery to your site. They will humanise your company and convey a sense that your website is a living, breathing entity, maintained by a company who are responsive and active.

Animated Christmas version of your logo. Yes, it’s cheesy, it’s cliché, but it’s also fun and grabs the attention of the user, makes them smile and puts them in a better frame of mind as they peruse your offerings.
Fun, immersive effects. Snowflakes falling lightly across the screen, twinkling lights, Santa waving from the side of the UI – the possibilities for adding some immersive, animated fun to your site are endless and encourage users to share with their networks.
Festive imagery. Something as simple as updating your imagery to reflect the season can give your audience that warm Christmas feeling.
Interactive Content. Integrate interactive elements like holiday-themed quizzes, games, or polls to engage visitors and keep them on your site longer.

“A company’s website is often an under-utilised element of their brand. It’s quite common that it’s the first encounter your audience will have with a brand. Therefore, the message that is communicated to them through your website (via colour, imagery, layout and ease of use) will go some way to shaping their overall impression of your brand.”

Kieron Farrell, Creative Director

There you have it, our Christmas wish list for your website to shine like a star this holiday season. Grant these wishes and your website will offer a seamless, joyful experience that keeps customers coming back for more.

At Ebow Digital, we’re here to help you achieve your digital goals.