October 03, 2024

8 expert tips to kickstart your store’s BFCM SEO

BFCM is right around the corner, but that doesn’t mean it’s game over for SEO. Much advice you’ll see online will say that SEO is a long game - it takes months, sometimes years to see the real results of an SEO strategy. 


However, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are seasonal events. Searches grow in October and peak in November. So it’s not going to be a months long process of optimizing if you’re trying to promote your store and deals, right?


By taking advantage of the seasonal nature of BFCM, you can create an SEO strategy for Black Friday that will put you on the first page of SERPs ready for customers.

Why it’s important to have an SEO strategy for Black Friday

Ranking and search algorithms are all about finding the best matchup between user search intent, site content, and experience. Every time you add content to your site, you’re considering your target audience and what they might be searching for that would lead them to your site. As audience needs change or evolve, so too does your content and your SEO st rategy.


This also applies to seasonal events that will influence user search intent. There is increased focus on online shopping in the run up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, and the kind of search terms people will use and content they look for will be different. By having an SEO strategy specifically for BFCM, you’ll be able to better serve those customers’ needs in SERPs and potentially rank higher by that seasonal search intent. You may also be able to attract more new customers with this approach, who may only be searching for terms related to Black Friday. 


You can then tailor content to those audiences, without changing the rest of your content. It can work alongside as complimentary to your year-round strategy. This approach also demonstrates to search engines that your site is frequently updated with useful content, which will in turn help boost your store’s SEO. 

8 strategies to seriously boost your SEO this Black Friday

#1 - Start with season specific keyword research and user intent

All good SEO strategies start with some essential keyword research. Considering the intent of users over BFCM weekend, and the kind of keywords and qualifiers they’ll be using will give you a clear starting point for the kind of content you should create for your store. 


Keyword qualifiers are additional terms that may be added on to a search term that tell you more about what the user wants from that search. A classic example would be if you were to search for “where to buy running shoes” but you wanted to find a local store you might add “near me”. The same happens over BFCM - people might add “Black Friday”, “Black Friday Deals”, “Cyber Monday” etc. 


By thinking about these seasonal qualifiers, you can better understand your target audience and their behavior in search. Consider also looking into your data from previous years to highlight trends with search terms and keywords you notice around October/November. They may be slightly different to what your typical audience uses the rest of the year for example if someone is looking for a gift they may not be familiar with your products or brand so will use different terms. 

#2 - Focus on getting your technical SEO in shape

Making sure things are looking good behind-the-scenes in SEO is just as important as the content you create. Technical SEO looks at those elements that allow your site to be better crawled by search engines, improving discoverability. The easier it is for a search crawler to understand your site, the better for indexing and then appearing in search results. 


Here are some key technical SEO factors that will help your Black Friday SEO strategy:


  1. Site Architecture - This is how a user navigates your site, and how your site is structured i.e. homepage, collections, product pages etc. A straightforward, “flat” site architecture is best for search engines and for users.
  2. URL Structure - This is how a URL is put together. It’ll start with the site name or domain then the path. An example would be https://www.shopname.com/collections/new-products/product-name. This should be clear, with recognizable characters and words. The more easily understood this is, the better.

  3. Meta Information - This is the title and description that will appear in SERPs. Having this well optimized with keywords will go a long way in improving how your pages appear and rank. 

  1. Sitemaps - Both XML and on-page sitemaps help search engines better understand how to navigate your site. 

Site speed and structured data are also important technical elements, however we’ll explore these later on. 


Making even small improvements to your technical SEO can be a win for your store. And every win matters when you’re trying to attract attention over BFCM weekend. 

#3 - Make changes now that will improve site speed

Did you know that 40% of users will abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load? And according to Google, the probability of a user bouncing from your site increases by 32% as page load time goes from 1 to 3 seconds. If first impressions count, then a new user landing on your site needs to load fast!


Especially over BFCM, users are more likely to become distracted or disinterested faster as a result of page speed. They may have a few sites they’re hoping to shop with, including potential competitors to your own brand. If your site is taking too long to load, they don’t want to miss out on deals from other, faster sites. So, make sure your site is winning the site speed race ahead of time to keep them on your site and placing orders. 


Site speed also influences your SEO - a slow site is a poor user experience, so they’ll leave. The more this happens, the more Google takes notice. And if you’re not meeting Google’s speed expectations off the bat, they might not even rank your page in the first place. Easy adjustments you can make are ensuring all images are optimized for size, remove any unnecessary apps or code from your site, minify existing code, and make use of browser caching. 


Google has tools you can use to check your site speed with some actionable insights on how to improve. Carrying out these improvements now will mean your store is primed and ready for Black Friday. 

#4 - Optimize your mobile experience  

Mobile is big when it comes to search and online shopping. Mobile commerce is expected to account for 62% of all online retail sales by 2027, and mobile sales were worth $491 billion in 2023. Across the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 79% of sales were completed on mobile. The importance of having a great mobile experience cannot be understated - it’s where your customers are most likely to make those Black Friday purchases. 


Part of the growth in mobile is the convenience of allowing customers to shop anywhere and fast. And to enable that, you need to have your mobile experience optimized. Plus, mobile optimization is a ranking factor and in fact Google has a mobile-first index meaning they prioritize your mobile site. 


Here are some quick tips for improving your mobile experience:


  1. Plan your mobile site navigation separately to your desktop navigation. Think about the links that will be most helpful to your users, and make it clear how to get from one page to another.

  2. Avoid using pop-ups on mobile. Google doesn’t like intrusive interstitials anyway, and they also can cause your page speed to increase in order to load them.

  3. Test your most important pages with Google’s Mobile Friendliness tool to see how you currently perform.
  4. Optimize any forms and checkout for mobile. Make these easy, speedy, and simple for customers. 

#5 - Create and schedule a Black Friday content plan  

Content is everything - after all you can have a fast loading site, but it’s the content that’s going to keep users on your page. Especially in the lead up to and on Black Friday weekend, customers have very specific intent - to shop your best deals. They don’t want to have to navigate around your site looking for the deals. They also don’t want to go on a page and wonder “is this included?” only to add to their cart, get to checkout, and discover that no, it isn’t part of your deal. 


Avoid confusion and elevate your user experience by creating Black Friday specific content that speaks to your audience’s needs. This might include:


  • BFCM landing pages - These pages can be packed with useful Black Friday content that employs your top BFCM keywords, as well as additional opportunities. For example an FAQ about shipping and delivery, details about dates and times for deals, and so on.

  • BFCM buying guides or gift guides - Add some good content to your blog with a Black Friday buying guide. You can also create gift guides targeted towards specific audience groups for those customers who may be looking for gifts for others to direct them to your BFCM deals.

  • Homepage content - Your homepage is one of your most important landing pages. Make sure that content here changes slightly to reflect the upcoming event i.e. scrolling banners, hero images, etc.

  • Temporary collections - Shopify’s temporary collections are a great way to make it easy for customers and search engines to understand what’s included in your BFCM deals.

The additional benefit here is that you’re creating seasonal content, and this is something that search engines will pay attention to. They want to deliver fresh, relevant content to their users so a page that’s up to date with the most recent Black Friday information for your products is going to catch attention. 


And when you’re creating these pages, consider making them “evergreen”. This sounds contradictory to having seasonal content, but the idea is that you can reuse some of the content the following year when it’s relevant again. For example instead of making your URL slug “/black-friday-deals-2024”, you would just make it “/black-friday-deals”. This page and URL can then be reused the following year and use the authority that page already gained. 

#6 - Start thinking about backlinks

No matter the time of year, backlinks are always an extremely valuable SEO resource. A page earns these when another site links to it, helping it to gain authority and be seen as more trustworthy. Having even a handful of backlinks from high quality, trusted sites can give a page a serious boost. And when you’re thinking about how to catch the attention of customers over BFCM, that boost could come in very handy. 


Start backlink outreach in the weeks leading up to Black Friday weekend, as they’ll likely be compiling lists of brands and links they want to show to their own users. For example a popular cooking website might be publishing the best deals for certain kitchenware items your brand sells, so they might be likely to link to your store. Providing links is a helpful practice to the more well known sites too as this provides a good user experience - if they’re writing about a product, it’s useful to link to that product.  

#7 - Implement structured markup

You have a limited amount of space in SERPs to make an impact on users. The more you can do to maximize that space the better, and structured markup is an easy, effective way to do just that. Structured markup or data adds extra pieces of code to a page that tells search engines more about that page. For example with product pages, that information is likely to be price, availability, star rating and so on. 


This extra info may then be displayed in SERPs in addition to your meta information. This then provides users with more information to make a decision on. They may be more likely to click on your link over a competitor who doesn’t provide the same information. For instance if they have a budget in mind, and you have your price displayed with structured markup then they can make an instant decision. This works in your favor either way - if they click, they know what to expect. If they don’t click, sure you don’t get traffic but if they were likely to click away anyway it protects that page’s SEO and bounce rate. 


Implementing structured markup is easy if you have the right tools. SEO Manager enables Shopify merchants to add this to different pages automatically, meaning when you add a new product it’ll have structured data ready to go. 

#8 - Local SEO

Have some physical locations? Or do you offer local delivery? If your business has any kind of local element to it, then you should consider finding ways to improve your local SEO ahead of BFCM. As it sounds, local SEO is optimizing for search in a local area. So when someone is searching for “cake decorating supplies cyber monday deals near me” or “black friday customizable jewelry Long Beach”, your business comes up as a top suggestion. Even if they don’t use qualifiers that denote looking for a local business, optimizing your local SEO can mean your result may appear higher for them if Google is showing results more relevant to their locality. 


The most effective ways to do this are adding local content to your storefront, and keeping your Google Business Profile up-to-date and engaged. 

Adding local content is as easy as creating a local landing page with information about physical locations, local delivery etc. Use the keywords you find resonate most with your local audience, and add useful information. You can also create blog content that targets the local area - this allows you to add fresh, relevant content without making your entire site about your ties to the local area. 


Your Google Business Profile is quite literally a tool created by Google, so it makes sense to maxmize the use you get out of it. Add updates about your physical locations with BFCM information - special opening hours, days that deals will be available, exclusive offers etc. Engage with reviews also to demonstrate a commitment to quality and listening to your customers. This will play well with Google who may view your store and site as more valuable to local users. 


—--


Black Friday weekend is a huge opportunity. But to make the most of it, you need to have a plan to bring more customers to your site. After all, with so many other stores trying to do that same you need to stand out. SEO is an effective way to catch the attention of your potential audience, and turn them into loyal customers.