Year End SEO & Website Wins

Quick Wins for Local SEO

Update Your Google Business Profile

• Ensure your business hours, especially holiday hours, are accurate. – It’s always a good idea to ensure you have the proper hours on your Google Business Profile, especially if you have special holiday hours.
• Add holiday-specific offers or posts. – Did you know you can do updates on your Google Business Profile? If not, now is a great time to start. Share a holiday message or even a special offer.
• Respond to recent customer reviews to show engagement. – Google loves engagement, and one of the best ways to show engagement is to respond to your Google Reviews. Just remember to follow best practices and be respectful, even if it’s a bad review.

Refresh Local Keywords

• Research and incorporate trending local keywords for the season. – This tip works exceptionally well with restaurants and retail businesses. Include holiday-themed keywords to help attract visitors looking for a host for a holiday party or gift ideas.
• Update meta titles and descriptions to include these terms. – Use the keywords you used in the previous step and incorporate them into your meta titles and descriptions on your site.

Build or Refresh Local Backlinks

• Partner with local businesses for reciprocal linking. – It’s never too late to form partnerships with other local businesses if they are relevant to your business. Even in 2024, backlinks are essential to a good Local SEO plan.
• Submit your business to any newly relevant local directories. – We are all guilty of falling behind on adding our business to local directories. Use downtime to find any new local directories and add your business.

Audit NAP (Name, Address, Phone) Consistency

• Verify that your business information is consistent across all platforms. – If you have some free time, it would be wise to Audit your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) and make sure it’s consistent everywhere on the web. This step is especially crucial if you’ve recently moved your business or changed your phone number.

Optimize for Voice Search

• Add long-tail, conversational keywords in your content to capture voice search traffic. – Voice Assistants are everywhere. The way to take advantage of them is to include long-tail, conversational keywords in your content. Doing so will help Alexa, Siri, or any other assistant send clients your way.
• Include FAQs to address common questions. – Since the rise of Voice Assistants, FAQs have become an essential SEO Tool. If your question matches the query, your business will pop up with the answer. There is no better way to establish authority.

Quick Wins for Web Design

Check for Mobile-Friendliness

• Test your website’s responsiveness on multiple devices. – Even if your site was designed with mobile responsiveness in mind, it’s always good to check it occasionally. Browser updates can mean changes to the way it displays your site. Use your holiday downtime to check your site to ensure it displays correctly.
• Fix navigation issues or slow-loading pages on mobile. – This goes hand in hand with the previous step. Slow-loading pages can be a drag on your website’s SEO. Taking the time to fix navigation issues and slow-loading pages can significantly improve the customer experience.

Boost Page Speed

• Optimize images for faster loading times. – Speaking of load time, now would be a great time to optimize your site’s images to ensure they load quickly. Use an image optimizer plugin to lessen the load on customers’ browsers for improved load time and customer experience.
• Use caching and minimize CSS/JavaScript files. – Images aren’t the only thing that can drag down your load time. Use a cache plugin and minimize your CSS/Javascript load times to significantly improve your site’s load time.

Seasonal Design Touches

• Add subtle holiday elements (e.g., banners or themed CTAs) to engage users. – The key word is “subtle.” Depending on your brand, you don’t want to overdo it. Also, some businesses prefer to leave the holiday decorations for the Social Media accounts. But, if it fits your brand, a little holiday decorations can add a bit of fun to your site. Just make sure they are tasteful and aligned with your brand.

Review Your Website’s Content

• Update outdated information, especially regarding products, services, or team members. – During busy times of the year, forgetting to update your website can be easy. Take advantage of your downtime to ensure prices, hours, services, and team members are up to date, especially on your home page.

Test and Simplify Navigation

• Ensure important pages (contact, services, products) are easy to find. – Our philosophy is to keep navigation as simple as possible. The best way to boost customer engagement is to ensure navigation is as simple and easy to find as possible.
• Fix broken links or 404 errors. – This should go without saying. Broken links and 404 errors are a significant drag on your SEO. Taking a few moments during the holidays to fix broken links can pay off majorly in the new year.

Bonus Tips to Help You Prepare for Next Year

Set Up Tracking for the New Year

• Ensure Google Analytics 4 and other tracking tools are ready for the following year. – If you don’t have Google Analytics on your website, now is a great time to start. Using Analytics to track what works and what doesn’t is a great way to improve your website.
• Review conversion data to identify opportunities for improvement. – You can use Analytics to review which campaigns are working and which content is getting attention from customers. You can use that data to improve your website and website SEO.

Plan your Content

• Create a content calendar for blog posts or campaigns starting in January. – Plan out your marketing campaigns to reduce your worry and stress later. Having everything planned out will help you run your business smoothly in the new year.

Set Goals for the New Year

• Build a list of improvements you want to tackle early next year, such as upgrading hosting or refreshing the website design. – What does the future hold for your business? Take the time to brainstorm and develop potential improvements for your business. Doing so will give you a goal to work toward next year.