As I ate my favorite Special K cereal today, I caught a short segment on the morning news about Cyber Monday – the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday. The National Retail Federation coined the term back in 2005 when they saw sales spike the Monday after Thanksgiving as people returned to work. The possibilities are endless when you think about alllllll of the stores you can visit anytime of the day or night without having to physically walk into any stores. Talk about competition, can IT get any tougher? The answer is YES. More than 70% of online retailers are planning special promotions for the five Cyber Monday’s this holiday season, compared to the 42.7% two years ago, according to a survey by Shop.org.
With this being said, is your website ready to compete with top online retailers this holiday season like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, or even Best Buy?
The key to cutting through the clutter and reaching these online shoppers is to optimize your website with special keywords and to purchase relevant Google AdWords. For example, this year I’m searching for the perfect organic blanket for my new little nephew. Although I might change my mind if the blanket is not soft and cuddly! But the point is if I’m searching for this ‘organic blanket’, the Google results are full of unheard of retailers across the world. What is stopping your shop from coming up in the #1 spot on Google for an ‘organic blanket’ or a ‘cashmere sweater?’ Well – we’d have to research the answer to that question. But marketing your website gets increasingly tougher each day because top search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo are constantly evolving and changing. Therefore, you have to stay on top of your website’s optimized keywords to ensure they are ranking you as the top player in your space.
If you haven’t already – start testing the ‘search engine optimization’ or ‘SEO’ waters. You’d be surprised how a little tweaking to your website and a few purchased Google AdWords can put you ahead of your online competition. Besides – think about how you found us? We like to call it the mysterious SEO phenomenon!
So this holiday season think about if your website is ready to handle the 68.5 million people who plan to do some holiday shopping online at work. I will continue my quest for the perfect organic blanket for my nephew and good luck to you in conquering your holiday shopping quests!
To read our white paper on Search Engine Marketing go to www.thecyphersagency.com.
1 comment:
Very nice post Liz! It's not surprising to see the amount of people opting out of the black friday chaos when they can just sleep in and turn on the computer when they wake up.
P.S. - Special K is my favorite too!
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