Optimizing Your Site for the Christmas Holidays

Posted by Jason Brown on Wednesday, December 3.

With the Christmas season almost in full swing, perhaps this is already a bit late to be posting an article like this, but take a look either way. There are so many ways to make sure your website is optimized for the holidays… It’s the season of sales, so make sure you share in them through your website.

Jessica Hupp writes a great article about it here, called Holiday Cash: 50+ Ways to Optimize Your Website for Christmas Conversions. It’s a must-read… Here’s the summary of it, though. (I’ve highlighted the parts I thought were extra great!)

Usability

1. Make it easy for buyers to find what they want
2. Be sure everything works
3. Be clear with errors
4. Use descriptive headings
5. Follow conventions
6. Clearly identify the next step
7. Use readable text

Landing Page

8. Answer your customer’s question
9. Create different landing pages

Checkout

10. Make checkout easy for new customers
11. Second Bite
12. Make sure cart editing is easy
13. Offer a progress indicator
14. Keep payment options simple
15. Offer total costs early

Copy

16. Avoid excessive adjectives
17. Use trigger words
18. Use question-based headlines
19. Make your copy “scannable”

Design

20. Provide lots of photos
21. Use text more than images
22. Differentiate between significant and insignificant attributes
23. Avoid “click here”
24. Place important items in the upper left corner of your pages
25. Don’t overload browsers
26. Avoid banners
27. Check for dead links
28. Highlight just one thing
29. Embrace white space
30. Differentiate your site from others

Cross-selling

31. Recommend products other customers like
32. Don’t end the cross sell at the transaction
33. Offer best-sellers

Trust

34. Make your return policy easily available
35. Offer assurance
36. Prove there are real people behind your site
37. Join trust groups and display their logos
38. Use testimonials
39. Back up statements with evidence
40. Make yourself available
41. Send out automated emails when contacted
42. Offer alternate ordering methods
43. Make it look like you have customers

Closing the Deal

44. Create a sense of urgency
45. Offer customer reviews
46. Give an incentive

Tracking Tools

44. Google Analytics
45. StatCounter
46. pMetrics
47. Crazy Egg
48. Site Meter
49. Mint
50. AWStats
51. Opentracker

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.