Prepare your website for Christmas
If you've worked hard all year, there's no reason Christmas shouldn't be a busy time of year for you and your business. It's important to make sure your website is ready for the increase in demand.
Legal
First things first you need to make sure you have all your legal documents in order. Go through your terms & conditions, update them if necessary (returns info etc.) and make sure they're visible on your site (NOTE: most people expect to find the terms and conditions in your site footer).
Mobile Friendly
Christmas sees more people than ever accessing the web from their mobile phones so it's important to check yours is mobile friendly. Check content, share options and the checkout process all run smoothly.
Promotions
If you're going to have a Christmas promotion, get it sorted early and stick to it. Once you've decided on the discount, make sure your site can handle it, promote it and end it when you said you would.
SEO
There's no point in preparing your website for the holidays if no one can find it! Make sure your new product titles and descriptions are to the point and include key words in your content.
Abandon Cart
If you're selling products, make use of the abandon cart tool. Ever received an email informing you you've left something in your basket or offering you a discount on something you were eyeing up? You can do this too to encourage customers to finish their shop with you!
Contact
If you're expecting higher traffic, you need to have solid contact methods. Triple check your contact form is working, connect your social media and make sure there are methods in place that keep you on top of this.
Avoid change
Sometimes, change is not good. If you've spent the year building customer trust, don't drastically change your site weeks before Christmas as your users won't remember that the trust has been built. By all means, make changes that improve your site but don't go dramatically changing the look and layout to make your site unrecognizable.
Prepare for issues
Hopefully, if you've planned for the holiday season you wont have any problems, but just in case, prepare for them. What will you do if your site goes down? Have an action plan for this. Need something developed quickly? Now isn't the time for DIY, have a developer on hand.
Follow these tips and ensure your site is ready for the festive period...Happy Holidays!
