It's easy to get tunnel vision in the run-up to Christmas, but once December 25th has come and gone, it's important to be ready for the New Year - and that means updating product descriptions for January sales.
Product description updates don't have to be full page rewrites, and equally you shouldn't make minor tweaks just for the sake of it. But if you're updating website content for New Year, it's always worth taking a look at what you've already got, and looking for ways to improve it.
Some simple examples of this include:
- Update SEO keywords and ensure pages are optimised.
- Remove obsolete information (e.g. old editions of products).
- Do not use copy-pasted manufacturer product descriptions.
- Consider adding unique content to short product descriptions.
- Make sure service pages accurately describe what you do.
In short, you're looking to make your content detailed, accurate, helpful and unique. That's good for your search rankings, but also good for human visitors to your website as we move into the New Year.
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| Office Workers Toasting, by Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels |
Promoting January Sales
Alongside your updated product descriptions for January sales, consider adding one or more pages focused on the sale itself. You can always delete or deactivate this once your sale ends, or just leave it to slide naturally off your homepage as you publish your first January updates to your news or blog.
Get your January sales pages up during December - remember it can take several days for Google to crawl and index your content, and ideally you want your promotional pages to be included in search results as soon as the New Year begins.
Feature some of your favourite products and special offers prominently on these pages, and include links to where customers can place an order or make an enquiry. These 'internal' links help to drive traffic to the pages on your website that can actually make you money, and also help Google to see the pages (and products) you are trying hardest to promote.
Don't Neglect Your Socials
If you're active on social media, make sure you share links to your January sales pages. Don't just spam your followers, but if they have connected with you via your business account, there's a certain level of expectation that you'll market your products or services to them from time to time.
The days between Christmas and New Year are an excellent time to do this. Many businesses stay closed until early January, yet a lot of people will be sat at home just scrolling through their social feeds, giving you a good chance of reaching a bigger audience with less competition.
You don't have to include links directly to your January sales pages - you could let visitors find your deals, discounts and other special offers via your homepage - but inbound links to your website are good for brand awareness and SEO, so if possible, link to a relevant landing page and make it easier for your followers to find your promotional pages.
What Should I Write?
Good question! Deciding how to position your brand in January product descriptions and promotional pages is key to making the most of the New Year sales season, so just do what feels right.
There are some obvious cliches to either embrace or avoid:
- New Year, New You
- New Year's Resolutions
- Spring is Coming
Realistically, pretty much every angle on the January, New Year and 'end of Winter' take has already been covered a million times. Just be authentic, and be careful about stepping into any potentially offensive territory (e.g. encouraging people to 'lose the excess Christmas weight').
It's not rocket science, and customers will respond favourably to sincere attempts at creating seasonal content - and if you need some help, hire a freelance writer to keep a steady flow of season-specific pages coming your way throughout December and into the New Year.
The sooner you start, the longer your website (and your business) will benefit from each page of content you publish. Contact me today and let's get your product pages updated in time for January, to give you the best possible start to the new calendar year.
