{"id":8004,"date":"2014-11-05T16:39:11","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T23:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/?p=8004"},"modified":"2014-11-05T16:39:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T23:39:11","slug":"a-website-checklist-for-the-2014-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/a-website-checklist-for-the-2014-holiday-season\/","title":{"rendered":"A website checklist for the 2014 holiday season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The 2014 holiday season\u00a0is approaching fast, so optimizing your business website for the busiest months of the year is a must. Here we have a website checklist to give you 7 ideas on how to make your website stand out for the holiday season and maximize sales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Get a festive design<br \/>\n<\/b>First off, make your website look festive. A good way to do this is by changing your website color scheme to something suitable for the 2014 holiday season. If you\u2019re in need of a little inspiration, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webdesignviews.com\/2012\/12\/11-festive-inspired-color-palettes\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">these color palettes<\/span><\/a> which are sure to make your website stand out. Fortunately\u00a0with Style Designer, implementing a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/tutorials\/article\/Tutorial-Style-Designer\/Site_structure_and_design\" target=\"_blank\">website color scheme<\/a> is easy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">A festive design doesn\u2019t have to just stop at your website color scheme. Why not create a holiday variation of your logo or banner to match? These small touches will go a long way to adding cheer to your website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8007\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screen-Shot-2014-11-05-at-2.58.00-PM.png\" alt=\"Festive color palate\" width=\"498\" height=\"84\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Merchandise your website<br \/>\n<\/b>Once your website is looking more festive, next it\u2019s important to merchandise it for the 2014 holiday season. Make sure the products that make great holiday gifts are easy to find in your Online Store.\u00a0Create a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/tutorials\/article\/How-do-I-add-more-tabs-links-to-my-navigation-1285944432498\/Basics_getting_started\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">new page in the main navigation of your website<\/span><\/a> such as \u201cHolidays\u201d or \u201cGift ideas\u201d for maximum visibility. You could also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/5-minute-website-fixes-create-various-banner-sizes-with-the-custom-panel-widget\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">create a banner using our custom panel widget<\/span><\/a> to feature a few of your products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Incentivize purchases<br \/>\n<\/b>Next on our website checklist are incentives. Incentives really help to convert website browsers to buyers. If you have an Online Store, try offering free shipping throughout the holidays, or a discount on next-day delivery for last minute purchases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">For Cyber Monday or the Boxing Day sales, offer a discount on certain items or multiple orders. Each of these ideas are simple with the <span class=\"s2\">Online Store<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Optimize for mobile visitors<br \/>\n<\/b>With mobile devices accounting for <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2014\/02\/28\/technology\/mobile\/mobile-apps-internet\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">55% of Internet usage<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the United States, optimizing your website for mobile visitors is essential for the 2014 holiday season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Creating a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/tutorials\/article\/Mobile-publishing\/Promotion_SEO_Traffic_and_Advertising\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">mobile-friendly version of your website<\/span><\/a> is easy, and it will allow your web visitors to navigate your site easier when viewing on a smartphone or tablet. To optimize your site for mobile, take a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/4-key-features-to-mobile-friendly-website-design\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">this article<\/span><\/a> where we take you through the key features of mobile-friendly design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Start Search Engine Marketing<br \/>\n<\/b>Wondering how to make your website stand out amongst your competitors? A great way to start is through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/seo-sem-and-ppc-an-easy-intro-for-small-business-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">Search Engine Marketing<\/span><\/a> (SEM) campaigns. Paid search lets you advertise on search engines, such as Google, optimizing for particular keywords. For example, if you make handmade jewelry, you could advertise on the keyword \u201csilver handmade earrings.\u201d If someone searches for that search term, your ad will appear on the search engine results page.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The great thing about paid search is that it\u2019s performance based, so you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You also have the ability to be targeted with your advertising. For example, you can set you ads to appear only for searchers living in the UK or a specific city, such as London. By being more targeted, your budget will go further, as the ads will just show to those people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">If you\u2019re thinking about starting a paid search campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/get-your-business-website-found-online-with-sitewit\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">we\u2019ve partnered with SiteWit<\/span><\/a> to make it super simple to get your advertising campaigns up and running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Start selling on Facebook<br \/>\n<\/b>Another great way to stay ahead of your competition this holiday season is to start selling on Facebook. With the Yola Online Store, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/tutorials\/article\/Yola-Online-Store-Going-social\/Adding_and_editing_content?cid=501149&amp;utm_source=WST2E4&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=branch1&amp;c3ch=Email&amp;c3nid=WST2E4&amp;sp_rid=MTEzNDU3OTE4NTU3S0&amp;sp_mid=47331563\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">integrate your store with your Facebook page<\/span><\/a>, allowing customers to browse and purchase from your store without leaving Facebook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">A study conducted by Ecwid, has shown that store owners have seen a 15% increase in sales when putting their store on Facebook in addition to their website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Get\u00a0re-acquainted\u00a0with your customers<br \/>\n<\/b>The final point on our website checklist, is to get re-acquainted with customers who have visited your site previously. If you don\u2019t have the email addresses of these web visitors, it\u2019s easy to start collecting them by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/tutorials\/article\/Newsletter-registration-forms-1285944416193\/Adding_and_editing_content\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">adding a newsletter sign up form<\/span><\/a> to your site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Once you have a database of contacts, you can start messaging them. The 2014 holiday season is a great time to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/marketing-campaigns-101-7-steps-to-launching-your-first-email-marketing-campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">launch your first email marketing campaign<\/span><\/a>. But before you do, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.verticalresponse.com\/blog\/holiday-calendar\/\"><span class=\"s2\">create a holiday calendar<\/span><\/a> to keep you organized and plan when you are going to send your campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">In order to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/3-tips-to-getting-your-emails-opened\/\"><span class=\"s2\">improve the effectiveness<\/span><\/a> of your email campaigns, use customer data, such as past purchases or interests, to segment your email campaigns. Try to personalize messages to the reader as much as possible. Also remember to include limited time offers you\u2019re running for the holidays, such as discounts or free shipping, to incentivize purchases. All of these tactics will help you get the best return from your promotions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">This is your website checklist for the 2014 holiday season. Let us know how they work for you by commenting below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2014 holiday season\u00a0is approaching fast, so optimizing your business website for the busiest months of the year is a must. Here we have a website checklist to give you 7 ideas on how to make your website stand out for the holiday season and maximize sales. Get a festive design First off, make your&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/a-website-checklist-for-the-2014-holiday-season\/\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A website checklist for the 2014 holiday season<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false},"categories":[130],"tags":[977,976,975,978],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8004"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8010,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8004\/revisions\/8010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}