{"id":8046,"date":"2014-11-14T17:13:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T00:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/?p=8046"},"modified":"2014-11-14T17:13:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T00:13:47","slug":"6-steps-to-prepare-your-small-business-website-for-cyber-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/6-steps-to-prepare-your-small-business-website-for-cyber-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Steps to Prepare Your Small Business Website for Cyber Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"whiteEvery year, it looms \u2013 Black Friday, Cyber Monday \u2013 the 2014 holiday shoppers flock into stores and spend all their money. Last year Black Friday and Cyber Monday increased sales by 15% and 18%<\/a>. If you\u2019d like to get on board and drive holiday shoppers to your small business website, then follow these six tips to get noticed.<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s not all cyber and black.
\n<\/strong>In 2010, American Express launched Small Business Saturday<\/a> to help promote small business shopping. Now in it\u2019s fourth year, small businesses can count on an even stronger following. You\u2019ll want to capitalize on all three 2014 holiday shopping days.<\/p>\n

2. Partner with other small business websites
\n<\/strong>Sometimes two is better than one. Combinations like dinner and a movie are timeless. If your business is located near other ones, you can ask around to see if you can coordinate a joint discount or event. Similarly, small business websites that are related to yours but not in direct competition might be a good combination. For example, Yola partners with others companies that are useful for our small business customers, such as SiteWit<\/a> and Constant Contact<\/a>. Partners and combined discounts are a great way to attract 2014 holiday shoppers<\/p>\n

3. Small business social media<\/strong>
\nPlan your social media content calendar<\/a> with a minimum of two posts a week leading up to the day. The more posts, the better if it\u2019s within your capacity. Images, links, blog posts, and tips or updates are great for social media. If you\u2019re promoting on Twitter, be sure to use relevant hashtags, such as #SmallBizSaturday, #ShopSmall, #SmallBusinessSaturday and #SmallBizSat. Vary your posts per each social channel and for each promotion (#blackfriday, #cybermonday).<\/p>\n

4. Optimize for local search and reviews<\/strong>
\nStart getting your Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local and Facebook page ready and loaded with reviews. These listings can vastly improve your local search for your small business website. Add any relevant information, discounts and images to your profiles to get ready. Start asking customers for positive reviews right now.<\/p>\n

5. Strategize your keywords
\n<\/strong>Write blog posts, or even add a page to your website, dedicated to local keywords such as \u201csmall business Saturday San Francisco.\u201d This will help you optimize your small business website for local search. If you\u2019ve partnered with other small businesses, have them write about your business too and ask for a link back to your 2014 Small Business Saturday page.<\/p>\n

6. Talk to local newspapers and high schools
\n<\/strong>Ask different local media outlets if they plan to write any articles on companies in the area offering 2014 Small Business Saturday discounts or about local small business websites that are selling online. See how you can get involved or even mentioned in the paper. You can even offer a special discount to their readers for the coverage. Don\u2019t forget to include your website keywords<\/a> in any comments you make for the article as well as a link to your small business website.<\/p>\n

What else are you doing to attract 2014 holiday shoppers to your website?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year Black Friday and Cyber Monday increased sales by 15% and 18%. If you\u2019d like to get on board and drive holiday shoppers to your small business website, then follow these six tips to get noticed.<\/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":[985,987,989,990,986,988,319],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046"}],"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=8046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8048,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046\/revisions\/8048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}