Preparing Your Site for Peak Trade: Key Technical SEO Strategies for Success

With peak trading season fast approaching, ensuring your site is technically sound is essential to capitalising on the influx of online shoppers. Technical SEO plays a pivotal role in preparing your site to handle increased traffic, optimise load speeds, and improve search visibility when it matters most.

From enhancing mobile experience to ensuring smooth site navigation, getting your technical SEO right can make all the difference in staying competitive and capturing customer attention during this crucial period.

What are the biggest barriers to maximising technical SEO?

• Code freeze

A code freeze is a period during which no new code changes, updates or adjustments can be made to a website or software. Typically, they are implemented before high-traffic periods occur, such as peak trading. This is to minimise the risk of technical issues that could disrupt the user experience.

For the peak trade season, a code freeze means any technical SEO recommendations must be implemented well in advance. If a code freeze begins 3 to 6 months before the peak season, any changes must be finalised before the freeze happens to ensure they are live and working.

• Changing URLs for each peak trade season

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is having different URL’s for each sales period or year. Using a consistent URL for recurring events such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, retains the valuable links, helping increase visibility.

• Cannibalisation

With such intense competition, it is essential to reduce page cannibalisation well in advance. Clearing out competing pages at least 3 to 6 months before the peak season ensures search engines prioritise your key pages for peak relevance.

• Site design impacting Core Web Vitals metrics

Another key barrier is the impact of site design changes on Core Web Vitals metrics. During the peak seasons, many websites incorporate promotional elements such as videos, animations, or enhanced visual layouts to create a more engaging user experience. However, these additions increase page load times and lead to layout shifts.

Maintaining a strong Core Web Vitals is essential, it not only contributes to better search rankings but ensures a smoother, more satisfying user experience.

What are the key takeaways to overcome these barriers?

• Dedicated Black Friday Page

Creating a dedicated Black Friday page helps streamline the user experience, making it easier to highlight key offers. To maximise reach, publish your Black Friday page by early October to align with search interest. Keeping the page live year-round will ensure a continuous build of authority.

• Email CTA

Adding an email sign-up CTA on the homepage captures visitors as potential warm leads for sales periods and allows you to directly reach them once promotions launch. Businesses can build a targeted list of engages prospects who are more likely toc convert during key sales events.

• After the event

After the sales periods have ended, keep the page live in case anyone is still navigating towards it. You can then remove all the internal links that point to the page and store these in the Google index to refer to next year. Removing the internal links helps avoid confusion and maintain the search engine indexing for next year.

How can 26PMX help?

Addressing challenges like code freezes, URL consistency, and content cannibalisation early can set your site up for success, ensuring a smooth, high-performance experience for users during the busiest time of the year.

At 26PMX, our team of SEO experts specialise in crafting tailored strategies to help businesses thrive during high-stake trading periods. Whether you’re looking to optimise your site, engage more customers, or boost visibility, 26PMX can guide your brand through every step of the process.

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To find out how 26PMX can maximise your paid social during peak, visit: https://26pmx.com/services/