‘Tis the season: 4 tips to get your website ready for the holidays

Keeping up the holiday spirit is important at this time of year, even in the digital landscape of web development. Even if it’s just for your website, there’s no reason why we can’t have nice things.

Does your website know it’s Christmas?

I know that you might already have your hands full between buying up on gifts for Christmas on Black Friday and on decorating your house but, if you run and manage a website, you should never ignore your responsibility as a web administrator.

Well, responsibility might be too strong of a word but I’ve always felt disconnected when there’s something that doesn’t reflect the state of the world as a whole.

In this year’s edition of the Wimbledon’s Championships, officials from the All England Club was steadfast in their decision to keep the hallowed ground a strictly soccer-free zone despite the fact that England’s semifinal run was their best result since 1990.

It felt weird to see this weird bubble of tennis as the rest of the country was gripped by Southgate’s improbable run into the final four in Russia. It’s similar to how I’d feel if I visited a website on Christmas Eve but was just presented with a deal for the summer.

You know how in content marketing it’s always advisable for you to create contents that aren’t just good but also relevant? This same line of thinking of tapping into the zeitgeist is also why you should, from time to time, adapts the look of your website into something reflective of the current trend.

If you’re familiar with the Google doodle, then you already have an idea where I’m going with this. To help you with this, here are some web development tips you could use to get your website ready for the holidays.

Plan ahead for your holiday specials

This is especially important if you’re planning on holding a special promotion or event during the holidays like a Christmas sale as you need the proper amount of time to build hype around the event.

We now live in a world where film and video game companies regularly drop a teaser about the announcement of a teaser for a trailer for something that won’t be coming out in at least a year. No, I don’t fully understand what I just wrote either.

When it comes to marketing, hype building is the name of the game and your plans should include not just the details on how your holiday specials is going to be rolled out but also how it’s going to be marketed.

It’s a bit pointless to run a promotion if no one’s around after all. Beyoncé is pretty much the only person who can pull off a surprise drop and still have the world go crazy in the aftermath so unless you’re her, you’ve got to figure out a way to build hype in the old-fashioned way.

Decorate your website

It doesn’t have to be comprehensive, just adding some touch of festivities here and there and perhaps redesigning your logo to embrace the holiday spirit should be enough.

You can even reuse last year’s decorations and slightly modify them if you don’t have enough time or resource to pull off something like this. My family uses the exact same decorations every year so who am I to judge, really?

Upload some specific holiday content

Upload some holiday specific content
Photo: Bruce Mars, Pexels

Again, it doesn’t have to be comprehensive; you could start things off easy by for example, posting a couple of tips on how to get your website ready for the holidays.

The key part lies in making that content relevant to your field of business while still embodying the holiday spirit although if you’re posting the contents close to the holidays, it is advisable to instead go behind the scene and shine a spotlight on the people behind your business.

Post pictures or videos from your office Christmas party for example, or the best costumes from your Halloween party, anything to show your customers that while you can be professional when required, you also know how to have a little bit of fun when the occasion demands it.

Remember, your customers are people too and sometimes, being relatable might be just as important to them as your qualifications.

Prepare for extra traffic to your website

If you’re an e-commerce site holding a Christmas or other holiday-themed promotions, you might want to set up your server to handle the extra traffic you’d be getting once the promotion starts, especially if it’s a limited-time promotion.

This happened to Amazon during their Prime Day promotions earlier this year and this is Amazon we’re talking about, who is by far the biggest online retailer in the world. This can happen to everyone so make sure you’re well equipped to handle the holiday rush.

George Papdan
George Papdan
CEO of Papdan.com, a creative agency providing a suite of web development, design, E-Learning, application and mobile solutions, as well as SEO services.
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