Survive Black Friday with our Black Friday SEO tips

Black Friday – every eCommerce business’s happiest dream and worst nightmare.

With customer expectations sky-high and your competition just a click away, your website needs to deliver a flawless experience under intense pressure. Slow load times, technical hiccups, missed marketing opportunities and inaccessibility can quickly turn a sales bonanza into a missed opportunity that could impact future business plans.

That’s why careful preparation is essential.

Luckily for you, we’ve got some practical tips to help you get your eCommerce website ready for Black Friday, so you can handle the surge, impress your customers and make the most of the season’s potential.

What could happen if my eCommerce website isn’t ready for Black Friday?

Cyber Week is arguably the largest online shopping event of the year – in 2024, $13.3bn was made in online sales in those five days alone.

If your eCommerce site isn’t ready for the influx of traffic and sales, you could miss out on more than just a huge chunk of annual revenue.

Here’s what could be at stake:

• Damaged reputation: Shoppers are vocal. Poor user experience or errors at checkout can quickly lead to negative reviews and complaints on social media.
• Lower search rankings: Technical glitches and high bounce rates can hurt your SEO, making it harder for customers to find you even after Black Friday is over.
• Wasted marketing spend: All that effort driving traffic to your site – paid ads, email campaigns, social posts – means nothing if your website can’t convert visitors into customers when it matters most.
• Increased customer support pressure: When things go wrong, your support team will be flooded with complaints and enquiries, making it harder to keep up and resolve issues quickly.

Ready to start preparing now? We thought so – keep reading to learn our top SEO tips for Black Friday survival.

11 Black Friday SEO tips your business needs to follow

1 – Do your research

You can’t build an effective Black Friday digital strategy without doing your research first.

Analyse last year’s sales data, review what competitors are promoting this year and conduct keyword research to learn what your audience is actually searching for this season.

These insights should help you identify top search terms and trending products that you could fit into your strategy to promote, as well as common pain points, which could inform your content and copy actions to make them more relevant and resonant.

The more insight you have into your market and customer intent, the better positioned your eCommerce business will be to create content and offers that drive conversions.

2 – Run a technical health check on your website

A technical health check involves a thorough analysis of your eCommerce website’s performance – think page speed, broken links, mobile responsiveness, accessibility, Core Web Vitals.

A seamless user experience is essential when traffic spikes, which is why you need to audit your website for speed and mobile responsiveness, particularly for shoppers who’re on-the-go. The same can be said for checkout glitches and slow-loading pages – if it takes too long to buy from you, they could bounce and buy from someone else.

Addressing technical problems ahead of time prevents lost sales and customer frustration when the Black Friday rush hits.

3 – Create a dedicated Black Friday landing page

A Black Friday landing page is a standalone web page designed to showcase your best deals and offers in one easy-to-navigate location.

This page should be visually striking, mobile-friendly and feature clear calls-to-action, pointing your target customers in the direction of the deals they want the most.

Incorporate SEO-friendly copy and direct all your Black Friday campaign traffic here, making it simple for shoppers to find and act on your biggest discounts.

4 – Optimise existing pages

A seasonal refresh could be just what your existing pages need to perform even better during Black Friday.

There are a number of things you could do to optimise your existing pages, including:

• Updating meta titles
• Refreshing descriptions and product copy to be more Black Friday-focused
• Including high-quality images with SEO-friendly alt text
• Redesigning banners to highlight limited-time offers

Black Friday can put a strain on company time and resources, so think smart and work with what you’ve already got to minimise time spent and maximise impact.

5 – Create targeted content ahead of time

Don’t wait until the last minute to produce your Black Friday content. Start planning and creating blog posts, buying guides, video demonstrations and social media teasers well in advance.

Focus on topics like “Top Black Friday Deals for [Your Industry],” “How to Get the Best Out of Our Black Friday Sale,” or detailed product comparisons. You could even target your ideal shoppers’ pain points by anticipating their common questions and positioning your products/services as the solution to their issues – FAQs on PDPs and PLPs can be a very effective way of doing this.

Scheduling this content ahead of time not only helps you capture early search traffic and create a smoother content roll-out, but also nurture potential buyers and establish your brand as an authority before the shopping frenzy begins.

6 – Pay attention to searcher behaviour

Understanding how people search in the run-up to Black Friday can make a massive difference to your results.

Track which keywords are trending using Google Trends and monitor real search queries in Google Search Console. Look for patterns in “best [product] Black Friday deals,” “Black Friday [brand] discount codes,” and location-based searches like “Black Friday deals near me.”

Your business can use these insights to adapt its landing pages, FAQs and product listings, ensuring you’re answering exactly what your customers are searching for at every stage.

7 – Improve your internal link structure

Internal links guide visitors to your most important pages and help search engines understand the hierarchy of your site.

For Black Friday, strategically link from high-traffic areas, like your homepage, popular category pages and blog posts, to your main deals page and featured product offers. Use relevant anchor text (like “see all Black Friday deals” or “exclusive Black Friday bundle”) to make your website’s navigation intuitive for shoppers on the hunt for a bargain.

A robust internal linking strategy helps increase the SEO value of your priority pages and reduces bounce rates, overall making it easier for shoppers to find (and buy) your best deals.

8 – Boost backlink opportunities with a targeted campaign

Start building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers long before Black Friday arrives, with a focus on acquiring backlinks from reputable sites in your niche to boost your domain authority and referral traffic.

To increase your chances of getting coverage or placement, offer exclusive previews, access to limited deals or expert commentary on industry trends, and submit your best offers to deal roundups and shopping guides. You could even create shareable assets like infographics or countdown timers.

A well-timed outreach campaign can dramatically increase your site’s credibility, improve search rankings and drive shoppers who are already in a buying mindset.

9 – Include structured data in your PDPs

Implement schema markup on all your product detail pages to help search engines interpret your content accurately.

Use schema to highlight product information such as name, price, availability, sale start/end dates, reviews and special Black Friday offers. This enables your listings to appear as rich snippets in search results, which may include star ratings, price drops or “in stock” notices.

These enhanced listings make your products much more eye-catching in crowded search results and provide potential customers with vital information instantly, often before they even click through to your site.

10 – Boost product visibility

Don’t let your best offers get buried. Feature your Black Friday deals prominently on your homepage with banners or countdown timers, and integrate them into key category and product pages.

The easier it is for visitors to spot your top deals (no matter where they land on your site), the more likely they are to convert, increasing your average order value and overall sales.

Use pop-ups or sticky headers to highlight limited-time offers, and add dedicated sections for “Top Deals” or “Staff Picks.” Update your product carousels and cross-sell modules to prominently feature discounted items.

11 – Assess your website’s accessibility

An accessible website isn’t just the right thing to have – it’s a business advantage, especially during high-traffic events like Black Friday.

Use tools like WAVE or Axe to check for issues such as poor colour contrast, missing alt text or problematic navigation. Ensure all interactive elements can be accessed via keyboard and that your site works well with screen readers. You should also provide captions for videos and use clear, simple language throughout.

By making your site inclusive, you can tap into a wider audience, improve user satisfaction and reduce the risk of abandoned baskets caused by inaccessible features.

When should I start prepping my website for Black Friday?

Like Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Leaving your eCommerce prep until the last minute can only guarantee unnecessary stress, avoidable mistakes and missed opportunities.

Since Black Friday comes around at the same time every year, you could start your prep as soon as the weekend after if you wanted, but we think a few months beforehand should be more than enough.

Prepping 3-4 months in advance would give your team plenty of time optimise and fix any issues before the rush begins.

Here’s a preparation timeline you could follow for maximum results:

Timeframe	Key actions to take
3-4 months before	Audit your website for speed, mobile usability and technical SEO performance. Review last year’s data and set new targets. Plan your promotional strategy and inventory.
2 months before	Update existing content (product copy, buying guides) and schedule new content (banners, landing pages). Test checkout flows and payment gateways. Secure extra support for fulfilment and customer service.
1 month before	Start warming up your audience with teaser emails and social posts. Finalise discounts, bundles and key product offers. Test site speed under load.
2 weeks before	Run a full website health check. Double-check stock levels and shipping options. Brief your team and set up customer support FAQs.
1 week before	Launch countdown timers and banners. Confirm all marketing and PR outreach campaigns are good to go. Monitor your site for any last-minute issues.

What happens to my website after Black Friday?

Ultimately, what happens next is up to you and your team.

After the Black Friday rush, you may notice some changes in your eCommerce site’s SEO performance. Positive changes can be the result of all the additional traffic you received, fresh backlinks and increased customer activity, but if there were technical issues or a spike in negative reviews, your rankings could also take a hit.

Black Friday shouldn’t be the only time you pay attention to your website’s health – ongoing SEO maintenance and regular support are essential.

By keeping your site optimised, fixing issues quickly and consistently improving your user experience, you’ll keep your hard-earned momentum going.

At this point, you could consider working with an SEO agency. Besides having the knowledge and practical expertise to suggest and carry out effective SEO strategies, they also have the necessary tools and time to turn projections into reality while you focus on growing your business into the success story we both know it can be.

Book a free consultation with our expert SEO team today and let’s make this Black Friday the biggest one you’ve experienced yet.

Remember – SEO is for life, not just for Christmas shopping periods.