August 27, 2025

Holiday 2025: The SEO Playbook

Strategy

During the holiday season, consumer search activity is high, but so are media costs. This makes a strong SEO strategy more critical than ever. By preparing your site to rank organically for key holiday terms, you can reduce your reliance on expensive paid media, improve your return on ad spend (ROAS), and drive qualified traffic to your site at a fraction of the cost. 

Timing & Preparation

  • Publish Holiday-Specific Content Early: To ensure your content is indexed before peak holiday season, publish key pieces such as gift guides, sale announcements, and promotional landing pages at least 60 days before Black Friday (by late September). This gives Google time to crawl and rank your pages.
    • To accelerate indexing:
      • Submit new URLs in Google Search Console
      • Use IndexNow to notify search engines immediately when content is updated or published

Content Development

  • Focus on Real Search Behavior: Use tools like Semrush to identify the long-tail, conversational queries shoppers search during the holidays like “best holiday gifts for moms” or “gifts for someone who has everything.” These intent-rich searches signal strong purchase intent, and building targeted content around them positions your brand to capture that demand, secure higher rankings, and drive highly qualified traffic.
  • Optimize for Google SGE (Search Generative Experience): Structure your pages with clear subheadings and short Q&As that answer common questions in 2–3 sentences. Use scannable formats like lists and tables, and add structured data where possible. Keep your copy factual, clear, and easy to digest to increase your chances of being featured in Google’s AI-generated results. Read our full report on the 5 Factors Reshaping Holiday 2025 for a look at how AI is changing product discovery.
  • Create Search-First, Shopper-Focused Content: Once you’ve identified the topics and queries that matter most to your brand, present them in formats shoppers engage with during the holidays like gift guides by price, recipient, or category; holiday FAQs; and updated Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal hubs. Refresh last year’s top-performing pages with 2025 data, new visuals, and stronger CTAs to maintain rankings and convert the traffic they already attract.
  • Use Schema Markup to Boost Visibility: Add schema markup to your holiday content. For example, mark up FAQs, how-to guides, or product details so Google can display them as rich results like featured snippets, voice answers, or interactive product listings. This makes your content more noticeable in search results and can drive higher click-through rates (CTRs).

Promotion Support

  • Offset Paid Media Costs: Use SEO to reduce reliance on paid media during high-cost windows like Black Friday and Cyber Week. Identify priority holiday keywords and optimize key pages to rank organically alongside your paid placements. This dual presence increases share of voice while reducing cost-per-click (CPC) and protecting return on ad spend (ROAS).
  • Extend CRM Campaign Impact: Promote high-value holiday assets like gift guides, FAQs, and how-to pages in email and SMS campaigns to drive more qualified traffic and engagement. Linking directly to these pages not only boosts visits but can also send positive engagement signals to search engines, helping reinforce their rankings.
  • Support PR, Influencer and Affiliate Channels: Prepare landing pages for high-intent traffic from PR, influencer, and affiliate efforts. Ensure pages are mobile-optimized, match active promotions, and load quickly. Use UTM tracking to measure impact and tailor content to support each partner’s message, increasing engagement and conversion.

Technical Health

  • Optimize for Speed and Core Web Vitals: Run a speed audit in late August or early September to leave time for improvements. Compress images, remove unnecessary scripts, and aim for mobile load times under two seconds. Fast pages not only rank better but keep shoppers engaged during high-traffic periods.
  • Strengthen Internal Linking: Once your gift guides and holiday landing pages go live, link to them from your homepage, blog posts, and navigation. This signals importance to search engines and helps accelerate indexing.
  • Keep Holiday Pages Live Post-Season: Avoid removing holiday pages after December. Instead, refresh the content with messaging like “Post-Holiday Deals” or “Gift Card Ideas” to retain rankings and capture return traffic in January.

During the holidays, SEO does more than drive organic traffic, it becomes a high-leverage, cost-efficient channel that supports the performance of everything from paid media to email marketing. With tighter margins, rising ad costs, and an extended shopping season, integrating SEO across your holiday mix helps your brand stay visible, profitable, and competitive.

WITHIN’s SEO experts can help your brand to attract shoppers exactly when they’re ready to buy with a complimentary SEO audit. Send an email to hello@within.co to request yours.

Authors
Britnee Howard, Search Engine Optimization Manager
Christina Hatzipanagiotis, Search Engine Optimization Account Manager