Why Technical SEO is Critical Before the Holidays
Every year, Q4 makes or breaks revenue goals for online retailers. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday shopping bring massive surges in traffic and sales. You need to begin preparing in Q2 and be wrapping up holiday SEO preparation by Q3.
For eCommerce Directors, the key to success is ensuring that your technical foundation is setup so that crawlers go to the right pages and understands them. Also, its important for website visitors to have a good experience under peak periods. Moreover, its critical to have cybersecurity resources monitoring any potential attack during these periods as sales can drop if there is an attack happening that can disrupt SEO or the user experience.
Technical SEO Checklist for Q4
to rank in ai, avoid javascript usage when possible
Heavy JavaScript websites are not being shown in LLMs like ChatGPT et al. LLM crawlers don't load JavaScript, and what that means is that any content that is hiding behind JavaScript, won't be known/understood by the LLM crawlers. Ultimately, if its not seen by LLM crawlers, it won't use the website as a source when the LLM generates a response.
Manage Crawl Budget and Indexation
Google allocates crawl resources to each site. If your site wastes crawl budget on duplicate or unimportant URLs, your most important pages may not rank in time.
This ensures Googlebot focuses its resources on money pages like gift guides, promotions, best selling products, and top categories.
Improve User experience with better Site Speed
Improved page speed helps with conversions (sales) and tools like Google PageSpeed Insights helps identify opportunities to help your website make more tmoney with the same amount of traffic.
Quick Checklist to improve speed (any developer can help implement):
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Serve images in WebP format with a compressed image version as a fallback.
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Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.
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Implement lazy loading for product images and carousels that are below the fold.
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Use a content delivery network (CDN).
A study by Deloitte found that a 0.1 second improvement in site speed can increase conversions (sales) by 8%. Retailers should treat speed fixes as high-priority revenue drivers, not just technical cleanup.
Use Structured Data to Win Rich Results
Holiday shoppers often search for specifics: prices, reviews, stock availability. Structured data helps your listings stand out in SERPs (Google Shopping, Image/Video Carousels, and the blue links).
SERP features improve click-through rates, especially during Q4 when competition for visibility is highest.
Clean Up Errors and Redirects
Outdated URLs can cause issues and its important to clean them up to avoid cannibalization (internal competition on the Google SERP).
- Redirect discontinued or products that are 404 to relevant category or replacement items.
Retailers often forget to clean up holiday landing pages from the previous year. Reuse or redirect those URLs instead of leaving them broken.
Build Internal Linking Hierarchies for Holiday Pages
Internal linking is one of the fastest ways to pass authority to new seasonal content.
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Elevate gift guides or holiday collections into your top navigation during Q2-Q3.
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Add contextual links from high-traffic evergreen blogs to holiday landing pages.
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Use keyword-rich anchor text like “holiday deals on laptops” instead of “click here.”
Internal linking ensures your most important pages rank quickly and gives users clear pathways during the shopping surge.
Real-World Example: ACV Auctions
Though in the B2B space, ACV Auctions faced a similar challenge of preparing its site to handle visibility and volume. By focusing on technical SEO improvements — including structured data, indexation management, and site architecture — ACV saw a 278% increase in page-one rankings and a 92% lift in registrations year over year.
Retailers can take the same lesson: technical foundations drive both visibility and performance when the stakes are highest.
Key Takeaways
Retailers who treat technical SEO as a revenue driver, not a checklist, will be best positioned to capture demand during the busiest shopping season of the year.
At (un)Common Logic, we help retailers audit, repair, and optimize their technical SEO foundations before high-stakes moments. Learn more on our SEO services page or contact us to see how technical fixes translate into revenue.
FAQs
Should I reuse holiday landing pages from last year?
Yes. Update and optimize them rather than creating new URLs, so you retain equity.
How far in advance should I start technical SEO prep?
Ideally start in Q2, to give Google time to crawl and index changes.
Do I need structured data on every product page?
Advanced (not plugin schema) schema is a must as you need to go beyond what your competitors are doing to win.
