Start preparing for the holiday season now

Anticipation is key, start preparing now! 

Timeline to guide your planning process

Here is our seasonality checklist to help your AdSense account and site be holiday season ready:

1. Optimize your AdSense account

• Try the new and improved Auto ads: Focus on creating your holiday content, while Google places and optimizes ads for you. Auto ads now work through any AdSense ad code. There is an easy preview of how Auto ads look on your site before implementing. You can choose ad formats and the number of ads per page with the new Ad load control. We’ve also updated reporting so that you can see Auto ads and manual ad unit performance side by side for each of your sites. Learn more about implementing Auto ads .
• Make your ads more visible with Viewability: Did you know? If an ad is placed at the bottom of the page and the user does not scroll down to see it, the ad is not counted as a viewable impression³. Make sure you increase the number of viewable ad impressions on your site during the holiday season. This will likely lead to more clicks and higher revenue potential. Learn how to optimize your viewability.
• Increase your revenue opportunities by reviewing your Blocking controls settings: Take this as an opportunity to review blocked categories on your AdSense account. See and review ads that appeared on your site in the Ad review center. Learn more about ad blocking controls.

2. Optimize your site

• Go where your audience is: It’s important to understand where your audience is located. If a certain holiday is not celebrated in your region, it might be where your audience is. Discover where your users are by using the Google Analytics tool in AdSense. Click here to learn how

• Make a great first impression⁴: If visitors leave your site after looking at just one page, you've likely lost them and their potential AdSense earnings forever. Giving visitors a great first impression is important to keep them interested so they dig deeper into your site. Here are a few tips to do this:

• When it comes to design, remember that users are impatient. Organize your site so that it’s easy for people to navigate and browse through. 

• Focus your homepage and navigation on connecting users to the content they’re looking for.

• Offer site search to ensure users who are in a hurry can find what they need. 

• Make sure that every piece of content links to more pieces of content using the Matched content recommendations tool.

• Develop a traffic strategy: We’ve already seen how internet user traffic increases during the holiday season. Now it’s time to consider how you’ll make sure your site is seen to attract new users. Here are some tips: 

• Develop partnerships with other content creators and share each other’s content. 

• Have a social media presence. Consider using YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to share your content on different platforms.

• Experiment with Google Ads. Use your performance report to understand the top countries where your audience is coming from and use Google Ads to ensure your content is visible in searches.

• Check your page speed: Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check your page speed. Users who have to wait for pages to load or can’t easily browse will likely go elsewhere. Consider reducing your content to boost page speed. Videos and images that load can slow down your page as well. 

Now it’s time to grow your audience by focusing on content. Next week we’ll provide you more tips on working with your content during the holiday season.

_Sources: 

_{1. Google Internal Analysis, 2018, Categories Apparel, Beauty & Personal Care, Computers & Consumer Electronics, Food & Groceries, Home & Garden, Occasions & Gifts, Toys & Games (DE, PL, UK, FR, IT, ES, GR).}

_{2. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/four-types-holiday-shoppers}

_{3. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/5-factors-of-viewability/}

_{4. https://www.google.com/adsense/start/resources/best-shape-to-boost-your-earnings/}