If you sell anything online, you need to be ready for Christmas… like last month ready.

Yes, the holiday season begins early online. It isn’t so much that people start shopping for Christmas this early, although they do, it’s that it takes time to get the search engines to notice your efforts.

Realistically, even earlier than now is best. You need to give as much time as possible for the search engines to find you and for the early shoppers to be delighted that you are prepared for them already.

Your efforts don’t need to be excessively obvious on the rest of your pages. I have some holiday specific pages on some of my sites that much of the year are referenced only on site maps. Once it’s appropriate their links are back up in the main navigation.

Your pay per click campaigns should ramp up as appropriate too. These you don’t need to turn on until you feel that there are enough serious shoppers that you feel you can make a profit.

If you have links outside your site that you can turn on and off, get them turned on.

Make sure you know what is hot in your niche this year. Promote the items you know will be selling well.

It’s tough getting ready for the holiday season. You have to get your business ready just as you have to get ready for the holidays on a personal level. But for many businesses this is a highly profitable time of year and you don’t want to miss it.

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