Give the annual sale one permanent address with no year in it, update the page each November, redirect old sale addresses to it, and keep it live between sales with the expected date and a sign-up.

A new page every November

Today is Black Friday, and many stores put up their sale page this week at an address like /black-friday-2017.

Last year's page lived at a different address. Either it was deleted in January, so links to it now end on an error page, or it is still up, showing last year's prices to anyone who finds it.

Either way, this year's page started from nothing: no links pointing at it, no history in search results, no bookmarks.

What a new address throws away

The first is the hardest to replace. Links from other sites are among the most valuable things a page can earn, and every one pointing at a deleted address is wasted.

How search remembers a page

Search engines keep track of pages by their address. The links a page has collected, and its record of answering a search, belong to its address.

People search for a store's name with Black Friday every November. The page that answered them last year is the one Google knows, and a new address has to earn its place from scratch in the one week that matters.

A new page also needs time to be found at all. One published on the Tuesday before Black Friday may only settle into search results after the sale is over.

One address, kept for good

Give the sale one permanent address with no year in it, such as /black-friday, and keep it for as long as the store runs the sale.

Put the year in the page's title and heading, where it can change. Update the page each November instead of building a new one.

The address then gathers links and history year after year, and anyone who bookmarked it last year lands on this year's sale.

Keep the sale's name steady as well. Call it the Black Friday sale every year, and what people type into the search box keeps matching the page.

Redirecting the old addresses

Every previous year's sale address should send visitors on to the permanent one with a permanent redirect, the kind that passes on most of what the old address earned.

Ask sites that linked to an old address to update their link. Many will, since a working link is better for their readers too.

The crawl errors report in Search Console lists addresses on your site that return errors, which is a quick way to find forgotten sale pages.

Between sales

For the other eleven months, keep the page live and change what it says: the sale returns in late November, sign up to hear the date, and here is what is on offer now, if anything.

Take the sale prices down the day the sale ends. A page still showing last year's prices misleads anyone who arrives in March, and an ended sale price is no longer a price you charge.

Keep the page linked from somewhere, such as the footer or an offers page, so search engines go on visiting it.

A worked example

An office furniture dealer with a showroom in a business park sells desks, chairs and storage to companies, and through its online store to people setting up home offices.

Its Black Friday sale on task chairs has run every year since 2014, each time on a new page: /chair-sale-2014, then /black-friday-2015, then /bf-2016.

The 2016 page was deleted in January. The 2015 page never was, and still showed 2015 prices.

A local deals blog and a business association newsletter had both linked to last year's page. By this autumn those links ended on an error page.

A search for the dealer's name with Black Friday brought up the 2015 page instead, prices and all.

Every year the new page started with no links and no history, while the old ones either broke or kept old prices in front of searchers.

Nobody had chosen that. Each page was built by whoever ran that year's sale, and nobody looked after the old ones.

This month the sale moved to /black-friday, and all three old addresses now redirect to it. The deals blog updated its link when asked.

When the sale ends on Monday, the page will say so, give next year's expected timing and offer a sign-up.

Pointing to it all year

Use the same address everywhere: in the sale emails, the ads, the social posts and any printed flyers. Each is one more path to the page that lasts.

During the sale, a Google My Business post with the offer can link to it too. The post expires; the address does not.

Print the short address on receipts and packing slips for orders placed during the sale, so this year's buyers know where to look next November.

Search queries worth keeping

Search Console's Search Analytics report shows which searches brought visitors to the page, but it only keeps ninety days.

Export this week's figures for the sale page before they disappear. Next October they show which searches to expect, and that comparison is otherwise lost.

The counter-case

A store that runs its sale entirely on the home page and category pages has no sale page to keep, though the same rule applies: no year in addresses that return.

A one-off event, such as an anniversary sale, may reasonably get a page that ends with it. And a very small store with few links has less to carry forward.

For any sale that comes back every year, though, one permanent page builds up what a new page each November keeps throwing away.

After the weekend

  1. Choose one permanent address without a year.
  2. Redirect every old sale address to it.
  3. Ask linking sites to update their links.
  4. Take ended prices down the day after.
  5. Write the between-sales version of the page.
  6. Export this week's search queries.
  7. Link the page from the footer year round.

Step two is the one that recovers what the old pages earned. Without it, every link to a previous year's sale keeps ending on an error page.

What to put on the page for gift shoppers is covered in product bundles for gift shoppers.

Frequently asked questions

Why not build a new Black Friday page yearly?

Because a new address starts with no links, no search history and no bookmarks. A permanent page keeps everything the previous years earned and adds to it.

What address should the sale page use?

A permanent one with no year in it, such as /black-friday. Put the year in the title and heading, where it can change each November.

What happens to last year's page?

Redirect its address permanently to the new page, so old links and bookmarks land on this year's sale, and ask sites that linked to it to update.

What should the page say between sales?

That the sale returns in late November, how to hear when, and any current offers. Remove the ended prices the day the sale finishes.

Why remove old sale prices straight away?

A page still showing last year's sale prices misleads anyone who finds it later, since those are no longer prices you actually charge.

How do I keep this year's search data?

Export the Search Analytics figures for the sale page this week. Search Console keeps only ninety days, so next autumn's comparison depends on saving them now.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

New sale page at a new address?

Send us your old sale addresses. We will redirect them to one permanent page and set up its off-season version.

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