SmallBusinessNewz

Small business owners who are trying to predict when their sites will receive the most holiday traffic have received a little help from Hitwise.  The firm released some details yesterday about holiday traffic trends - including how owners can try to manipulate them.

Heather Dougherty started by writing, "Each year Thanksgiving is the peak day for Internet visits to retail websites, followed by Black Friday as consumers take advantage of the holiday to research the Black Friday sales online and shop when many of the stores are closed."  From there, it's pretty much downhill until the day after Christmas.

Consider planning your promotions and such accordingly, then, although it's more than possible that sales trends don't mirror traffic trends.

As for what else you can do, Dougherty found that search engines are responsible for shuffling around a lot of consumers - apparently not everyone's on seek-and-destroy missions - so make sure that all of your keywords and/or search ads are up to date.

Then here's another key point: "Consumers are also receptive to email from retailers once the season gets going and the share of downstream traffic jumps on Thanksgiving, Black Friday. . . .  Traffic from email is also important on Cyber Monday, where there has been another significant spike during the past two holiday seasons that does not take place with search."