Hopefully, more people will be visiting your website this holiday season. The last thing you want is for your website to crash because of the additional traffic. Here are a few things you can do to make sure your website is holiday traffic ready:

• Use a reliable web hosting provider

• Make sure your website is fast

• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

• Enable cookies to enhance your user experience

• Audit your plugins and remove any that are unnecessary

• Optimize your checkout process

Also, consider adding a holiday touch to your website by adding seasonal banners that highlight your holiday promotions.

Will you be closing on Christmas Eve? Are you staying open later in December to give your customers more time to shop? If your hours are changing during the holiday season, make sure that you indicate those changes on your listings.

During the holiday season, retailers flood the advertising platforms with ads. Even if your products or services have very little to do with the holidays, higher bids from big retailers can end up pushing your ads down. That often leads to fewer clicks and engagements coupled with a higher cost per click (CPC).

Don’t let higher advertising costs take you by surprise and dismantle your success during the holiday season. Expect them and prepare yourself for them.

Thanks to increased advertising costs, it’s more important than ever during the holiday season that you’re mindful about who you’re advertising to. In general, the bigger your audience, the more your ads will cost and the lower the conversion rate.

Instead of casting a wide net, make the most of every ad dollar you spend by targeting only the people most likely to convert. Advertising platforms, like Facebook, allow you to target people by all kinds of demographic data, including age, interests, location and beyond.

You should also take advantage of search ads this time of the year, which makes your ads visible to only people who are actively searching for relevant keywords. For best results, focus on long-tail, more specific keywords that are less competitive.

Speaking of targeting the right audience, in terms of ROI (return on investment), there’s no better audience to target than people who have already shown an interest in your brand in some way or another.

With retargeting ads, you can target people who have previously visited your website, watched one of your videos on Facebook, clicked one of your ads, put an item in their shopping cart or have otherwise engaged with your brand.

There’s an old marketing rule that says you need to get your message in front of someone seven times before they’ll convert. Retargeting simply reintroduces your message, reminds interested consumers that you’re there and leads to conversions.

Costlier advertising means that you need to use every possible organic avenue available to you in order to generate visibility for your brand during the holidays. The problem is that most organic strategies take time, especially when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization) and content marketing.

One great organic avenue that you can start using (and start building visibility) right away is social media. Ramp up your posting schedule during the holiday season, and make it a point to engage with your followers, as well as other brands and groups in your community.

Don’t expect to get thousands of followers or a huge boost in visibility on social media overnight. Even with an aggressive social media management strategy, real organic success takes time.

Holiday marketing is more than just about getting new leads and customers. It’s also about nurturing your existing leads and customers. The best way to do that is with email marketing.

Email marketing helps you stay top of mind with your customers and ensures that your brand is the first thing they think of. The holiday season gives you a perfect excuse to reach out to your email marketing list.

Make the most of your email marketing strategy by segmenting your email list and creating content specific to each segment. You should also personalize your emails with automation.

The holiday season is a great time to drive new leads and customers, make sales and build customer loyalty, but it’s also the time to give back.

One of the best ways to increase your visibility while also building trust in your brand and reinforcing your values is by giving back to your community. Pick a local charity or nonprofit, and make a donation, organize a volunteer day for your staff or sponsor an event.

Spread the word about the organization you choose to support on your blog, in a press release, on your social timelines and beyond.