June is about to be lit for Black-owned businesses that position themselves to capitalize on Juneteenth traffic. Last year, Google searches for the term "Black-owned business" spiked in June, with the most searches over the past 12 months taking place between June 13 and June 19.
Image via Google Trends
Similarly, shoppers searching for “Black-owned business near me” also increased during this time.
Image via Google Trends
In recent years, search traffic for Black-owned businesses has increased during cultural events like Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Black Business Month, so it’s safe to assume that we’ll see an increase again this year.
As a Black business owner, you can put yourself in the best position to capture this traffic by showing up in search results when people come looking for you.
How To Position Your Business For Juneteenth Traffic⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1. Make It Easy For Customers To Discover Your Business
According to Google, shoppers use terms like “black owned beauty supply,” “black owned bookstores,” and “black owned restaurants,” when they’re hunting for businesses to patronize. Based on your offerings, what search terms can you include on your website to improve your chances of showing up in the top search results?
Do keyword research to determine the most relevant keywords for your business, products and services, and then create content around them. You can also strategically include these keywords in your title tag, website meta description, About Us page, and wherever else it makes sense organically.
Title tag and meta description in Google search results
You can also improve the discoverability of your brand by getting your business listed in all of the major business directories, local directories and Black business directories.
2. Be Transparent About Being A Black-Owned Business
Image via U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. & ByBlack.us platform
Once consumers land on your website, if it isn’t relatively easy to verify your status as a Black-owned business, they might just bounce. There are several ways to let visitors know that you are indeed Black-owned, here are a couple:
- Display your Black-owned business certification or any minority certifications that you have prominently on your website
- List memberships and associations, such as your local Black chamber of commerce, on your website
- Include information about you, like your name, background etc. on your About Us page
- Include press features and stories by trusted media outlets that highlight you as a Black business owner
3. Get Featured In Juneteenth Content By Major Platforms
Image via EMOIR Magazine
Pitch Your Brand To The Media For Juneteenth
Get your brand featured in content about Juneteenth, like this Insider article featuring Black-owned brands to support in honor of Juneteenth, or this EMOIR Magazine article about Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday.
Reach out to the media to share what you're doing for Juneteenth (e.g. community events, giveaways etc.), while also checking in to see how you can help them with their content needs.
Use Content Marketing To Increase Your Brand Presence
Create guides, how-to content, infographics and other meaningful content to help consumers honor and respectfully celebrate Juneteenth. You can publish the content on your website, guest post on popular websites that your customers frequent, or post it on high-ranking websites like LinkedIn and Medium.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
4. Put Out A Press Release For Juneteenth
If you have something newsworthy to share for Juneteenth, such as a charitable event you’re hosting or a relevant brand collaboration, you can put out a press release.
Press releases are a good way to connect with journalists who cover your niche, get exposure to established audiences, and build links to your website since the pieces created as a result will likely point back to your site.
You can also use your press release to connect with journalists directly and leverage it to establish a long-term relationship.
5. Prepare Your Website For The Holiday Traffic
If you haven't already started preparing, here are some things you can do to get ready for the increased traffic coming our way:
- Improve your site speed: Use a tool like PageSpeed Insights to check your page load times and get suggestions on how to fix any performance issues
- Improve your mobile experience: Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool to check your mobile-friendliness score and get suggestions to improve it, if necessary
- Create a Juneteenth landing page: Specifically a Juneteenth offers landing page that highlights the offerings you’re promoting for the holiday
- Update your product descriptions: Where relevant, update your descriptions so that they focus on the benefits and how they relate to the holidays
- Fix outstanding errors: Fix any issues like broken links or problems that customers have previously brought to your attention
Set Yourself Up To Shine Every Juneteenth
Schedule a recurring calendar reminder, so you refresh or create new opportunities to show up in search results for Juneteenth next year and beyond. Give yourself a two to three month lead time for the best results.
And I hope you have a wonderful Juneteenth, however you chose to honor the day!
ABOUT BLACK GIRL PR™
Black Girl PR™ is a Black-owned consulting firm that helps Black womxn in ecommerce curate content that gets publicity and media coverage, so they reach more people and have a bigger impact.
If you’re curious about how we do it, take a look at our free case study video, "How To Get Publicity Without Breaking The Bank."
