Before December, finish the jobs that protect the busy season: software and PHP updates, every form and order route tested, and measurement working. Leave a redesign, a platform change or a domain move until January.

September, again

The schools are back, the out-of-office replies have mostly come down, and the inbox is full of things that waited for September.

It is also when decisions about the website get made, often in a hurry, because somebody has noticed that December is about twelve weeks away.

The temptation is to start everything at once: the redesign discussed in June, the new online store, the refreshed logo.

Most of that should not start now. Three smaller jobs should.

The calendar decides

For most businesses the next four months are not evenly weighted. Retail, hospitality and gift businesses peak in November and December, and offices go quiet between Christmas and New Year.

Anything that changes how customers find, contact or buy from you takes a few weeks to settle. A new site always has small problems at first: a form sending to the wrong inbox, a missing redirect.

Those weeks should fall in a quiet month. For most businesses that sell more before Christmas, that means January.

What should wait until January

The fourth looks harmless and is not. Pages moved into new sections get new addresses, and even with redirects in place, search results can take weeks to settle, which is a poor thing to have happening in November.

Job one: updates before December 1

PHP, the language most small business sites run on, loses security support one version at a time. Version 7.1 stops receiving security fixes on December 1, after 5.6 at the end of last year and 7.0 in January.

A site still on any of those should move to 7.3, the current version. The move occasionally breaks an old plugin or theme, which is better discovered in October than in the week before Christmas.

Run the WordPress, theme and plugin updates in the same visit, and test the site afterwards.

Check the certificate's renewal date while you are there. An expired certificate in December puts a full-page warning in front of every visitor.

Job two: every route to a sale

List every way a customer can buy, book or ask: each form, the phone number in the header, the checkout, the booking system, gift cards and the newsletter sign-up.

Then use each one for real, on a phone and on a computer. Send the form and confirm the email reaches somebody who reads it. Buy something cheap and refund it.

Decide holiday hours and shipping cut-off dates now, while there is time to put them on the site, the listing and the order emails in one sitting.

Most problems found this way take minutes to fix. The same problem found in December has cost every enquiry it lost in the meantime.

Job three: measure the season

If the season is not measured, January's decisions are made on guesses. Check that every form, phone tap and purchase is recorded as a goal in Analytics, on every page, checkout included.

Write down last year's figures for October to December now: visits, enquiries, orders and what the ads cost. That is the comparison next year's plans will need.

A worked example

An independent toy store on a small-city main street also sells online, and does a large part of its year's business between mid-November and Christmas Eve.

Last summer the owners talked about a new site on a new store platform, launching for the holidays. That September they looked at the calendar and changed the plan.

A new platform meant new product pages, a new checkout and new customer accounts, all settling in during the six busiest weeks, with staff too busy to learn them.

Instead, the existing site moved off PHP 5.6 before its support ended, which meant replacing one old plugin. Every checkout route was tested, gift cards and in-store pickup included, and the missing purchase goals were set up.

Holiday shipping cut-offs went onto the product pages and order emails in October.

The new site waited for January. Its brief was written that October, the build started in the second week of the new year, and it launched in the quiet weeks before spring.

If the new site is already under way

Some projects started in the summer are on track, and an October launch is reasonable. Set a firm date no later than early November.

From mid-November, freeze the site: no new features, no theme changes, nothing that is not a fix.

If the launch slips past that date, hold it until January. A new site going live in the second week of December helps nobody.

Use the fall to prepare January

Waiting does not mean doing nothing. A January project that starts with a written brief, chosen photographs and drafted text is half done before anybody designs anything.

Write the brief in October: what the site must do, who it is for, what is wrong with the current one, and what it must not lose.

Book the work in November so the start date is fixed, and collect photographs and customer questions as the season runs.

The counter-case

The calendar is different for some businesses.

A landscaper, a pool company or a tax practice is busiest in spring; for them, the fall is a good time for a bigger project.

And a site that is broken, hacked or on software without security support cannot wait for January. Fix what is broken now, and leave the redesign for later.

For businesses that sell more in November and December, though, the order holds: protect the season first, then rebuild in the quiet weeks after it.

Before December

  1. Check the PHP version and update before December 1.
  2. Run every update and test the site afterwards.
  3. Use every form and checkout on a phone.
  4. Publish holiday hours and cut-offs in one sitting.
  5. Confirm every sale is recorded as a goal.
  6. Write down last year's October to December figures.
  7. Write the January brief in October.

Step one is the only item with a date set by somebody else. Everything else can move by a week; PHP 7.1's security support ends on December 1 whatever your calendar says.

The quieter jobs that came before these are covered in the August slowdown and what to fix during it.

Frequently asked questions

Which website jobs should finish before December?

Updating the site, including moving off PHP 7.1 before its security support ends, testing every form and checkout route, and making sure the season's sales and enquiries are measured.

Why wait until January for a redesign?

A new site always has a few weeks of small problems while it settles. For businesses busy in November and December, those weeks belong in the quiet month after.

What happens to PHP 7.1 in December?

It stops receiving security fixes on December 1. Sites still running it, or anything older, should move to a supported version, ideally 7.3, and be tested afterwards.

What should be measured this season?

Every form, phone tap and purchase as a goal in Analytics, with last year's October to December figures written down now for comparison.

Can a redesign already under way still launch?

Yes, if it can go live by early November. Freeze changes from mid-November, and if the date slips, hold the launch until January rather than December.

What can be done now for a January project?

Write the brief in October, book the work in November, and collect photographs and customer questions through the season, so the build starts half done.

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.

Planning a new website for the holidays?

Talk to us first. We will tell you what to finish before December and what to schedule for January.

Start a Conversation