For many small businesses, the weeks around the holidays bring the most visitors of the year. People search for opening hours, gift options, booking slots and the nearest place that is open on a public holiday. If your website gives them a wrong answer, they move on in seconds, and they rarely tell you why.
The good news: a handful of checks catches most problems, and most take under ten minutes. This checklist is arranged in the order you should do them, with a timeline at the end so nothing is left for the last week.
This is about the holiday rush specifically. For the year-round basics, see our small business website checklist.
1. Hours, dates and contact details
This is the number one reason holiday visitors bounce. People look for hours first.
- [ ] Add holiday hours for every day that differs: closed days, early closes, extended evenings.
- [ ] Put them where people look: the homepage, the contact page, the footer and any booking page.
- [ ] Use plain dates, such as "Closed Friday 25 December," rather than "closed over the holidays," which leaves room for doubt.
- [ ] Check the phone number and address are correct, and that the number is tappable on a phone.
- [ ] Match everywhere. Your business listing, social profiles and any directory entries should show the same hours as your site.
2. Test every way a customer can reach you
A form that fails silently costs you a customer without you ever knowing.
- [ ] Submit your contact form from a phone. Confirm that the message arrives and the confirmation page appears.
- [ ] Tap the phone number on a mobile device and make sure it opens the dialer.
- [ ] Try the booking or order flow from start to finish, as a customer would.
- [ ] Check spam folders. Confirm form messages are not being filtered.
- [ ] Set an auto-reply for after-hours messages that states when you will respond, especially during closures.
3. Cutoff dates and policies
Gift and order businesses should publish dates early:
- [ ] Last order dates for delivery before the holiday, per shipping option.
- [ ] Last booking dates for services that fill up.
- [ ] Return and exchange policy, in plain language.
- [ ] Gift cards or vouchers, if you offer them, with a clear way to buy and redeem.
Put the cutoff dates near the buy button, not buried in a footer page.
4. A seasonal message that earns its space
You do not need a full redesign. A short banner or a single seasonal section is enough.
- [ ] Add one clear banner with the most useful holiday information, such as hours or an order deadline.
- [ ] Make sure the banner does not push the main button below the screen on a phone.
- [ ] Keep the main action visible at the top: call, book, order or request a quote.
- [ ] Plan to remove the banner the day after it stops being true. An outdated seasonal notice looks careless.
Our guide to common homepage mistakes shows what a clear top-of-page layout looks like.
5. Mobile speed
Most holiday browsing happens on phones, often on mobile data and often in a rush. A page that takes five seconds to appear loses a large share of visitors.
- [ ] Run a speed check on mobile for your homepage and your busiest page.
- [ ] Compress seasonal images before uploading them. A banner photo straight from a camera can weigh several megabytes. See our guide to image optimization.
- [ ] Remove anything you no longer use: old plug-ins, widgets and sliders.
- [ ] Avoid auto-playing video at the top of the page.
For the full speed picture, read website speed for small business.
6. Be easy to find locally
Holiday searches are often local: "open now near me" and "gift shop near me."
- [ ] Update your business listing with holiday hours and a few fresh photos.
- [ ] Check that your page titles and headings name your town and what you do. See local search basics.
- [ ] Ask recent happy customers for a review. Our guide on getting reviews honestly explains how and when.
- [ ] Make sure your address and opening hours are written in text, not only inside an image, so people and search tools can read them.
7. Security and backups
Busy periods are a poor time for something to break, and attackers know it.
- [ ] Apply pending updates to your site software and plug-ins early, then test, rather than updating mid-rush.
- [ ] Take a full backup before any changes, and confirm you can restore it.
- [ ] Check that your certificate is valid and will not expire during the holidays. The padlock must show on every page.
- [ ] Use strong, unique passwords and two-step login for your admin area.
- [ ] Review the safety basics in security headers explained.
Aim to freeze changes about a week before your busiest day, so nothing is changed at the worst time.
8. Make your answers easy to find
Many visitors now ask a direct question and want a short answer. Make the answers to your most common questions easy to find: hours, prices, location, how to book. Put them in plain text on a page, with clear headings. A short FAQ section helps customers and search tools alike. Our Cited checklist walks through 27 points to make a site easy to cite.
9. Make sure you can see what works
You cannot improve what you cannot see.
- [ ] Confirm your contact and order events are being counted, so you know which pages drive calls and bookings.
- [ ] Note your normal weekly numbers now, so you can compare once the rush arrives.
- [ ] Add a simple question to your forms, such as "How did you hear about us?" to learn which channels work.
10. Your holiday timeline
| When | Focus |
|---|---|
| Early November | Run the grader, fix speed and mobile issues, update software and backups |
| Mid November | Write holiday hours and cutoff dates, test all forms and calls |
| Before the big week | Publish the banner, update the business listing, freeze changes |
| During the holidays | Check messages daily, watch for broken pages and reply fast |
| Just after | Remove the banner, restore normal hours, read the numbers and note lessons |
Common holiday mistakes
- Outdated hours. The single most common failure, and the easiest to fix.
- A banner that hides the buy button. Seasonal messages should never block the main action.
- Heavy seasonal images that slow down mobile pages.
- Late updates that break something just as traffic peaks.
- Forms that go nowhere. Test them yourself, every time you change something.
Frequently asked questions
When should I update my website for the holidays?
Start in early November. Fix speed and mobile issues first, then publish holiday hours and cutoff dates. Aim to freeze changes about a week before your busiest day.
Where should I show holiday opening hours?
Show them on the homepage, contact page, footer and any booking page, and match them on your business listing and social profiles. Use plain dates so there is no doubt about which days differ.
Do I need a seasonal banner?
A short banner is enough if you have something useful to say, such as hours or an order deadline. Keep the main action visible, and remove the banner as soon as it stops being true.
How can I check my site works on phones?
Open the site on your own phone and try the contact form, the phone link and the order or booking flow. Then run a mobile speed check on the homepage and your busiest page.
Should I make big changes to my site right before the holidays?
Avoid major changes in the final week. Update software and test early, take a backup and keep small edits for hours and notices only, so nothing breaks at the busiest time.
Next step
Start with the quickest win: grade your website free and fix the top items on the list before the busy weeks begin. If you would rather have a site built to handle seasonal rushes from the start, Belmo Studio makes websites for local businesses that bring calls, with a free preview first and payment only if you like it. For the family side of the season, Belmo Printables has planners to keep the household organized too.