Oct 01 2025
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Black Friday Planning for Shopify: The Content Audit That Should Be Done
It’s October, and if you’re running a Shopify store, you’re probably thinking about Black Friday for 2025. Maybe you’re sketching out discount strategies, briefing your designer on banner concepts, or calculating how much to scale your ad budget.
But there’s one critical step most stores skip entirely and it could tank your rankings, split your SEO power, and cost you thousands in lost traffic.
You need to audit last year’s Black Friday content before you create anything new.
The Rankings Killer Hiding in Your Shopify Store
If you’ve ran Black Friday promos in past years, I’d guess that buried in your site structure, you likely have some of these:
- A /collections/black-friday-2024 page that’s still live
- Blog posts titled “Black Friday Gift Guide 2024”
- Landing pages with hardcoded “2024” references in the copy
- Black Friday category pages that haven’t been touched since last November
A quick search for Black Friday 2024 shows there are collections in Google still showing and optimised for 2024
The problem is that these pages still exist, they may still rank, and they’re about to compete against your 2025 content.
When you create fresh Black Friday content for 2025 without addressing last year’s pages, Google faces a dilemma. You now have two (or more) pages targeting essentially the same keywords:
- “Black Friday deals [your niche]”
- “Black Friday [product category] sale”
- “Best Black Friday [your brand] offers”
Google doesn’t know which version to rank ahead of the other so your ranking power is diluted. Neither page performs as well as a single, authoritative page would.
Even worse? If your 2024 page has backlinks, rankings, and authority built up over the past year, creating a brand new page means starting from scratch—throwing away all that SEO equity you’ve earned.
The Content Audit That Should Happen This Week
Before you write a single new blog post or build a single new collection page, you need to know what you’re working with. Here’s the audit process I walk clients through.
Step 1: Find Everything Black Friday Related
- In Shopify Admin: Go to Online Store > Pages and search for “black friday”, “bfcm”, “cyber”
- Check Products > Collections for seasonal collections
- Review Blog Posts for any November 2024 content
Create a simple spreadsheet tracker with the following fields:
- URL Page title
- Current status (live/draft/archived)
- Last modified date
Step 2: Check What’s Actually Performing
Head to Google Search Console (hopefully you already have this connected – if not, I can help you to connect it) and pull the last 12 months of data.
Filter for URLs containing your Black Friday terms. For each page, note:
- Total impressions
- Total clicks
- Average position
- Click-through rate
The golden rule is that any page with 100+ impressions in the past year deserves consideration for updating rather than replacing.
Step 3: Audit Your Backlink Profile
Use a tool like Ahrefs, Semrush, or even the free version of Ubersuggest to check if any of your old Black Friday pages have earned backlinks. If a page has backlinks, you generally want to keep that URL alive. Those links represent authority and trust that took time to build. Starting fresh means abandoning that equity so consider this wisely.
Step 4: Make the Update vs. Create Decision
For each piece of content, you have three options:
Option 1: Update for 2025 (Best for pages that are performing)
- Keep the same URL Update all “2024” references to “2025”
- Refresh product selections, pricing, dates
- Add new sections to make it more comprehensive
- Update the publish date to signal freshness.
Please note that if you happen to change the url of the page, ensure you create a url redirect.
Option 2: Redirect (For underperforming pages you’re replacing)
- Create your new 2025 content Set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one
- This passes the SEO equity to your new page
- You don’t lose the benefit of any backlinks
Option 3: Consolidate (For multiple similar posts)
- If you have 3-4 gift guide posts from different years, consider combining them into one ultimate guide
- Redirect all old versions to this comprehensive resource
- This creates a stronger, more authoritative single page
Step 5: Conduct a Technical Cleanup
This is where store owners sometimes trip up on Shopify specifically:
- Navigation Menus: Check your header and footer for any hardcoded links to /collections/black-friday-2024. Update these to point to your 2025 versions.
- Internal Links: Old blog posts might link to last year’s sale pages. These need updating.
- Theme Code: Some themes have Black Friday sections hardcoded with year references. Check your theme sections for any date-specific text.
- Metafields: If you’ve used metafields for promotional content, these might still reference 2024.
- Collection Rules: Any smart collections filtered by year-based tags need updating.
The Content Refresh Timeline
Here’s when this audit needs to happen in your Black Friday preparation schedule:
- This Week (Early October): Complete your content audit. Make update/redirect/consolidate decisions.
- October 7-15: Refresh existing high-performing content for 2025. Don’t create anything new yet.
- October 15-25: Now you can create new content, but only where genuine gaps exist. You’ll know what these gaps are because you’ve already audited what you have.
- October 25-31: Technical cleanup. Implement all redirects, update internal links, fix navigation.
- November 1-20: Your updated and new content is live, fully optimised, and ready to capture early Black Friday search traffic.
- November 21-29: Black Friday week. You’re now optimising and firefighting, not building.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
I’ve seen this mistake cost stores money. Clients who don’t understand the need to clean up their previous Black Friday content can suffer drops in revenue due to incorrect links showing in the search engine results. Create an entirely new collection structure with new URLs and abandoning previous year’s pages that had strong rankings will have a negative effect. Google won’t have time to index and rank the new pages and will be confused with old content.
The Content You Should Be Creating Now
Once you’ve audited and updated your existing content, you can focus on creating content that actually ranks in time for Black Friday:
Evergreen Gift Guides that rank now and convert in November:
- “Best [Product Category] Gifts for 2025”
- “Ultimate Gift Guide for [Your Niche]”
- “[Product Type] Buying Guide”
These pages have two advantages:
- They can start ranking immediately (it’s gift season year-round for some shoppers)
- They’re naturally relevant during Black Friday without being too promotional
Comparison Content that captures high-intent searchers:
- “X vs Y: Which [Product] Should You Buy?”
- “How to Choose the Perfect [Product Category]”
Supporting Content that builds topical authority:
- Behind-the-scenes brand stories
- Product education content
- Use case articles
Have you noticed what’s NOT on this list? A landing page titled “Black Friday Sale 2025” created in early October with thin content saying “Sale coming soon!” Why? Ready on…
The Landing Page Timing Question
You might now be facing the dilemma whether you should you create your main Black Friday landing page now to get it indexed, or wait until closer to the event?
In reality, it depends on what you’re putting on it.
Create it now IF:
- You can populate it with genuinely valuable content right now (buying guides, product education, gift ideas)
- You’re building a hub page that links to multiple pieces of evergreen content
- You can make it actually helpful, not just promotional
Wait until November IF:
- The page would be thin content (“Sale coming soon!”)
- You don’t know your offers yet
- It would essentially be a placeholder
Google’s helpful content update has made it clear that thin, low value pages hurt your site’s overall authority. A premature landing page with weak content isn’t just neutral, it’s actively harmful.
One compromise could be to create a “Black Friday Hub” page that serves as a navigation centre to all your gift guides, buying guides, and product education content. This page has real value today and can be indexed immediately. Then, as November approaches, you can add your promotional elements (discount codes, featured products, countdown timers) to a page that already has authority.
French Connection In Focus
Clothing retailer French Connection have created a great Black Friday landing page for 2025. It’s “almost” perfect for where we are in the calendar.
They have updated their original page so it retains its history in the SERPS but brought it up to date with 2025 wording. They’ve weaved relevant FAQ’s in there to inform customers and keep the word count of the page up.
But you said “almost perfect” I hear you say. Yes, that’s because unbelievably someone forgot to change the meta title:
What You Should Actually Be Doing Right Now
If the landing page decision is complex, there’s plenty that’s straightforward. Here’s what you can and should be executing in October:
Visual Identity Work:
- Finalise your Black Friday colour schemes and design guidelines
- Create banner templates, email headers, ad creative
- Design assets have long lead times or sign-off delays? Start now
Promotional Strategy:
- How will you structure your sale? Tiered discounts? Promo codes? Buy-one-get-one?
- What’s your margin threshold? (Critical: Black Friday sales can lose money if not planned carefully)
- Will you run different offers for different customer segments?
Content Calendar:
- Map out all the gift guides, buying guides, and educational content mentioned above
- These can be created and published NOW
- They build authority and start ranking before Black Friday hits
Technical Preparation:
- Load testing: Can your store handle 5x normal traffic?
- Checkout optimisation: Are you losing conversions to friction?
- App audit: What do you need to install? (Countdown timers, stock urgency notifications, etc.)
Ad Budget Modelling:
- CPCs typically increase 40-60% during Black Friday week
- Conversion rates can drop 10-20% due to increased browsing behaviour
- What’s your break-even ROAS at these new metrics?
The Shopify-Specific Considerations
If you’re on Shopify (and if you’re reading this blog, you probably are), there are platform-specific elements to consider:
Theme Customisation:
If you’re planning a homepage takeover or significant design changes, start now. Theme modifications take longer than you think, especially if you’re working with developers.
App Installations:
Many apps require configuration and testing. Installing a countdown timer app on November 20th is asking for trouble.
Navigation Structure:
Will you add a prominent “Black Friday” navigation item? These changes need to be planned and staged.
Collection Organisation:
How will customers navigate your deals? By category? By discount level? By product type?
Checkout Extensibility:
Are you using Shopify’s new checkout extensibility features for upsells or gift wrapping? These require development time.
The Real Risk of Poor Planning
Here’s what happens when stores skip this audit and planning phase:
Scenario 1: The Ranking Split
You create new content that competes with old content. Neither ranks well. Your organic traffic is flat or down year-over-year.
Scenario 2: The Lost Authority
You abandon URLs with backlinks and rankings, starting from scratch. Your new pages haven’t had time to gain authority. You’re invisible during your biggest sales period.
Scenario 3: The Technical Meltdown
You rush to implement everything in mid-November. Something breaks. Your site goes down during peak traffic. (Yes, I’ve seen this happen.)
Scenario 4: The Unprofitable Sale
You haven’t modelled your ad costs at Black Friday CPCs. You’re driving tons of traffic but losing money on every order. All of these are preventable with planning that starts now, in early October.
Your Next Steps
If you’re reading this and thinking “I should probably have started this already”, you’re probably right. But there’s still time.
Here’s what I’d suggest doing very soon: Complete the content audit described above. Block out two hours and get it done. Make update/redirect/create decisions for each piece of existing content. Start refreshing your best-performing pages for 2025. These are quick wins. Map out your gift guide and buying guide content calendar. What can you create this week? Block time for technical planning. Don’t let theme changes or app installations become November problems.
The stores that win Black Friday aren’t the ones with the biggest discounts. They’re the ones who planned properly, executed early, and didn’t have to fight fires during the biggest revenue week of the year.
You’ve got eight weeks. Use them wisely.
Need help planning or implementing your Black Friday strategy on Shopify? I work with ecommerce stores as an ecommerce consultant to ensure they’re not just prepared, but optimised for their biggest revenue opportunities. Get in touch to discuss your specific situation.
Found this helpful? This is part of a series on Black Friday preparation. Subscribe to get the next posts on promotional strategy, ad budget modelling, and the day-of operations guide.
