Thanksgiving week sneaks up fast. For a lot of businesses, it’s one of those times when traffic quietly bumps up: people are off work, they have more time on their phones, they’re planning projects for after the holiday, and they’re browsing local businesses while sitting on the couch after dinner.
If your website is slow, confusing, or out of date, you miss those moments. You don’t need a full redesign to fix that. A handful of small, targeted checks before the Thanksgiving rush can have a real impact on leads, calls, and sales.
This guide walks through practical, action-oriented website checks you can knock out in a short amount of time. You can treat it like a checklist, go section by section, and focus on the areas that matter most for local ranking and customer experience heading into 2025.
Start With the Pages People Visit Most
You don’t need to overhaul your entire site. Start by improving the handful of pages that actually get the most traffic. If you’re using analytics, that’s usually your home page, a few core service pages, and your contact page.
Your Home Page
Your home page is often the first impression visitors get during Thanksgiving week. Give it a quick reality check:
- Does it load quickly on a phone?
- Is the main headline clear about what you actually do?
- Can visitors tell in a second or two what kind of business you are?
- Is it obvious which city or area you serve?
- Is there a clear next step (call, contact, schedule, shop)?
If someone glances at your home page for two seconds and can’t answer “What do they do?” and “Is this for me?”, they’ll head back to search results and try someone else.
Your Contact Page
People use their time off to send quick inquiries, get quotes, and schedule work for the weeks after the holiday. Your contact page should make that easy:
- Is your phone number correct and click-to-call?
- Are your hours updated for the holiday week and the week after?
- Does the form work properly and look good on mobile?
- Does the thank-you message or confirmation page actually appear?
- Is there a brief note about when they can expect to hear back?
Small friction here is costly. If the form breaks or looks sketchy, visitors won’t fight it. They’ll just drop off.
Your Services Page
Thanksgiving browsers are often in “research mode.” They’re comparing options and trying to understand exactly what you offer. Your services page should be simple and clear, not buried in fluff.
- Can someone quickly scan and understand each service?
- Is there obvious wording around where you provide these services?
- Are old services still listed even though you no longer offer them?
- Are there broken images, weird spacing, or leftover placeholder text?
- Is there a clear call to action after someone reads about a service?
Even a five- or ten-minute cleanup can make this page far more useful to holiday visitors.
Make Sure Your Website Loads Fast—Especially on Phones
Thanksgiving week is very mobile-heavy. People browse while traveling, sitting in driveways, waiting in lines, or lounging after dinner. Slow sites are one of the biggest conversion killers during these moments.
How to Check Speed Quickly
Run your key pages through a couple of popular tools:
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- GTmetrix
- WebPageTest
Focus on the mobile scores first—that’s where most holiday browsing happens. You don’t need a perfect score, but you do want pages to feel snappy, not sluggish.
If You Only Fix Three Speed Issues
Speed optimization can get deep, but a few simple changes often make a big difference:
- Images: Compress large images and use modern formats where possible.
- Scripts and plugins: Turn off plugins you aren’t using and remove old tracking scripts.
- Caching/CDN: Make sure your caching plugin and any CDN you use are correctly set up.
Aim for pages that load in roughly two to three seconds on a decent mobile connection. If you’re faster than nearby competitors, you’re in good shape.
Tune Up Your Navigation Before Visitors Show Up
Holiday visitors are often more distracted than usual. They’re multitasking and scanning quickly. Your navigation needs to be clear, simple, and focused on the pages that actually matter.
Quick Navigation Checks
- Are you hiding key pages in deep dropdown menus?
- Do you have outdated menu items (old promos, old events, draft pages)?
- Is your contact page one obvious click away, not buried?
- On mobile, is your menu easy to open and read?
- Is there a clear path for someone who’s ready to get in touch now?
A simpler navigation bar with fewer, more meaningful options usually performs better than a crowded one.
Check for Anything That Looks Broken or Outdated
Even one broken element can plant doubt in a visitor’s mind. Thanksgiving visitors won’t send you an email to tell you something is broken—they’ll just leave.
Look for These Common Issues
- Broken or missing images
- Links that go to 404 pages
- Old events or outdated announcements still on the home page
- Staff or team members listed who no longer work with you
- Holiday hours from last year still showing
- Outdated pricing or offers
- Buttons that lead nowhere or still say “Coming Soon”
- Random “Lorem ipsum” or obvious placeholder copy
A 10-Minute Manual Walkthrough
Set a timer and walk through your site like a stranger would:
- Search your business on Google and click through to your site.
- Click the home page, then each main menu item.
- Click every major button and call-to-action.
- Fill out the contact form with a test message.
- Repeat these steps on your phone.
You’ll spot issues that have been easy to overlook during normal work days.
Update Your Holiday Hours Everywhere
When people search for local businesses around Thanksgiving, one of the first questions they have is: “Are they open, and when?”
If your hours are confusing or inconsistent across the web, people often assume you’re closed and move on to someone else.
Places to Update Your Hours
- Your website footer
- Your contact page
- Your home page (a small mention is fine)
- Your Google Business Profile
- Facebook and other major social profiles
- Yelp or other local directories you actually use
Make sure holiday hours and regular hours are both obvious, especially if you’ll be closed on Thanksgiving Day or operating on a limited schedule.
Make Sure Your Contact Form Actually Works
Thanksgiving week can quietly send a lot of “I’ll just fill this out now” inquiries. If your form is broken, sends email to an old inbox, or doesn’t show a confirmation, you lose those leads and never know they existed.
Test Your Contact Form
- Submit a test message with your own email address.
- Confirm that you receive the email and that it doesn’t land in spam.
- Check that the reply-to address is correct so you can answer easily.
- Make sure the subject line is clear enough that you won’t miss it.
- Verify that the on-page confirmation or thank-you message loads.
If you’re using a form plugin, check its notification settings and spam settings as well. A small misconfiguration can silently block or misroute messages.
Add a Backup Contact Method
Some visitors never use forms. Give them alternatives:
- A clickable phone number near the form
- A short line like “Prefer email? Reach us at [your email]”
- A clear note about expected response times during the holiday
Flexibility helps capture more of the different ways people like to communicate.
Check Your Website for Local-Specific Clarity
Thanksgiving week is a big time for local search. People who are visiting family, traveling, or planning upcoming projects are looking for businesses in specific cities and counties.
Your site should make it impossible to miss where you’re located and where you work.
Make Your Service Area Obvious
- Include your city or region in your home page intro.
- Mention the cities or counties you serve on your services page.
- List your address and service area on your contact page.
- Add a small, clear line in the footer about where you work.
These mentions should read like normal sentences, not forced keyword stuffing. You’re simply clarifying who you serve and where you’re available.
Check Your Call-To-Action Placement
Holiday visitors tend to act quickly. If they like what they see, they want the next step clearly spelled out. If they can’t find it, they give up and try another tab.
Good CTA Locations
- Near the top of your home page, under the main heading
- After each major section of a service page
- At the bottom of every page as a final next step
- Inside the mobile menu if it makes sense (e.g., “Contact” or “Get a Quote”)
Your call-to-action doesn’t have to be fancy. It just needs to be clear and consistent: “Request a Quote,” “Schedule a Call,” “Contact Us,” or “Shop Now.”
Backup Your Website Before Traffic Picks Up
Before you make any updates or install any new plugins, back up your site. The best time to make sure you can roll back changes is before something goes wrong.
What to Back Up
- Database
- Theme and child theme (if used)
- Plugins
- Uploads (images, documents, etc.)
- Core files if you manage them manually
If your host provides automatic backups, log in and check that they’re recent and working. A simple backup can save you hours of stress if an update doesn’t go as planned.
Make Sure Promo or Seasonal Content Is Front and Center
If you’re running a Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or small seasonal promotion, don’t bury it on a subpage that nobody will find. Visitors this week are already primed to look for deals and seasonal offers.
Simple Ways to Highlight Seasonal Content
- Add a small banner at the top of the site linking to details.
- Include a short promo section near the top of the home page.
- Mention the offer on your services or product pages.
- Note the dates clearly so people know when it applies.
This doesn’t need to be over-the-top. Even a simple line like “Holiday scheduling is filling up—contact us now to reserve a spot after Thanksgiving” helps.
Check Your Google Business Profile (It Matters This Week)
For many local businesses, the Google Business Profile is the first thing people see. In a lot of cases, people will make a decision based solely on that profile without even visiting your website.
Profile Checks Before Thanksgiving
- Update your holiday and regular hours.
- Verify your address, phone, and website URL are correct.
- Make sure your main category and services are accurate.
- Add a few recent photos of your work, location, or team.
- Respond to any recent reviews, even with a short “Thank you.”
A refreshed profile looks current and trustworthy, which matters a lot during busy local search weeks.
Make Sure Your Site Looks Good on Mobile
Your site can look great on a desktop and still be frustrating on a phone. Thanksgiving browsing happens heavily on small screens, often on slower connections.
Mobile Usability Checks
- Is the text large enough to read without zooming in?
- Are buttons and links spaced out enough for thumbs?
- Does the mobile menu open and close smoothly?
- Does any sticky header or bar cover important content?
- Do popups or chat widgets block the screen or get in the way?
Aim for a simple, uncluttered mobile layout that lets visitors read, scroll, and tap without effort.
Test Your Phone Number Everywhere
Many holiday visitors would rather call than fill out a form. That only works in your favor if your phone number is easy to find and easy to use.
Phone Number Checks
- Make sure your number is the same on every page and in every location.
- Test click-to-call from a mobile phone on your home page and contact page.
- Confirm your number matches your Google Business Profile and any directories.
- If you use call tracking numbers, verify routing is correct.
Reliability matters more than a complex phone system. If people can reach you quickly, you’re ahead of many others.
Revisit Your Messaging
Thanksgiving is a reflective time. People think about projects they’ve postponed, improvements they want to make, and services they might finally schedule after the holiday.
You can lightly adjust your messaging to connect with that mindset without turning your site into a themed ad.
Simple Messaging Tweaks
- Add a line about booking projects for the weeks after Thanksgiving.
- Clarify how quickly someone can expect a response if they contact you now.
- Highlight that you serve nearby cities and surrounding areas.
- Consider a short note that acknowledges the season without being cheesy.
You’re not rewriting your whole brand voice—just making sure it lines up with where your visitors’ heads are this time of year.
Improve Trust Signals Before The Traffic Spike
Thanksgiving week is a quiet research time. People check out businesses they’ve heard about, compare options, and bookmark sites for later. Trust signals become especially important here.
Trust Elements to Highlight
- Clear service area details (cities, counties, regions you serve)
- Real customer reviews or testimonials, preferably with names and locations
- Licenses, certifications, or memberships that matter in your field
- Photos of finished work, your shop, or your team
- Short, plain-language explanations of your process
You don’t need everything on this list. Even a couple of strong, honest trust signals can make your site feel more solid than a competitor’s.
Make Sure Any Newsletter or Lead Capture Is Working
If you collect emails or offer downloadable resources, check that those systems are functioning properly before the holiday. People often join lists or grab resources while they finally have some downtime.
Lead Capture Checks
- Submit your own email to test sign-up forms.
- Verify the confirmation email arrives and looks professional.
- Make sure any download links or resources actually work.
- Check that new subscribers are going into the correct list or segment.
- Clean up any outdated mentions of old promotions or expired freebies.
A working, well-labeled opt-in is far better than a complex setup that doesn’t function reliably.
Fix Any SEO Issues You Already Know About
Thanksgiving isn’t the moment to roll out a huge new SEO strategy, but it’s a great time to knock out simple fixes you’ve been meaning to address.
Quick On-Page SEO Wins
- Add or clean up title tags on key pages.
- Write clear, human-friendly meta descriptions that match search intent.
- Fix any duplicate titles or descriptions.
- Repair internal links that lead to 404s.
- Ensure your robots.txt and sitemap are not blocking important pages.
These are small tasks, but stacked together they can help search engines understand your site better going into the new year.
Make Sure You’re Set Up for GEO Ranking Signals
Local ranking has continued to shift. Heading into 2026, search engines lean heavily on clear local intent, consistent business identity, and evidence that you genuinely serve a specific area. Your website and your Google Business Profile should both reinforce the same story.
Thanksgiving week is a perfect time to tighten these signals up, because people are searching with very specific local needs: businesses near relatives, shops or services along their travel route, and companies they can book for work after the holiday.
Strengthen Your GEO Signals Across the Site
Add Natural City Mentions to Key Pages
You don’t need to cram in repetitive keywords. Instead, add honest, natural statements that describe where you work. Good places to do this include:
- Your home page intro or hero section
- Your services overview page
- Your contact page and footer
- Your About page or “Who We Serve” section
Examples of simple, natural lines:
- “Serving customers throughout Longview, Kelso, and surrounding areas.”
- “Working with businesses across Cowlitz County and beyond.”
- “Helping local companies in Vancouver, WA and Clark County.”
These phrases help both humans and search engines quickly understand your geographic focus.
Make Sure Your NAP Is Consistent
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. It should appear consistently:
- On your home page and contact page
- In your footer (if you list it there)
- On your Google Business Profile
- Anywhere else your business is listed online
Even small differences—like different abbreviations, a missing suite number, or an older phone number in one place—can cause confusion. Stable, consistent NAP is one of the simplest ways to strengthen local trust signals.
Check Your Google Business Profile With 2026 in Mind
More decisions are being made directly in search results. That means your Google Business Profile often acts as a mini-website for local visitors. A few focused updates can make it far more effective during and after the Thanksgiving rush.
Connect Local Landing Pages to Your Profile
If you have city or region-specific pages (for example, Longview, Kelso, Woodland, or Vancouver pages), consider linking your profile directly to the most relevant page rather than only to your home page. This boosts local relevance and can help visitors land on content that feels tailored to them.
Update Your Business Description
Keep your description simple, but make sure it clearly states:
- What you do
- Who you serve
- Where you serve
An example format: “We help small and mid-sized businesses in Longview, Kelso, and Cowlitz County with fast, clear, and reliable websites designed to bring in more calls and customers.”
It’s straightforward, human, and local—exactly what nearby searchers need.
Add Fresh Photos Before Thanksgiving
Adding a few new photos is one of the quickest ways to signal that your business is active. Consider adding:
- Photos of recent work or projects (with permission)
- A clean exterior or interior shot of your location
- A few simple team or behind-the-scenes photos
Fresh photos help your profile feel current and engaging during a busy search week and carry those benefits into 2025.
Update Your Local Schema
If your website uses JSON-LD schema for LocalBusiness or related types, take a moment to verify that the details are still correct:
- Business name, address, and phone number
- Business type (e.g., LocalBusiness, ProfessionalService, Store)
- Service area or areaServed fields if you use them
- Links to social profiles or other official pages
Schema helps search engines connect the dots between your site, your Google profile, and other mentions online. You don’t have to build something complicated—just make sure existing structured data is accurate.
Add Small Local Intent Signals to Your Content
Search engines are getting better at recognizing local intent. Simple phrases can help them understand that your services are meant for people in a particular region.
Examples of Simple Local Signals
- “Fast response for customers in Longview and Kelso.”
- “Serving businesses across Cowlitz County and nearby communities.”
- “Available for on-site work within a short drive of Longview.”
- “Regularly working with clients throughout Clark County.”
These types of statements feel natural for visitors to read while also helping search engines categorize you as a genuinely local option.
Add Internal Links to Local Pages
If you have local landing pages, they shouldn’t be isolated. Internal links help visitors find them and show search engines how those pages fit into your site structure.
Good Internal Link Locations
- A brief “Service Areas” section on your home page
- Mentions in relevant service pages
- A simple list of cities or counties in your footer
- Links from blog posts that talk about local work or examples
This builds stronger overall site-level local relevance as we head into 2025.
Make Sure Your Reviews Mention Locations
Location-rich reviews are especially powerful for local ranking. You can’t tell people exactly what to say, but you can encourage more detailed reviews when you ask for feedback.
Encouraging Helpful Local Reviews
When you follow up with customers, you might say something like: “If you have a minute to leave a review on Google, it helps others in [your city or region] know what to expect.”
Many clients will naturally mention their city or the type of work you did: “Website redesign for our shop in Longview,” for example. That’s useful context for future customers and for search.
Add a Local FAQ Section
A short FAQ block at the bottom of your home or services page can answer common questions and help capture location-based searches.
Sample Local FAQ Questions
- Do you work with clients in Kelso? Yes, we regularly work with clients throughout Kelso and the rest of Cowlitz County.
- Do you take on projects for Vancouver, WA businesses? Yes, we’re available for projects across Vancouver and Clark County.
- Can I contact you over Thanksgiving week? You can reach out anytime. If we’re closed for the holiday, we’ll respond as soon as we’re back in the office.
These kinds of FAQs help visitors and can also show up in search results when people ask similar questions.
Add a Short Note About Holiday Response Times
One of the easiest ways to keep visitors from getting frustrated is to tell them what to expect. If you’ll be closed or slower to respond around Thanksgiving, a short note goes a long way.
Where to Place Response Time Notes
- Near or under your contact form
- On your contact page, under your hours
- In any auto-responder email your form sends
A simple line like “We’re closed on Thanksgiving Day but will respond as soon as we’re back in the office” is more than enough.
Double-Check Your Website Security Before the Weekend
Traffic spikes sometimes bring increased bot activity and probing attempts. Simple security checks before the holiday can help prevent problems later.
Security Basics to Verify
- WordPress core, themes, and plugins are up to date.
- Your security or firewall plugin is installed and active.
- Login attempt limits are in place or enforced by your host.
- SSL is working and your certificate isn’t close to expiring.
- Admin accounts are limited and use strong passwords.
You don’t have to build a complex security stack. Just closing obvious gaps helps keep your site stable during and after the Thanksgiving rush.
Prepare for the Week After Thanksgiving
Many of the people who visit your site over Thanksgiving week won’t reach out immediately. They’re bookmarking, screenshotting, or mentally short-listing businesses to contact once the holiday is over.
Set yourself up to make that next step as easy as possible.
Simple Prep Steps
- Make sure your contact page clearly explains what happens after someone reaches out.
- Clarify your typical response time and next steps.
- Ensure your home page and services pages lead logically toward contacting you.
- Clean up any confusing or vague language about pricing or availability.
You’re building a clear path for visitors who are ready to move from browsing to action once they’re back in a normal routine.
A Simple 20-Minute Checklist
Short on time? Here’s a quick-hit version you can run through before the Thanksgiving rush:
- Check home page clarity and make sure your main headline is obvious.
- Test mobile speed for your home and contact pages.
- Update holiday and regular hours everywhere they appear.
- Fix any broken images or obvious outdated elements.
- Test your contact form and verify emails arrive properly.
- Check call-to-action placement at the top and bottom of key pages.
- Verify your phone number is correct and click-to-call works.
- Refresh your Google Business Profile with updated hours and a couple of new photos.
- Make sure your service area is clear on your site and in your footer.
- Back up your website before making any other changes.
Even if you only complete this short list, you’ll be ahead of many local competitors heading into the holiday week.
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving week brings a unique kind of traffic: people with a bit more time, a bit more flexibility, and projects on their mind. They’re checking out local businesses, comparing options, and lining up what they want to handle once the holiday is over.
You don’t need a massive redesign or a complicated campaign to benefit from that. A faster site, clearer messaging, strong local signals, working contact paths, and an honest, trustworthy presence go a very long way.
Take an hour, run through these checks, and tighten up the places that need it most. Those small improvements can turn quiet Thanksgiving browsing into real calls, inquiries, and customers in the weeks to come.
