Get Ready for Small Business Saturday Online
Small Business Saturday falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest local-shopping days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shoppers looking for gift ideas near them check your website and your Google listing before they ever walk through your door, and a slow page, a missing photo, or an outdated profile can cost you that visit before you know the shopper existed. Here's the pre-holiday checklist, sized for a one-location shop or a multi-location brand.
AT A GLANCE
By Conqueror Capital · Published
The short answer: the two things a Small Business Saturday shopper checks before visiting are your website and your Google Business Profile. Getting both current, fast and accurate takes a single focused sitting, not a redesign, and it's worth doing before the week gets busy rather than during it.
WHY THIS WEEKEND IS DIFFERENT
Shoppers searching for gift ideas on Small Business Saturday are moving fast between options, often from their phone, often comparing several nearby businesses in the same few minutes. A website that's slow to load, or a listing with last year's holiday hours still showing, loses that shopper to the next search result before they ever learn what you actually sell.
Unlike a big retail chain's national campaign, a local business's whole advantage on this weekend is being easy to find, easy to trust and easy to reach. Every piece of that advantage lives in your website and your Google listing.
WEBSITE CHECKLIST
- Update your hours, including any holiday hours that differ from your usual schedule.
- Put your Small Business Saturday offer, if you have one, on the homepage, not buried on a separate page.
- Test it on your own phone. Can you tell what the business does, where it is, and how to call, within five seconds?
- Check your load speed. A page that takes too long to appear loses impatient shoppers before they see anything.
- Confirm your contact details match your Google listing, phone number, address and hours all included.
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE CHECKLIST
- Set your holiday hours directly in your Business Profile, not just on your website.
- Add a Google Post about your Small Business Saturday offer so it shows directly in search and on Maps.
- Add a couple of recent photos, especially of in-store displays or seasonal stock, if your shelves look different this time of year.
- Check for pending suggested edits that may have slipped through unreviewed, and correct anything wrong before the weekend.
SMALL, MID-SIZE AND ENTERPRISE
Small businesses: one sitting covering both checklists above is usually enough. Do the website first, then the listing.
Mid-size businesses: if more than one person updates your site or profile, confirm who is making the holiday-hours change so it isn't done twice, or missed entirely because each person assumed the other handled it.
Multi-location and enterprise brands: every location needs its own accurate hours, its own local offer, and its own Google Post, since a shopper checking one address expects that address to be correct, not a shared brand-level page. Push the update to every location at once rather than one at a time. See how we work with mid-size and enterprise teams.
FAQ
When is Small Business Saturday?
Small Business Saturday falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving each year, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
What should I check on my website before then?
Confirm your hours, holiday hours, current offers and contact details are accurate, your site loads quickly on a phone, and a visitor can call or find directions in one tap.
What should I check on my Google Business Profile?
Update your holiday hours, add recent photos, and post about any Small Business Saturday offer so it shows up directly on your listing, not only on your website.
Is it too late to fix this close to the date?
No. Most of this checklist, hours, contact details, a clear homepage message and a Google post, can be done in a single sitting, even the week before.
Does this matter for a business with more than one location?
Yes, more so. Each location needs its own accurate hours and offer, since a shopper checking one address expects that address's listing to be correct, not a shared brand-level page.
KEEP READING
BOOK A STRATEGY CALL
Want help getting your site and listing ready before the weekend? Ask for a free website and Google listing check, or book a 15-minute call and we will go through it with you.