Which retailers might dominate your screens this Black Friday?

With an estimated £3.8bn up for grabs this Black Friday, retailers will have spent months planning their promotions, ads and campaigns to capture their slice.

The sale falls on 29 November, and has become a major event in the sector’s golden quarter.

Last year, shoppers spent more than £1bn online during Black Friday. Sales are expected to grow by 27% this year but in a competitive market, being seen by search engines like Google is critical to generating sales. 

So, when we search for ‘Black Friday air fryer deals’ on Google – why are the results from editorial sites like the Independent and Good Food? 

Where you’d expect retailers to take centre stage, Google’s updates have seen complaints of website visitors being directed to news sites like The Independent and Forbes. These sites regularly publish affiliate content, which is when publishers link a product or service to make commission from sales, in a blog like ‘best skincare products’ or ‘best golf brands.’

Google updates can render websites almost invisible overnight – pushing people to bigger publishers’ sites instead. Search engine optimisation (SEO) helps brands improve their visibility in search engine results by creating content with keywords customers use when looking for a product or service.

But Forbes, in particular, has faced backlash because of its SEO affiliate strategy, where it uses SEO tactics to rank better and push customers towards its affiliate links to earn commission. Smaller retailers may be particularly hard-hit if they don’t have the budget for affiliate programmes or SEO strategies.

As an agency that specialises in digital PR and SEO, we have worked with retailers large and small who have had to adapt to new types of competition in online search results. Ahead of Black Friday, we wanted to find out which retail sectors are predicted to see the biggest jump in organic traffic – a sign that their organic SEO strategies are delivering results. 

Using the SEO-tool Ahrefs, our researchers analysed Black Friday specific keywords* for over 150 of the UK’s largest online retailers across a range of product lines from November 2023 to October 2024 – and forecast what the percentage change would be this Black Friday, compared to last year. 

Biggest increase in organic traffic by sector

Fashion retailers came out on top with a 123% jump in estimated traffic. This is good news for the sector as it shows customers are landing on their site, rather than one with affiliate links.

Electronics products are second with direct traffic set to grow by 76%. While the sector has seen rapid growth with consumer demand for technology exploding – it seems SEO strategies are winning out over affiliate content in the search engines. Beauty products are also primed for the big day with direct traffic up by 48%.  

At the other end of the scale, furniture and home decor products are worse off in online search results compared to last year with direct traffic expected to decline by 39%. Next is sports products (-19%) and smart home devices (-8.4%). 

The top performing retailers as it stands 

With the fashion sector set to dominate search results, we wanted to find out which retailers will hold the top spots. Of course, these rankings could change, so it’s all to play for. Competition is fierce during Black Friday, so retailers need to stay prepared to maintain positions. 

Marks and Spencer is leading the way with the biggest estimated increase in Black Friday-specific traffic out of all the products and retailers. 

Why do search engine rankings matter? 

Last year, retail sales increased by £13.3bn during Black Friday. 

But if retailers aren’t visible in a Google search results page, sales will likely take a hit. They may need to increase budgets for Google or social media ads in the short term to increase chances of visibility but this can prove very expensive especially for smaller retailers. 

They might also think that affiliate marketing is the only way to be seen. However, this comes at a cost too: commission fees are typically between 5-30% of a sale and it could even lead to reputational damage if the content doesn’t align with the brand values.

“Fierce competition is standard during events like Black Friday and while retailers probably didn’t expect to be competing with news sites in online search engines, they can use SEO strategies to improve their positions. Not only can they drive traffic to their website and improve sales, they can take back revenue from affiliate content. 

“This year, the run up to Black Friday is even more important as sales are expected to rise dramatically. It’s never too late – retailers have around a month to strategise and improve visibility, whether that’s creating Black Friday keyword content, implementing paid ads or social media marketing.”  

Martin Harris, head of digital at Tank

An expert’s guide to Black Friday success 

There’s plenty you could do in the run up to Black Friday – or during the event itself – to improve visibility and conversions, our SEO Lead Jake Cassedy and conversion rate optimisation (CRO) Lead Dani Betts explain: 

SEO best practices 

Act early: SEO typically takes three to six months to see results, so get started as soon as you can – even if it’s preparing for next year. 

Product-led keywords: Customers search for terms like ‘Macbook black friday’ or ‘white coat black friday,’ so targeting these could be a quick win, especially if you use them to create product listing pages. 

Branded keywords: Customers also search for your company’s deals using terms like ‘John Lewis Black Friday,’ so set up a dedicated page to meet this search intent.  

Internal links: Link to your Black Friday pages to ensure it’s easy for customers and Google to find. You could create a banner or add the page to your navigation menu. 

Update content: Sell your product or service with persuasive copy making sure it’s relevant to this year’s sale.

Generic URL: Avoid putting ‘2024’ in the URL because it will become time limited. Use something like ‘/black-friday-deals’, so you can easily update the page in 2025, saving you redirects and improving link equity. 

CRO best practices 

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is a strategy that encourages website visitors to complete an action like buy an item, book a demo, or sign up to a newsletter.

Prepare for traffic: Load test your website for any traffic you might expect over Black Friday weekend.  

Fast site speed: Your conversion rate will drop each second it takes your website to load. Improve it with code splitting, prioritising your mobile site and ensuring its responsiveness. 

A/B testing: Run simple tests on your checkout page before Black Friday to improve the user experience. Even a 0.1% difference in your conversion rate can result in a huge increase in revenue. 

Pause testing: Stop testing during the actual event because it can slow down your site and lead to unexpected errors for customers. 

Page content: Use your banners and create urgent messaging to show off discounts. Highlight low stock or time-limited deals to encourage purchases.

Methodology

Using Ahrefs data, marketing experts at Tank analysed the estimated total monthly organic search traffic for Black Friday specific keywords for 165 of the UK’s biggest online retailers across ten product lines. The keywords chosen all contained the term ‘black friday’.

The total Black Friday-specific estimated organic traffic was then calculated for each retailer retrospectively based on ranking position for November 2023 compared to the latest rankings in October 2024. The average percentage shift was then calculated for each product line. 

Where retailers covered multiple product lines e.g. John Lewis & Partners, the percentage change remained the same when factored into each product line’s overall average.