Pros and Cons of a “Holiday Look” for Your Website

Pros and Cons of a “Holiday Look” for Your Website

 December 7, 2015

How did the end of the year holidays happen so quickly? I don’t know about you, but my years are going by faster than ever befor.

With all the talk of Black Friday, including some retailers who have decided to take that day off, you may be thinking you should give your website some holiday pizazz. Should you?

The answer is a very definite ‘maybe.’

Pros of creating a holiday look for your website

Decorating your site for year end holidays can be as simple as adding a plug-in. You can make it snow, for example (search for ‘snow’ plug-ins). The same thing is true of sound – you know, ringing bells, carols, etc.

You can find some static holiday graphics for free at Pixabay or Creative Commons

You could create some sort of Happy Holidays banner.

Adding holiday cheer can add a note of welcome and approachability to your site.

It can be fun.

Cons of creating a holiday look for your website

There really are two big cons to adding holiday looks to your site. The first is what holiday will you represent on your site? The second is getting it changed back as quickly as possible.

Here’s what I mean:

What holiday?

Year end holidays run from what we in the United States tend to think of as traditional Christmas Decorations to pagan celebrations of the turning of the year. The first might be called the ‘Norman Rockwell‘ look – you know, the famous artists that drew heartfelt families celebrating around a Christmas tree? The second many find downright strange and even scary. Remember, not everyone celebrates with a Christmas tree or even uses the word ‘Christmas’ for their year-end celebrations.

Since there’s probably no way to keep from leaving someone out, you may want to skip holiday decorations altogether, or at least keep them as generic as possible. Remember that some folks may be offended by a generic approach, thinking it means you’re casting aspersions. In other words, tread carefully.

Changing your website back

Although adding and subtracting holiday decor to your website is pretty easy,they both take some time. You need to do some planning, particularly I think for getting them down.

If you use them, you want to be sure you get them down by, in most cases, Jan. 1 at the very latest or your site will immediately look outdated.

Think about all your viewers

Your website is meant to be of service to your users. They come to your site for real estate information.

While an article on decorating a home for an open house, or not, definitely fits the criteria, ringing bells, falling snowflakes and dancing reindeer may not be exactly the image you want to project.

Or maybe it is. There’s nothing wrong with it – my recommendation is you think it through thoroughly, that’s all.

Anne Wayman real estate writer

 


Anne Wayman

By Anne Wayman

Before Anne Wayman became a writer she sold real estate in Southern California. She worked with her father who learned the business from his father. Not surprisingly she learned a few things along the way. Since then, she has been freelance writing for over 30 years – she is a grandmother, loves cats and writes about a wide variety of topics including real estate.