# Why Your Black Friday Page Should Use the Same URL Every Year Canonical page: https://sunlocke.com/articles/black-friday-landing-page-seo Page type: article ## Summary Give the Black Friday page one permanent address with no year in it, keep it live all year, and change what it says before, during, and after the sale. The page that collected links and bookmarks last November can carry them into this year's sale, if it is still at the same address. A Black Friday page at a new address each year has to be found and indexed from scratch, without last year's links. One permanent address with no year lets those links carry into this year's sale. ## Article details The page that collected links and bookmarks last November can carry them into this year's sale, if it is still at the same address. ## Main point A Black Friday page at a new address each year has to be found and indexed from scratch, without last year's links. One permanent address with no year lets those links carry into this year's sale. Author: Devin Blandino Section: Strategy Post type: Decision Guide Story format: standard ## Article content In October 2020, Google's Search Relations team published advice for stores building Black Friday and Cyber Monday landing pages. Its most durable line concerns the address: give the page one address that never changes, with the event's name in it and no year. The post does not say why, and it says nothing about what to do with the page between sales. The practical reason is that a permanent address keeps the links a page collected in past years, and it keeps them only if the page stays live all year. ## Why a new page every year starts over The post, written by Alan Kent, says to use a recurring URL rather than a new one for each occurrence of the event. Over a season, a sale page collects links and attention. Other sites link to it: a local gift roundup, a deal forum, a newsletter. Search engines crawl and index it. Returning customers bookmark it. The store's own homepage and emails point to it. Every one of those attaches to the address. When the next year's sale moves to a new address with the new year in it, last year's links point to a page that is either gone or announcing a sale that has ended. The new page has to be discovered and indexed from the beginning, in the few weeks when it matters most. The post lists six practices: create the landing page well in advance so Google has time to find and index it, follow standard SEO practice, link to it from the homepage, use a recurring URL, include a relevant high quality image, and ask Google to recrawl the page after testing any structured data (code that labels details such as prices for search engines). A page that returns every year meets two of them before any work begins, because it already exists well ahead of the sale and its address recurs. The post is from 2020. In July 2021, Kent followed it with a post on deal pages for any sales event, and that post repeated the earlier advice to reuse the same URL each year. The advice also follows from Google's general documentation on URLs and redirects, covered below, so it does not rest on one old post. ## Choosing the Black Friday landing page URL Google's URL structure guidance asks for readable words rather than long ID numbers, words in the language the audience uses, and hyphens between words. It also says Google treats capital and lowercase letters in an address as different, so the same words in a different case count as a separate address. Applied to a sale page, that means a short path with the event's name and nothing else. The 2020 post's own example was a sale folder followed by the words black and friday joined by a hyphen, with no year anywhere in the path; its counterexample put the year 2020 in a folder of its own between the sale folder and the event name. Two decisions come before typing the address. **Which event the page is named for.** A store that runs one promotion from Black Friday through Cyber Monday can use one page for the whole weekend, named for the day the sale opens. A store that runs separate offers on each day may want separate pages, each permanent. The mistake is a new page for every variation of the same sale. **Which kind of page it is.** On Shopify, a sale can live on a collection, which lists products, or on a page, which holds text and images. A collection is usually the better landing page for a store, because the shopper arrives where the products are and the sorting and stock tools described in [merchandising the store for Black Friday](/articles/black-friday-merchandising) work on it. That is a practitioner's preference, not a Google rule; a store whose sale needs long explanation, such as a tiered offer or a charity tie in, may be better served by a page that links into a collection. Whichever is chosen, do not later rename the last part of its address, which Shopify calls the handle. Without a redirect, a rename leaves the old address returning an error, so after any rename, confirm that a redirect from the old address exists, and create one if it does not. ## If past sales live at dated addresses A store that has run sales before may already have two or three dated sale pages. Those should be folded into the permanent one rather than deleted. Pick the new permanent address, then permanently redirect each old dated page to it. Google's redirect documentation explains that it reads a permanent redirect (a 301 is the common kind) as a signal that the new address should be treated as the main one, and does not read a temporary redirect that way. For site moves, Google recommends keeping redirects in place for as long as possible, generally at least one year. For a page meant to be permanent, there is little reason to remove them at all. On Shopify, the old page or collection must stop loading before its redirect will work, because the redirect only applies to an address that shows an error. Hide or delete the old item, then add the redirect from the URL redirects list in the Shopify admin. The same mapping discipline used when a whole site changes, described in [the guide to redesigns and SEO migration](/articles/does-website-redesign-hurt-seo), applies here at a smaller scale. ## What the page says before, during, and after the sale ### Before the sale Until the sale starts, the page should tell a visitor that a sale is coming, when it starts, roughly what kinds of products it will include, and how to hear about it first. That last part usually means an email signup, which connects the page to [the holiday email and SMS plan](/articles/holiday-email-and-sms-plan). Keep the page open to search engines and linked from the homepage, as Google recommends, so it is found well before the event; the basics of [how a page gets onto Google](/articles/how-to-get-website-on-google) apply here as to any other page. Avoid inventing urgency. A countdown that resets, or a page claiming savings before the prices exist, gives a visitor nothing they can act on. ### During the sale Once the sale starts, the page becomes the offer: what is discounted, the terms in plain sentences, when it ends, the last order date for holiday delivery, and the products themselves, ordered so that the ones in stock lead. Before that version goes live, run it through [the Black Friday website checklist](/articles/black-friday-website-checklist), because it is likely to be the busiest page on the site that weekend. After the switch, ask Google to recrawl the page through the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. Google's 2021 post recommends that step for stores that reveal sale details on the day, so the new version has a better chance of being indexed in time. If Paid Ads point at this page, it still has to deliver what each ad promised, the match that [a good landing page for paid ads](/articles/ppc-landing-page) depends on. ### After the sale When the sale ends, the page should say so plainly, then give the visitor something useful: current offers if any, bestsellers, gift cards, and when the next sale is expected. It should keep returning a normal page. Deleting it between seasons takes it out of search results. Google's documentation on status codes states that pages returning an error, such as page not found, drop out of its results, and that Google checks them less often over time. Leaving the address live but nearly empty has its own risk: Google can treat a page whose content looks like an error or an empty page as if it were missing (it calls this a soft 404). A short page that explains the sale has ended and links to current products avoids both problems. ### Updating the year honestly The year belongs in the title and the main heading during the season, not in the address. Google's 2021 post used "Black Friday 2021 Deals" as its example of a page title. Change the year when the content changes. Google's guidance on helpful content lists, as a warning sign, changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed. Changing only the year on an otherwise identical page comes close to that pattern. ## What to do before the sale * Choose the permanent address, with the event's name and no year. * If old dated sale pages exist, hide them and permanently redirect each one to the new address. * Publish the before the sale version and link it from the homepage. * Write the during and after versions now, so each switch on the day is an edit to a page that already exists rather than a page built under pressure. Source: Google Search Central Blog: Best practices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday pages (October 26, 2020) Alan Kent's post for Google's Search Relations team lists six practices for sale pages, including a recurring address with no year in it. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/10/best-practices-black-friday Source: Google Search Central Blog: Engage shoppers with deal pages in Google Search (July 21, 2021) Alan Kent's later post repeats the advice to reuse the same URL each year and recommends the event name in the page title and a recrawl after the page is updated. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/07/deals-best-practices Source: Google Search Central: URL structure best practices Google's guide to URL structure recommends readable words and hyphens between words, and says Google treats addresses as case sensitive. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure Source: Google Search Central: Redirects and Google Search Google explains that it reads a permanent redirect as a signal that the new address is the main one, and a temporary redirect as no such signal. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects Source: Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes Google's site move guide advises keeping redirects in place as long as possible, generally at least one year. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes Source: Google Search Central: How HTTP status codes and network errors affect Google Search Google explains that indexed pages returning a not found error are removed from its index, and that a page whose content looks like an error or is empty is reported as a soft 404. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/troubleshooting/http-status-codes Source: Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people first content Google's guide to helpful content lists changing page dates to seem fresh, without substantial changes, as a warning sign. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content Source: Shopify Help Center: URL redirects Shopify explains that a redirect works only when the old address shows an error, and where in the admin to create one. Accessed October 20, 2026. Reference: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/menus-and-links/url-redirect ## Related services * [Web Development](/website-development): Whether you are starting from scratch or want to rebuild a site that performs, we will help you create a website that attracts leads, builds trust, and grows with your goals.