A Black Friday campaign is won in October. This year Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November and Cyber Monday on Monday 30, but searches start rising in September, and Google needs weeks to crawl, index and weigh a new page and the links pointing to it.
This guide covers the timeline of a Black Friday campaign, how to prepare the landing page, what to do with links and outlets, and the technique we have used to get brands into several results for the same search.
When the Black Friday campaign starts
The searches make it clear. In Spain, "campaña black friday" (Black Friday campaign) went from 44 searches in August 2025 to 113 in September, 289 in October and 408 in November, according to Ahrefs. In December it fell to 201. Whoever publishes in November arrives when demand has already peaked.
This is the timeline we recommend:
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| 8 weeks before (early October) | Black Friday landing page live and indexed. First links from outlets in your niche. |
| 4 to 6 weeks before (mid October) | Posts on general and deals outlets. A press release if you are launching something. |
| 2 weeks before (early November) | Early deals and content that can make it into News and Discover. |
| Black Friday week | Live content, daily updates to the landing page and stock. |
| After (Cyber Monday and Christmas) | The same landing page moves on to Cyber Monday and Christmas. Do not delete it: it will work again next year. |
One landing page, reused every year
The most expensive mistake is a new URL every year (/black-friday-2026/). Each
campaign starts from scratch and last year's links keep pointing at an expired page. The
alternative is a single URL with no year (/black-friday/) that you update:
- It builds authority: links from every campaign add up on the same page.
- It gets indexed sooner: Google already knows it, so new content ranks faster.
- It does not hide off season: it can stay up with a note about the next edition and a sign-up form for deal alerts.
Link to it from the home page and from the categories that will have deals, and point most of the campaign's external links at it.
SERP monopoly: holding several results for the same search
We have worked Black Friday with brands from very different industries for years, and one technique keeps working: the SERP monopoly. Instead of fighting for one position with your own site, you publish on several outlets that already rank for those searches, so your brand shows up in several results at once.
It works through volume and repetition, but above all through choosing the right outlets and dates. As the day gets closer, searches turn more transactional, and the news modules and Google Discover gain weight. In past campaigns we got into top stories and the organic results for the same search:
And during the week of the event, live articles take the top stories for product searches:
Bringing deals forward is an SEO strategy too
Black Friday stopped lasting one day a long time ago. Stores that bring their deals forward to early November, or even October, reach the media first: when everyone talks about discounts at the same time, it is hard for one more brand to stand out.
Getting ahead has three effects on organic visibility:
- More time to index: the landing page and its links are ranking when the search peak arrives.
- Less competition for coverage: in October outlets still have room and publish sooner.
- Mentions that stay: early deals articles keep linking to your site after the campaign.
Links and outlets: what to buy, when and where to point it
For a Black Friday campaign, links come down to three questions:
- When? All live before mid October, so Google has crawled them when the searches arrive.
- Where to? Most to the Black Friday landing page and the rest to the categories with the most deals. Not the home page: it already has plenty of authority.
- Which outlets? Outlets in your niche (tech, fashion, home) and general outlets with consumer or deals sections, which are the ones Google shows for those searches.
On budget, an outlet with up to 20,000 visits a month cost €81.25 per post on average in 2025, and one with over 200,000, €697.26. The full breakdown is in how much link building costs.
Check what your competitors do
Before choosing outlets, check where your competitors got links last year. The outlets linking to them in November are the first candidates for your campaign. You can see it for free with the backlink gap tool.
Get recommended by AI too
More and more shoppers ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity where to buy on Black Friday. Those answers are built from the sources they cite, and many are the same outlets that publish deals guides. Showing up on them works for Google and for AI at the same time. The AI visibility checker shows whether you are mentioned today, and LLM SEO explains how to work on it.
Black Friday campaign ideas
- A study or survey of your own with data from your industry: it is one of the things that earns the most links from the media (we explain it in how to use surveys and studies for coverage).
- A buying guide for your category, published on outlets in the niche.
- Early deals for subscribers, which make news before everyone else.
- A deals countdown or calendar on the landing page, updated every day, that gives people a reason to come back.
Frequently asked questions
When is Black Friday 2026?
Friday 27 November 2026. Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November.
When does the Black Friday campaign start?
For shoppers, in early November, when stores bring deals forward. For SEO, in September and October: that is when the landing page and the links need to be live.
How long does the Black Friday campaign last?
Most stores stretch it over several weeks, from early November to Cyber Monday, and many run it straight into the Christmas campaign.
