By: Brant Buckley 1/17/25
Here is how I created an international Christmas Pop-Up Bars website, xmaspopupbars.com, and brought in 43,000 organic visitors within a month and half’s time of the site’s launch. The website launched September 24th, 2024, and by mid-November most of Xmas Pop-Up Bar’s pages ranked high atop Google and Safari. Nearly all 43,000 people visited the website within the month of December 2024. Ranking on Safari’s search engine may be more important than Google, as most web traffic comes in from an iPhone these days.
I did not use any keyword research tools; Ahrefs, Semrush, or Keywords Everywhere. The organic traffic was achieved by using common sense, thinking like my target demographic, viewing the competition, using unique keyword phrases, and writing excellent content. Also, results were achieved without using any backlinks.
Another note regarding SEO; Tracking visitor numbers through Google Analytics is not 100% accurate. Devices that are not setup to be tracked will not be traced in Analytics. Also, SEO is not an exact science and search results vary from person to person and by location. For example, if two people living in the same house search for Christmas Bars in Google or Safari, results will vary. SEO is a lot like fishing, you have to be at the right place at the right time. 43,000 people visited xmaspopupbars.com because there’s a need for an Xmas Bars Hub website; a go to destination for all things Christmas Bar related for the 21-35 age demographic.
The website is cleanly designed, accessible, mobile friendly, and the content is easily readable with links out to Christmas Bars. Also, the website isn’t filled with garbage ads making for a viewing nightmare. Its web soul remains intact.
My initial goal was to create the largest website for all things relating to Xmas Pop-Up Bars around the country and to spread Christmas spirit and joy. I wanted to create a tool where Xmas party goers have the ability to access bar information in one centralized spot.
Currently, most Christmas Bar events are featured, written about, and advertised on conglomerate marketing agency websites and news websites. As a generalization, I found the content to be spread apart, not easily viewable/readable, and the page design is usually cut with a third of the page going towards spammy ads and other things. Xmaspopupbars is simple and retains its dignity and soul.
All of the cities are easily readable on the homepage and within each city page, I condensed all of the content for visual ease in the following order: City H1 Title Tag, Christmas Bar H2 Title Tag, Photo, Paragraph explanation, and a Button linking to each event. Everything is in a gridded fashion and every part of the page is utilized to inform the viewer and not spam them.
While researching and building, I knew there were going to be a lot of search ranking opportunities as seasonal websites fall into a niche category. I assumed people would search engine query phrases like Christmas Pop-Up Bars, Christmas Bars, Christmas Bars Near Me, Christmas Pop-Ups Near Me, Christmas Events, etc. While researching Chicago Christmas Bars, the following Google results appeared: 17 Holiday Pop-Up Bars & Experiences in Chicago, Frosty’s- Chicago’s Original Christmas Bar, 37 Holiday Pop-Ups & Bars in Chicago, New Holiday Pop-Up Bars in Chicago 2024-2025, etc.
For each city, I searched and collected Google Page Titles already ranking and put the main results into an Excel document. I brainstormed keyword ideas for each city and placed my creative ideas in a separate Excel document.
Another side note. I purposely chose a domain name with the word Xmas in it to differentiate and stand out from everyone else.
I purposely made the H1 Title Tag on each city page different from the Google Search Page Title. For example, Chicago’s H1 Title Tag is simply Chicago and the Google Search Page Title is 38 Amazing Chicago Christmas Pop-Up Bars This Holiday Season. I did this for ease of use. Each city page is clearly labeled without using extraneous words. Long and lengthy on page descriptions are completely overrated and overused. Personally, I feel it sometimes ruins the reading experience. Also, I purposely labeled domain URL extensions with just the city name after the backslash.
I spent a lot of time learning about how Christmas Bars were advertised on other websites and how the content and writing style affected me. I wanted my content to be a little different. I ended up creating 3-4 impactful sentences with some real writing feel for each event. I purposely included bar event addresses within the content paragraph section located at the very end. The red/green buttons take the viewer to a ticket page or an event info page.
Here are four examples of SEO page names I created. The Greatest New York City Christmas Pop-Up Bars, 38 Amazing Chicago Christmas Pop-Up Bars This Holiday Season, The Top Los Angeles Christmas Pop-Up Bars, and 17 Boston Christmas Pop-Up Bars.
People are obsessed with and love numbers, so I added numbers into some of the page titles.
By early November 2024, I ranked at the top of Google Search for New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston. Chicago is a competitive Christmas city, but still ranked well. The website features 21 cities and many of them ranked very high. I am only showing four cities here.
Google Search Optimization is more than having great page title names and web content. I clearly labeled and named image files and compressed them for fast page load speed. I wrote enticing Alt tags for each picture. The website is mobile responsive and I wrote clear, descriptive meta tags. All of this is important for Google SEO.
Meta data is the information within Google Search that appears under the main blue title header. It is the paragraph text information about a web page. Here is what I wrote for New York City’s meta data section. New York City Christmas Pop-Up Bars include Miracle On 9th Street, Frosty's Christmas Bar, Santa's Winter Wonderland, Igloos at Bryant Park, Oscar Wilde, ...
My main goal during the 2024 holiday season was to build the website, make it as great as possible, and add as many cities as I could. I had no idea Google SEO and Safari SEO would take effect within 40 days. The web traffic of 43,000 visitors mostly coming in December 2024 exceeded my wildest expectations.
The data results tracked through Google Analytics really surprised me. The top viewed pages for the 2024 holiday season were Milwaukee, Boston, Los Angeles, Denver, and Seattle. I really thought Chicago and New York City would lead in page views as they are the biggest Christmas towns. Chicago came in 8th place and New York City didn’t even crack the top 10.
I really believe Search Engine Optimization is about using common sense rational thinking, living inside your client’s web shoes, and thinking how they will query search. Basic research, thinking like Google Search, writing great content, having a great website, and standing out and being different from your competition helped me organically bring in visitors. Also, having a widespread number of cities within the U.S. and Canada brought in viewers from all over the world. Google Search is one big popularity contest and the more pages you have, the better. Consistent updates are good too, as well as having a blog.
My goal for the 2025-2026 Christmas season is to keep building and improving the site. I will see where it organically takes me. I am not exactly sure what Xmas Pop-Up Bars will become as the project is all very new and unknown. We shall see.
© Brant Buckley Web Design LLC2024