Black Friday SEO in the Age of AI Search. What Still Works, and What’s New

I joined Edward Sturm on his show with Gagan Ghotra and David Quaid to talk about one thing: SEO for Black Friday.

It's one of my favourite topics because it's SEO on hard mode. You get one weekend a year. You can't really test. The SERP changes the week of. And now there's a second layer: people are asking ChatGPT, AI Mode and Claude which TV, jacket or mattress to buy before they ever open Google.

This page is my write-up of the episode. My own takes lead, and the best ideas from Gagan and David are credited to them. I've split it into what you can still do before Black Friday and what you should start in February so next year is easier.

SEO is a displacement sport, and Black Friday is the hardest version of it

David said it best on the show: SEO is a displacement sport. You're not publishing into empty space. You're trying to push someone else off page one.

That's why my answer to “when should Black Friday pages go live?” is as early as possible.

Here's the rhythm I like:

• Right after Black Friday and Cyber Monday: keep the page live and update the dates for next year.
• February to March: look at what sold, what other sales run through the year, and optimize the page properly.
• Through the summer: build authority to it (more on links below).
• The week of: watch the SERP and the AI answers like a hawk.

David made another good point. Because Black Friday only happens once a year, you get almost no feedback if you publish late. If you're late this year, publish anyway. You're building your own data for next year, and keyword tools won't give you that data, because most of them are built on ad data.

The week of Black Friday, the SERP changes

Starting early doesn't mean you can forget about it.

Take a query like Black Friday deals + [product category]. You might rank #1 for months. Then, from about the Monday before Black Friday, news articles and gift guides start showing up, and in some markets they land in Top Stories. Your category page isn't going to outrank them.

So the question becomes: how do you get into the articles that are ranking?

Two options:

1. Press releases. Announce your Black Friday sale. I've seen companies do this and it gives them more chances to rank. (More on how to write them below.)
2. Sponsored content. A few years ago we did all the basics right. We started optimizing in February, then the SERP got taken over by publishers anyway. So we bought a sponsored article on a smaller US publisher network for under $1,000 and got it published the Friday before Black Friday. It worked really well at the time. That network has since been hit by algorithm updates after parasite SEO abuse, so I wouldn't copy that exact placement. The principle still stands, though: look at what's ranking that week and find a way onto those pages.

Own your “brand + Black Friday” and “brand + discount” queries

This is the simplest win on the list, and a lot of brands miss it.

If someone searches Nike Black Friday deals or Nike discount code, who's ranking? Often it's coupon sites that scrape codes, invent fake ones, or earn affiliate commission on your traffic. In the free version of ChatGPT especially, I see a lot of spammy coupon sites getting cited.

You need to own your own name. Make a deals or discount page for your brand. It protects your branded query, and if you run an affiliate program, it stops you paying commission on people who were already looking for you.

David added a good layer to this. People are going to use AI to say “find me a deal for [brand].” If you don't work with Rakuten, Honey or a cashback partner, say so on the page. Otherwise the AI may just recommend a competitor who does.

You don't need a deal to rank for Black Friday

I made a TikTok about this. Ahrefs doesn't run Black Friday deals, but they still have a page that ranks for the term. It explains that they don't do Black Friday sales, and it catches the search anyway.

This works for any SaaS or brand that doesn't discount. People searching [software] Black Friday deal are in buying mode. A simple page that says “We don't run seasonal discounts, but our annual plan saves you X%” catches that intent and gives them a reason to buy now.

You don't need a special offer. You just need to answer the question.

“Black Friday + category + deals” pages, without going overboard

Gagan shared a format I love because anyone can copy it:

For example, Black Friday activewear deals for women. Before the Helpful Content Update, affiliate publishers owned these SERPs. Now Google often prefers the brand's own page. So even niche e-commerce brands can rank a bottom-of-funnel page that just lists their own discounts.

Gagan also suggested offering more discount tiers than you think you need, around 8–10 instead of 3 or 4. If someone asks ChatGPT for a 40% off deal and you don't have one, you probably won't show up.

But here's my warning. On the show I pulled up site:adidas.com/black-friday. They have pages like Black Friday 2026 hockey jerseys deals, outdoor clothes deals, women's rain jackets deals, and so on.

With AI, it's now very easy to make a Black Friday page for every category. That's exactly why you shouldn't do it without thinking.

Ask yourself:

• Do you already have a deals section? If you already have a windbreaker jacket deals page, you probably don't need a separate Black Friday windbreaker deals page. Optimize the one you have for Black Friday terms.
• Will Google even index it in time? Big brands get crawled quickly. If you're a smaller site making pages a week before Black Friday, they might not get indexed at all.
• Has someone who knows SEO reviewed the URLs? Get a specialist to check how new pages fit your site structure before you publish them.

David's quick check for this: search your target query plus site:yourdomain.com. If the wrong page shows up, or a page about the topic that doesn't mention Black Friday, you're cannibalizing yourself. Run the same check on a competitor's domain. If they're cannibalizing, that's your opening.

Product attributes are your AI comparison-shopping copy

This Black Friday, more people will use AI to compare products than ever before. That's not a bold prediction. AI is just part of how people shop now.

When someone asks “is this jacket waterproof or just water-resistant?” or “how many metres is this watch waterproof?”, the page with the clearest product attributes has the best chance of being used in the answer.

This matters most if you're a reseller. Say you're a Canadian sports store selling an adidas t-shirt. You're competing with department stores and with adidas.com itself. The page that explains the product best (cotton? breathable? stretch?) gives itself the best chance.

A few rules:

• Don't copy the manufacturer's description. If you import furniture and put your own brand on it, rewrite the copy. Add the exact measurements.
• Include anything that helps someone decide. Not every spec, just the ones that get people over the line.
• This isn't new. Unique, accurate, detailed product descriptions have been SEO best practice forever. They just matter more now.

Gagan shared a good test. A running shoe wasn't showing up in AI Mode or ChatGPT for “is this good for running in the rain?” because the page barely mentioned it. He added that information to the page, and they started seeing ChatGPT visitors buying the product. His advice: list the top five things people check before buying your product, and make sure the page answers each one.

Personalization is the next layer (a theory)

I'm in Vancouver. When I ask logged-out ChatGPT for the best running shoes on sale, the answer is tailored to my location: grip, rain, wet weather.

So here's a theory worth testing. Look at where your customers are. If 80% of your running shoe buyers are in California, Nevada and Arizona, your product attributes should probably look different from a brand like Vessi, whose customers might be mostly in the Pacific Northwest.

Put financing and BNPL offers in the text

Think about your market. In the US it might be Klarna or Afterpay. In the UK there's Frasers Plus. Lots of people will look for buy now, pay later options on Black Friday.

The mistake I see is that the BNPL option only appears as a widget or a logo inside the product image. That's not enough to tell people, or algorithms, that you offer it. Write it on the page in plain text.

The same goes for interest-free offers. Plenty of furniture retailers make interest-free financing their Black Friday hook. If that's your hook, make sure it's written on the page.

Gagan pushed this further with a client in credit cards. They added a simple table on an existing page showing that the main competitor's card doesn't work at 23 specific stores and 10 airports. ChatGPT started repeating that information when people asked about the competitor's card. Two notes: add this kind of information to existing pages, and don't mass-produce us vs. them pages. That won't last.

Neutral comparison guides get cited before people are ready to buy

This builds on the product attributes point.

People are going to compare technologies, not just brands. Take TVs: most people don't know the difference between QLED, OLED and Neo QLED. And that's the real decision on Black Friday: the $2,500 OLED that's down from $5,000, or the $1,000 Neo QLED?

Samsung has a guide on one of its sites that explains the differences between its own TV types. It doesn't compare Samsung with LG or Sony. It just explains the technology. When someone researches this in an LLM and the model searches the web, that page gets cited.

I've seen the same with an HVAC filter company that explains MERV vs HEPA filters on its own site. No brand comparison, just useful knowledge.

These are top-of-funnel pages. We've been making them for SEO forever, but they have new value in AI search, because they're how you influence the answer before someone has decided to buy from you.

David added a smart angle: think about who is buying. Best TVs for apartments (glare, bass that annoys the neighbours) is much easier to rank for than best TV Black Friday, and it's exactly the kind of sub-question that shows up when AI breaks a query into smaller searches (query fan-out).

One caution from Gagan: don't promise executives direct ROI from these guides. They work over time, as people research in LLMs, and they rarely get many clicks themselves.

Get creators talking about your products

People search [product name] reviews on Google, in AI tools, and on TikTok and Instagram. If you're selling a jacket or a TV this Black Friday, make sure there's video of real people talking about it.

It's not too late, but the sooner you invest, the better. Edward pointed out that micro-creators are cheap and often don't realise how well their posts rank. Ask them to put your target keyword in the description.

David's tip: put a link to the product page in the first line of the YouTube description. LLMs read descriptions, and some of them, like Grok, will even summarise the whole video.

Be careful with Reddit right now

Everyone has heard that “you need to be on Reddit to show up in AI.” Here's the other side.

I've seen a well-known Canadian law firm try to do Reddit the right way. Their social media lead wanted a branded subreddit with genuinely helpful information. He created it, and the next day it was suspended. He tried again with a different name, and that one was banned too. Nothing had been posted on either one, and he made them from his own account, which had years of genuine posts in Canadian communities.

David, who moderates subreddits, confirmed that Reddit is cracking down hard on spam right now and catching legitimate brands too. If you get banned, there's no undo button.

What to do instead:

• Gagan: at least claim your exact-brand-name subreddit so no one else can, even if you never post in it.
• Gagan: check what ChatGPT and AI Mode pull from Reddit about your brand, especially the negative threads. Address those points on your own website. Mods often delete brand replies in threads, so your own pages are the safer place.
• David: a /reddit page on your own site (for example, yourbrand.com/reddit) can rank for [brand] reddit searches and show you what people are researching.

Press releases: lead with the keyword, not your brand

David's rule: most people write press releases about their brand. A Black Friday press release should help you rank where your own site can't, so lead with the search term.

During the show I found a perfect example. Mattress Firm put out a release on PR Newswire whose headline started with “best Black Friday mattress deals”, with the brand name at the end. I searched best Black Friday 2026 mattress deals, and the release was on page one.

Two more tips:

• Gagan: if you pay a publisher for a Black Friday feature, ask for it on a normal news URL, not their affiliate subfolder (like /fashion/deals). He's seen AI Overviews and ChatGPT skip those subfolders because they're clearly made for affiliate content.
• David: you don't need an Edelman-sized budget. Start with $2,000–$4,000, test several versions across different wires, and see what ranks.

Links: partnerships if you're late, category pages if you're early

If you're building links in the last few weeks, you want them from publications people actually read. That means partnerships and affiliates, not buying links to your Black Friday page.

If you start in February, you can do it properly. Build links through the summer to your category pages, not just the Black Friday page. Do that every year and it compounds.

Keep your feed and your page in sync

This came up after I left, but it's too important to skip. Gagan's point: the prices and discounts in your Merchant Center feed must match what's on the page. If your page says 20% off and your feed says 30%, that product can get disapproved. These same product blocks now appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, so mismatches hurt more than before.

Agentic checkout isn't your Black Friday problem (yet)

Gagan says almost every client is asking about agentic purchases, meaning buying directly inside ChatGPT or AI Mode. His estimate is that it'll be well under 1% of purchases this Black Friday. People still want to buy from the merchant they trust, not hand their card to a chatbot for a $2,000 TV.

What is changing is research. People will compare in AI and then buy through Google or directly from you. So check that your tracking works. Gagan has seen developers vibe-coding Shopify pages with AI and breaking the analytics scripts without noticing.

Black Friday is your chance to get a seat at the table

This is the point I care about most.

Companies often choose Black Friday products based on what worked last year. But interest changes. Stanley cups were everywhere last year and much less this year. Brands that bet on the same product again won't get the same results.

As SEOs, we have Google Trends, keyword tools and Search Console. We know what people are searching for right now. Use that data to tell the business which products are trending, which deserve a discount, and which have low conversion rates.

Get that right and the people above you will notice. David put it well: if you can present the data, your seat at the table is guaranteed. If you can interpret it, you'll get promoted.

What I'd do this week vs. what I'd start in February

Before Black Friday (still doable)

1. Check your [brand] + Black Friday / deals / discount code queries in Google and ChatGPT. If you don't own them, publish the page.
2. Add Black Friday terms to your existing deals and category pages before making new ones.
3. Run the site: check on your top Black Friday queries for cannibalization.
4. Fill in the product attributes buyers ask about on your best-selling products.
5. Write BNPL, financing and free delivery details as text on the page.
6. Make sure your Merchant Center feed matches your pages.
7. Search your money terms the Monday before. If publishers own the SERP, push out a keyword-led press release.
8. Check that your analytics and UTMs fire correctly on every new page.

After Cyber Monday (for 2027)

1. Keep the Black Friday URL live and update the year in the title, not the slug.
2. In February, review what sold and re-optimize.
3. Build links to your category pages through the summer.
4. Publish neutral comparison guides for the decisions your buyers face.
5. Line up creator content well before October.
6. Bring trend data to the merchandising team before they pick the products.

Good SEO is still good Black Friday SEO

None of this is a secret AI hack. Owning your brand query, clear product information, good comparison content, sensible site structure, real PR and real links have always been good SEO.

What's changed is that AI tools reward the brands that did the basics properly, and they surface the gaps of the ones that didn't. As Gagan said on the show, a lot of strategy is just spotting the gaps your competitors left and moving into them.

If you want a second pair of eyes on your Black Friday pages, or you want to start properly for next year, let's talk.

Thanks to Edward Sturm for having me, and to Gagan Ghotra and David Quaid for a great conversation.