Halloween is upon us. So, it’s time to use the cheer and social energy behind the celebrations to our advantage. However, just some small gesture won’t do. Just like with your house decoration, if you want to get noticed, you need to go all in on the holiday. Otherwise, you’d be just like this averagely decorated house that puts some effort only to stay with the trend. You don’t want that. You want your business to be the center of attention at all times. Mostly during festivities, when people are most prone to open their wallets and spend. This is the time when you can make bank, and you should definitely not miss out on the opportunity.

So, how do you make your website the center of attention? How do you ensure customers will feel ready to treat rather than trick? Well, there are at least 10 things you can do to ensure your website is as spooky as it is alluring.

Let’s check them out.

Why Do You Need Redecoration?

You might be doubtful about whether the redecorating of your website for Halloween is worth the effort. That’s a valid concern. After all, this is predominantly a child’s holiday, and they are not within your target audience. However, just like most marketing strategies, you are not simply giving an offer, you are playing with your audience’s emotions. In this case, you are playing upon their memories and nostalgia from their childhood.

Furthermore, customers expect to see the decorations. Sure, on paper, they won’t make their economic decision based on whether a website is decorated. Still, there will undoubtedly be a dose of disappointment when they don’t see a Halloween decoration. You don’t want such an association with your website. On the contrary, whenever someone enters, you want them to feel excitement, wonder, and a bit of urgency.

That’s another benefit from the decoration. Everyone knows that Halloween is just one night. Ever since we were children, we knew that there was one night of candy, freedom, and unobstructed mischief and fun. Now, as grown-ups, although this holiday doesn’t have the same implementations, we still have a subconscious feeling of urgency. We were wired to consider the 1st of November as the end of a season, with the 31st of October being the culmination of a week-long preparation. So, as a business, you can take advantage of this conditional way of thinking.

Finally, going the extra mile of redecorating your website will give your website a fresh look, which, if done correctly, will spark a flair in your audience, resulting in higher engagement, increased conversion rate, and ultimately better results.

So, let’s talk about how to redecorate your website for Halloween.

Change Your Color Scheme

Marketing experts usually frown upon changing your website’s color scheme, and for a good reason. Your color scheme is considered part of your branding. The idea is for the user to know precisely where they are by seeing the colors and nothing more.

Still, Halloween is the time of year when we put on masks, and it’s quite fitting to surprise your customers with a more festive color scheme. Pick up something that reflects the overall holiday – orange, green, black, or yellow. This will instantly Halloween-ify your look.

Searching on the internet, you will find copless amounts of suggestions to change your entire theme with a Halloween one for a week or two. This can work, however, only if you don’t put too much customization on your website. If you added additional CSS or made changes via a page builder, then a new theme will either mess up your delicately balanced outlook or take significant time to adjust.

Then, there is the option of creating a single page and placing it as the homepage for a week or two. This, however, will create a disconnect with your other pages, which will be much worse than simply not doing anything.

So, the best solution is to simply change the color scheme from the Customize panel on your WordPress. Yes, this solution is available only for WordPress websites. Most WP themes allow updating the color palette instantly through the Appearance -> Customize panel. So, go there, change the look, and ensure your customers will be greeted by a spookier atmosphere for Halloween.

Add Halloween Themed Fonts

The next step is to change your fonts. This is a great way to show that the spirit of Halloween has taken root on your website. However, make sure not to overdo it. Some websites will instantly slap the new font across the website, making the reading highly difficult and unpleasant. Just imagine setting the creepster font for all your content. This would be a nightmare and not the fun kind.

Instead, change some key sections with the new font. For example, all H2 headings can be transformed with a new creepy look. The Hero section is also a must, as you’d want the users to get into a festive mood from the very top.

Most importantly, however, don’t use more than one Halloween-themed font.

Now, you may wonder where you can find such fonts in such a short notice. Well, Google, of course. They offer some pretty cool Halloween fonts. You can search them under the “Display” or “Handwriting” categories. Or you can simply use one of the following, which we find most compelling:

• Creepster
• Flavors
• Butcherman
• Eater
• Frijole
• Nosifer

Make Your Logo Scary

Now, this will take a bit more effort and/or money. Refurbishing your logo for the Halloween festivities is a branding goldmine. Rarely anyone would notice your logo more than when it’s spooky and out of the ordinary. Usually, logos aim to be clean, to the point, and to showcase the brand’s main business. Come Halloween, this idea takes a twisted turn for a hilarious result. It’s almost as if brands compete on how to make their logo funnier and spookier.

Take Google for example. Each year, they join the Halloween topic with both a different logo and a doodle. So, follow their lead and refurbish your logo to reflect the holiday spirit.

Now, here comes the hard part. There is no service that can easily transform your logo into a Halloween-themed joke. So, you can take one of two approaches. Firstly, you can do it yourself through Canva, Photoshop or Illustrator. This, however, requires some knowledge of how to use these programs. Also, it will take some time.

The other option is to find a freelancer to take care of this for you. Upwork or Fiverr is a great place to look for a suitable candidate to make the changes for as little as 50 bucks. Just don’t get tempted to go for a $5 solution. You will simply lose 5 bucks in the process. Pay for quality, and you will get quality.

So, do some brainstorming and decide how to make your logo Halloween-themed and funny at the same time. Then, ask a freelancer to make the changes.

Go Halloween With Your Non-Essential Images

Before you ask, no, not all images should be changed to Halloween-themed jokes. Your images are essential to your SEO efforts, so changing them can disrupt your results. Thus, don’t make too many changes to your content. Still, some images, like vectors and social media icons, can be a great place to further Halloween- ify your website.

In fact, changing these non-essential pictures with Halloween-themed counterparts will draw significant attention to them. So, make sure to create a plan. If you want to draw attention to your brand’s benefits, make sure to change your visuals there. If you want to enlarge your social media audience, go for the SM icons. Finally, you can even go on to create a custom Halloween-ish CTA button, though that has never been proven to drive higher results on its own. In theory, however, this will draw the user’s attention to the CTA.

Once again, there is no easy way to Halloween-ify these icons. You can find some ready icons of social media online, but be careful when using them, as they may be licensed. On the other hand, you can also go for a graphic designer and ask them to do the job for you. It won’t be as expensive as you may think, especially using platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.

Make a Halloween Themed Hero Section

The point of refurbishing your website is to create an initial buzz and to set the mood. And since the Hero section will be the first thing users see on your website, it’s only logical to redesign it in the spirit of the holiday.

If done correctly, this will instantly decrease your bounce rate, as people will be interested in finding other hidden hilarious changes. Furthermore, this will drive your SEO score up and increase engagement.

What image you will place and what the joke will be entirely depends on you. However, don’t make it scary in a mean way. Don’t place jump scares or other mean-spirited pranks. Make it funny, harmless, and something that will make your audience giggle rather than scream in fear. You want them to have a good time, not to be scared out of their mind.

Now, such an image can be created easily through Canva, where there are countless templates you can just fill out. You can also use a layout if you use a premium page builder or theme.

Finally, you can do one yourself with a page builder. If you have a dedicated team that takes care of your website, this would be the best course of action, as the result will be unique, and while Halloween-ish, it will still be on brand. However, if you’re a one-person show, investing the time into building your perfect hero, which you will use for only 2 weeks, is a waste of time. Grab a template and make it your own. It’s much faster and easier.

Post Blogs With Halloween-Related Topics

This one is self-explanatory. Divert your regularly scheduled blog post content with a Halloween special, just like most TV shows. What the content will be about depends entirely on your business and products. It can be something like you’re reading right now. It should be something that will pique your audience’s interest.

Now, there is a catch here. If you are planning to use this content for the Halloween organic traffic campaign, you are a bit too late for this year. Google usually takes 3 to 6 months to rank your content. So, posting one now is pointless if you want to rank for Halloween-specific terms. Still, it’s a great idea for next year.

The point of the Halloween-related topic is to drive engagement inside your community. So, make sure to share this content through all your channels. E-mails are particularly useful in this regard.

Most importantly, make your blog post and content useful. Don’t publish something just for the sake of using the buzzword of the month. Be helpful so people will spend time on your website and feel the need to redirect to your other content or pages.

Trick Or Treat Promotion

While in the spirit of the holiday, don’t forget to monetize your efforts. Running a Halloween promotion or a Trick or Treat game is the most effective and on-topic way to capitalize on your efforts.

The Halloween discount is basically a must. If you show a holiday spirit, you must give your customers special deals. However, you can go a step further with promoting a game. In the spirit of the holiday, you can make it a trick-or-treat contest. For example, the user pics three boxes. The first two are some hilarious messages, videos, or images implying that the customer got tricked. Then, the third box gives them a limited-time discount on some or all products.

Make sure, no matter what the game is, that each user wins at the end. The point is not to play a game but to make an elaborate and entertaining discount marketing campaign.

Finally, you can also start a contest. A great example would be asking your community to share pictures of your product in a Halloween setting or costume. The one that gets the most likes will earn a predetermined prize. This way, you will receive an enormous engagement boost while saving on the prize cost.

Ultimately, it all depends on your product and vision. Put your imagination to work.

Add Scary Pop-ups

The next step is to take some tips from horror movies and create a jumpscare of sorts. Pop-ups are the perfect solution. Still, tune it down. The point is not to scare your audience literally. It’s to make them laugh.

This is the perfect place to put your Halloween offer right after the initial “scare.”

Now, it’s essential to know your audience. This will tell you when the pop-up window should pop up. If you rely on this pop-up as your Halloween decoration, it’s wise to place it right after the user lands on your page. However, if your hero section and logo are also on topic, let the user enjoy them and set off the pop-up once they start scrolling or if they spent a minute on your website.

Finally, you can also use an exit strategy. For example, when someone tries to leave your page, a pop-up can say, “No, so fast. You can never leave. At least not until you receive our X% discount”.

Designed with Halloween graphics, this won’t be as aggressive as the usual exit pop-ups, so the results should be much better.

Halloween Decorations

Then there are the Halloween decorations. These are the easiest ways to bring some Halloween spirit to your website. They are also the bare minimum you should do.

There are several plugins that will help you create a festive setting for your website. Whether we are talking about flying witches, falling jack-o-lanterns, or a simple Halloween countdown clock, this small decoration will ensure your customers will feel the Halloween cheer on your website. Still, to be honest, they are not the most effective marketing tool, so using them alone will only put you on par with your competitors. It won’t help you achieve any outstanding results alone.

Add Halloween Sounds

Finally, you can also add some spooky sounds to your website. Once again, make sure it’s not irritating screams or anything that would instantly scare users and put them off the buying mood. Try to add some cheeky sound effects like screeching doors, witch cackles, spooky melodies, or anything else that makes you laugh.

You can find a specific WordPress plugin that does that, but you can also find particular tunes through Google and play them via the Audio Album plugin.

Just make sure you add a button that stops the music. Some users may find it irritating, and although they will understand the “trick,” if they can’t turn off the sounds, they won’t stick around for the “treat.”

So, tread carefully when it comes to audio effects on your website.

Some final thoughts

Of course, all these changes will make your website a bit heavier. This means your audience will have to load some additional files to ensure your website is running. However, the point of the endeavor is to receive an initial response. If the flying witches show up a minute after the user is on your website, it will simply showcase how slow your website is. Needless to say, you must ensure your website infrastructure can handle these modifications and, of course, the expected influx of customers.

HostArmada is the best partner you can ask for. We offer lightning-fast website loading time, top-of-the-line security, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Moreover, we give our users a generous buffer, so if they have a sudden surge in visitors, their website won’t crash.

So, before making your Halloween special, consider the infrastructure you need to support it. Check out our plans and choose the one that best suits your needs. There are no tricks here—just treats.