Time-based information

On Thanksgiving, the only reason someone would possibly visit your grocery store’s Web site is to find out what your holiday hours are. And yet most local grocery store Web sites I’ve looked at aren’t promoting their holiday hours at all. They have regular store hours listed for each store, but no holiday hours at all.

Grocery stores and other businesses find their holiday hours important enough to have signs made up and posted at all the entrances. Posting a virtual sign on their site with holiday hours makes a lot of sense.

A good practice for Web sites is to highlight time-sensitive information. The tasks users are trying to complete often change depending on the dates and times they are accessing your site. Help them by putting the information they need right at their fingertips.