Here’s a fact: Jewelers operating with outdated websites are setting their businesses up for failure. Period. Unfortunately, this is something we see consistently at GemFind when jewelers ask us to help them get more customers. Many jewelers still don’t understand why they should update their website on a continuous basis. Which is why this is typically one of the first items we address when first partnering with a new client.
If your website is outdated and lagging behind, it’s time to do something about it. Otherwise, you’re missing out on plenty of potential sales. Ensuring your website is always relevant and up to date is crucial for providing the best user experience for potential customers.
Keep reading below to see why this should be considered a high priority for jewelers in any market!
An Up to Date Website Helps Boost & Maintain Google Rankings
When it comes to increasing your brand’s visibility online and driving more traffic to your store and website, getting your web pages to rank high on Google is critical.
However, because Google continuously modifies and adjusts their algorithms that determine these search results. These rules on what helps (or hurts) your web page’s rankings are constantly changing as well.
So, this means you must keep up with them.
Google Algorithm Updates
How do jewelers correctly update their website?
Well, in order to keep up with Google’s algorithm updates, you’ll need to make sure you’re always following what’s known as “best practices” to optimize your website’s pages.
For example, In the past, Google allowed pages that practiced something known as “keyword stuffing”. This practice meant packing a website full of keywords. Regardless of whether or not they were relevant to the page. This used to increase the page’s ranking on search results. However, after an algorithm update, keyword stuffing is no longer allowed. Pages who still follow this practice are actually penalized with lower rankings.
Google is also known to add “must-haves” for web pages they give authority to. For instance, it is now considered a best practice to include images with meta tags, internal links, and proper title tags throughout your web pages. You’ll also need to ensure your pages are optimized for mobile devices such as smartphones. This is because the rise in mobile users continues to increase each year. This ensures mobile traffic has a fast-loading and pleasant user experience when someone navigates to your website. Instead of a clunky, awkward, and difficult to use site that doesn’t translate well from the desktop version.
Jewelers who fail to keep their websites up to date with Google’s best practices will find themselves losing their rankings. Or in some cases, being left off the search engine entirely.
An Up to Date Website Ensures High User Engagement
As online user behavior continues to change, your website should be able to quickly adapt in order to offer the best experience to your target audience. This ensures you’re consistently engaging with new users. But most importantly, ensuring a pleasant and convenient experience. This is an aspect that will certainly reflect on your business as a whole, and leave a favorable impression.
Here’s a brief checklist of items jewelers should emphasize in order to keep user engagement high on their websites:
- Ensure your web pages load quickly.
- Place clear calls-to-action throughout your website
- Use more videos on your web pages. Pages with videos lead to conversions 30% more than pages without, according to WordStream.
- Provide value on your website such as educational content and eBooks.
While this is a great baseline to ensure your website is up to date, jewelers should keep in mind that it will likely need to be adjusted on an annual basis to adapt to evolving buyer behaviors.
Need to know more about maintaining a jewelry website? Download our FREE eBook!
The Easiest Way For Jewelers To Update Their Website
As you can see, there is a massive incentive to keeping your website updated consistently. However, some jewelers may not know where to start. Or may simply lack the time to maintain their website properly. This is why partnering with a team of experts is ideal.
At GemFind, we’ve been providing cutting-edge digital solutions for jewelers for 20 years. Our team of web design experts help jewelers update their website to ensure the best rankings. Our updates will ensure you’re following best practices on a consistent basis. And your traffic and sales will show it.
Keeping Your Website Up to Date Infographic: