The Internet is not not just limited to websites any more. In fact, the everyday normal website is slowly being replaced by social sites and various online services.
A few years ago, if you wanted to put all your jewelry store information online you would have to figure out how to do it all, or hire a company that could do it all.
Do you have videos on your website? Previously, you needed to manage video content on your own and have a hosting account capable of handling that huge video bandwidth. Now that process is much easier with YouTube.
Do you have testimonials on your website? Previously, you needed to ask people to write testimonials and mail them to you. Now you can ask people to write online reviews on Google Places or Yep. You can even capture tweets about your site and post them on your website.
Facebook allows you to interact with your customer on a personal level the likes of which didn't exist just a few years ago.
If you want to sell online, you are no longer limited to putting your products on your website only. Instead, you have many opportunities to load your inventory into other product websites.
Websites like Picasa, Flickr and DailyBooth allow people to post photos every day. You could be using these systems to post random photos of your store and products.
With all these new methods of information publishing, the search engines needed to figure out how to return search results. Each of the systems above represents a new type of advertising medium and a new level of complexity that needs to be analyzed.
In late 2009, Google started transforming their search results page into something that would return as many diverse results as possible. They called it Universal Search.
For the jewelry industry, best example we can tell you is to search for the phrase "engagement ring."
The SERP for this phrase should return a map, list of local stores, latest news, product images, brands, websites and sometimes even videos. This is a "Universal Search Results Page."
If you then search for "diamond engagement rings" you will see far fewer diverse examples, perhaps only including website and products.
As you move forward with your online marketing, you need to consider getting involved with various photo, video and social media systems. The more you are involved with, the more chances your website will attract organic traffic.
Get started slowly; this is a daunting task.
