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In yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget, we covered the topic of writing quality descriptions on your product pages. Today we're taking a step back and would like to talk about the category/section landing pages of your online catalog.
Small online product catalogs with fewer than 50 jewelry items may not actually have categories set up. It's a matter of general presentation because if only 50 items are split into categories of rings, engagement rings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, men's rings, and watches, your entire catalog might look a little bleak. Surely the rings category would have the most items, but the other categories would look under-represented. It's better to show 10 pages of 10 items or 5 pages of 20 items instead of anemic categories.
Let's say you do have more than 50 items on your website, perhaps even more than 100. At that point your customers will get frustrated with an uncategorized list of pages, so you need to split them up.
Once split up, you have to create another type of navigation. You could list all your categories as a sub-navigation menu, or you can create sets of category navigation screens. The navigation is easy to do, but those category navigation screens can also add SEO value to your website when done correctly.
Many jewelry websites don't take the time needed to build correct category pages; in fact, many are only a list of product links with thumbnails. Sometimes there will be a sentence or two of content on those category pages, but that's not enough.
You really need to create full descriptions for each jewelry category. Try to think of something unique to say about each category; use the content writing ideas we presented yesterday to help you.
If you'd like to be more interesting, you can split your catalog up into designer lines instead of generic jewelry categories. Instead of having rings, necklaces, and pendants you could have the "Thistle and Bee collection." That category would certainly lend itself to a more in depth introductory description.
The bottom line of today's Nugget is to realize that your in-store customer service needs to be represented online. Would you allow a customer to walk into your jewelry store and look at case after case of jewelry without a single spoken word to explain what they are looking at? That would not be good customer service, yet that how most online jewelry catalogs present themselves.
If this seems overwhelming to you, give JewelerWebsites.com a call.
