This is the Friday Jewelry Website Review to help you learn more about your own website by looking at a review from another jeweler's real website.For this week, I'm starting my Google search with the phrase "jewelry appraisers Saint Augustine, FL" to find my review candidate. The top 3 results are listings from the Yellow Pages and Yahoo Local, but after that, I see Carter's Jewelry as the top raking in the Google+ Local list.
Here's the website: http://www.cartersjewelry.net; you might want to open it up to follow along as you read this review.
With my first few glances at this site, I quickly recognize some old SEO strategies that should be phased out. It looks like they spent a lot of time following the same SEO plan that we all were a few years ago.
I'll dissect it and show you what's going on...
This is the link for their Diamonds page:
http://www.cartersjewelry.net/saint-augustine-fl-diamonds.htm
The headline on that page says "Saint Augustine, FL Diamonds"
That headline is using the H1 tag.
The Page Title for that page says "Diamonds Saint Augustine, FL - Carters Jewelry"
In the past, it was always a good idea to match the URL of your page, with the Page Title, and the H1 heading, actually this is still a good idea, but you should strive to be less forceful about the naming conventions. In this example, it might be better to leave out the "Saint Augustine, FL" parts and just call the page "Diamonds."
I would rebuild this page with these changes:
URL:http://www.cartersjewelry.net/diamonds.htm
HEADER: Your Place for Diamonds
PAGE TITLE: Diamonds and Diamond Jewelry at Carters Jewelry
I chose the heading of "Your Place for Diamonds" because that's actually their slogan and it makes sense to use that as their header on this page. This simple change might help them rank better for people searching for diamonds, however, this suggestion won't fully work unless they make another change to the footer of their website.
They need to add to the footer of their website their store name, address, and phone number. Having their address will help Google associate their site to Saint Augustine, which would them make it safe to remove the town name from the URL and the page heading.
Speaking of town names, every page of their site has a sub heading that says:
"Serving Ponte Vedra Beach, Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, Palatka, and Jacksonville, FL"
This is also an old SEO tactic to tell Google that you service those additional towns. Instead of placing them prominently at the top of the page like they are, they could include those town names in the footer as well. Honestly, even this tactic of town name stuffing into the footer might be a bad idea. I've recently seen different websites where this tactic worked and others where it didn't. If you use this tactic you should test out the effectiveness using Google's Chrome browser in incognito mode to see if you rank for those other town names.
Their jewelry repair page has a similar overuse of the town name:
http://www.cartersjewelry.net/saint-augustine-fl-repairs-appraisals-and-other-services.htm
The headline on that page says "Saint Augustine, FL Repairs, Appraisals, & Other Services"
That headline is using the H1 tag.
The Page Title for that page says "Repairs, Appraisals, & Other Services Saint Augustine, FL"
My issue here is the overuse of the town name and the generic use of repairs and appraisals.
What other industries provide repairs, appraisals, and other services? Auto mechanics and auto body repairs come to mind for me, and that's not something you should leave up to Google to figure out either.
Here's how I would rebuild this page:
URL:http://www.cartersjewelry.net/jewelry-repairs-appraisals-services.htm
HEADER: Expert Jewelry Repair While You Wait
PAGE TITLE: Jewelry Repairs, Jewelry Appraisals, and Other Jewelry Services at Carters Jewelry
The first real sentence of their body copy says "Expert Jewelry Repair while you wait with an appointment," which seems like a good headline that would make a customer happy to see.
By adding the word jewelry, I'm pretty sure Google won't ever confuse this page with an auto mechanic.
Another type of SEO issue I'm seeing is the use of images throughout their site that are nothing more than boxes with words. For example, on their home page they have a box that says "Graduate Gemologist, Experienced Watchmaker, and Jewelers on Staff." In the same box it also says "Diamond Specialist."
All of those phrases could help bolster their SEO efforts, but Google can't rank keywords that are embedded inside image. The better tactic would be to use simple HTML with colors and font sizes to create the same box shape with Google readable text inside.
That's it for this week's basic review.
FTC Notice: I randomly choose this website and won't be telling the retailer jeweler that I'm doing a review. Unless someone else tells them, they will only find out about this review if they examine their Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. I'm not doing this to solicit business from them, but rather as an educational exercise for everyone. This review is completely impartial and all my comments are listed in the order that I discovered them.
