This is the special Friday Website Review Edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal of this weekly exercise is to find a random retail jeweler's website that can have both its design and search engine optimization dissected so we can learn from it.I always use Google's Chrome browser in incognito mode to search for a random jeweler. The incognito mode allows me to do a web search without tainting the search results by my personal browsing and search history. By removing my personal search history, I'm able to find a retail jeweler the same way a real customer would.
This week I'm looking for a jeweler in Tacoma, Washington. In Chrome I decided to search for "jewelers in Tacoma," leaving off the word Washington or the abbreviation WA. I'm including the entire list of 12 SERP results below.
Click it to view it larger:
Normally I look for a retail jeweler in the SERP rather than a chain store. I typically avoid the chain stores because of my simple assumption that they can afford the money for a good looking website and I think you would rather see a website review of a smaller retail jeweler who has a similar website budget to your own.
Looking at the options from the list above, my first choice was LeRoy Jewelers. I checked out their Yelp page and read a few of their reviews before clicking over to their http://ljewelers.com/ website.
This is their website:
I'm not kidding. That was their 1-page website. If I was really shopping for jewelry, this site would not be of any help to me.
So I moved on...
The next jewelry website in the SERP is Larkin Jewelers. Their site is here:
http://www.larkinjewelers.com/
This is what their home page looks like:
This is a 4 page website that they created with the hibu.com service. Hibu.com is an easy to use system that allows you to create a website for free. All you need to do is spend the time learning their system and then figure out what should be on your website. So that means "free" is really the cost of your personal time making the website. These free systems can really work, but you do need to put a lot of your time into them because no one is going to help you. My feeling is that you, the jewelry store owner, are more qualified to be selling engagement rings on the sales floor than spending your time figuring out a website like this.
If I was really shopping for jewelry, this simple 4-page website would not be of any help to me.
So I moved on...
The next jeweler shown in the SERP is Carlson Brothers Jewelry. Their site is here:
http://www.carlson-jewelry.com/
If you click he link above you will notice that you are redirected to this address:
https://sites.google.com/a/carlson-jewelry.com/home/
This is what their home page looks like:
They are also using a free website system, but this one is powered by Google Sites. Their website has really good photography by a professional photo studio. According to their website they manufacture and repair jewelry, as well as make custom designs.
Just like last week's review of another custom jewelry designer, this website has great examples of the type of custom design work they do, but it doesn't actually tell me if they do anything other than that.
If I was really shopping for jewelry from a local retail jeweler, I would want to know that they have a selection f inventory that I can come in and look at, and talk to someone who's not a chain or mall store automaton.
Although I like the photos on this website, I'm not looking for custom designed jewelry. I won't rush, wasting my time to visit this store in person.
So I moved on...
The next jeweler shown in the SERP is Tacoma Custom Jewelers. Their site is here:
http://www.tacomacustomjewelers.com/
Let's assume that my personal goal is to look through an online catalog to see what jewelry is in the retail store. This will save my time instead of physically going from store to store all day on a Saturday. After all, I'm the typical guy shopper and I do get seriously bored of shopping within 5 minutes. But at the same time I do know I need to find the right jewelry gift.
The Tacoma Custom Jewelers has a page called "Catalog" here:
http://www.tacomacustomjewelers.com/catalog.html
When I go to it the heading on that page says "Stuller, Inc On-line Catalog."
This is very confusing from an outsider's point of view. They might think that the corporate name of the store is Stuller, Inc. and the d.b.a. is Tacoma Custom Jewelers. Obviously this isn't the case, but I hope you can see how confusing this would be to a layman.
They didn't make it easy for the layman to use their site either. They ask you to browse through the Stuller online catalog and then fill out an online form to request a price. This is not very friendly.
On a technical note, they also used a free website creation system to make their site. They are using http://www.weebly.com/.
On the other hand, the catalog page also has several really good videos that show they do carry some nice jewelry. I watched a few of their videos and I can see their store in the video right here:
It looks like that store has a lot of options for me, so I should go there.
However, as I looked around their site for their address, I found this photo of the inside of their store on their home page:
That store photo contradicts what is shown in the video, and now I'm worried that this too would be a waste of my time to visit this store in person.
So I moved on...
The next jeweler shown in the SERP is Kantor Diamond Company. Their site is here:
http://www.kantordiamond.com/
This is their home page:
This is the first website from SERP that has a good online product catalog with things I would want to see in person. They didn't make it easy for me to find their directions or contact page, but I eventually found it at the bottom.
According to their About Us page they used to be a 20 location chain, but now they have 2 "showrooms." They also detail their impressive credentials on the About Us page. Except, something is bothering me...
Down at the bottom of the page, next to their About Us link and their social icons, it says "All internet sales final."
This statement disturbs me because a hard line return policy like that doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about going there in person.
From a technical point of view, I noticed that the domain name of their website does not match the domain name shown in their header. The website is kantordiamond.com but the header on their actual website says bestdiamondprice.com.
The domain name bestdiamondprice.com redirects to the kantordiamond.com site. I think alternative domain names like this are good to use in marketing, but this is a confusing situation with a different domain name shown in the header. They need to read these two previous Daily Golden Nuggets about exact match domain names and how to use them correctly.
Take a closer look at their home page:
Based on my experience with all of these websites, I believe I would be a completely disappointed and utterly frustrated I visited all these locations. I think it would be a complete waste of my time, so I might as well become the cliché jewelry buyer and simply go to Jared because I see their commercials all the time and that will have to be good enough.
Obviously, I never found a website to fully review for this week, but I hope this exercise has revealed how a potential new customer would work their way through Google's search results to find a qualified jewelry store.
FTC Notice: I randomly choose these websites and won't be telling the retailer jewelers what I said here. 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.
