Welcome to the special #FridayFlopFix edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. This week, I'm on the hunt for a jewelry business in Bowling Green, KY that has a bad website. That's right, I'm looking for a flop that needs fixing. A quick search in Google for "jewelers Bowling Green, KY" lead me to a prime candidate for today: Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design with their website
http://www.goldsmithjrd.com/
First Impressions
This is what the website looked like when I visited:
(click to enlarge)
I recognized this template immediately, and I know how out of date it is. Goldsmith is using hibu.com for their website. The plan they are on right now looks like the old $399 down and $100 per month plan. With that plan, you got a simple 4 page website along with some advertising on yellowbook.com. You see, Hibu and Yellowbook are the same company. Part of the money you spend for this 4 page website is used towards pay-per-click (PPC) ads on yellowbook.com.
I've not noticed yellowbook.com as a referral website on any of my reports in quite a long time. I certainly wouldn't recommend an investment into PPC on their network. My fix for this would be a suggestion for the jeweler to spend that money on Facebook, Instagram, or Google AdWords Express ads.
As I said, the website is just 4 pages, and from what I can tell, it was created in June 2013. The home page has an introduction paragraph and a video, which was created as part of the yellowbook.com package they signed up for.
The next page is called "Jewelry." This page has a basic explanation of the type of jewelry they carry which would apply to any jewelry store. I have a feeling that they have industry specific templates of information, much like Mad Libs, where they just fill in a store name and one or two other details. This certainly would make the website process very easy, and therefore very attractive to anyone who wants to be completely hands off with the setup.
The "Jewelry Repair" page also looks like a simple copy and paste setup with only a few sentences.
The last page is a simple "Contact" page with their address and a form.
Some SEO Stuff
Hibu says they will use good SEO techniques on their website and they certainly seem to be trying. Here's what's happening with their SEO setting:
Home Page
Title: Jeweler Bowling Green, KY - Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design
URL: http://www.goldsmithjrd.com/index.htm
Description: Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design is the premier jeweler Bowling Green, KY and the surrounding counties. Call 270-282-4116 for top quality jewelry
Jewelry Page
Title: Jewelry Bowling Green, KY - Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design
URL: http://www.goldsmithjrd.com/bowling-green-ky-jewelry.htm
Description: For over 25 years, Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design has been providing high end jewelry to Bowling Green, KY. Call 270-282-4116
Jewelry Repair Page
Title: Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design of Bowling Green, KY is the premier jewelry repair shop for the surrounding counties. Call 270-282-4116
URL: http://www.goldsmithjrd.com/bowling-green-ky-jewelry-repair.htm
Description: Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design of Bowling Green, KY is the premier jewelry repair shop for the surrounding counties. Call 270-282-4116
Contact Page
Title: Contact Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design of Bowling Green, KY
URL: http://www.goldsmithjrd.com/acontactus.htm
Description: Contact Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design of Bowling Green, KY for all your jewelry design and jewelry repair needs. Call 270-282-4116 today
Hibu set up their site with very similar page titles for each of the 4 pages, and similar descriptions. The store name is repeated in both the page titles and the descriptions, which isn't needed. I know my own SEO testing tools would view all 4 of these pages as having similar or nearly similar titles and descriptions, which isn't helpful. The fix here would be to rewrite each one without repeating yourself between each page.
Website Design
The headline on the https://hibu.com/websites/ website says "Your site will look professional and inspire customer confidence - on desktop and mobile."
This Goldsmith Jewelry Repair & Design site certainly doesn't look anything like the current designs that Hibu offers, and it's certainly not responsive on mobile devices. It looks to me like Hibu upgraded their software but didn't automatically offer that upgrade to their customers. Even though the Goldsmith website was created in 2013, it has a look that's much older. I know Hibu has offered better looking designs for more than a year already, and Goldsmith probably should have redesigned the website after their first 18 months.
If Goldsmith plans on staying with Hibu, they should have their site recreated using one of the newer designs from the https://hibu.com/website-gallery/ page shown here:
Conclusions
When I write these #FlopFixes, I usually make suggestions on how to fix them, but this really isn't an impressive site, and I would recommend just starting over. This is one of those situations where you need to blow up the house and just rebuild it.
FTC Notice: I randomly choose this website and won't be telling the retailer jeweler that I'm giving them these flop fix ideas. Unless someone else tells them, they will only find out about this Nugget if they use Google Alerts or examine their Google Analytics and Google Search Console. I'm not doing this to solicit business from them, but rather as an educational exercise for everyone. This #FridayFlopFix is completely impartial and all my comments are based on previous experience in my website design and marketing agency, and from my personal research data.
