Online referrals are starting to make an impact on local businesses, but not in the way we all expected them to. A few years ago, the buzz within the online marketing community was that social networks would become a referral engine for people to ask advice through. Facebook even attempted to create a new type of social search engine to capture that referral service. Google also struggled with the idea that the internet would become a big referral engine, and they tried to capture a piece of it through Google+.
Searching for a website candidate for this week's Friday Flop Fix was a little challenging. I began my search, as usual, looking for a random website candidate in a random city in the United States. My randomly chosen city this week was Orange, CA. My specific Google search phrase was "jewelers Orange, CA" for which I was given the search results you see below.
I've included my commentary in the screen capture:
Tracking the most active social media content might seem silly, but there's real value to this activity. When you first start blogging or otherwise buildi... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Every week, normally on Friday, I write a website review with suggestions on how to make a random site better. I have something special planned for this Friday so I have to move my Flop-Fix review to today.
My purpose here is to find a website that has something wrong, point it out, and give suggestions on how to fix it. My suggestions are entirely my own and based on my past experience, research, or observations. I found my review candidate this week with the query "jewelry stores Happy Valley, OR" and th... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Hello and welcome to the Friday Flop Fix, or #FridayFlopFix. Every Friday I randomly choose and review a retail jeweler's website. Normally I just choose the first jeweler that appears in the SERP listing for whatever town I look at; sometimes I find good sites, and sometimes I find bad sites. I'm going to change it up and intentionally look for sites that have problems, the website flops as it were, and offer ideas to fix them.
My search this week to me to Warwick, RI, specifically the Google search for "j... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the Friday website review where I do a Google search for an independent retail jeweler in a random town, then review their website.
This week, I'm starting my search with the phrase "jewelry stores in grand fork nd." Every week that I do this, I try to give you my first impressions of every website as I work through it. Just looking at the results given below, I have a feeling this week's review is going to be quite... nasty. Hold on to your seats gang and let's jump in...<... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Once a week, usually on Friday, I write a website review for a randomly chosen retail jewelry store. This week the review is being moved to Wednesday.
For this week's review, I'm searching for "jewelers in Sedona, AZ" using Google Chrome in incognito mode. The results I saw during last week's review were formatted for a smartphone. This week the results are formatted for a desktop browser again. Oddities like that are usual... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is another edition of the Friday Website review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. Each week, I use Google Chrome in incognito mode to search out a random retail jeweler from around the U.S., and then I review their website.
I never know what I'm going to find when I start these reviews. My hope is that I can illustrate one of my previous Daily Nuggets with a live example.
My search began this week with the phrase "jewelers in Evergreen, CO" and saw this as my search results:
Welcome to the weekly edition of the Friday jewelry website review. Every week, I randomly choose a candidate website and put it to the test for design, SEO, usability, content, and a wealth of other website and business related issues.
I never know how they will turn out; sometimes good and sometimes bad. I always try to write these reviews in the order in which I browse around the site, providing my first reactions as I discover things.
Last week I wrote my weekly jewelry website review while I was waiting for my flight to France in Newark Liberty Airport, in Newark, NJ. Because I was sitting in the airport, I had the opportunity to present that review from the point of view of an actual mobile user.
This is the Friday jewelry website review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. This week I'm snooping around the interwebs of Malibu, California in search for a great jewelry store.
My hope is that I'll find a store whose website will lure me in and get me to visit them in person. I never know where these reviews will go when I start, but the hope is that we'll all learn something from it.
I start my search using the Google Chrome browser in incognito mode to prevent my own search history from providing pe... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Welcome to the Friday retail jewelry website review. Every week, I select a random location around the United States in search of a review candidate. The object of this review is to learn something that might be able to help you with your own website.
I always try to write the review with an unbiased point of view, and I especially hope that the jewelers reading this will use these reviews to better their online presence.
For this week, I'm using the search phrase "jewelry stores Waterlo... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Welcome to the Friday retail jewelry store website review. For this week's review, I'm searching for "jewelers Tempe, Arizona" using Google Chrome in incognito mode.
If this is the first time you're reading my reviews, then let me explain that I review a different random retail store website every Friday. These are sites have no relation to me or the website agency services my company provides. These are just straight forward, cursory reviews of what a website looks like, how it functions, some SEO analys... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Today is the Friday Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal of this review is to analyze a website for its good qualities, and bad, and to learn from it. Every week I choose a location in the United States from which to pluck a review candidate from.
This week I'm heading over to Albany, Georgia. What I remember most about my own visits to Georgia is the unstoppable kudzu. But today I'm less concerned with vines that grow 1 foot per day because I'm in need of a quality jewelry store.
This is the Friday Retail Jeweler website review. The goal for today is to examine a random jewelry website, pull it apart to see how it functions and evaluate the good and the bad that we can learn from.
Every week my staff gives me a random city in the United States and I use Google Chrome in incognito mode to search for local jewelers there. This week the target city was Spokane, Washington.
My journey today began with a search for "jewelry stores Hayward CA." You see, I'm pretending to be a real customer searching for a local jeweler in Hayward. My goal is to examine how the local jewelers in that town stack up in Google search, take a look at their websites, and see what can be learned by the experience.
This is my weekly retail jeweler website review, but this week I'm changing up the format a little bit.
Here's a snapshot of the business listing I saw in the Google SERP for that search: VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Welcome to the Friday jewelry website review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal for today is to examine a random retail jeweler's website and learn from something they did right or wrong.
I don't plan these reviews out, and I usually write these reviews as I work through the discovery of each site, documenting my first thoughts as well as how different stuff fits together.
This week, I searched for "jewelry stores Kirksville, Missouri" and was given this Google SERP:
This is the Friday website review where I randomly look for a jewelry website to dissect so we can all learn something new. This week I'm taking a slightly different approach to locating a review candidate. I'm going to search in a county instead of a specific town.
To start the process, I always open an incognito window with Google Chrome. This step allows me to do searches in Google without any personalized results affecting what I see. Google has several ways to identify your compute... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the Friday website review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. Every Friday I choose a random city and search for a potential jeweler to use as my review candidate.
This week I'm looking in Maplewood, NJ for a local jeweler. I used the search query "jewelers in maplewood nj" and found the results below. There's a lot of detail in the SERP screen shot, so click it to view larger:
This is the Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal of this Nugget is to take an unbiased close look at a random jewelry website to see what we can learn from it.
Every week I put my Chrome web browser into incognito mode and search a random town for a local jeweler. This week I chose the city of Uvalde in Texas. Specifically I searched for "jewelers in Uvalde, Texas."
According to this search result there might be 2 jewelers in Uvalde:
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.
This week I ventured over to Freeport, Illinois in search of a jeweler who sells estate jewelry. Specifically, I used the search query "estate jewelry Freeport, Illinois" and saw these really interesting results:
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.
Every week, I set my Google Chrome browser to incognito mode to find a website review candidate. Normally I search for jewelry stores in a specific town name, but this time I took a slightly different approach and searched for "jewelers in Olmsted County, Minnesota."
Google understood how to interpret Olmstead County as the largest city within in Rochester. I find these sear... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the weekly Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal is to first find, and then evaluate a random jeweler's website to see how they set it up and what they are doing with it. Sometimes I find good things to talk about, sometimes bad, but always educational and unbiased.
Each week I search a random town for a jewelry store. I always set my Google Chrome browser to incognito mode to prevent my previous personal browsing history from tainting my organic search results.
It's the Friday website review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The normal goal of these Friday reviews is to look at a website to see what we can learn from it, but this week I found something a little more interesting to review than simply a website.
I took a different approach to finding my review candidate this week. I started with the usually incognito mode of Google Chrome, but I changed my browser search location to Lawrence, KS by clicking the Search Tools button on the option menu and then cli... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
I like to sit in the window seat whenever I fly. I enjoy looking at the world from 35,000 feet and wondering about the world passing quickly below. When not watching a movie, I like to watch the in-flight map on the screen in front of me in an attempt to relate window view to the locations on the map.
The only landmarks I've ever recognized from that altitude were the Mississippi River and the Grand Canyon, but those are easy.
I especially like the return flights from Europe as the plane fli... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal of this review is not to single out any particular jeweler or store, but to examine a website for educational purposes. Hopefully we can all learn something from the review
This week I'm searching for a review candidate in Newport, RI. I always use the Chrome web browser in incognito mode to search for a review candidate. I do this to help prevent my personal browser history from interfering with search results given by Goo... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
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.
I use Google Chrome in incognito mode to search for my review candidate every week. This week I did a search for "antique jewelry Missoula Montana" and saw these results:
I've been thinking about it for months and I've finally made the decision. I'm going to pick up an engagement ring today and propose to her this weekend! I have to find a jeweler in my home town, Modesto, California, that will help me out. I need a ring in a hurry!
I do a Google search for "engagement rings in Modesto, CA" and I see this as my first choice:
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 ... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. Every Friday I randomly select a destination in the USA and search for unsuspecting retail jewelry stores, then I review their website.
This week I started my search with the phrase "jewelers Hannibal, Mo" and found Ava Goldworks to have both the top organic listing and the top Google+ Local listing.
This is the special Friday edition of the Daily Golden Nugget where I randomly review a retail jewelry store website to see what we can learn from it. Sometimes I uncover good things, and sometimes bad; either way, there's always something interesting to learn.
This week I'm doing this review from my iPad Air. I'm beginning this review with the Google Chrome browser using incognito mode. I started with a search for "jewelry stores in Seattle, Washington" and this search results screen was returned to me.
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.
This is the Friday jewelry website review where I take a look at a random retail jewelry store's website to see what they are doing right or wrong, and use them for real world learning
This week I'm heading to Silver Spring, Maryland in search of a jeweler. Using Google's Chrome Incognito Mode I searched for "jewelers Silver Spring Maryland" and saw these search results:
Are you looking to open a new jewelry store but don't know where to do it? There seems to be a good opportunity along the northern border of Massachusetts in the City of Lowell.
According to Wikipedia, Lowell has a population of 106,519, but according to the search I just did in Google, they only seem to have two jewelry stores. Both stores seem to be long established jewelers, but their websites ... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is my Friday Jewelry Website Review where I look at a random retail jewelry store's website in hopes that what I find will help you improve your own website.
Each week I randomly choose a city and do a Google search using the Chrome browser in incognito mode. This is the best way to ensure that the search results I see will be similar to what a random person would see when they search for a jeweler in that same town.
This week's search was "jewelers bay city, Michigan," and these are the top 4 re... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
In this edition of the Friday Website review I'm stopping off in Bristol, TN. To prevent my Google Personalization results from getting in the way, I used the Google Chrome browser in Incognito Mode. My search string was "jewelers in bristol tn."
Here's a screen grab of the top SERP results I saw...
This is a special edition of the weekly retail jeweler website review. It's special because it's on Thursday rather than the normal Friday. The goal of this review is to show you how other retail jewelers are using their website. Sometimes these reviews are good, sometimes really bad. No matter how they work out, the hope is that you'll see something you can use, or fix, on your own website.
To find my review candidate this week I searched for "jewelry stores in baton rouge" using the Google Chrome browser ... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the Friday Jewelry Website Review where I look at a random jewelry website to give you ideas on how to improve your own website.
I began my search this week looking for "jewelry stores in scranton pa." The top listing in the both the organic and Google+ Local results were for Boccardo Jewelers and their website boccardojewelers.com. Instead of seeing their website, I actually got the "account suspended" notice from Blue Host.
I actually found this earlier in the week when looking for website ... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
In yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget we gave you results from a QR code micro test we conducted over the last 7 months. We found that QR codes could be successfully used inside your store as a way to lead consumers to a review website.
When customers have to wait anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes, they will take the time to scan a QR code hung in the waiting area, then either read or leave a review.
We think it's important to note that the QR codes in our test were hung on a wall close to the customer rather than on the wall behind the counter. It is our opinion that physical proximity matters. One just does not expect to be allowed to take their phone and take a photo of something behind a salesperson.
Here are the steps to making this work in your own jewelry store:
We're at the point in time where modern technology can influence consumer buying decisions within seconds through the use of mobile devices. We're not talking about mobile websites or intentional mobile marketing but rather online reviews and testimonials.
Through various blog posts Google continues to affirm that 1 out of 5 searches are related to a customer's location. Those location searches trigger the organic results to include Google Places listings and online review websites. Most of the time each of these results is accompanied by a set of star ratings.
Google tweaks the SERP layouts continuously. As of this writing, the review stars appear in the AdWords ads, Citysearch.com listings, and Yelp listings. Note that Google specifically includes the stars next to the AdWords ads instead of the Places listings in the... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Review websites are popping up everywhere. Not too long ago, the only review sites we worried about were Google Places, CitySearch, Yelp, InsiderPages, MerchantCircle, and a few others. In the Spring of 2010, Google was so hungry for reviews they created new HTML tags to tell Google when a review was showing on a page.
Since then, reviews online have exploded because digital marketing agencies realized the power behind the tool. Does your marketing agency get it yet?
The review services mentioned above are typically out of your control, or you may have to jump through a few hoops to manage the reviews. Other online reviews can appear on your Facebook Business Page or on your website, and these are easier to control.
Your first ACTION ITEM for today is to contact your web programmer and tell them you want a review... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
"...articles are easy to follow and seem to have information one can use right away." -Ann, Gallery 4, Hamden CT
"...serious kudos to you. We love your straight talk, pertinent information and plain language. I don't know how many industries have something of jWAG's caliber available, but I learn from the emails every day. Really, really nice work, and very appreciated." -Cheryl Herrick, Global Pathways Jewelry
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.
This is the weekly Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal is to first find, and then evaluate a random jeweler's website to see how they set it up and what they are doing with it. Sometimes I find good things to talk about, sometimes bad, but always educational and unbiased. 
It's the Friday website review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The normal goal of these Friday reviews is to look at a website to see what we can learn from it, but this week I found something a little more interesting to review than simply a website.
I like to sit in the window seat whenever I fly. I enjoy looking at the world from 35,000 feet and wondering about the world passing quickly below. When not watching a movie, I like to watch the in-flight map on the screen in front of me in an attempt to relate window view to the locations on the map. 
This is the Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. The goal of this review is not to single out any particular jeweler or store, but to examine a website for educational purposes. Hopefully we can all learn something from the review
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.
I've been thinking about it for months and I've finally made the decision. I'm going to pick up an engagement ring today and propose to her this weekend! I have to find a jeweler in my home town, Modesto, California, that will help me out. I need a ring in a hurry!
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.
This is the Friday Website Review edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. Every Friday I randomly select a destination in the USA and search for unsuspecting retail jewelry stores, then I review their website.
This is the special Friday edition of the Daily Golden Nugget where I randomly review a retail jewelry store website to see what we can learn from it. Sometimes I uncover good things, and sometimes bad; either way, there's always something interesting to learn.
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.
This is the Friday jewelry website review where I take a look at a random retail jewelry store's website to see what they are doing right or wrong, and use them for real world learning 
Are you looking to open a new jewelry store but don't know where to do it? There seems to be a good opportunity along the northern border of Massachusetts in the City of Lowell.
This is my Friday Jewelry Website Review where I look at a random retail jewelry store's website in hopes that what I find will help you improve your own website.
In this edition of the Friday Website review I'm stopping off in Bristol, TN. To prevent my Google Personalization results from getting in the way, I used the Google Chrome browser in Incognito Mode. My search string was "jewelers in bristol tn."
This is a special edition of the weekly retail jeweler website review. It's special because it's on Thursday rather than the normal Friday. The goal of this review is to show you how other retail jewelers are using their website. Sometimes these reviews are good, sometimes really bad. No matter how they work out, the hope is that you'll see something you can use, or fix, on your own website.
This is the Friday Jewelry Website Review where I look at a random jewelry website to give you ideas on how to improve your own website.
