Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Owned by Stephanie Momot (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 05, 2021
5 min read

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, has one goal: to get your website to show up in internet searches. SEO is a catch-all term for anything that helps put your website at the top of the search results. This is also called your ranking.

There are many ways to improve your SEO. Some of them are related to the content on your pages, while others have to do with how well your site will answer the user’s query, according to the search engine.

 

In this knowledgebase, we will be citing statistics related to Google and referring to them as our search engine unless otherwise noted. As the number one search engine worldwide, Google sees over 92% of all search traffic. (That number is even higher for English-speaking countries; the second largest search engine, Baidu, is only available in Chinese.) Google sees over 6 billion searches per day.

 

The Importance of SEO

If your website appears at the very top of the search results, people are more likely to visit your website. Research shows that in 2021, 75% of Google searches never move past the first page of results, and more than two-thirds of all clicks go to the top 5 results. Separately, about 70% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. That means that 7 out of every 10 times someone opens a web browser, their first action is to conduct a search before making their way to a website.

Increasingly, people are also using search engines to look into places before they visit them in person. From 2017-2019, the growth of “near me” searches grew by 200%. From finding restaurants to fine jewelry stores, Google has become a trusted recommendation tool.

There are three primary categories of SEO:

  • On-Site SEO: Your most visible category, including fresh content, inclusion of key phrases, clear headers

  • Technical SEO: This category is more “behind-the-scenes,” such as meta descriptions, page load speeds, and internal linking

  • Off-Site SEO: The SEO that isn’t even on your site, such as building referral traffic, Google My Business updates, and more

Improving Your SEO

There are many ways to improve your SEO, which the other articles in this guide go more in-depth on. On a high level, your site content and ability to satisfy the user’s query are both things that influence the search algorithm. Those factors determines what the most relevant results are for each search.

Relevant Content

It is hopefully fairly obvious that the content on your site needs to match the searches you would like to rank for. If you are hoping people will find your site by searching “antique silver jewelry” then you should have a page dedicated to that topic, whether it’s a blog post, a landing page, or an entire page of inventory. The more places on your site that those key phrases appear, the more likely Google is to suggest you to the searcher. We’ll get more into site content best practices in other pages within this section.

Site Credibility

One of the factors that Google’s algorithm looks at when deciding how to rank websites is your ability to satisfy the user’s query. The algorithm asks the question, “How likely are people to find what they are looking for by visiting this site?” Remember that Google and other search engines do not care about your website; they are trying to provide the best possible experience for the user. In turn, your goal is to provide search engines with a trustworthy source of relevant content. The algorithms favor things that demonstrate the best user experiences over time. Other things that contribute to your ranking include the length of time you have held your domain name, the amount of content on your site, the depth of content on your site (think 2500 words vs 500), how quickly your site loads, and the relevance of the information in relation to the search.

Google also looks at the length of time users spend on your site and how many users are interacting with your site. The higher the volume of users clicking on your website, the more likely Google is to recommend you for other searchers. Your CTR (click-through-rate) is how often users click on your website when it appears in a search. This snowball effect can really help in the long-term, and it is also one of the reasons that you won’t see the effects of your efforts overnight. SEO strategies are ongoing processes that take time to build up results.

SEO for Jewelers

Determining the best way to improve your SEO depends on your goals. Consider whether you’re trying to make more online sales, drive traffic to your in-person location(s), or a mixture of both. Here are a few tips:

  • Your website is an extension of your showroom. Think about the way you treat your in-person locations. You probably have an alarm system, parking for guests, signs that show them around, and an impeccably clean showroom. Likewise, your site should be secure, easily accessible, well-laid-out, and very clean.

  • SEO is related to word-of-mouth marketing. Search engines can see who is interacting with your site, how long they’re on each page, and whether or not they make a purchase. If a user stays on the site for a while, Google translates that to a good review, and in turn passes that information on to other searchers.

  • Consider what your store is known for offline. If you often have clients who purchase engagement rings or jewelry repair is one of your specialties, your website should reflect your areas of expertise. Know your strengths, and play to them.

A final consideration for every e-commerce website is to understand that an online visit may translate to an in-person purchase, or vice versa. Particularly when purchasing something as intimate and special as fine jewelry, your online presence can act as a 24-hour showroom to establish your reputation and show potential buyers your brand and inventory. In the same way that your business is far more than the products you sell, SEO is one of the cornerstones of a successful web presence.

Improving your Website’s SEO

After reading this page, you should be able to answer the following questions:

  • What does SEO stand for?

  • What is the goal of SEO?

  • Why is SEO an important concept?

  • Can you name three things that will improve your SEO?

 

Use these action items to improve your site’s SEO:

  • Conduct an audit of your website’s current average rankings

  • Figure out your average bounce rate, and see which pages are doing the best and the worst

  • Read through the remaining parts of this section and implement the action items that make the most sense for your business