I spend a lot of time looking at jewellery websites. Hundreds of them, in fact. Sometimes I’m looking for technical SEO issues, sometimes I’m looking at product pages or navigation or customer journeys, and occasionally I’m just trying to work out why a beautiful brand isn’t getting the traffic or sales it deserves.
After a while you start noticing patterns.
The biggest issue my clients complain of is exhaustion. There seems to be an entire generation of jewellery founders who spend every spare moment creating content for platforms they don’t own while the one thing that could work for them twenty-four hours a day sits untouched in the background.
And I understand why, because on social media your audience feels closer. There’s a lingering feeling in the air, that if you just used the right trending audio or had one influencer comment on your post – your brand would go viral.
The problem is that is incredibly unlikely to happen and tomorrow morning you wake up and will do exactly the same thing again, for the same handful of likes – and no sales.
We spend so much time trying to persuade people to visit our websites that we forget millions of people are already looking. Every product, every gemstone, every recipient, every material and every occasion is another question being typed into Google, ChatGPT or whatever search becomes over the next few years.
When I carry out a Brand MOT, I don’t see a website with twenty keyword opportunities. I see hundreds, sometimes thousands, sitting there waiting for somebody to notice them. A few extra paragraphs on a collection page. Better image names. A gifting guide. An FAQ that answers a question customers ask every week. A blog explaining birthstones or chain lengths or how to choose an anniversary gift.
None of those jobs feel particularly exciting, and none of them will get hundreds of likes on Instagram by tea time, but they’re cumulative. They stack. They become assets instead of content, and assets have a rather lovely habit of continuing to work long after you’ve forgotten creating them.
Which is why, whenever someone asks me where they should spend the next three hours, my answer is almost never “make another Reel.”
I’d much rather help them build something they’ll still be benefiting from five years from now.
Search traffic converts significantly better
According to multiple ecommerce studies, organic search consistently delivers one of the highest conversion rates of any marketing channel, often converting 2–5%, compared with social traffic which commonly converts at below 1%.
THis is because somebody scrolling Instagram is looking for entertainment.
Somebody searching “sterling silver sunflower necklace for mum” is looking for a sterling silver sunflower necklace for their mum.
Those are two completely different mindsets. One has their card in their hand and needs a gift ASAP.
Google processes over 8.5 billion searches every day
That’s around 99,000 searches every second.
People are already looking.
You’re not convincing them to want jewellery.
You’re simply making sure they find yours instead of someone else’s.
Around 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine
Before somebody lands on a website, there’s a very good chance they’ve searched for something first.
That’s especially true for gifting.
People don’t usually open Instagram and hope an anniversary present appears.
They search.
Organic traffic compounds
This is the one I think jewellery founders really underestimate.
A Reel might perform brilliantly for 48 hours.
A well-optimised product page can bring visitors every day for years.
I have clients with blog posts written three or four years ago that still generate enquiries every single week.
Nobody is getting enquiries from an Instagram Story they posted in 2023.
Most clicks happen on page one
Studies consistently show that around 75% of people never click onto page two of Google.
Which sounds depressing until you realise the opportunity.
Moving a page from position 18 to position 5 doesn’t just feel better.
It can completely transform the amount of traffic it receives.
The first organic result gets a disproportionate amount of traffic
The number varies by study, but the first organic listing typically attracts between 25% and 35% of all clicks.
Imagine your collection of floral birth flower jewellery ranked first on Google for this combination of keywords.
| Keyword | Monthly Volume | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| flower necklace | 1,900 | 16 |
| necklace floral | 1,300 | 11 |
| necklace with a flower | 1,000 | 14 |
| birth flower necklace | 720 | 11 |
| birth flower gifts | 390 | 11 |
| necklace gold flower | 390 | 13 |
| silver flower necklace | 320 | 11 |
| birth flower jewellery | 210 | 9 |
| floral necklace | 210 | 18 |
| floral necklace silver | 210 | 4 |
| flower pendant necklace | 210 | 9 |
| necklace flower gold | 210 | 13 |
| silver necklace with flower | 210 | 4 |
Combined monthly search volume: 7,260 searches/month
Average keyword difficulty: 10.3
Using that 25% – 35% ball park – Just one collection could easily provide you with 1,815–2,541 visitors every month.
From just one optimised collection.
What does that mean in sales?
Assuming a 2% conversion rate (healthy jewellery ecommerce site)
| Visitors | Sales / Month |
|---|---|
| 1,815 | 36 sales |
| 2,541 | 51 sales |
And that’s really the point.
I’m not suggesting you delete Instagram or disappear from social media altogether. Your customers absolutely want to see your face, your process, your studio and the story behind your jewellery. Those things build trust in a way search engines never can.
What I’m questioning is the balance.
If you’re spending ten hours a week creating content that disappears within a couple of days, while the pages that could be introducing your brand to customers every single day haven’t been touched in years, it’s worth asking whether your energy is being invested in the right place.
Because a website isn’t just somewhere people land after clicking your Instagram bio. It’s an asset. It should be bringing customers in all on it’s own.
Your job isn’t to convince people to want jewellery.
It’s simply to make sure that when they’re ready to buy, they find yours.
