What to expect from this UK Jewellery Market Report
This is our 2018 UK Jewellery Market Performance Report. The report empowers industry leaders with a knowledgeable insight into how they scale up to their competitors in terms of performance in the digital landscape. The websites with the best performance throughout the industry are analysed and ranked against each other through qualitative data and results. Brands are scored year-on-year on key performance metrics like brand reach score, SEO visibility and brand reach score. As mentioned, while we investigate and source data from across the whole sector, we only feature the industry leaders in the report. However, we’ll be happy to send data that includes your brand across if you can’t see your name. Just ask.
Our UK Jewellery Market Analysis
In addition to producing these reports, we also spend time analysing the data so that we know what it really says about the market. Here are some of the key things to take away from the report:
Visibility winners & losers
Looking at the change in visibility year on year, we can identify who are the brands to watch and those who struggled to make an impact with their SEO campaigns.
We use Search Metrics to gather our visibility data. Search Metrics tracks huge keyword sets and allows us to see the historical performance of a brand online.
- H Samuel remains the market leader despite losing 7% of their visibility last year.
- Ernest Jones has remained static and maintained their 2nd place spot in the charts. Pandora and The Jewel Hut have also stagnated.
- Goldsmiths has made great improvements this year with an 18% rise in visibility.
- Also thriving in the top 10 are Accessorize (11%), Beaverbrooks (34%) and Tiffany (27%).
- Claire’s had a huge visibility increase of 290%. This has brought them into 9th place where they would have previously been around 20th. This is a great achievement.
Overall this looks to have been a successful year for retailers in terms of visibility.
Biggest keyword opportunities in the online jewellery market
Within the report, we look at the highest competition keywords and the top opportunity keywords that can gain your site quick wins. In this landscape, the high competition keywords are basic product searches whereas the opportunity keywords go into more detail looking at types of specific items such as ‘eternity ring’.
- Well done to Claire’s who are topping the rankings for the term ‘hoop earrings’ which is one of the high competition keywords. Their title tag is neat and their meta description tells us about available styles. They could work on their URL structure to improve this listing overall.
- Thomas Sabo has beaten Links of London for the keyword ‘charms’, ranking in position 2.
- Pandora is topping the page for this term. They have a lovely bit of copy at the bottom of the page which describes their products in more detail. Page copy is super important for both ranking factors and also customer experience, so don’t take it for granted.
A lot of the terms are gender specific. This is another factor to take into consideration when optimising for SEO.
Jewellery SEO best practices
Unsurprisingly, H Samuel is ranking in position 1 for many of the terms including ‘rings’, ‘earrings’ and ‘necklace’. However, their URL structure is untidy and contains special characters such as percentage signs. Typically, you’d expect a negative effect from this. However, because they have an impressive domain strength and authority they will likely continue rank highly. Their meta description is also duplicated across these category pages, swapping out the product name. Meta descriptions are so important as they are the place where customers will obtain information while ‘window shopping’ through search engines. Adding a more detailed or personal message could improve this improve this.
They are not the only guilty retailer. Ernest Jones is ranking in position 1 for one of the most competitive opportunity keywords, ‘engagement rings’ and is displaying similar issues with their URL structures. Again, their reputation and past successes will be holding them up despite this. In such a competitive market it’s extremely important not to rest on your laurels. Best practices should be ensured at all times to keep your company at the top.
Link building in the online jewellery market
Links are still a primary ranking factor within Google but the days of being able to spam are long gone. Today we look at who is getting not only a volume of links but the kind of quality engagement that will drive their SEO campaign and amplify their brand presence. We use Link Research Tools to measure the number of new links per month and the quality of the engagement. It appears that the majority of links being gained in this market are going to products or product images. The brands who are topping the chart for links are international companies which have a lot of links coming through various countries’ landing pages also.
Blue Nile has a received a good number of links per month of good quality. Unlike other retailers we’ve explored, a lot of their links are coming from resource pages. Their free ring sizer has gained almost 2,800 backlinks from over 90 unique domains. This is a downloadable asset for customers to use immediately. Their Pearl Education page has also gained an impressive 2,500 backlinks and tells users everything they need to know about pearls before investing. This selfless content is crucial to building up an owned audience. And, if they trust you, they’re more likely to invest in your services.
Pandora has a resource section called Universe which contains buying guides, style inspiration articles and campaign information. These gain a few links but could receive a lot more with better outreach. They also have tools including the Send a Hint service which enables you to message someone with a product you like and an Alphabet Designer which shows you how a personalised bracelet would look. The Alphabet Design service is currently not working as there don’t appear to be any letter or number charms in stock. It’s important to audit your content regularly to avoid any slip-ups like this.
Finding your nice in the online jewellery market
Beaverbrooks has a fantastic Inspiration section which incorporated guides, tutorial videos and articles in the same place. This Picture Perfect Proposal guide covers every aspect of photographing the engagement and the announcement, even including a ring buying guide. It gained links from Pretty52 and OK Magazine.They also have a blog called the Journal which exists on a separate domain, however, it is not linked to on the main Beaverbrooks site. This article about how to take the perfect engagement ring selfie gained a link from Vows and Venues Magazine. There are shoppable buttons throughout for rings and cleaning products. There is so much opportunity to run within this market, especially when it comes to weddings.
We created the Celebrity Engagement Ring Trends Audit for 77 Diamonds. It took data from celebrity engagements including the style, carat, location, announcements and price and presented it as a unique data piece. This gained over 180 links from 27 unique domains including Brides.com, Brides Magazine and Vogue.
Social media and the UK jewellery market
In this age of constant connectivity, social presence is more important than ever for boosting your brand exposure. Effective use of social channels allows you to take an earned or paid audience and turn it into an owned audience. Owned audiences have a direct connection to your brand, improving relationships with existing customers and cultivating relationships with new prospects.
Pandora has the most brand searches and the highest owned social score. They post regular new product updates, engaging users to comment on most posts. They also update their cover photos and social media campaigns seasonally to run with the celebrations throughout the year. They are also quick to reply to users who comment on their posts showing that they care about customer service. Pandora has a strong brand aesthetic throughout all posts on social media, including their Instagram and Twitter feeds.
Tiffany also has an impressive owned social score which is not surprising due to their worldwide popularity. Their social media feeds go slightly deeper than product promotions and often feature information about their charity work and the causes they support. They recently did a campaign for their couples’ rings which looked at real-life stories of their customers featured in short videos with their initials as the title shot. The couples chosen spanned all races, gender and ages, proving their dedication to equality. They also highlighted the importance of customer satisfaction and feedback to Tiffany as a company and encouraged supporters to comment.
Accessorize understand the power of influencers in the retail market, regularly posting style inspiration images on their Instagram. Of course, they don’t just sell jewellery, but this is a clever way to access a wider audience online.
See where your brand sits within the market and get more of your own insights by downloading the report for free.
