A jeweller's site should show real pieces photographed well, give price ranges for custom work and repairs, explain the custom process step by step, and make booking a consultation easy. Valentine's Day shows whether it does.

What the site is actually for

It is Valentine's Day, and a great many people will look up a jeweller on their phone today: whether you are open tonight, whether you engrave while they wait, whether you can resize a ring by Saturday.

Others are further along. Somebody who proposed at Christmas is now looking for a wedding band, and somebody planning to propose is looking for a jeweller who makes rings rather than sells them.

A local jeweller's website is not competing with the chains' catalogues. Its job is to win the searches only a local jeweller can answer.

Most jeweller sites are built as small catalogues, and that misses most of what people come for.

What people search for

The fourth is the one most jeweller sites barely mention. Plenty of people own a ring they inherited and never wear, and they search for exactly that, then look for proof you have done it before.

Real pieces, photographed well

Jewellery is hard to photograph. Metal reflects everything around it, diamonds turn to glare or grey glass, and a ring with nothing beside it has no sense of scale.

Which is why so many jeweller sites use manufacturers' catalogue images, which look exactly like every other jeweller carrying the same lines.

What persuades somebody to commission a ring is work from your own bench: photographed on a plain background, from several angles, and at least once on a hand.

The few pieces that lead the site are worth a professional product photographer; the rest can be done well with a light tent and a steady phone.

Price ranges, not price on request

Price on request is one of the commonest lines on jeweller sites, and one of the least helpful.

A visitor comparing two jewellers will contact the one that tells them whether they are in the right range. Silence about price reads as expensive, or as a sales conversation waiting to happen.

Custom work can have a starting point and a list of what moves the price: the centre stone, the metal, the complexity of the setting.

Repairs can have a short price list, with from in front of each figure.

Explaining the custom process

For custom work, the process is part of what is being bought, and uncertainty about it is the main reason people hesitate.

Set it out step by step: a consultation, sketches or a computer rendering, a model to try on, then casting, setting and finishing.

Give a realistic number of weeks, the point at which a deposit is taken, and what happens if the customer wants a change halfway through.

A page like that answers the questions people hesitate to ask, so they arrive at the consultation already trusting the process.

Booking a consultation

The consultation is where custom work begins, so booking one should take a minute.

A short form asking what they have in mind, a rough budget and a few preferred times does more than a general contact box.

Allow a photograph to be attached, since many people arrive with a picture of a ring they like.

Ask how they would like to be contacted. A reminder text saying the engagement ring is ready, on a phone the partner can see, spoils a surprise months in the planning.

A worked example

A two-person goldsmith studio on a suburban shopping street makes custom rings at its own bench, and had a website built around a slider of manufacturers' catalogue images.

The custom page said contact us for pricing. Most of the enquiries the site produced were about watch batteries, and custom work came almost entirely from referrals.

The site was rebuilt around the bench: twenty of the studio's own pieces photographed properly, three by a product photographer, and a custom page setting out the steps, the typical weeks and a starting price.

Repairs got a price list, appraisals got their own page, and the consultation form gained a budget question and a place to attach a photograph.

Custom enquiries now tend to arrive with a budget and a picture attached, which makes the first conversation shorter.

Appraisals and repairs

Both deserve pages of their own, because both are searched for separately and both bring in people who may come back for something larger.

An appraisal page should say who does them and with what qualifications, how long it takes, whether the piece stays with you, and what the insurer receives.

A repair page should list the common jobs, typical turnaround, and how items are recorded and insured while in your care, which is often what a nervous customer most wants to know.

Valentine's Day and engagement season

The weeks between Christmas and Valentine's Day are when many proposals happen, and they test a jeweller's site harder than any other time of year.

On the day itself, the questions are practical: hours, whether you are open late, what can be engraved today. Those answers belong on the home page and the Google My Business listing, with special hours for late evenings.

Custom work needs its dates published much earlier. A ring that takes several weeks has a Valentine's deadline in January, and the site should say so before Christmas.

The counter-case

Not every jeweller needs the same site.

A jeweller selling mainly online, across the country, needs a full shop with stock, shipping and returns, and its priorities differ from these.

A high-end studio making one-off pieces may reasonably publish starting points rather than price lists, and a mall jeweller with heavy walk-in trade may see fewer searches for custom work.

Every one of them still gains from real photographs, a clear process and an easy way to book. Build those first.

What to build first

  1. Put hours and the phone number on every page.
  2. Photograph twenty pieces you actually made.
  3. Write the custom process step by step.
  4. Publish price ranges for custom work and repairs.
  5. Add a consultation form with a budget question.
  6. Give repairs and appraisals their own pages.
  7. Publish next year's Valentine's dates before December.

Step four is the one most jewellers resist, and the one visitors notice most. A range tells them they are welcome before they have to ask, and those it puts off were never going to buy at that price.

Order deadlines for the day itself are covered in Valentine's orders and the shipping cutoff.

Frequently asked questions

What do people search for from a jeweller?

Custom engagement rings, repairs such as resized rings and new prongs, insurance appraisals, redesigns of inherited pieces, wedding bands, and small jobs like watch batteries and engraving.

Should a jeweller use catalogue photographs?

Sparingly at most. They look like every other jeweller carrying the same lines. Photographs of pieces from your own bench are what persuade somebody to commission a ring.

Should prices be on a jeweller website?

Price ranges, yes. A starting point for custom work, with what moves the price, and a short repair price list answer the first question most visitors have.

How should the custom process be explained?

Step by step: consultation, sketches or a rendering, a model to try on, then casting, setting and finishing, with realistic weeks, the deposit point and how changes are handled.

What should a consultation booking form ask?

What they have in mind, a rough budget, preferred times, and how they want to be contacted, with room to attach a photograph of a ring they like.

Why does Valentine's Day test a jeweller site?

Because people search on the day for hours, late opening and engraving, while custom pieces need deadlines published weeks earlier, ideally before Christmas.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Jeweller site full of catalogue images?

Send us the address. We will show you which pages to build around your own work, and in what order.

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