Don’t Get Distracted by the Trees On Your Website

by Charles Pobee-Mensah, Director of Digital Marketing

Your online presence is a vast exotic ecosystem teaming with jubilance and life. It is your honorable duty to stand at the helm of this majestic beauty and guide it to ever-increasing greatness. That is if you’re not busy spending six hours trying to fix a typo on a blog post from 2012.

Yes, squirrel syndrome is alive and well for jewelers too. And it can easily keep one fixated on trees amidst a forest starved for attention. There are many important things on your website that need your time and attention. But there are many, many others vying for your attention that don’t. Let’s talk about the difference and how to keep yourself focused on what matters.

The Difference

When it comes to a website, jewelers should be focused on what they know well. Things like what their customers want, the strengths of their store, and the tone of the communication. These are the things that make jewelers so good at what they do. And they apply online just as much as they do offline.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are the distractions. These can include flashy visuals, personal pet peeves others don’t notice, or data specifics that you know little about, but look “off” to you somehow. This isn’t to say that details don’t matter. They most certainly do. But someone else on your team can and should be better equipped to know when there are issues or opportunities in the details in which you don’t specialize.

Let’s take a deeper look.

Distractions To Avoid

Avoid anything that takes up a lot of your time (in one chunk or in aggregate) that isn’t part of your core focus as a business.

1. 1. Things Outside Your Expertise – Details about SEO, automated funnels, and social algorithms can suck up time if you let them. At our agency, we hold quarterly digital meetings with clients and we love answering their questions during that time. It’s time that we’ve both set aside specifically to talk about what’s happening online. It’s infrequent enough that it doesn’t take up a lot of their time.
   2. Things That Are of Low Importance – While you may never spend six hours fixing a blog post typo from 2012, it’s common for jewelers to spend time on things that they noticed have low, or no impact on their business. This is especially important when things that do matter await.
   3. Alerts from Third Parties – It’s common for third parties to alert you to something that can end up being a rabbit hole. Perhaps Google will send you an automated report showing that your traffic was down last month. Or an SEO guy sends you a courtesy PDF showing that you only score a D+ on his proprietary report. Don’t let them get under your skin. Google’s algorithm isn’t taking into account the seasonality of your business and the SEO guy just needs a foot in the door.

What to Focus On Instead

Focus on the bigger picture. Specifically, as it relates to the overall experience your visitors will have on the site. 

• Redesigning a site? Focus on whether the overall design represents the tone of the store well.
• Adding new copy? Make sure the copy “treats” the customer the way that you would if you were with them in-store.
• Wondering if the experience is good? Review the site with an eye towards what you want your customers to experience. Look for a great representation of the inventory you offer. Look for plentiful opportunities to call, email, or find directions or buy.

These starting points will lead to the right kinds of discussions and details that jewelers need to be involved in. The things that they (and only they) can add to a proper experience of their website. When you focus on the right things, you’ll spend your time more effectively and have a better business because of it.

Are you looking for an agency that can support you in building or maintaining a stellar website? Contact suits@fruchtman.com.