A Casual Place To Talk About Our Favorite Shiny and Sparkly Objects
Ahhhhh, back from the holidaze…..
When you purchase jewelry for yourself or someone else, how do you usually buy it? Physically, as in at the store counter, via a paper catalog, online, or eBay? Is your decision affected by who the piece is for? Does how much you’re planning on spending play a role in your decision? Do you have a store or site that you’ve been purchasing from for years, and you automatically just trust them? Do you hunt down unique pieces or try to get the best price possible on eBay?
Initially, it can be difficult to purchase jewelry online, especially if you’re not familiar with the site. If you’re doing the same with a new seller on eBay, I think it’s even more difficult, because all you have to go by are other people’s reviews. How can you be so sure that what you see is what you’re going to get? If you found the site through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, does that mean the sites on the first page are going to be better than one on, say, page 10? This is especially confusing when the search engine gives you some ridiculously high amount, like 100,000 sites. How do you know that what is found on the first page a better bet than page 37,634?
When one does a search for jewelry, say Google for example, different results will come up depending on the wording of your search. The first several in the shaded area are sites that paid to be the first 3 or 4 sites from that search. Does paying to get a site advertised before all others make it more or less appealing? There are so many different directions we could go with this topic, so let’s start with the sites that pay to be in the #1,2, or 3 slots.
Let’s put this to the test. I go to Google and do a search for ’diamond jewelry.’ It comes up with three paid sites:
‘Diamond Ring Sale’ from www.worldjewels.com. “A special gift for your loved one. Save up to 75%. No sales tax!”
The second is ‘Blue Nile Diamond Jewelry’ from www.bluenile.com. “Forbes Favorite Online Jeweler. Free FedEx & 30-Day Returns.”
Finally, we have ‘Diamond Jewelry to Browse’ from www.sohogem.com. “Fine boutique and designer jewelry to browse and buy with style.”
So what does this mean? WorldJewels is a very ‘busy’ site, as if it is trying to cram everything it has onto the first page. Blue Nile, with its rich blue background, is less busy, and with both left and right side panels focusing on educating the consumer, you don’t feel as much pressure to purchase RIGHT NOW. Sohogem has a very different look, sleek and artistic. It’s navigated by three modern lines, where one can search by designer, trends, price. It has a very different feel to it, as if you are already familiar with different artist’s diamond creations.
Well, which do you choose? Do you tend to skip past the paid sites? Would you go for the promise of paying less, the reputation of an established jeweler, or check out a more esoteric site and learn more about what the trends are right now?
Please, post your comments! What do you think? Where do you go? Do you always go to the same place for every type of gem? Don’t worry, I have a feeling we might be talking about this some more…
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3 Responses for "Online Jewelry Sites-Those Who Pay To Play"
If we set aside the primary function of a search engine, which is delivering relevant results. Doesn’t it all boil down to calling upon prior experiences and past lessons learned?
You are right, prior experiences and lessons learned are HUGE, among the most important elements of choosing an online site for just about anything. However, what if you were searching and ONLY visiting the ‘top’ (paid) sites?Where would you go? What would influence you?
I can understand why a more esoteric site like Sohogem would pay to get top billing. The likelihood probably is that they aren’t as well known, and going this route would probably be the fastest to give them guaranteed visibility.
But why Blue Nile? In that same search, Blue Nile came up on the first page even without the advertising.
With WorldJewels and their claims of up to 75% off, does paying lend them more credibility than, say, ‘Bob’s Diamonds-75% off anytime, all the time!’? If they are paying for placement, does that influence people to think they are more reliable?
The paid sites in this search are all very different from one another. Given all things being equal, which site would you most likely visit? More importantly, what would get you to purchase from an unfamiliar site, regardless of whether they paid for their position (aside from the obvious things like making sure it was a secure site, etc.)?
In this search, who benefits the most from paying for their placement? How do those sites affect your likelihood to buy from them?
Paid results in search can be utilized for more than one purpose. While you see them most prominently in the organic results, they are also being served on content networks. E.g. if you were running adsense on your jewelry Blog, its possible that you would be seeing their ads displayed on your Blog. I would also like to inject into the conversation a thing called branding. While many of the well known sites are doing well in organic results its important to keep you brand in the forefront, especially in hard economic times. Top placement in the ads over time will do that and it probably has a longer reach than traditional print ads.
So who benefits the most from paying for their placement? I think both parties benefit from paid ads. I know your going to ask how so I will say that the name of the game is garnering a click so the top paying sites will tent to have relevant ads and some sort of offer (a good deal). So the merchant increases their odds for a potential sale and the customer gets a good deal. The same principals apply to brick and mortar stores, the ones that advertise tend to do better than competitors that don’t.
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