John Stewart Jewellers have bought gold over the counter in Clydebank, Ayr and Irvine since 1988, and the windows of the shop say so in big yellow letters. So when we sat down to build the jeweller a new page for their website this month, there was nothing to work out: it had to be the page that someone searching to sell their gold actually lands on. It went live on 13 October, and here is how we built it, and why your own website probably needs a page like it too.
A website should have a page for everything you actually do
A website has one job above all the others, and it is the one most local businesses get wrong. It should tell people what you do and where you do it, in plain words, on a page of its own for each thing. Most sites only cover a slice of it. The shop does five or six things in real life, but the website talks about one or two, so for the rest there is simply nowhere for a customer to land.
John Stewart Jewellers are a family jewellers and manufacturers who have made their own pieces in their own workshop since 1988. They sell engagement rings, bespoke work, gold and lab diamonds, and they buy gold, silver and diamonds across the counter in all three of their shops. The buying side has always been part of the business, and it is painted right across the shop windows. Now it has a page online to match.
What the page had to do
Think about the person we built it for. Someone in Clydebank has an old chain or a ring they no longer wear, and they type "sell gold" into Google to see what it is worth and who will take it. If every page on a jeweller's site is about buying a new ring, that person has nothing to read and nowhere to go. They carry on scrolling.
So the brief was simple: one clear page that says the shops buy gold, silver and diamonds in Clydebank, Ayr and Irvine, explains how selling works in three short steps, shows how gold is valued by its carat and its weight, and gives the reader a way to get in touch or walk into their nearest shop. Clear, specific to them, and built to do one job well.
How we built the Clydebank jeweller's page
The live Buy and Sell Gold page. The shopfront photo is their Clydebank shop, with the shop's own window signage.
Three things made it a page that pulls its weight rather than one more thing on the site.
First, we sourced every line from what already exists. The history came off their homepage, the addresses and phone numbers off their three Google listings, and the detail on what they buy came straight off the shop windows in their own photos. We asked the owner exactly two questions, nothing more, because a shop owner is busy and most of the answers are already out there if you look.
Second, we built it in the site's own look so it does not feel bolted on. The picture sections, the buttons, the swipe on a phone, the spacing: all of it matches the homepage, and we checked it on a wide screen and on a mobile before it went anywhere near live.
Third, we wired it into the site so people can find it. The "We Buy Gold" banner that sits on every page now points at the new page instead of nowhere, and "Sell Your Gold" sits in the main menu under Gold Jewellery, on desktop and on mobile.
A page like this earns its keep once Google starts showing it to the people searching, and getting it to rank is a separate job that we handle over at Rank on Google. The build comes first, though. There is no point ranking a page that does not exist.
How to tell if your own website is missing a page like this
Here is a test you can run in two minutes. Write down everything your business actually does and everywhere you do it. Then open your website and tick off the ones that have a real page, with the service named and the towns named. The ones with no tick are the ones you are invisible for, because a search engine can only show a page that is there.
For most local businesses the list of missing pages is longer than they expect. A plumber who also does bathrooms. A joiner who also fits kitchens. A jeweller who also buys gold. Every one of those is a page someone could be searching for right now, and building those pages properly is a lot of what we do.
If you want us to take a look at your site and tell you which pages you are missing, get in touch and we will go through it with you.
J
Runs Nivoro Marketing and Rank on Google from Bishopton, Renfrewshire.
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