The Q3 2023 benchmarking report for UK diamond dealers has just been published. Learn how the top 9 UK diamond dealers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q3 2023 benchmarking report for UK diamond dealers has just been published. It covers the largest 9 national diamond dealers, including Purely Diamonds, Austen & Blake, Blue Nile, 77 Diamonds, London Diamonds, Diamond Heaven, The Diamond Store, Henig Diamonds, and Diamonds Factory.

The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other diamond dealers to win brand exposure, improve technical site performance, and generate online orders. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.

To see a preview and contents page of the Q3 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

What The Industry Research Report Covers

The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing.  Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.

Technical Website Compliance

Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. When customers are looking to invest in high-value items, such as diamonds, an exceptional site experience is essential for not losing trust in your brand before they can reach the item they want.

In Q2, we noted that Purely Diamonds was returning the highest level of 4xx error codes, with a total of 306. In Q3, Purely Diamonds remains the diamond dealer with the most technical errors, though this level has been reduced to 255 4xx errors. Austen Blake, which had reduced its 4xx errors to 45 in Q2, has seen this increase slightly to 53.

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. As with minimising technical errors, diamond dealers will want to ensure their site is quick and easy to use, in order to maximise buying-potential in their luxury items.

We have seen near-universal falls in mobile page speed score in all sectors we specialise in, so we are unsurprised to see this has impacted the diamond dealer sector. 77 Diamonds remains the fastest diamond dealer site, despite seeing its mobile page speed score fall from 97 in Q1, to 77 in Q2, and finally 37 in Q3.

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. For diamond dealers, working with a digital PR strategist will enable them to target niche opportunities to build links, in a way that fits their luxury image.

A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. While Blue Nile has mainted its highest score of 76, London Diamonds has seen its DA drop from 13 in Q2 to 11 in Q3.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Across all sectors, we are seeing brands selling luxury, or treat, items fall in traffic year on year so, diamond dealers are likely to be competing for a smaller pool of organic visitors.

In Q2, Purely Diamonds had reduced their 91% YoY traffic loss from Q1 to 37%. Though Purely Diamond's loss in traffic has increased again, to -71%, Blue Nile has seen the biggest fall in traffic year on year, with 99%. Three diamond dealers are seeing an increase in traffic year on year, with the biggest improvement being seen by Austen Blake, with a growth of 82%. 

Universal Search Opportunity

Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a brand can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Image pack' results would be a useful universal search result for diamond dealers wanting to show their products directly on the SERP, while results such as 'FAQs' and 'people also ask' content can assist and build trust with buyers looking to make a one-off purchase.

There is a strong mix of results for all brands actively using universal search results, with 'images' and 'people also ask' being the favoured options. However, three diamond dealers are appearing for very few Universal Search results at all. Henig Diamonds is still appearing for the fewest results, and should be evaluating whether this is a lost opportunity to grow their organic traffic.

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Diamond dealers appearing for FAQ and people also ask universal search results may find their performance is strong for longtail keywords, putting them in good stead for one-off or first time diamond customers looking for helpful information before making their purchase.

We found that Henig Diamonds is ranking for only 44 longtail keywords (a fall from Q2's figure of 50), with only two of these getting as high as positions 4-10. Similarly, as noted in our last report, London Diamonds is also ranking for very few longtail keywords, but has maintained a top three appearance for 9 longtail terms. Both Henig and London Diamonds must be reviewing their content and SEO strategy, to ensure they're picking up sessions from visitors throughout the conversion funnel.

Facebook Adverts

With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) forecast to hit over 42 million users by 2022, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.

Below, we can see examples of London Diamonds' Facebook ads. London Diamonds has used both carousel and video ad formats to engage social media audiences with eye-catching creatives that show products in situ. The use of a vertical format video enables London Diamonds to slot into organic 'reels' content and capture a pre-engaged audience.

Top Social Shares & Content

When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Diamond dealers can create engaging content on the history of diamonds, common settings and shapes, and education pieces around technical terms used by retailers.

As noted in our previous two reports, content is a very underused marketing opportunity by most of our diamond dealers. Looking at engagement on Meta's platforms, Blue Nile have, by far, the biggest audience, securing 1.8m Facebook likes and 218,700 Instagram followers. With independent jewellers often having active social media accounts that nurture users from consideration to purchase, large diamond dealers must not undervalue the impact of content on their intended customers.

Website Readability & Accessibility

20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Diamond dealers will want to ensure their sites look sleek, clean, and elegant. However, diamond dealers must ensure that form is not taking priority over function, and that any aesthetic choices do not come at the cost of accessibilty.

In our last two reports, the position of least accessible site has flipped between Austen Blake and Diamonds Factory. Both of these dealers have seen the highest level of accessibilty alerts in Q3, with Austen Blake having returned 287 in our audit and Diamonds factory seeing slightly fewer, with 276. Looking in detail at these two sites, very similar issues are appearing, such as redundant (or missing) alternative text.

Q3 2023 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 9 diamond dealers on, check out our quick-look table below;

GET THE FULL 79-PAGE Q3 2023 REPORT

To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.

Photo by Bas van den Eijkhof on Unsplash