Jon Richard

Established in 1985, Jon Richard is a Manchester-based family-owned jewellers. Today they proudly host 124 concessions, including 7 in the Republic of Ireland and 18 in the Middle East. Jonrichard.com was launched in 2011 and marked the first time a direct-to-consumer eCommerce proposition was offered.

The challenges Jon Richard faced

In 2023, our Digital team noted through a substantial drop in organic traffic for both branded and bridal-related search terms for our long-standing client Jon Richard, following the migration from UA to GA4. Year-on-year analysis showed that branded clicks witnessed a dip of 22%, while clicks for the bridal and wedding jewellery categories dropped by 31%. Along with a drop in ranking for primary keywords like “Wedding Jewellery” from position 4 to position 51.

For paid search, since the change to GA4, cost per click (CPC) had increased by 6%, but the attributed revenue dropped off by 20% This had affected the traffic too, which dropped by 10%. And caused the return on ad spend (ROAS) to drop by 25% and cost per acquisition (CPA) to increase by 15%.

To get to the root causes of why we were noticing drop-offs across our Digital efforts — and to restore client performance — the SEO and PPC team initiated a comprehensive investigation. A thorough site analysis was conducted by our SEO experts, revealing that duplication from filter pages were causing cannibalization, which had previously not been an issue. Through forecasting, the team was also able to analyse the impact of resolving this issue, to better explain the benefits of implementing our recommended changes.

Armed with a deeper understanding of the challenges, we crafted a multifaceted approach alongside the client to help elevate Jon Richard’s online presence. The SEO approach was to accelerate performance for brand and bridal jewellery-related search terms, whilst continuing to maintain and improve the performance for “all jewellery” keywords.

PPC was used to bridge the gap in organic traffic and support on the target search terms as SEO saw improvements. It was crucial that we operated in perfect harmony on these terms to ensure that we helped the organic terms to recover while minimising margin impacts.

We decided on a three-fold SEO approach:

Filter page strategy: Addressing the duplication issue head-on, we implemented a filter page strategy specifically designed for bridal jewellery page categories. At the back of this, we ensured that we maintained continuous technical support to transform the site into an SEO-friendly powerhouse.

Product page optimisation: We re-optimised Jon Richard’s bridal product pages, ensuring they provided increased signals to search engines to further enhance their visibility.

Content strategy: To build Jon Richard’s authority, we crafted an SEO-led content strategy, comprised of informative blog content, ensuring we included relevant internal links to pass equity to key category pages.

Keyword strategy: Expanding Jon Richard brand terms in line with SEO keywords, along with increasing the scope of Generic terms, allowed us to fight against competitors using Broad Match in Paid Search.

Shopping strategy: Optimization of Performance Max campaign and utilizing all assets along with creating new creative assets. We also switched on Standard Shopping campaign (driven by search terms) for Key Products during the shopping peak as well as after to maintain conversions and gain back lost revenue.

Bid strategy: We conducted A/B testing across two bid strategies to increase reach, and found a reduction in the percentage of search impressions lost to budget.