I’m your host, Laryssa Wirstiuk. Through this podcast, I aim to empower and inspire jewelry entrepreneurs and innovators so they can thrive by doing what they love. I’m passionate about digital marketing for jewelry brands, and I’m excited to share my passion with you. This is Episode 132. And today, I’m going to discuss different types of keywords for jewelry brands, including SEO keywords, and social media keywords. Why do keywords matter? And why do you need to choose some strategic keywords for your jewelry brand? How do you even go about doing this? I’m going to share all my insights.

But before we get to today’s episode, I want to share some marketing-related news and insights from the past week that caught my attention? So, first, Social Media Today did a really great summary of some insights that Instagram recently provided about their social media algorithms. I know, almost once a day, someone is complaining to me about [01:00] ‘the algorithm’, as if it’s some like higher power that’s totally guiding and affecting our lives. Well, Instagram actually is being totally transparent about it and kind of gave some behind-the-scenes information about how the algorithm works.

First of all, they said, there’s not just one all-encompassing algorithm. It’s actually a lot of different algorithms working together in a lot of super complex ways. Instagram says that its algorithms all use key signals, with those signals varying dependent on each element. There are thousands of signals that a system can draw from. So, it seems kind of impossible and futile to try to figure that out, but there are definitely best practices that you can implement in your social media strategy. So, Instagram’s Discovery tab is a little different with the Explore algorithm focused on showing you other content that you may like as a user [02:00], based on things like who you follow, and your Instagram engagement history.

There’s really a lot of information in this report. I’m actually super impressed by how transparent they’re trying to be. They’re definitely not giving everything away. I mean, they have all the knowledge and power, but they are definitely saying enough to provide you with tips on how to better plan your social media marketing strategy moving forward. For example, when it comes to a content type like reels the algorithm is, quote, “Specifically focused on what might entertain you,” end quote. A lot of people ask me, “How do I make great reels? What should I do to make my reels perform better?” The best answer I can give you is try to focus on making them entertaining, whatever that means to you and your brand. Ultimately, you want to delight your audience, make them really interested in watching. That’s kind of the secret. That’s all there is to it. So, really [03:00] appreciate that information from Instagram.

Another article from Social Media Today is about how Facebook also recently published a report that examines the key factors that influence online purchases. What makes people buy from an e-commerce site? There’s a really great quote here. So, “New digital formats, especially video, and live content enable new ways to engage online audiences and keep them coming back,” end quote; a really good takeaway. So, in the future, moving forward, the brands that aren’t afraid to embrace some of these new digital formats, especially video, live stream shopping experience, they’re the ones that will have the most success with e-commerce in the future. And above all, consumers cite that convenience is definitely the number 1 driver of purchases. So, the more convenient you can make the shopping and product fulfillment experience, the better. [04:00] Make it super easy, consumers will love you. They have more choices than ever before, so convenience and service definitely remain key.

And finally, according to an article from JCK, diamond jewelry sales rose about 30% in the last 3 months from February to May. That’s a huge jump in sales. Natural Diamond Council CEO David Kelly says that the sales numbers come from a mix of proprietary public and subscription sources, and they roughly track with the latest results that signet jewelers also released. Kelly says that the average price point of these diamond purchases is also much higher than normal. Definitely a fair amount of growth in sales to millennials, which is kind of surprising because we all hear that millennials are typically shopping for diamond alternatives, maybe for ethical reasons, maybe because of concerns around sustainability. So, that number is definitely surprising. And the sales are [05:00] split with both men and women buying diamonds in equal amounts. A general boom and weddings, a continued reluctance to travel, and more people out and about wanting to dress up are all factors that may be attributing to this growth. The industry is well aware that demand has soared, and the Natural Diamond Council wants the outside world to know how well things are going. So, good for them. I guess that’s great news.

If you want to get the links to the articles I share in this segment of the podcast, you can sign up for my email newsletter by visiting joyjoya.com/signup, and you’ll get a digest with the links whenever a new episode drops.

Okay, let’s get to it. Let’s talk about keywords, both for SEO or search engine optimization, and for social media. Maybe you’ve never thought about keywords before. You’ve probably thought about hashtags, which kind of qualify as keywords. But I’m going to give you a rundown and a lay of the land so you can better plan your content. So, why is keyword research [06:00] so important? Basically, it helps you get found. So, it’s really valuable, because the consumers who would be finding you through keywords, they’re potentially better qualified, because they have a search intent. They are actually looking for something. And oftentimes, they are in the mindset to buy. As opposed to someone who’s just scrolling mindlessly on Instagram, and you’re trying to appeal to them with your social media post. But they’re also super hungry, half distracted by something they’re watching on TV, not really ready to purchase anything, as opposed to a person who’s actively searching on Google or on Instagram, who is in a much better mindset to buy. So, if you can reach those people with keywords, you can potentially reach customers who are in a better position to help you grow your business.

So, there are definitely different types of keyword [07:00] research. And you want to make sure that you’re doing the right kind for your goals. Do you want more people to find you on Google? Do you have a product that people don’t really know how to find, and you want to help them find it? Maybe they’re searching for something similar, or they sort of know how to search for it but aren’t quite getting to you and their search results, the discoverability of your product really matters in this case.

So, let’s talk first about keyword research for SEO or search engine optimization, which is something my clients are always asking me about. SEO feels like a very mysterious, highly technical thing. It’s really not when you break it down to the bare bones. SEO, the point of it is just to get the website for your business to rank as highly as possible in Google search results for keywords that are relevant to your brand. Classic keyword research starts and [08:00] ends with the Google search engine. Google is basically synonymous with search, even though there are other search engines. The data comes from what people type or speak into Google search engine when they’re seeking information. So, the goal of keyword research for SEO is for you to uncover keywords that searchers will use and identify to get to your business.

It’s kind of a tricky balance with search engine optimization. You want to strike a balance between search volume, which means that people are actually searching for these keywords. So, for example, if you get way too specific with something, let’s take the example of just gold ring. So, gold ring is super general. This is probably not a good keyword for most jewelry brands that even carry gold rings because the competition is fierce. There are so many jewelry brands with gold rings. [09:00] It’s also super nonspecific. So, it could refer to any kind of gold ring, an antique gold ring, a super thick statement gold ring. The person searching for the word ‘gold ring’ probably doesn’t even know what he or she wants, probably just starting their search. And they’re going to find on that first page of Google search results like Etsy, Amazon, eBay, all the big players in e-commerce. It’s definitely too general.

If you kind of narrowed that down a little bit more to maybe something like handcrafted filigree gold ring, well, now you’re really getting in the mind of your target customer. If you sell this kind of product and there’s someone out there specifically searching for this kind of product, then hopefully if you can optimize for that keyword, there will be a connection and the person can find your brand, and will be in a better mindset to buy because they were searching for that [10:00] specific thing, rather than just ‘gold ring’.

However, if you try to optimize for a keyword like handcrafted filigree gold ring with garnets, that might be a little bit too specific. Most people searching on Google, at least for products, aren’t really getting that specific in search, because they may not necessarily know that even want that or that something like that even exists. So, you really want to strike a balance with, “How many people are actually searching for this?” versus, “How much competition is there already out there in Google for this particular keyword?”

And that’s really the tricky art of SEO. There’s definitely a technical component to SEO. There’s a lot of data involved. There are a lot of SEO tools that can help you uncover keywords. Google Analytics and Google Search Console definitely play a big role in this. And, of course, there’s the technical aspect of it. But there’s [11:00] also definitely an art and an intuitive element to SEO that requires you to really put yourself in the shoes of your target customer when he or she is searching on Google. What would they look for? What would they type in? How would they get from point A on google.com to point B on your website? And that kind of requires you to be a little creative and think outside of the box. And you may not even get an answer like that from a tool that would help you from a technical standpoint.

So, it’s really good to start by just brainstorming a list of keywords related to the products and services that you offer, whether that’s handcrafted filigree gold rings, or unique engagement rings, or white gold heart necklaces, whatever that may be. You’ll actually have an advantage if you have [12:00] super unique products. However, if the product is so unique that someone might not even think to search for you, like they don’t even have in their head that it exists, that can also be a disadvantage. So, there are definitely some brands that plan out their product assortment based on how discoverable it will be in search engine results. You definitely want to strike a balance between these 2 extremes.

In addition to brainstorming keywords that are relevant to your products and service offerings, you may want to interview customers who have shopped with you about how they got to your brand. Like, what did they search for? What are some words and phrases that they associate with your brand? If you have good relationships with your customers, that’s a great place to start. You can use some SEO research tools. Moz, moz.com is a great place to start. You can try Google Trends to see, “What are those keywords that people are actually searching for?” [13:00] to make sure there is that search volume. And you can do some good old-fashioned Googling. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and start searching for different words and phrases that you think people would search for to get to you, and take a casual look. What are some of the other search results that are coming up? Who are the competitors in this space? Is it worth trying to even compete with some of these brands on the first page? You’re going to you’re going to see Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, eBay, Amazon, Etsy. It’s going to be impossible to compete with these. So, you want to find the words that still have that search volume, but are unique enough that you can actually compete in that space.

So, let’s talk now about keyword research for social media marketing. This is a little bit different than keyword research for SEO for Google, because this is just for a search engine. And yes, I’m saying the word search engine, like Instagram and Pinterest because people can actually [14:00] search those platforms for content, and even more so in recent years. For example, in late 2019, instead of prior just having hashtag search on Instagram, now Instagram allows users to just straight up search for a keyword, and it will display search results that are relevant based on factors like the caption, the alt text, the hashtags. So, in a way, Instagram is kind of a social media Google where you can search posts, not just for hashtags. And Pinterest, even more so. I would say Pinterest is definitely a visual search engine. People use Pinterest to find content, to find products, to find styling tips. And then they like that the results are delivered to them in a really visual way.

So, when you’re doing keyword research for social media marketing, you want to be asking yourself questions like, “Which hashtags should I be employing in posts? Which topics should I be following and post about?” This [15:00] can definitely help you plan your content around keywords instead of just planning the Instagram content from a visual perspective, which a lot of brands do, not considering like the search engine visibility of their posts.

What words or phrases should you use in post to gain greater visibility? There’s definitely a trend I see among jewelry brands to keep captions like super minimalist and like cutesy and just put a few words. And while aesthetically, that might seem cool or nice, it’s doing you no favors in getting discovered through search. So, you want to at least be descriptive of the product being featured or say the product name. You can still have a minimalist caption, but try to include those words that matter. They’re really important. And some longer really descriptive captions will help you make sure that you’re getting those keywords in there.

Also, you want to remember, especially on Instagram, [16:00] that the name field and the bio fields in your profile are searchable. So, you want to make sure that you have your brand name clearly written out there, and that you have keywords related to your brand in your Instagram bio. You also want to be treating all your hashtags like keywords. So, if you’ve decided that there are certain words and phrases that you want to associate with your brand, make sure that you find the hashtags that are the most relevant and will help you get noticed for those keywords. If that means you actually need to create new content to make sure you’re really spanning the breadth of all those hashtags, then that’s what you need to do. We all think about and focus on the visual aspect of Instagram, but it’s so much more than that, especially in recent months in the past year when it comes to discoverability. You have to really think about how users are searching Instagram, who you want to be reaching on Instagram, and how you can get to them, get to those people [17:00] outside of your followers beyond just having pretty an aesthetic content.

And another really great tip is you want to make sure you’re editing the alt text for your photos before you post them on Instagram. So, alt text refers to it’s meant for visually impaired people or for a website or app that doesn’t load. So, alt text is actually a description of the picture, so that if the picture actually doesn’t load, or a person cannot see the picture, the text describes what’s there so that you can still understand what is trying to be shown. And alt text actually plays a really big role in how your post may come up in search results. So, always make sure you’re editing that alt text. To do that, you would tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of this screen right before you post.

So, I just shared a ton of information about keywords. What do you think? Have you ever started thinking about keywords for your [18:00] jewelry brand? Have you ever sat down to plan content around keywords? I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can always email me laryssa@joyjoya.com. And as a reminder, my book, ‘Jewelry Marketing Joy’, is published and ready to ship. If you’d like to learn more and get your own copy, visit joyjoya.com/book.