H Samuel & Ernest Jones

After the core Google algorithm update, Signet saw a decline in performance for both brands, with H.Samuel seeing visibility drop by -40% and Ernest Jones’ visibility dropping -37%. The brief was simple; we needed to stabilise performance and improve organic visibility for both brands. We created and actioned a strategy to recover both sites, taking them back to post-update numbers, to improve SEO non-brand performance and to improve rankings.

The SEO project plan was split into two parts: technical SEO improvements to drive sitewide improvements, and content improvements to improve expertise and to build authority and trust.

Prioritisation and collaboration were key to drive success, particularly for technical SEO. We worked very closely with the Signet IT teams, meeting regularly, to help ensure SEO was at front of mind and implementations were able to be made.
Our technical recommendations were based around starting with key BAU improvements, such as reviewing canonicals, sitemap optimisation and reviewing schemas. From this, we were able to then work on further improvements to drive site performance.

From a content perspective, E-A-T is as important as ever. We supported from both an editorial and ecommerce perspective, in the key priority areas, to drive improvements. This included long form blog content, PLP content and PDP optimisation.

It was also key to ensure that the strategies were unique for each brand.

As we manage both PPC and SEO for Signet, we were able to ensure we were still driving traffic to both brands whilst we saw these organic deficits. We supported key revenue driving terms with paid activity, in line with key promotional activity and business focus. We pushed these terms to a high impression share to capture both awareness and traffic.

Having search as a focus allows us to work closely as one team to drive the best overall performance, without looking at the channels in silo. This is from both a ways of working perspective, with a deep understanding of the Signet business, but also from a practical perspective where we are able to make changes to our activity based on the synergies we have identified cross channel.

The work completed by Summit has put Signet in a fantastic position for future growth and both H.Samuel and Ernest Jones have recovered from the Google update. We saw ranking improvements for key terms, improved visibility, and significant increase on non-brand traffic. These results have continued to grow post analysis period, showing how important this SEO project was to drive significant growth for Signet and ensure they are visible and present in an increasingly challenging landscape.