// case study / jewellery ecommerce / pakistan
GK Jewelers: jewellery ecommerce SEO case study
A redesign cut its clicks to about a fifth of normal in three days. Redirects had it above the old level by 20 June, and it then doubled.
What does Search Console show for GK Jewelers?
What happened to GK Jewelers' search traffic after the redesign?
GK Jewelers sells certified natural gemstones and silver rings across Pakistan from a WooCommerce catalogue of more than 1,500 URLs. In June 2026 the store shipped a redesign, and the new build changed URLs without mapping the old ones to the new.
Search Console shows the cost to the day. On 12 June the site took 162 clicks from 6,545 impressions. On 13 June it took 76, on 14 June 78, and on 15 June just 49 clicks from 2,442 impressions. Through May it had been running 200 to 250 clicks a day, so the site was down to about a fifth of its normal traffic in three days.
Rankings didn't disappear because the content got worse. They disappeared because Google was following links to addresses that no longer answered.
Why does a website redesign cause a sudden traffic drop?
Google ranks URLs, not designs. When a redesign renames category and product addresses, every ranking the old address had earned is attached to a page that now returns a 404. Internal links break, the sitemap points at pages that don't exist, and Google starts dropping them from results within days.
The fix is a 301 redirect from every old URL to its closest new equivalent, which tells Google the page moved rather than died. It's the part of a site migration that's easiest to skip and most expensive to forget, and it's why how I handle website redesign SEO starts with a redirect map decided before launch, not after.
How was the traffic recovered in three days?
- i.
List every URL that used to rank
Old addresses came from Search Console's page report and the previous sitemaps, so nothing that had earned impressions was missed.
- ii.
Map each one to its closest new page
A sapphire category went to the new sapphire category, not the homepage. Redirecting everything to the homepage is how a soft 404 happens.
- iii.
Redirect with 301, not 302
A permanent redirect passes the old page's ranking signals. A temporary one tells Google to keep waiting for the old page to come back.
- iv.
Fix robots.txt and resubmit the sitemap
The live robots.txt still carries the header from that week: corrected, updated June 2026. The new sitemap went back into Search Console the same day.
Which pages carry the recovery?
After the redirects, the work moved to the new category pages, built around the names people actually type. Nine gemstone and ring categories account for 581,536 impressions and 21,348 clicks this quarter, just over half of both. Every one of them ranks between 2.9 and 4.8.
| Page | Clicks | Impressions | CTR | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /sapphire-stone/ | 4,274 | 100,981 | 4.23% | 3.3 |
| /emerald-stone/ | 3,787 | 108,546 | 3.49% | 4.1 |
| /rubyyaqoot/ | 3,132 | 110,494 | 2.83% | 3.1 |
| /aqeeq-stone/ | 3,013 | 70,374 | 4.28% | 4.2 |
| /opal/ | 1,844 | 35,697 | 5.17% | 2.9 |
| /tourquoiseferoza/ | 1,468 | 51,693 | 2.84% | 4.3 |
| /dur-e-najaf-stone/ | 1,308 | 40,010 | 3.27% | 3.6 |
| /rings-for-men/ | 1,252 | 34,376 | 3.64% | 4.8 |
Why do gemstone price searches click so much better than stone names?
Someone typing a stone's name might be curious, studying astrology or looking at pictures. Someone typing its price in Pakistan is getting ready to buy. The click rates show the difference plainly.
'Yaqoot stone' draws 17,714 impressions at position 1.4 and still clicks at only 1.40%, because a lot of those searchers want a definition or an image. 'Yaqoot stone price in Pakistan' draws a quarter of the impressions at 4,609 and clicks at 5.84%. That's why the category pages lead with prices and certification rather than folklore.
How do Urdu and English stone names change the keyword research?
Pakistani buyers search the same stone under two names, and both need to rank. The store's own URLs pair them, which is why the ruby category lives at /rubyyaqoot/ and turquoise at /tourquoiseferoza/.
Neelam and blue sapphire
'Neelam stone price in pakistan' took 476 clicks. 'Blue sapphire price in pakistan' took 254. Same stone, both rank.
Yaqoot and ruby
'Ruby stone price in pakistan' took 500 clicks at 1.4, and the Urdu form another 269.
Zamurd and emerald
'Emerald stone' took 435 clicks. 'Zamurd stone price in pakistan' took 156 at 2.9.
The misspelled slug stays
/tourquoiseferoza/ ranks at 4.3 on 51,693 impressions. Correcting the spelling would change a URL that ranks, which is exactly the mistake this project started with.
How much of Pakistan's jewellery shopping starts on a phone?
Almost all of it. 945,219 of the 1,083,018 impressions came from mobile, which is 87%, and mobile ranks better too, at 3.6 against 6.1 on desktop. A product page that looks good on a laptop and slow on a mid-range Android phone is losing most of this store's market.
| Device | Clicks | Impressions | CTR | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | 35,601 | 945,219 | 3.77% | 3.6 |
| Desktop | 4,151 | 131,722 | 3.15% | 6.1 |
| Tablet | 201 | 6,077 | 3.31% | 4.2 |
Who is searching for Pakistani gemstones from abroad?
Pakistan is 979,172 impressions, but the next four markets are the diaspora: the UK, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the USA. The US is interesting because it's the biggest overseas audience at 14,328 impressions and clicks the least, at 0.98%. That's a buyer who needs to know about international shipping before they'll click, and a page that answers that question is the obvious next build.
| Country | Clicks | Impressions | CTR | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 38,256 | 979,172 | 3.91% | 3.8 |
| United Kingdom | 279 | 8,262 | 3.38% | 5.8 |
| Saudi Arabia | 260 | 7,930 | 3.28% | 4.0 |
| United Arab Emirates | 196 | 7,223 | 2.71% | 4.0 |
| United States | 140 | 14,328 | 0.98% | 6.8 |
What technical SEO sits under a 1,500 URL WooCommerce catalogue?
1,512 URLs in 13 sitemaps
Eight of the sitemaps are product sitemaps, split so none gets too large for Google to fetch cleanly.
JewelryStore schema
The homepage declares a JewelryStore with a postal address, plus WebSite and SearchAction markup for the sitelinks search box.
Every image has alt text
95 images on the homepage, none missing alt text, which matters on a catalogue where image search is a real source of buyers.
One host, one protocol
HTTP redirects to HTTPS with a 301, and the canonical points at the one version of each page.
Which searches bring GK Jewelers its clicks?
The top of the list is the brand, and right under it is the pattern that runs the whole store: a stone name followed by 'price in pakistan'.
| Query | Clicks | Impressions | CTR | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gk jewellers | 855 | 1,215 | 70.37% | 1.5 |
| ruby stone price in pakistan | 500 | 7,686 | 6.51% | 1.4 |
| neelam stone price in pakistan | 476 | 7,326 | 6.50% | 2.2 |
| emerald stone | 435 | 8,242 | 5.28% | 1.7 |
| amethyst stone | 421 | 7,490 | 5.62% | 1.6 |
| aqeeq stone | 386 | 11,053 | 3.49% | 1.9 |
| opal stone price in pakistan | 361 | 3,777 | 9.56% | 1.6 |
| yaqoot stone | 248 | 17,714 | 1.40% | 1.4 |
What does the GK Jewelers case study teach?
Three things this project shows that apply well beyond this one site, each backed by a number above.
Map every old URL before a redesign ships
Organic traffic fell from 162 clicks a day to 49 in three days, and came back to 362 once each old URL had a 301 to its closest new page.
Price searches are buying searches
'Sapphire stone price in pakistan' clicks at 10.56% while 'yaqoot stone' clicks at 1.40% from a higher position, so the category pages lead with prices.
Don't rename a URL that ranks
/tourquoiseferoza/ is misspelled and still ranks at 4.3 on 51,693 impressions. Fixing the spelling would repeat the mistake that caused the drop.
Which services did the GK Jewelers project use?
Each one below is backed by the evidence on this page. Open the one that matches your own problem.
What won't this case study claim?
A 3.69% click rate at average position 4.0 is the number I'd still want to move. Position four should be doing better than that, and the gap is titles and descriptions rather than rankings. Worth saying too: the three day crash was avoidable. A redirect map built before the redesign shipped, rather than after, would have meant no crash to recover from.
What do people ask about jewellery ecommerce SEO?
How long does it take to recover traffic after a website redesign?
When the cause is missing redirects, recovery can start within days of the redirects going live. GK Jewelers bottomed out at 49 clicks on 15 June 2026 and was back above its old level at 362 clicks by 20 June, because the pages hadn't lost their value, only their addresses.
Should old URLs redirect to the homepage after a redesign?
No. Google treats a redirect to an unrelated page, like the homepage, as a soft 404 and drops the old page's rankings. Each old URL should redirect to the closest matching new page, category to category and product to product.
What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect for SEO?
A 301 is permanent and tells Google to move the old page's ranking signals to the new address. A 302 is temporary and tells Google the old page might come back. After a redesign or migration, permanent moves should always be 301s.
Why do product price searches convert better than product name searches?
A price search shows buying intent: the person has usually chosen the product and is comparing cost. On GK Jewelers, 'sapphire stone price in pakistan' clicks at 10.56% while the bare name 'yaqoot stone' clicks at 1.40% despite ranking higher.
Can a Search Console property show exactly when traffic dropped?
Yes. The daily date view in Search Console's performance report shows clicks and impressions per day, which is how this case study can name 13 to 15 June 2026 as the three days the redesign cost.
Where do these numbers come from?
Every figure on this page was pulled from sc-domain:gkjewelers.pk through the Google Search Console API, over 13 June to 11 September 2026. The tables weren't typed off the screenshot. Where the picture shows a slightly different number, it's because it was captured at a different time from the API pull, so its date range doesn't line up exactly with the window. Two figures sit outside that window, and they come from the same property: the daily view for 12 June 2026, the last day before the drop, and May 2026 for the before line.
The technical details, the schema types, sitemap size, image alt text and redirects, were read off the live site on 15 September 2026. Nothing here is modelled, estimated or averaged across clients, and there's no percentage without the number it's a percentage of.
That's the same technical SEO audit your site would get. You'd see the number that's working and the one that isn't, with the window stated, so you can check it in your own Search Console.
This redesign is the worked example in several posts on the method: protecting rankings during a redesign, the migration checklist I run, fixing 404s with the right redirect for each URL and handling out-of-stock and discontinued products. The rest of the method is in the migration posts, and the store side in the WooCommerce posts. Its homepage images, every one with alt text, are the example in writing alt text that helps image search.
Lost traffic after a redesign?
GK Jewelers was back above its old traffic by 20 June. Send me your URL and read-only Search Console access on Upwork, and I'll check whether missing redirects are behind your drop too.
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