Discovery Study No. 04
The Nana Bijou Discovery Study
How a Los Angeles fine jewelry brand became easy to buy from and hard to find.
Nana Bijou has built a following most independent jewelers would envy. Almost all of it lives on someone else's platform.
- Published
- September 2026
- Found Score
- 16 / 30
- Search data
- Semrush, US database, Mar 2025–Aug 2026
- Web research
- September 2026
- Brand Website
- Visit Nana Bijou
- Methods
- Semrush keyword, traffic, backlink and competitor analysis; Etsy shop review; web and social research. See section 10.
Contents
Key findings
Beloved on Etsy, nearly invisible on its own site
20,638 Etsy sales and 6,420 reviews over 16 years. Its own site gets an estimated ~270 US organic visits a month.
Search mostly finds people who already know the name
About 57% of estimated organic traffic comes from searches for the brand name itself. New customers rarely arrive through search.
A shrinking footprint
Ranking keywords in the US fell 63% in twelve months, from 543 to 199. Traffic has followed them down since spring.
One category that already works
Body chains: a single collection page ranks for five variations of the term, including page one for "gold body chain" (1,000 searches a month). Proof the site can win when a page matches what shoppers type.
The Found Footprint & Found Score
A Found Footprint maps every door through which a shopper can encounter a brand: Search, Creators, Editorial, Community, Owned and Commerce. Each channel is rated 1–5. Together they form the Found Score.
Search · 2/5 Minimal
~270 estimated monthly US visits, mostly branded. A handful of product terms rank; most categories don't.
Found Score 16 / 30. Search 2 out of 5 (Minimal); Creators 1 out of 5 (Absent); Editorial 2 out of 5 (Minimal); Community 3 out of 5 (Present); Owned 3 out of 5 (Present); Commerce 5 out of 5 (Dominant). Compared with Castro Smith (18/30): Search 2, Creators 2, Editorial 5, Community 1, Owned 3, Commerce 5. Compared with Malka (16/30): Search 2, Creators 1, Editorial 2, Community 3, Owned 4, Commerce 4.
Found Score
16 / 30
Covers six channels. AI assistant visibility is not scored in this edition. Creator and community scores are based on a light scan.
Nana Bijou's footprint is one of the most lopsided we've mapped. Commerce does almost all the work, and nearly all of that commerce happens on Etsy. The brand has the proof customers look for (thousands of reviews, a GIA gemologist founder, 25+ years of making) but that proof rarely travels beyond the marketplace where it was earned.
Search
2 / 5Minimal
~270 estimated monthly US visits, mostly branded. A handful of product terms rank; most categories don't.
Section 02Creators
1 / 5Absent
No sustained creator or influencer programme found in our scan.
Section 09Editorial
2 / 5Minimal
A 2014 LA fashion blog feature and a 2025 LUXlife award. Little recent fashion or trade press.
Section 06Community
3 / 5Present
6,420 Etsy reviews averaging 4.7 stars and 13,661 shop followers, almost all of it inside Etsy.
Section 08Owned
3 / 5Present
A full Shopify catalogue and a blog, plus Instagram. The blog doesn't rank for any search terms we could find.
Section 05Commerce
5 / 5Dominant
16 years and 20,638 sales on Etsy, 610 listings, and a small number of stockists.
Section 03How the Found Score works
Each channel is rated from 1 to 5 against the rubric below, based only on the evidence documented in this study. Ratings are an informed assessment, not a precise measurement. The score is most useful for its shape: which channels carry a brand's discoverability, and which don't.
| Score | Label | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Absent | No meaningful presence found. |
| 2 | Minimal | Present, but small relative to peers or limited mostly to people already looking for the brand. |
| 3 | Present | An established, consistent presence with clear limitations. |
| 4 | Strong | A substantial, high-quality presence that regularly introduces the brand to new audiences. |
| 5 | Dominant | A defining channel for the brand, with both scale and repetition. |
Channels scored: Search, Creators, Editorial, Community, Owned, Commerce. Maximum score: 30.
Brand & Positioning
Founded
2000, Los Angeles (on Etsy since 2010)
Founder
Natalie Sadigh, GIA Graduate Gemologist and jeweler
Name
A childhood nickname combined with her mother's name; "bijou" is French for jewel
Materials
Solid 14k gold, natural diamonds and gemstones
Made
Handcrafted to order in a Los Angeles studio
Signatures
Nameplates, initial studs, body chains, huggies, novelty studs (angel wings, California, emoji)
Recognition
LUXlife Global Excellence Awards 2025, "Best Handcrafted Fine Jewellery Brand – Los Angeles"
Ships
100+ countries
The brand promises fine jewelry that is "timeless, personal, and accessible". The range sits between everyday gold and made-to-order personalisation, which is exactly the space where shoppers search by product ("14k gold nameplate hoops", "gold body chain") rather than by brand.
Search Footprint
For a brand with a 16-year sales history, the owned-site search footprint is small. Brand searches ("nana bijou", "nanabijou jewelry") do most of the work, which means search is mainly confirming customers who already found the brand somewhere else, usually Etsy.
A name that belongs to every grandmother
"Nana" is also what millions of people call their grandmother. Searches like "nana necklace" (1,300 a month) and "nana jewelry" (720 a month) are mostly gift searches, not brand searches. Nana Bijou appears on page two for both. The name puts the brand next to real demand, but that demand isn't looking for Nana Bijou yet.
Where non-branded traffic comes from
Outside the brand name, organic visits come from a small set of specific products: pages that match exactly what a shopper types.
| Source | Example terms |
|---|---|
| Body chains | gold body chain, 14k gold body chain |
| One hero pendant | 14k gold golden apple necklace |
| Novelty studs | angel wing earrings, emoji earrings, California earrings |
| Initials & nameplates | big letter earrings, nameplate hoop earrings |
The site wins when a page matches exactly what a shopper types. Most pages don't.
Two Storefronts
The same brand, the same products, two very different levels of visibility.
| Etsy shop | nanabijou.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Years active | 16 (since 2010) | — |
| Sales / demand signal | 20,638 sales | ~270 organic visits a month |
| Reviews | 6,420, 4.7 stars | Not shown on the homepage |
| Followers | 13,661 | — |
| Who owns the customer | Etsy | Nana Bijou |
The Etsy shop is where the reputation lives. Reviews, follower counts and search ranking all accrue to the marketplace. None of it carries over to the brand's own site, where margins are better and the customer relationship belongs to the brand.
Twenty thousand customers found Nana Bijou. Etsy kept the address book.
Search Over Time
Keywords began falling in early 2026, while branded searches held traffic steady into spring. Since April, traffic has fallen about 40%. Product and collection pages are dropping out of the top 100, and those are the pages that bring in shoppers who don't know the brand yet.
nanabijou.com: estimated US organic traffic and ranking keywords, Mar 2025–Aug 2026
Estimated organic traffic moved from 357 visits in Mar25 to 217 in Aug26, peaking at 364 in Apr26. Ranking keywords peaked at 701 in Jul25. Jul25: Keyword peak: 701. Apr26: Traffic peak: ~364.
Source: Semrush, US database. Figures are modelled estimates, not Nana Bijou's analytics.
Content Ecosystem
Categories: Rings, Necklaces & Charms, Earrings, Bracelets, Anklets, Body Chains, Brooches, Cufflinks
What the blog actually does
Nana Bijou has a blog. In our data it doesn't rank for a single search term. Every organic visit lands on the homepage, a collection or a product page.
How the Web Talks About Nana Bijou
The number of linking sites isn't small. What's missing is weight. The strongest links come from platforms the brand sells or shares on (Etsy, Pinterest) and a 2025 awards listing. Most of the rest are directories, site-lookup tools and unrelated pages. There is little fashion editorial, jewelry trade press or gift-guide coverage, which are the links that build authority for jewelry brands.
LA Fashion Snob
Feature, 2014
LUXlife Global Excellence Awards
2025 winners page
Charde Jewelers
Online stockist
It isn't how many sites link to you. It's who they are.
The Competitive Field
Semrush's closest organic competitors are smaller direct-to-consumer gold brands, not Etsy sellers.
| Brand | Est. visits/mo (US) | Keywords | Referring domains | Authority Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nana Bijou | ~270 | 212 | 462 | 9 |
| Be Goldish | ~6,900 | 1,064 | 574 | 33 |
| Naiia | ~3,800 | 766 | 309 | 23 |
| Oma The Label | ~2,100 | 527 | 883 | 29 |
Naiia has fewer linking sites than Nana Bijou and roughly 14 times the organic traffic. The difference isn't history or product quality. It's how each site is built to be found.
Community
The proof exists. It just lives somewhere else.
Quality and craftsmanship
Customers repeatedly praise the finish and weight of solid gold pieces.
Personal pieces
Nameplates, initials and engraving drive gifting and repeat purchases.
Fast, careful shipping
A common theme for made-to-order work.
Product Distinctiveness & Discovery Leverage
Product Distinctiveness
Observed fact: Body chains, nameplate hoops and novelty studs (angel wings, California, emoji) each rank for specific searches. Interpretation: When a product is specific enough to be searched for, it can be found without a big brand. Nana Bijou has more of these products than its search footprint shows.
Discovery Leverage
Observed fact: 20,000+ customers, a GIA gemologist founder and 25+ years of history, with almost no creator, editorial or community presence off Etsy. Interpretation: The brand already has the raw material other brands spend years building. The question is where it is allowed to work.
What would Nana Bijou look like if the reputation it earned on Etsy could be found everywhere else?
Methodology & Sources
- Search, keyword and backlink data: Semrush, US database. Rank history Mar 2025–Aug 2026; snapshot September 2026. Traffic figures are modelled estimates, not Nana Bijou analytics.
- Brand-search share: estimated from brand-name keywords as a share of modelled organic traffic.
- Competitors: Semrush organic competitors report, US database.
- Etsy figures: Etsy shop page, retrieved September 2026.
- Brand facts: nanabijou.com, Etsy shop "About", Charde Jewelers, LUXlife.
- Creators and community: web and social search, September 2026. Not exhaustive.
- AI assistant visibility: not covered in this edition.
- Found Score: six channels rated 1–5 against the published rubric. An informed assessment, not a measurement.
This study was not commissioned, paid for or reviewed by Nana Bijou.
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