A West Midlands company's new-look website could prove to be a precious commodity for craftsmen and jewellers across Britain and Western Europe.

Palmer Metals, based in Broad Lane, Coventry, has developed its online operation at www.palmermetals.co.uk to provide a hi-tech one-stop shop of precious metal products for clients including silversmiths, jewellery manufacturers, schools and colleges.

The company, which was set up 17 years ago, has been working with experts at Rugby-based Zarr Internet Services on the web improvements, which allow customers to easily order online from more than 1,000 different products. Materials ranging from carat gold and silver findings to chain, sheet and wire can be bought by length, area, individually or by bulk - allowing specific ordering by clients.

Paul Reynolds, web developer and infrastructure specialist at Zarr Internet Services, said: "We are delighted to have worked with Palmer Metals. Our brief was to create a new-look website that allows customers to easily buy their products over the internet.

"The buying process is a lot more complex than 'click and buy' and with metals cut to customers' exact requirements, so we have used the latest web technology to develop an online service that caters for all clients."

Mr Reynolds added: "The website has been highly optimised for search engines and even at this early stage the results are brilliant, the website ranks on the first page for a large number of terms and traffic is increasing as a result."

Amanda Naylor, managing director of Palmer Metals, also said: "The team at Zarr listened to our requirements which are somewhat more complex than the normal e-business and they have provided an excellent looking site that is easy to use and search engine friendly.

"We will continue to work with Zarr to enhance the back office capabilities of the site to further reduce administration time and develop additional reporting capabilities."