Welcome to Business of Craft, a show designed to help entrepreneurs with fabric or fiber businesses become more successful.
This is our 8th season of BOC and today we have another solocast to cover one of the topics in our new book, Marketing Magic for Savvy Craft Businesses. I’m super proud of this book which my whole team wrote in 2025. The book is available for sale in Kindle and print version (and soon to be audio) on our website or Amazon.
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If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “SEO? I think I set that up years ago,” or “I’m not even sure what an algorithm is,” then this episode is your cue to step up your digital game.
Because today, we’re discussing both topics.
Now, don’t worry — you don’t need to be a wizard of code. But you do need to understand how search engines and algorithms work for your business — or else they might be working against it.
Let’s start here: your website, your blog, your social media — they don’t exist in a vacuum. Think of the internet as a living ecosystem, and your digital assets are creatures inside it. They’re constantly interacting — with search engines, social media platforms, customers, and even competitors.
To make sure you get noticed, your content needs to speak the same language as that ecosystem — and that language is Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is what helps your content communicate clearly to platforms like Google, Bing, Pinterest, or Instagram. It tells the algorithm: “This is relevant. This is valuable. Show this to people.”
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is how we ensure your content is:
*Structured well
*Keyword-rich
*Relevant to your ideal customer
*And most importantly, easily found online
Search engines use little crawlers — or bots — that scan websites to determine which pages are worth showing in search results. They rank you based on:
*How helpful and current your content is
*How authoritative your site is (based on backlinks)
*How well it’s formatted and optimized for web and mobile
So yes, this is part science, part spellbook.
Let’s talk about the true incantations of SEO: keywords.
Keywords are the exact words and phrases your ideal customer types into a search bar when looking for something — maybe “how to cast on for knitting,” or “best quilting ruler for beginners.”
Your job is to make sure those keywords show up in:
Example:
If you sell quilting kits, don’t just use “quilting kit.” Use “modern beginner quilting kit” or “patchwork quilt starter bundle.”
These longer, more specific keywords are called long-tail keywords and they:
We know that if you’re too generic or broad in your keywords, you’re not going to rank at all so don’t use keywords like yarn or fabric and expect those to generate traffic. Avoid ultra-competitive keywords with millions of monthly searches.
Instead, aim for specific terms with moderate volume like 300K to 800K where you can actually rank — and reach the right people.
How do you know if your keyword is worth using?
Start by testing it in the Google search bar. See what kind of content comes up.
Then, use tools like:
We also test multiple phrases… so you’ll test the search volume of say Knitting kit vs Knitting Kits.
And, also make sure you’re ALWAYS utilizing local keywords like your state, city county name, your region, your town name, the name of the plaza your building is in etc.
Now that we’ve talked about what to say, let’s talk about how to say it.
Algorithms love well-structured content and value it based on the order it appears on your website.
Organize content using:
Not only is it easier for your reader, but it increases the chance that Google will pull your answer as a featured snippet — that magical box that appears above search results.
Even if someone doesn’t click through, that visibility builds brand awareness.
Make sure that all your meta tags are completely filled in. If you don’t know what that is, consult your web dev person. A lot of times your templated platforms will have this integrated into a field structure and you just navigate to that field and fill in the information.
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve done our website audit for clients and they don’t have anything in the description section.
SEO isn’t just about words. It’s also about how your site performs:
You can use tools like:
Consider having your web developer or marketing partner (like our agency) run an audit. A fast, mobile-optimized site can drastically improve your ranking and customer retention. As we’re recording this in 2025, we charge $750 to do a full audit on your site and we give you a comprehensive homework sheet to improve your site afterwards. And if you can’t improve it on your own, we can also do that for you!
SEO isn’t a one-time spell. It’s an ongoing practice.
Whenever you:
…make sure your content is optimized for search. I always recommend once you get your validated keyword list created, have it by your desk to reference when you’re writing content. Go ahead and write one pass and then on the second edit, look at the list and see how you can boost it with additional words.
Remember — SEO isn’t just about search engines. It’s about real people.
Avoid keyword stuffing — it sounds robotic and gets penalized. Instead, write in a way that’s helpful, natural, and conversational.
At the end of the day Google and other engines are looking to send traffic to the most relevant, high value sites so if you can be that site, you’ll get the traffic.
If you find yourself with an outdated website or one that just isn’t performing the way it needs to be, reach out to us, we can help.