The Abbey Information Exchange: How to grow your hobby and craft business online

How to grow your hobby and craft business online

Are you an independent hobby and craft business? Have you struggled to get footfall to buy your goods since the recent pandemic, and are wondering how you can keep your craft business sales up?
If the answer is an astounding “Yes!”, then this is the Abbey England information exchange article for you.

The internet has grown from bulletin board systems used in 1978 in the World Wide Web’s infancy, to the ‘Dot Com’ boom of the late 90’s and early noughties, to the online powerhouses we know and love today, such as Amazon (and of course Abbey England)!

The digital space is an ever growing and dynamic market, and similar to the gold rush that swept California in the 1800’s. Then, merchants from all over the world, rushed to find areas to excavate and mine for gold. Now, the digital rush is still happening, with companies buying up domain names to claim ‘digital real-estate’ on online search engines such as Google and Bing, as well as social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram.

If you’re not already claiming digital real estate for your craft or hobby business, do not fear. We are about to go over the top-level methods you need to boost your online business profile.

So, let’s begin…

How to Rank Your Site on a Search Engine:

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO as it is more commonly known, is the art of ranking certain keywords associated with one of your website pages on the first few positions of Google. See the link embedded for SEO to learn more about SEO and how it works.
The foundations of ranking a website on Google relies on three key areas. These are keyword-focussed content, link-building  and technical SEO.

1. Keyword-focussed content
Keyword-focussed content , known as ‘on-page SEO’, is essentially having your desired keyword you’d like to rank on featured on your web page. The title of the web page and main header known as a ‘H-1’ being the key indicators to Google of what your page is about.

To find your target keywords, and the average search volumes for that keyword each month, you can use tools such as Google Keyword Planner. Or, another great free tool to do this is UberSuggest.
 
 2. Link-building 
Link-building is the trust element of SEO. Meaning, if you create great products or expert information, websites will link to your site, typically linking to your product or service. This symbolises trust to Google, as it is effectively another website giving you a digital thumbs up and endorsing your products or services. In return, this increases your website’s authority with Google, which increases your website’s ranking.

3. Technical SEO 
Technical SEO is a bit more advanced. It is essentially ensuring that your website is eligible and optimised for indexation. However, content SEO and link-building are enough to get your craft business starting to rank on Google.

Social Media Advertisements:

With hobby and craft products being very visual, a great way to market your products in a cost-effective manner is with Facebook and Instagram paid placements.

These could be in the form of paid Facebook or Instagram ads, and the basics of how to do this in a free course is here. Alternatively, contact an ‘Instagram influencer’ to showcase your product for you. You can find a great guide on how to do this here.

Creating a website for your hobby and craft products:

If you don’t already have a website for your hobby and craft products and are worried about completing this feat, do not be disheartened. There are many great ways to create a website today with limited-to-zero knowledge of website code.

The two easiest methods of creating an online store is either through WooCommerce, which is a WordPress plugin or by creating a Shopify website. You will find a full guide on how to create a Shopify website here, and it’s not as difficult as it first sounds.

So, there you have it. Everything you need to take your craft or hobby business online in one blog. In a time when footfall is massively reduced with no indication of when things are going to get back to some form of ‘normal’, we hope this helps you to generate online revenue and product sales.

We hope you enjoyed this piece. Thank you and good luck!