Hobbycraft SEO

About Hobbycraft

Hobbycraft is a leading online and physical retailer of arts & crafts and hobby supplies in the UK. They have over 120 stores in the UK and stock a diverse range of products as well as a creative blog showcasing inspiration, project support and other inspiration content called their ‘Ideas Hub’.

They lead the market in the breath, categories and quality of products sold online and instore and are moving towards becoming the ‘BBC Good food’ of the crafting world showcasing crafters, communities, techniques, guidance and inspiration in their content and online channels.

The Challenge

Navigating Hobbycraft’s vast array of products, content, and categories poses a challenge, as defining their direct competitive market and identifying individual competitors proves difficult. Some of the most valuable and high-average order value (AOV) categories cater to niche interests, deviating from the overarching principles that typically appeal to the crafting community. For instance, the ‘Digital Crafting’ category features numerous technical machines at competitive prices, accompanied by expert support for setup and maximizing device potential. As such, it required a presentation more aligned with technical product sites rather than the broader arts and crafts category.

Our Approach

We adopted a strategic approach akin to segmenting workflows within a digital department store. Recognizing the significant potential value and relatively untapped search visibility of the ‘Digital Crafting’ segment, it became a focal point for our framework. This targeted optimization initiative aimed to extract unique insights from sector-specific sites, optimizing categories independently to seize competitive opportunities in search engine results pages (SERPs) and enhance structural developments. By treating each category as a distinct store, we accommodated varying price points, user journeys, and intents.

To kickstart this initiative, we conducted a comprehensive competitor audit of category performance. This audit highlighted missing products, targeted terms, and category pages utilized by competitors within the taxonomy. Leveraging these insights, we meticulously mapped and optimized the revised ecommerce architecture for the category, facilitating streamlined user journeys, expanding SERP opportunities, and implementing integrations to enhance basket value through add-on products.

The Results

Comparing YoY peak Q4 results for the category key organic metrics increased significantly with traffic and revenue figures still rising into this year.

Since implementations were completed Q3 last year the category has seen the following increases in essential SEO metrics with an overall over double increase in CTR despite the largest jump being impressions acquiring many new and increased priority positions for the category.

• Impressions +124.4%
• Clicks +65.7%
• Av. CTR +3.5%