SEO case study · Authority · 15 months
Kōri Denim
Selvedge denim mill brand · Okayama, Japan
How a Kojima denim mill won the links of the world's raw-denim obsessives
Modelled scenario · fictional business
Day one · 19 domains
Month 15 · 262 domains
01The challenge
Famous fabric. Invisible mill.
Known only through stockists, the mill's own site had almost no links and was outranked by resellers for its own fabric codes.
Raw-denim buyers search by fabric code, the way wine buyers search by vintage. Every one of those searches ended on a stockist or a marketplace listing that had copied the mill's own words. The people who wove the cloth in Okayama had no page that the rest of the world could link to, so nobody did.
02Lot inspection · audit findings
- Link profile19 referring domains, 13 of them stockist footers. No editorial links at all.Torn
- Fabric codesResellers ranked above the mill for 26 of its 31 codes. The mill owned 12% of those first pages.Torn
- Duplicate copyStockists reused the mill's lookbook text word for word, so search engines treated the resellers as the source.Weak
- Spec pagesFabric details lived in PDFs and image captions. Nothing crawlable for weight, loom or dye.Raw
- InternationalJapanese only, no hreflang, although 64% of searches for the codes came from outside Japan.Raw
- Press & proofAn empty press page, no data or images journalists could use, and no named craftspeople.Weak
03The strategy
Make the mill the source, then let the world cite it.
Built on our Authority plan (digital pr & links): earn editorial links with stories only this business can tell, aimed at pages worth linking to. Four tactics, cut like pattern pieces from one bolt.
Digital PR
Two stories only the mill could tell: a 1,000-day fade data set and a photo essay on its oldest shuttle loom. Each pitched with charts, licensable images and a link to the fabric page it was about.
Wear mark: Whiskers + Selvedge line
Enthusiast forums
No seeded posts. The dye master answered real questions in fade-contest threads under the mill's name, so wiki editors and fit bloggers cited the spec pages on their own.
Wear mark: Honeycombs
Craft storytelling
A crawlable archive of all 31 fabric codes: loom, yarn, rope-dye dips, slub and shrinkage, with the people who make it. The page every link could point to.
Wear mark: Train tracks
International link building
Translated spec pages with hreflang, then a stockist relinking programme: shops abroad swapped copied descriptions for a credited link back to the source.
Wear mark: Stacks
04The fade map
Wear patterns are the ranking history.
Five campaigns, 243 new referring domains. Each one wears in at the spot named after it.
- Month
- 0
- New domains
- +0
- Codes owned
- 12%
Month 0 · Raw
Unworn, unwashed, unlinked.
19 referring domains. Scroll, or drag the slider, and watch each campaign wear its mark into the denim.
1Months 1–3Craft storytelling
Train tracks / Outseam
The fabric-code archive
31 spec pages, one per fabric code: loom, yarn count, rope-dye dips, slub, shrinkage and sanforisation. Resellers had been paraphrasing the mill; now there was a canonical source to cite.
+38 referring domains
2Months 4–6Digital PR
Whiskers / Hips
The 1,000-day fade study
120 owners sent photos of one fabric worn for up to 1,000 days. The mill graded the fades by dye lot and published the data set; menswear and design press picked up the charts.
+71 referring domains
3Months 6–9Enthusiast forums
Honeycombs / Behind the knee
Open dye-lot sessions
The dye master answered questions in fade-contest threads for six weeks, with loom photos and lot numbers. Forum wikis, buying guides and fit blogs started linking the spec pages as the reference.
+44 referring domains
4Months 8–12International link building
Stacks / Ankles
Translated canon + stockist relinking
Spec pages in English, German, French and Korean with hreflang. Stockists in nine countries swapped their copied descriptions for a credit linking the mill's fabric page.
+62 referring domains
5Months 12–15Digital PR
Selvedge line / Cuff
Loom No. 7 photo essay
A photo essay on the mill's oldest shuttle loom, offered to international design and travel editors with exclusive regional angles. It closed the run with features in print and online.
+28 referring domains
05Month by month · 15 months
The wear log
- 01
Inspect · 21 domains
Link and SERP audit of all 31 fabric codes; reseller duplicate-copy map.
- 02
Archive · 24 domains
First 12 fabric-code spec pages published with Product and FAQ markup.
- 03
Archive · 30 domains
Remaining 19 spec pages; mill story pages for the dye master and loom team.
- 04
Fade study · 41 domains
1,000-day fade submissions open to owners worldwide; 120 pairs graded.
- 05
Fade study · 58 domains
Data set and charts pitched to menswear, design and data-journalism desks.
- 06
Fade study · 79 domains
Follow-up angle on dye-lot differences; first forum session with the dye master.
- 07
Forums · 98 domains
Weekly loom and dye-lot answers; fade-contest prize of mill-direct fabric.
- 08
Forums · 121 domains
Forum wiki and buying-guide editors credited with images; English spec pages live.
- 09
Abroad · 143 domains
German, French and Korean translations; hreflang across all spec pages.
- 10
Abroad · 168 domains
Stockist relinking programme: 41 shops in nine countries asked to cite the source.
- 11
Abroad · 192 domains
Copied descriptions replaced; reseller pages now link the canonical fabric page.
- 12
Loom No. 7 · 214 domains
Photo essay shot; exclusive regional angles offered to international editors.
- 13
Loom No. 7 · 233 domains
Features run in design and travel titles; images licensed with a source link.
- 14
Loom No. 7 · 249 domains
Second wave in Korean and German press; mill-direct sales page reworked.
- 15
Review · 262 domains
Link quality review, disavow check and the next year's campaign calendar.
06Results · month 15
Fully worn in.
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
Referring domains
19 → 262
Fabric-code SERP ownership
12% → 79%
Direct online sales
+178%
International press
14 features
Fabric codes and craft queries
| Query | Ranked first, before | Mill, M0 | Mill, M15 |
|---|---|---|---|
| kd-1501 selvedge | Reseller | 7 | 1 |
| kōri denim 15.5oz | Marketplace | 4 | 1 |
| kd-1402 slub denim | Reseller | 9 | 1 |
| okayama selvedge denim mill | Travel blog | 23 | 2 |
| japanese selvedge denim by the metre | Fabric shop | 41 | 4 |
| kojima raw denim fabric | Reseller | 31 | 3 |
| rope dyed natural indigo denim | Forum thread | — | 6 |
| shuttle loom denim explained | Magazine | — | 2 |
Before · month 0 (mill ranked 7th)
kd-1501 selvedge
1. a reseller › products › kd1501
KD-1501 15.5oz selvedge jeans – in stock
2. a marketplace › listing › 88213
Kori Denim KD1501 raw denim | free shipping
3. a forum › threads › kd-1501
Which Okayama fabric is in my jeans?
After · month 15
kd-1501 selvedge
1. Kōri Denim › fabrics › kd-1501
KD-1501 · 15.5oz shuttle-loom selvedge, rope-dyed
2. Kōri Denim › journal › fade-study
1,000 days in KD-1501: the fade data
3. a forum › wiki › kd-1501
KD-1501 explained (wiki, citing the mill)
Your fabric, your fade
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