A fictional business. The figures are a modelled scenario, not a client result.
Case study · Authority · 12 months
Tkachi Knitwear · Slow-fashion knitwear mill · Gabrovo, Bulgaria
+198
referring domains, each one a stitch in the chart.
The fabric on the right is the mill’s link profile. 27 legacy domains are the cast-on; every link earned over 12 months knits the next stitch, until the 54-stitch jacquard of the Tkachi mark is complete. Hover or arrow through it to read the coverage behind each stitch.
Chart 01 · 15 × 15 · read bottom to top
225 / 225 stitches
Stitch 225 · row 15 · month 12
Lifestyle news site, Milan
Gift guide placement · authority 67 · Digital PR
Row 01The challenge
A heritage mill producing for European labels had no consumer brand recognition and almost no links to its new direct-to-consumer site.
For nine decades Tkachi knitted fully fashioned jumpers and cardigans for other people’s labels. When it opened its own shop, it discovered that search engines knew it only as a line in supplier directories. The craft was world-class; the evidence of it on the web was almost nothing. An authority problem, not a product problem.
The cast-on: 27 domains
Referring domains vs comparable brands
A knitter reads a fabric for dropped stitches and tension faults. We read the link profile the same way.
27 referring domains, 19 of them supplier directories and trade listings. Not one consumer, fashion or sustainability publication linked to the new shop.
0 press links
The direct-to-consumer launch replaced the old B2B catalogue. 41 backlinks from stockists and trade press now landed on 404s.
41 dropped
64 pages named the mill as maker (label stockists, fair reports, trade interviews) without a link to it.
64 mentions
No press room, no founding story, no high-resolution photography, no fibre or traceability facts. An interested editor had nothing to cite.
0 assets
Around 320 brand searches a month: the name was known to buyers at European labels, not to the people wearing the jumpers.
320 / mo
Three comparable direct-to-consumer knitwear brands averaged 310 referring domains, mostly from fashion and sustainability press.
11× gap
Row 02The strategy
The plan ran on Authority, our digital pr & links plan: earned coverage only, no bought links, every pitch backed by something an editor could check. Each tactic is a yarn in the chart; the counts are the stitches it knitted.
83 stitches
Give fashion and news desks a reason to write about a mill: data, launches and access, pitched to the right desk on the right day.
29 stitches
Ninety years of pattern books, machines and knitters is the story. We turned it into pages worth linking to.
40 stitches
Slow fashion is a beat with its own writers. We gave them verifiable facts instead of adjectives.
46 stitches
The quickest links are the ones the mill had already earned. Recover them first.
Row 03Month by month
Month 01
Link audit, competitor gap and reclamation list. 41 broken legacy URLs redirected in week two.
Month 02
Reclamation outreach to stockists and trade press; the mill archive opened up for story mining.
Month 03
Photography, maker profiles, fibre and traceability facts on one page. First fashion feature lands.
Month 04
Heritage story pitched to fashion desks with the 1936 pattern books as the hook.
Month 05
Data study published: how far a jumper travels. Syndicated by news and sustainability sites.
Month 06
Open-mill day for editors and a virtual press kit around the autumn shows.
Month 07
Repair service launched as a story about keeping knitwear for decades.
Month 08
Farm-to-garment wool report released; sustainability press becomes the second-largest source.
Month 09
Three-part maker profile series; craft and design-history sites pick it up.
Month 10
Gabrovo textile heritage trail with regional tourism outlets: local links with real topical relevance.
Month 11
Gift-guide placements for the slow-fashion edit, pitched eight weeks ahead of the guides.
Month 12
Garment-miles update, a final reclamation sweep and an anchor-text review for year two.
Row 04Results
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
Referring domains
27 → 225
Fashion press features
31
Organic sessions
+246%
Brand search volume
+188%
| Search | Volume / mo | Before | After | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tkachi knitwear | 590 | #3 | #1 | Home |
| bulgarian knitwear brand | 320 | #31 | #1 | Story |
| heritage knitting mill | 260 | #22 | #2 | Archive |
| slow fashion knitwear | 1,900 | #48 | #4 | Collection |
| traceable merino sweater | 480 | not ranked | #5 | Traceability |
| merino jumper made in europe | 880 | not ranked | #6 | Product |
| fully fashioned knitwear | 390 | #57 | #7 | Explainer |
| plastic-free knitwear | 210 | not ranked | #8 | Packaging |
| sustainable wool cardigan | 1,300 | not ranked | #9 | Product |
Modelled positions in Google, Bulgaria and EU English results. 225 stitches = 225 referring domains at month 12.
Bind off
If your work is better than your reputation online, Authority turns it into coverage and links that compound, one stitch at a time.
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