The Customer
This premium cannabis retailer empowers customers to make informed decisions about their wellness routine through hemp/CBD education and thoughtfully vetted products. Committed to quality, they source organically grown hemp from farms in Colorado and Oregon, and all products undergo rigorous in-house and third-party lab testing for safety and efficacy.
The Challenge
The cannabis retailer struggled with changing search trends and had to drop some keywords altogether after related products were banned in some states, making it harder for them to show up in search results.
The Solution
Originally operating on a not-so-successful backlink-only campaign, Victorious elevated the retailer’s efforts by helping them craft two new pages of optimized content that factored in recent industry and search intent changes.
The Results
The retailer found their footing and saw 297% growth in top-ten keywords, leading to 113% more organic sessions.
New Heights in Ecommerce Cannabis Retail
In a highly regulated and ever-changing sector like the cannabis industry, today’s best-selling products can quickly become tomorrow’s legal liabilities. For businesses like this cannabis retailer, that means constantly recalibrating your marketing efforts to remain compliant while still working toward business goals.
As cannabis regulations changed in multiple states, the store faced a roadblock: some keywords that were once viable avenues to reach new customers now posed a risk of non-compliance and misaligned market targeting. Compounded with evolving search trends and a stagnant backlink-only campaign, the challenge wasn’t just to react but to navigate change with precision.
A Strategic Pivot Turns Opposition Into Opportunity
Like many online businesses, organic search visibility is a vital component of this cannabis retailer’s marketing efforts. They aim to empower customers in their wellness journey, offering not just thoughtfully vetted products but also essential education to help them make informed choices.
However, search intent shifts and regulatory changes in various states required them to rethink their SEO strategy. Additionally, their previous backlink-only campaign with another agency wasn’t producing the results they were looking for.
Victorious’ first step was to revamp the retailer’s link-building strategy. While link building is an essential part of an SEO strategy, we recognized that it wasn’t enough on its own. The landscape demanded agility and foresight. Our solution was to identify new keywords and craft content optimized for both search intent and regulatory compliance.
We published two new primary pages tailored to reflect the latest industry trends and shifts in search intent. The results were not just immediate but profound, sparking a renewed commitment from the retailer to invest further in SEO content.
With this revitalized strategy, the cannabis retailer wasn’t just poised to meet their goals of doubling organic traffic but to surpass them.
The Results
A 297% increase in top-ten keywords year-over-year.
Optimized content and an improved backlinking strategy helped the retailer go from ranking for 893 top-ten keywords to ranking for 3,524 top-ten keywords.
A 116% increase in organic clicks from Google search results.
Targeting regulation-compliant keywords and demonstrating their trustworthy expertise earned the retailer more clicks from organic search results.
A 113% increase in organic sessions year-over-year.
As fresh, authoritative content was uploaded to their site and keyword rankings grew, the retailer saw a boost in organic sessions.
From Setback to Success With an Adaptive, Content-Driven SEO Strategy
The shift from a stagnant backlink-only campaign to a dynamic content-driven SEO strategy allowed this cannabis retailer to reach new customers while maintaining regulatory compliance. Their success underlines a key message: staying ahead in a competitive and volatile industry requires a proactive approach to change. By turning regulatory hurdles into a catalyst for innovation, our work with this company has proved that with an adaptive SEO strategy, challenges can be turned into growth opportunities.
