An Online Dispensary Goes From Not Ranking to Page 1!
If you’re reading this you already know cannabis marketing in Canada & the USA is super competitive. Did you know that a cannabis dispensary SEO strategy can help you compete?
There are thousands of retail cannabis dispensaries in each Province or State and there are hundreds of online dispensaries ready to sell you mail order marijuana, and many of the most successful cannabis stores show up on page 1 of a Google search related to buying weed online.
As a cannabis SEO agency since 2017, we are very well aware of the high level of competition between licensed retail dispensaries and legacy online dispensaries for profitable cannabis SEO keywords, online visibility, and search rankings.
This is why we always recommend a comprehensive cannabis dispensary SEO strategy as the foundation for any cannabis marketing.
The following is a cannabis SEO case study that will show you the power of our cannabis SEO agency and our dispensary SEO stratgey.
In simple terms – this cannabis SEO case study will prove that our SEO stratgey works and provides a significant return on investment for cannabis companies, online dispensaries, and retail cannabis stores.
The Problem
The client is an online dispensary based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They provide a large variety of cannabis products in their online store and ships product anywhere and everywhere across Canada.
They are struggling with website traffic, keyword rankings, and online revenue.
They rank very well for branded search terms (phrases directly associated with the brand) but they do not rank well for high volume, commercial and transactional oriented keywords.
Their previous SEO team did a great job with getting the client website to rank for branded search terms, however, that’s not always a wise cannabis SEO strategy.
Most growth oriented dispensary SEOs focus on non-branded search trafficbecuase branded search terms will often rank well without too much effort. That is, most sites have no problem ranking for their own brand name.
Non-branded searches however are often more competitive and have much higher search volume form highly qualified & relevant traffic.
And – you don’t automatically rank for a non-branded search term so a comprehensive and experienced cannabis SEO stratgey is required in order to be competitive and profitable.
In order for this client to improve and increase their website traffic, search engine rankings, and online revenue, they need to rank for transaction oriented, high volume keywords that their competitors are ranking for but the client is not currently ranked for.
To be clear: The client’s website doesn’t show up on page 1 or even on page 10 for many high quality, high volume keywords. However their competition is ranking on page 1 in the top 10 for high volume, transaction oriented keywords/.
Therefore our client is not getting this “hot” traffic that’s looking to buy weed right now – but their competitors are!
This is clearly a big huge problem!
The Solution
Our client needs to rank on Page 1 for the following keywords:
- online dispensary canada
- weed online canada
- buy weed online canada
- buy weed online
- order weed online
- buy online weeds
- buy canadian weed online
- online dispensary
- mail order marijuana
- buy my weed online
- online weed dispensary
If you can believe it, this online dispensary in Canada was not ranking for these high volume keywords when we took over in November 2021.
Clearly they need a solid cannabis dispensary SEO strategy in order to be competitive with the top online dispensaries in Canada – and the thousands of retail cannabis stores that are now everywhere.
Goals:
- Rank on Page 1 for target/wishlist keywords with high volume and transaction intent.
Our client’s top priority is to rank on Page 1 for the phrase “buy weed online” and/or “buy weed online canada”.
Through our research, we identified another keyword that has a much higher monthly search volume than “buy weed online” and that keyword is “online dispensary” or “online dipsensary canada”.
Goal 1: Rank on Page 1 for “buy weed online” and/or “buy weed online canada”
Goal 2: Rank on Page 1 for “online dispensary” or “online dispensary canada”.
Goal 3: Rank on Page 1 for the other 9 keywords in the target list.
Results for keyword rankings from our cannabis dispensary SEO strategy (Nov 3, 2021-April 2023)
The Strategy
From a high-level, our cannabis dispensary SEO startgey consists of 4 pillars of SEO tactics:
1. On-Page SEO
- Implement new keyword strategy site-wide
- Optimize all metadata including SEO titles, meta descriptions, image file sizes, image alt tags, as well a schema and structured data.
- On-page SEO copywriting for product & category pages
2. Content Marketing
- Publishing 15 x 1500+ word SEO-optimized blog articles each month
- Sharing all content on social medial platforms
3. Off-Page SEO
- High-quality link building
- Guest posts
- Citation Optimiztaion
- GMB/Google Business Profile Page posts
4. Technical SEO
- Page Speed optimizations
- Regularly fixing monthly SEO errors
Start Date:
- We began to implement this cannabis dispensary SEO strategy on November 3, 2021.
The Results
We succeeded in meeting all 3 goals!
This means we were able to get our client ranking on Page 1 for 11 high volume cannabis SEO keywords that they were not ranking on before we started or cannabis dispensary SEO strategy.
BEFORE: How Things Looked BEFORE Our SEO Strategy
Note that the client was not ranking for any of their high volume, transaction oriented target keywords BEFORE we started our SEO strategy.
Stats BEFORE our Cannabis Dispensary SEO Strategy
AFTER: Significant Increases in Target & Wishlist Keyword Rankings AFTER Our SEO Strategy!
After implementing our cannabis dispensary SEO strategy, this client now ranks for 8 out of 11 of their target keywords – and ranks on Page 1 for their target/wishlist keywords of “buy weed online” and “online dispensary”!
Stats AFTER our Cannabis Dispensary SEO Strategy
Results For Goal 1:
Goal 1: Rank on Page 1 for “buy weed online” and/or “buy weed online canada”
- This was the top priority goal the client chose.
- On Jan 11, 2023 “buy weed online” & “buy weed online canada” debuted on Page 1 at #7 on Google Search in Canada!
As of April 5, 2023 it’s at #4 and #5 on Page 1 on Google Search in Canada.
Results For Goal 2:
Goal 2: Rank on Page 1 for “online dispensary” or “online dispensary canada”.
- On Dec 21, 2021 “online dispensary” debuted on Page 1 at #9 on Google Search in Canada!
Results For Goal 3:
Goal 3: Rank on Page 1 for the other 9 keywords in the target list.
- The chart below will show the target keywords positions in Google search on November 3, 2021 (the start date of our cannabis dispensary SEO strategy) as well as the positions as of February 15, 2023 (the time of writing this case study).
Results For The Client’s Online Visibility, Traffic, & Positions
Here are 3 charts showing KPIs for our client from Nov 3, 2021 to Feb 15, 2023.
You can clearly see the growth and increases in the online dispensary’s online visibility, estimated traffic, and average position in search.
Results on Keyword Rankings Distribution
This chart shows the ranking distribution for the target keywords and where our client’s website ranks in Google search.
You can see that the client website was not ranking in the Top 3 (page 1) for any of the target keywords as of Nov 3, 2021.
But, by the start of April 2023, they now rank in position 1-3 and 4-10 (all on Page 1) for 100’s of keywords!
What It Means For Your Brand
We can do the same for you!
If your retail cannabis dispensary or mail order marijuana online dispensary is struggling with decreases in website traffic, search engine rankings, and online revenue, we can help you gdet to page 1 on Google just like we did with the dispensary above.
We have been “doing SEO” in Canada, USA, and the EU specifically for cannabis and CBD companies since 2017. Please contact us today.
We’re Ready To Help You Grow!
