SEO Case Studies 2019 – Winning Search Authority Cannabis

A Case Study In Results

First, if you haven’t checked out our article on the basics of SEO, you should, it’s a quick read and might lend more context to this article.

We’ve been saying it time and time again; the Cannabis industry is saddled with many obstacles standing in the way of how we market ourselves, especially online.  Perhaps you saw our article about advertising CBD on facebook, in which we detail some of the hurdles on social media and Google Ads.  Quite simply put – we’re not yet confident in how we’re able to invest in mainstream platforms to promote meaningful traffic and while we’re paying close attention, we’re still a ways off.

We started offering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a complimentary service to our amazing CannaPlanners Page Builder platform last Fall, and so far we’re pretty happy with the results we’re seeing.  Reinvesting back into your own website provides significant long-term value, beyond the short-term search improvements (those are awesome too). In order to contextualize SEO, a service that entails several complex and time consuming tasks, I felt it best to show some results.  We’ve taken from a few different client personas that we’re working with – brick and mortar (both CBD and Adult-use), CBD brands, and E-Commerce and compiled averages based on the work we’ve done.  Let’s take a look!

Case Study 1

Search Visibility

Organic search impressions are the number of times your website appears in organic search results. This could be any web-page on your site, showing up for any number of keywords that are being targeted (ie. written about) on the page. This doesn’t reflect actual clicks or traffic, only that the site appeared in search engine results.  We were able to increase search visibility by 55% on average quarter-over-quarter – exposing this client to way more searchers than before.

Website Traffic

This is pretty straight forward – what improvements were seen on actual web traffic i.e. how many more people came to my website after SEO?

This first example is a client who started utilizing our SEO services in Oct of 2019.  They have a brick and mortar store, selling multiple CBD brands, with a CannaPlanners Semi-Custom E-commerce website.  Year-over-year we saw an 88% increase in organic sessions (a huge increase in people coming to the site from organic search results!).

Case Study 2

Search Visibility

Ok, but what about Adult Use Dispensaries?  I’m glad you asked.  Here are the same organic impression trends for an Adult-Use/Medical Marijuana dispensary after signing up for SEO.  This particular client was newer to our platform, so our data only goes back as far as when we launched their website That said, we saw an 88% increase to the amount of brand exposure and search visibility as a result of our efforts.

Website Traffic

More web traffic equals more equals more customers which equals a greater bottom line. It’s that simple. So, same Adult Use/MMJ Dispensary, our strategies improved organic website traffic by 32% comparing the first quarter they signed up to the second quarter of service. The customers are there. We’re here to help them find you instead of your competitors. SEO brings more customers while providing search authority and brand value.  Boom!

Case Study 3

So why is this a slow burn?  How can a business rationalize this expense, especially if the results aren’t immediate?  These are important questions.  SEO is an amalgamation of many services – keyword research, content creation, technical optimizations, and on and on… simply put, it’s a lot of work.

Our strategies require significant chunks of time to make sure that we’re not only creating the right content, but that it is optimized, provides actual value to a user, and is accessible to search engines.  Getting to the top of a Google Search takes time, but winning that search authority is the endgame; and once you’re on top, it’s all about maintaining your positions. We want to ensure that your CannaPlanners website is being found by the people you’re actually trying to reach and winning out over your competitors.

Let’s look at results spread out over a shorter amount of time.  This case study started in Jan 2020 and represents a Brick and Mortar store with an E-commerce website selling multiple CBD Brands.

Search Visibility

The “slow burn” is really a front-loaded idea, and as you’ve just seen in the previous examples, the bell curve really hits after the first 2 quarters of service.  However, for small businesses with no search authority (page 2+ on an organic Google Search result), gaining early traction can be a game changer, especially in growing a brand.

In the first 6 months of service, we were able to help grow brand awareness and organic search visibility by 23%.

Website Traffic

Even in a short amount of time, we can see the results of SEO implementation.  For a small business, a 25% increase in organic sessions is a significant change.  With only 6 months, we were able to provide a healthy increase of brand awareness and customer traffic.

Data is the best… it never lies!  The ability to grow your brand is directly related to the search authority your website (and the TONS of pages on it) has. We can see that clearly in these case studies.  Slowly, but surely, we’re coming out of this intensely strange social distancing and quarantining, but one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned – in regards to online businesses – is that investing in your web presence will not only keep you alive when businesses are closed, but will exponentially impact growth as we come out of it.

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