Case studies
Link Building Process - Case Study
CBD Online Store
This case study applies to the cannabis industry company for which we’re managing link building processes on Polish, Finnish, Danish, and Swedish markets.
See how we created a link building process for 4 countries in a highly competitive CBD industry, introduced the client’s most relevant keyword phrases to high ranks in search results, and increased website visibility.
Process
Link Building
Industry
CBD
Domains
Poland, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark
Analysis
We are conducting a link building process for the CBD company from February 2020. Our client was looking for a company that would take care of their off-site SEO process and tested a few companies before engaging in cooperation with us.
We started with the Polish domain, based on which the client wanted to decide whether to invest in other markets. After 2 months, the decision was made and the client entrusted us with another 3 Scandinavian countries’ domains (Finland, Sweden, and Denmark).
Apart from creating backlinks, we’re closely cooperating with the company’s internal SEO team for which we’re providing on-site SEO recommendations. This strongly supports link building process and we observe better results.
Quick facts:
- Difficult industry (CBD)
- 4 different domains
- Company’s internal SEO team
- Managing one part of all SEO process
Link building strategy
The off-site process is just one element of the whole SEO activity and for it to bring desired results must be carried out in accordance with the changes implemented on the website. It is assumed that link building affects about 30% of effects when it comes to the position of key phrases. For this reason, we work closely with the client’s in-house SEO team and provide them with recommendations on any necessary changes to be made on the website.
Our off-site linking process is a strategy individually composed for each client and particular market. In the CBD industry, it was quite a challenge as not everything and not everywhere can be linked, which made the selection of link sources crucial for the whole process. Some websites delete CBD-related links, so we are building our own base of places that allow this kind of content.
In the beginning, our client provided us with the list of most relevant subpages and keywords on which the in-house team was focusing on. It was our base to create the strategy. After analyzing the link profile (which can be carried out with external tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush) we planned the link building process for provided subpages that later on would be expanded on new URLs.
Links we created were:
- exact match links,
- links containing keyword and brand,
- links containing part of the exact match,
- clear URL links.
In addition, each link:
- is created manually,
- comes from the domain in an adequate location,
- have better parameters than the client’s domain,
- is thematically related,
- comes from diversified sources,
- has unique content,
- is surrounded by adequate text,
- is additionally indexed.
Link Building Process for CBD Company
We choose keywords for the linking process based on the current client’s needs – business-wise important categories and those matching optimized categories. Additionally, we link to the main page as well.
The above-described link-building model proves to be efficient for building domain authority.
For each domain, we create 20 links per month.
As a part of the link-building process for the CBD company, we also prepare how-to articles in the press office that not only contribute to the link base growth but also increase brand recognition and spread knowledge about CBD products
We approach this link building process boldly – we’re not afraid to work with keywords that are out of the index and bring them to the top of search results.
An example of general keywords that were out of the index. At this point, they are ranked at TOP2:
Finland:
Denmark:
In addition, to increase the efficiency of the process, we provide client with recommendations on changes to implement on the website.
An example of recommendations our Specialists are sending to the client:
Results
During the cooperation, Ahrefs rolled out an update of measuring the UR metric that could affect the UR level drop.
Denmark
An exemplary changes in linked keywords ranks:
Website parameters before cooperation:
Current website parameters:
Increase in visibility on Google.dk:
Increase in the number of referring domains and domain’s authority:
Referring domains are being chosen also based on the location:
Finland
An exemplary changes in linked keywords ranks:
Website parameters before cooperation:
Current website parameters:
Increase in visibility in Google.fi:
Increase in the number of referring domains and domain authority:
Referring domains are being chosen also based on the location:
Sweden
An exemplary changes in linked keywords ranks:
At the beginning of cooperation, we didn’t see any results of the linking process, on-site activities implemented by the in-house SEO team weren’t bringing any effects either. After analyzing the website it turned out that the domain was previously a torrent website and was penalized by Google. That’s why in October 2020 client decided to redirect this website to a new domain and we started to note increases in the process results.
The website parameters were built from scratch.
Current website parameters:
An increase in visibility on Google.se:
An increase in the number of referring domains and domain authority:
Referring domains are being chosen also based on the location:
Poland
An exemplary changes in linked keywords ranks:
An increase in visibility on google.pl:
An increase in the number of referring domains and domain authority:
Referring domains are being chosen also based on the location:
Link building for a cannabis store is quite a challenge, mostly because of the restrictions imposed on the industry. For each country, we were creating different link building strategies containing strong domains that would accept this kind of link. Thanks to the structured process and each market treated as an individual project we managed to achieve a really good rank for general keywords. I can’t fail to mention the client’s engagement in the process and their implementation of recommendations we’re providing as an extra to the linking process. It’s a pleasure to be part of such cooperation
Cooperation with CBD online stores is for sure challenging but at the same time brings a lot of satisfaction and pleasure. We created a valuable process in four different markets. Keywords we’re choosing for link building are characterized by really high competitiveness. During the process, we’re creating how-to articles that become very popular and contribute to creating our client’s expert image in the CBD industry.
Thanks to a well-thought strategy and diversified links we managed to increase ranks for the most relevant keywords from out of index to TOP1 even. We’re constantly developing the process and making it more and more efficient.
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