7 Vape SEO Case Studies
How Our Client Turned $5,000 into $1 Million
We know how hard it is for a vape site to get traffic.
We’ve been doing it for nearly 15 years.
Along the way, we’ve helped businesses in the US, the UK, the EU, Canada, Norway, China, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere get to the top of their markets.
Online marketing for vape shops isn’t easy, though, if you don’t know what you’re doing…
… and it’s arguably even harder if you’ve had previous success selling online in another industry because almost none of the standard traffic and revenue generation techniques work for vape sites.
- Keyword bidding on search engines? Nope – Google and Bing won’t let you.
- Social media promotion? All the major social media sites forbid vape advertising.
- Influencer marketing? That’s a serious no-no in the vaping industry.
On this page, we’re going to present 7 vape SEO case studies showing exactly what we did to help some of the world’s biggest vape brands get to the top.
Along the way, you’re going to see that even the most successful brands in the vaping industry face exactly the same problems as you – and we’re going to share actionable solutions that really work.
Vape SEO Case Studies: Table of Contents
1. A Major Online Vape Shop in the United States Needed to Increase Conversions from Its Blog
2. A Large Vape Wholesaler Needed Help Securing Premium Links
3. A Well-Known Vape Manufacturer in China Needed a Content Marketing Strategy
4. A Publicly Traded Vaporizer Maker Needed to Rank for the Cannabis Industry’s Most Competitive Terms
5. A Famous Pod System Maker Needed to Increase Its Global Reach
6. An Online Vape Shop in the United Kingdom Needed to Replace Its Copied Product Descriptions with Original Text
7. A New CBD Brand Needed to Break Through in a Competitive Market
Don’t Know What Your Site Needs?
We do. We’ve helped all types of vape businesses around the world generate traffic and revenue since 2010. Contact us now and we’ll audit your site for free.
A Major Online Vape Shop in the United States Needed to Increase Conversions from Its Blog
About the Client
The client is one of the largest online vape shops in the United States, with yearly earnings exceeding $3 million. This company routinely ranks on the first page for all of the most competitive product-related searches in the US.
The Problem
At the beginning of this project, the client’s blog had hundreds of articles that were several years old. The content no longer generated as much traffic as it once did. In addition, the traffic that the blog did receive rarely resulted in sales conversions. The client needed to generate more sales from its blog, and the client also wanted to use the blog to draw more attention to lesser-known products.
Challenges
- Most of the blog content on the client’s website lacked any commercial tie-ins, so most visitors would read the content and leave.
- Many of the blog posts included images and other references to older products that were no longer sold, giving visitors the impression that the content was outdated and irrelevant.
- Many of the posts also had years in their titles and URLs. The years had passed, signaling to Google that the content was outdated.
Our Solution
- We revamped all of the website’s blog content, adding up-to-date information where the existing content was lacking.
- We updated the product photos and references to discuss and depict current products.
- We removed the years from the articles’ URLs and updated the years in the titles, creating redirects when necessary to preserve inbound link equity.
- We added a block of relevant product recommendations to each article.
- We updated the publication dates of the articles to signal to Google that the content was new.
- We created several new articles to target competitive short-tail keywords more directly than the site’s existing content.
The Result
After the completion of this project, the client’s traffic increased dramatically from approximately 30,000 monthly users in February 2023 to 108,000 monthly users in February 2024. The blog’s conversion rates increased, and lesser-known products began to receive more traffic. The client’s revenue increased substantially as a result.
Return on Investment
This project cost a total of $4,695, and the client’s year-over-year revenue increased by nearly $1 million – 40 percent higher than in previous 365-day period.
A Large Vape Wholesaler Needed Help Securing Premium Links
About the Client
The client is a major vape wholesaler and is the main distributor in the United States for many popular disposable vapes, refillable pod systems and more.
The Problem
At the time that they reached out to us, the client had enjoyed moderate success through its affiliate marketing program but aspired to become much larger. The client needed help securing premium links in order to improve its rankings for competitive short-tail search terms.
Challenges
Securing links is always difficult for a vape site because many publishers are reluctant to link to companies in the vaping industry.
Our Solution
Beginning in late 2021, we secured dozens of premium links for the client while the client’s in-house marketing staff handled on-site content. Leveraging our network of over 200 publishers allowed us to secure placements on websites that were perfect fits for the client’s audience.
The Result
When the client first reached out to us in 2021, its organic traffic was approximately 15,000 monthly visitors. By 2024, the client’s organic traffic was routinely over 400,000 monthly users and occasionally exceeded 650,000.
A Well-Known Vape Manufacturer in China Needed a Content Marketing Strategy
About the Client
The client is a China-based vape brand that is one of the industry’s oldest manufacturers and has created some of the best-known vaping devices of all time. The client’s products are available throughout the world.
The Problem
When this project began in mid-2021, the majority of the client’s organic traffic came from searches for the company’s name and the names of its products. The client needed to expand its reach and relevancy with a content marketing strategy that would help it rank for a wider variety of keywords.
Challenges
- The client used one website for all regions, so users everywhere in the world saw exactly the same content. Therefore, the content needed to be relevant to anyone who might view it.
- In addition to being relevant for all regions, the content also couldn’t run afoul of vaping regulations in any region.
- The content needed to address broad high-traffic keywords without promoting or mentioning competitors’ products.
Our Solution
- We developed a comprehensive content marketing strategy that systematically addressed hundreds of high-volume keywords with the potential to draw in many thousands of potential customers each month.
- We provided over 100 full-length blog posts to the client from 2021 to present.
- We audited older content on a continuous basis, updating it when necessary to keep up with changing products and trends.
The Result
At the beginning of this project, the client’s blog received fewer than 100 visitors per month. At present, the blog receives more than 43,000 monthly users.
A Publicly Traded Vaporizer Maker Needed to Rank for the Cannabis Industry’s Most Competitive Terms
About the Client
The client is a well-known manufacturer of high-end oil, wax and herb vaporizers whose stock is publicly traded.
The Problem
The client approached us with the goal of generating more organic web traffic. The client’s products generated plenty of buzz through a good influencer review pipeline, but the client received most of its web traffic through searches for those specific products. The client wasn’t indexed at all for competitive short-tail search terms such as “510-thread battery” and “dab pen” that would have aided in product discovery outside the review pipeline.
Challenges
- The short-tail search terms in the vaporizer industry are extremely competitive, with some keyword phrases receiving hundreds of thousands of searches each month. The rankings for these keywords tend to be very volatile, and breaking through to the first page is exceedingly difficult.
- The client needed to keep its SEO spending tightly controlled and had a strict maximum weekly budget. Due to this requirement, the project needed to have a gradual rollout.
Our Solution
- We added informative and keyword-rich description text to each of the client’s category pages.
- We improved the technical SEO of the category pages by refining the page titles and improving the website’s structure to increase the prominence of those pages.
- We created a library of informational blog content that linked extensively to the site’s category pages.
- We planned and executed a link building campaign that helped the client secure links from some of the world’s top publishers.
The Result
We commenced this project in October 2022. By December 2023, the client’s organic traffic had increased from about 3,000 organic monthly users to over 26,000 monthly users – a more than eightfold increase – just in time for the holiday shopping season.
A Famous Pod System Maker Needed to Increase Its Global Reach
About the Client
The client is a manufacturer of a pre-filled pod-based vaping device whose name is known throughout the world and was at one time nearly synonymous with vaping itself.
The Problem
When we began work on this project, most of the client’s organic traffic came from searches for that company’s brand name, which had been steadily decreasing due to the widespread popularity of disposable vapes. The client needed to increase product discovery and explain the benefits of its platform to smokers who hadn’t yet transitioned to vaping and might otherwise choose disposables.
Challenges
- The client was under intense regulatory scrutiny due to the ongoing premarket application process with the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. As a result, the client needed to control product messaging extremely tightly.
- The client’s product is sold throughout the world, so product messaging needed to be consistent across all regions.
Our Solution
We constructed a series of landing pages targeting the informational queries that smokers would be likely to use during the awareness and consideration stages of the customer journey. These pages concisely explained the benefits of the client’s pod vaping system compared to disposable vapes and traditional refillable vapes.
The Result
We commenced this project in September 2023 and completed it in February 2024. By that time, the client’s organic traffic had increased from about 62,000 monthly users to approximately 105,000 monthly users.
An Online Vape Shop in the United Kingdom Needed to Replace Its Copied Product Descriptions with Original Text
About the Client
The client is a major online vape shop in the United Kingdom with an enormous selection of products. In all, the client’s website has over 13,000 pages indexed by Google.
The Problem
At the time that they approached us, all of the product text on the client’s website was copied from other sources. Thanks to strong link building efforts, the client had some existing traffic and revenue. The traffic had plateaued, though, because the website had almost no unique content.
Challenges
- Because the client’s product selection was very large, budget control was a major priority. The client needed the project’s cost to be predictable.
- The client also wanted the project to be completed as quickly as possible.
Our Solution
- We set a target description length for each type of product to ensure the maximum possible SEO benefit while keeping costs as low as possible.
- We used a spreadsheet system that minimized labor by allowing the new description text to be imported automatically.
- We completed 2,829 product descriptions for a total cost of $16,182 over approximately five weeks from December 2018 to January 2019.
The Result
Within two months of the project’s completion, the client’s organic traffic nearly tripled from about 8,000 monthly users to over 22,000 monthly users.
A New CBD Brand Needed to Break Through in a Competitive Market
About the Client
The client is a well-known maker and seller of CBD and legal THC products that sells to customers throughout the United States.
The Problem
The client owned a chain of vape shops in a major American metropolitan area and had recently begun offering CBD products to great success. Following that success, the client launched its own CBD brand and contacted our cannabis SEO service for help getting the word out.
Challenges
- The CBD industry is extremely competitive. When the client reached out to us in 2020, the industry was very congested with many new brands all trying to ramp up simultaneously. Rankings on Google were very volatile, and it was exceedingly difficult to reach the first page for the most competitive search terms.
- In order avoid running afoul of regulations, CBD-related content must explain the benefits of CBD without making any claims of medical benefits.
- Some publishers are wary of the cannabis industry and are reluctant to link to CBD brands.
Our Solution
We coordinated with the brand’s in-house marketing staff, who handled the client’s on-site content while we focused on securing links. We secured dozens of premium placements for the client during multiple years of work beginning in the first quarter of 2020.
The Result
After beginning with fewer than 100 monthly organic visitors in 2020, the client’s organic traffic exceeded 30,000 monthly visitors by mid-2023.
Don’t Know What Your Site Needs?
We do. We’ve helped all types of vape businesses around the world generate traffic and revenue since 2010. Contact us now and we’ll audit your site for free.