Oji Vape

Increased Total Organic Users by 555%

As a local budtender in San Francisco, Adnan had been working in the cannabis industry since 2013. With the inevitable regulation and legalization of marijuana in California, medicinal and recreational users alike were searching for the next health-conscious option to consume cannabis products. The high demand for vaping batteries allowed Adnan to recognize the expansive opportunity to provide vaping supplies.

In 2015, Adnan originally began his operations under the name budtouchvape.com to produce custom-branded batteries, cartridges, and vape packaging. Like many entrepreneurial businesses, Adnan developed his clientele from industry networks and connections, going door-to-door to local dispensaries.

Various challenges limited his ability to grow, including his first mishap with Google search. BudTouchVape, named after one of Adnan’s offshore manufacturers, was thought to drive higher search volume due to its partial-match brand name for the keywords, ‘bud’ and ‘vape’. Unbeknownst to him, a partial-match URL served as a double-edged sword.

Due to federal regulations surrounding credit card processing for company names using cannabis-related keywords, BudTouchVape was flagged and was divested of its bank accounts.

The Birth of Oji Vape

Unfazed by his financial setback, Adnan remained resilient. The business quickly rebranded under the new name: Oji Vape. ‘Oji’, which translates to ‘uncle’ in Japanese, stood as a tribute to Adnan’s uncle whose entrepreneurial success in San Francisco had influenced his dream of building a business of his own.

After switching payment platforms and processors, Adnan knew he had to build up his online presence to attract B2B customers. But in a competitive landscape where paid ads on search and social platforms regarding cannabis were aggressively monitored and removed, Oji Vape’s best alternative was to approach SEO.

Oji Vape engaged with several digital marketing consultants that specialized in SEO over the course of a year. What first appeared to be promising partnerships, only ended in empty promises.

Scheduled deliverables were outsourced;
His hired consultants didn’t take the time to understand his business;
And their recommended campaigns used outdated SEO tactics that no longer applied to Google’s constantly-evolving algorithms.

Ultimately, Adnan felt left out of his own strategy. Oji Vape was provided only barebone data on reports with ‘no meat’, a sure sign his SEO had no data-driven strategy. At one point, his SEO budget was even reallocated for retargeting ads – a feeble attempt that led to <1% conversion rate.

“Pursuing paid/retargeting, and social was very difficult. Cannabis (still) has a very negative connotation with Google which makes it hard to run paid ads. Even if you do run an ad, you have to tread very carefully. SEO is a much better long term investment.”

Propped up only by his own offline sales, it immediately became clear to him. Adnan knew he had to cut his losses and quickly find a reputable agency to lift Oji Vape out of its struggles before it loses its opportunity in the flourishing cannabis industry.

On a brisk November morning, as Adnan sat back at his office desk in the Tenderloin contemplating his next move, he looked out the window with his laptop in front of him. He pulled up a simple Google search, ‘best SEO company in San Francisco’.

Dominating his local search results was none other than Victorious.

California Dreamin’

Fresh from winning the best boutique SEO agency from the US Search Awards, Victorious engaged with Oji Vapes to address its pain points.

Having been burned by his prior SEO relationships, Adnan wanted the reassurance of working with a team that has had a proven track record. And in an emerging industry where face-to-face interaction holds its importance in building relationships, Victorious was committed to empowering Oji Vapes as an up-and-coming business in the Bay Area community.

At Victorious, we understood the significance of SEO for a cannabis company plagued by online limitations. But it was through this understanding that we knew it was absolutely critical to determining what Oji Vape’s customers were searching for.

Though we had minimal search data from Google, we married our SEO expertise with Adnan’s understanding of the cannabis industry. As a result, a fundamentally-sound keyword research strategy was developed that sprung our partnership forward.

Convinced by the transparency surrounding our data, timeline, and people-first approach, Oji Vape bought into our SEO strategy right away. For Adnan, this decision to commit to our strategy brought forth what could only be compared to his own San Francisco gold rush.

“World-class SEO firm. I have seen sales, the website traffic and keyword rankings more than quadruple since working with Victorious SEO.”

Adnan F.

Results that speak for itself

Held back by the site’s previous undoing and Google’s sandboxing of the domain, it took several months for Oji Vape to bear witness to its first buds.

But when it flowered, it flourished. Unleashed from Google’s probationary period, Oji Vape quickly saw its keyword rankings sprout, up 2,000+ net keywords from the 90 total keywords it ranked for in February:

Total Keyword Rankings

In combination with our initial keyword research, our comprehensive site audit ensured that Oji Vape captured our target keywords in its SEO content optimizations. As a result, the site’s most valuable target keywords saw a net aggregate increase of 5,770 positions on Google search results:

Target Keyword Rankings Improvements

But perhaps the greatest achievement to date came from our bottom-line results. Organic users increased by 555%, with 32,000+ users visiting the website over its last four months. This has translated to a 745% improvement in goal completions that took into account sales inquiries by phone and online form submissions.

Adnan’s B2B success was also mirrored by its B2C demand. Oji Vape’s e-commerce storefront from May to June saw a 125% increase in sales comparatively from March to April. Overall, Oji Vape has seen >400% ROI on our SEO engagement!

The demand in new business has led to Adnan finding new warehouse space in order to expand his production. What once was a local operation struggling to find reliable revenue streams, Oji Vape is now receiving international demand – a testimony to the intangible value of finding the right SEO agency to build a relationship with.

If you face the same challenges and are looking for SEO resources to help grow your cannabis-related business, Victorious offers free consultations to get you started on the right path. Explore if SEO is right for you and visit our Cannabis SEO page today!