I might be dating myself here, but there was a time when you would faithfully head to the local mall every week and spend countless hours combing through albums of your favourite music bands.
Fascinated by the lure of enticing album art and soaking in the entire experience, people could find new music that far exceeds building a Spotify playlist on your phone today.
Prairie Records were recently announced as the top cannabis retailer in Canada at the GrowUP Conference & Expo, attempting to combine that same retro cool vibe of vinyl record stores and buying pot.
Prairie Records offering a combination of music and cannabis
Calgary-based Westleaf launched their award-winning cannabis retail concept that married cannabis and music, with the hopes of differentiating themselves from the rest of their cannabis retail competitors across Canada.
Prairie Records describe themselves as a musically inclined cannabis retail store that offers consumers a unique shopping experience. With over 20 retail locations planned to open in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in 2020, we are proud to offer the highest quality products, second-to-none service, and a feeling of getting lost in the music.
So far it looks like their formula is winning…
As a business strategy, we currently don’t pursue cannabis retailers as SEO clients at this point unless they come to us.
Everything today is based on proximity, consumers are largely driven to visit local pot shops depending on how close they are to where they live or work.
Digital marketing is simply not a priority for cannabis retailers (for now at least)
- No competition. Until there are pot shops on every corner and eventually competing for the same customers, existing cannabis retailers are riding the novelty of legal marijuana without much fear of having to work for it. Product demand is big enough and ongoing supply issues means that customers are finding them and not the other way around.
- Every shop sells the exact same products. Cannabis retailers are legally mandated to buy cannabis from authorized producers only, there is no differentiation to what they sell. Cannabis stores can’t market themselves on product exclusivity for the cannabis strains they feature.
- Everything is brand new. Store owners are still getting their heads around how to actually run their business, things like marketing and customer loyalty initiatives are secondary at this point until they figure out what’s working for them. Many store operators are already complaining about margins and profitability, never mind sinking money into marketing.
With increased competition as the industry matures, it means many cannabis retailers will eventually shut their doors as stronger players emerge with a better customer experience.
Living in Toronto myself and as more cannabis stores open around my neighbourhood, I would be more inclined to visit stores that actually earn my business.
“Unlike any other cannabis retail environment, Prairie Records seeks to elicit a sense of happiness, discovery, and enjoyment with our customers. We can’t wait for you to join us in store and hit the high notes while getting lost in the music.”
Prairie Records Concept – How to win the cannabis retail wars
So we now take a look at Prairie Records and their existing SEO as it stands today.. More than a pretty face, digital marketing will become key to staying ahead of the competitive curve.
SEO audit for Prairie Records (PrairieRecords.ca)
DR Rank – 23
DR stands for Domain Rank, it’s a score used to determine the authority of your website in search engine rankings. This is also commonly referred to as DA (Domain Authority) depending on the SEO tool you are using.
Referring Domains – 133
This is the total number of domains or websites that link back to PrairieRecords.ca
Referring Pages – 630
This is the total number of pages that link back to PrairieRecords.ca
Backlinks – 1036
This is the number of actual links back to PrairieRecords.ca
Dofollow Backlinks – 410
DoFollow links are powerful because these types of links tell Google to pay attention to the site they are linking to and increases the authority score of that website
Nofollow Backlinks – 626
NoFollow backlinks are still important, but tells Google to essentially ignore them and doesn’t pass link juice that increases the authority rank of the website they’re linking to
Search Keywords by Position Rank
Search keywords by position are the search terms people use when searching on Google and link back to Prairie Records. Being #1 on Google is huge, but the value also depends on how often people search for those keywords.
Most interesting thing to notice here is the number of terms based on cannabis strain name. Many cannabis store websites don’t list any products and means a ton of lost Google search opportunities for potential customers looking for a specific brand of pot!
| Keyword | Position | Volume | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| canndara | 1 | 60 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/pages/canndara |
| prairie records | 1 | 250 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| prairie cannabis | 2 | 150 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| saskatoon cannabis | 3 | 800 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| marijuana stores saskatoon | 4 | 70 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| saskatoon cannabis stores | 4 | 100 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| pot shops saskatoon | 4 | 60 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| canaca white widow | 5 | 100 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-white-widow |
| plain packaging indica | 5 | 200 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/plain-packaging-indica-oil-40ml |
| record stores saskatoon | 5 | 80 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| saskatoon weed | 5 | 20 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| saskatoon marijuana | 5 | 40 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| saskatoon marijuana dispensary | 5 | 30 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| weed saskatoon | 5 | 30 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| tweed cannabis oil | 7 | 60 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-argyle-oil-40ml |
| alien dawg | 9 | 700 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-alien-dawg-dried-flower |
| cannafarms | 11 | 4,000 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/cannafarms-critical-super-silver-haze-dried-flower-3-5g |
| ultra sour | 12 | 150 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/namaste-ultra-sour-dried-flower |
| plain packaging indica | 12 | 200 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/plain-packaging-indica-oil-40ml |
| redecan wappa | 12 | 90 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/redecan-wappa |
| marijuana franchise | 13 | 20 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/pages/canndara |
| argyle strain | 13 | 100 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-argyle-oil-40ml |
| lbs moonbeam | 14 | 50 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/lbs-moonbeam-dried-flower |
| symbl | 14 | 200 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/symbol-balanced-oil |
| edison rio bravo | 15 | 150 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/edison-rio-bravo-dried-flower |
| canaca white widow | 15 | 100 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-white-widow |
| lbs sunset | 16 | 150 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/lbs-sunset-capsules-2-5-mg-x-60 |
| alien chemdawg | 16 | 70 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-alien-dawg-dried-flower |
| music store saskatoon | 19 | 150 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| alien dawg | 19 | 700 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-alien-dawg-dried-flower |
| rio bravo strain | 19 | 250 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/edison-rio-bravo-dried-flower |
| aurora mk ultra | 20 | 150 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/aurora-mk-ultra |
Search Keywords By Volume
Search keywords by volume is the actual number of searches for a specific keyword or term on Google. You don’t need to be ranked #1 for a keyword with big search volumes for huge SEO wins and can often be more valuable than ranking #1 if more people are coming to your website with that search volume.
| Keyword | Volume | Position | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| cannafarms | 4,000 | 11 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/cannafarms-critical-super-silver-haze-dried-flower-3-5g |
| top hits | 1,100 | 18 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/collections/top-hits |
| saskatoon cannabis | 800 | 3 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| alien dawg | 700 | 9 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-alien-dawg-dried-flower |
| tweed cbd oil | 450 | 17 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-argyle-oil-40ml |
| cannafarm | 400 | 17 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/cannafarms-pink-kush |
| cannabis saskatoon | 300 | 3 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| prairie records | 250 | 1 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| rio bravo strain | 250 | 19 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/edison-rio-bravo-dried-flower |
| plain packaging sativa | 250 | 13 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/plain-packaging-sativa-dried-flower |
| saskatoon dispensary | 250 | 8 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| symbl | 200 | 14 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/symbol-balanced-oil |
| plain packaging indica | 200 | 5 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/plain-packaging-indica-oil-40ml |
| weed dispensary saskatoon | 200 | 6 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| lbs sunset | 150 | 16 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/lbs-sunset-capsules-2-5-mg-x-60 |
| edison rio bravo | 150 | 15 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/edison-rio-bravo-dried-flower |
| music store saskatoon | 150 | 19 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| argyle tweed | 150 | 19 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-argyle-oil-40ml |
| prairie cannabis | 150 | 2 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| ultra sour | 150 | 12 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/namaste-ultra-sour-dried-flower |
| tweed highlands | 150 | 18 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-highlands-capsules-2-5-mg-x-60 |
| aurora mk ultra | 150 | 20 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/aurora-mk-ultra |
| canaca white widow | 100 | 5 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-white-widow |
| argyle strain | 100 | 13 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-argyle-oil-40ml |
| saskatoon cannabis stores | 100 | 41 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| marijuana dispensary saskatoon | 90 | 6 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| tweed oil | 80 | 7 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/tweed-argyle-oil-40ml |
| record stores saskatoon | 80 | 5 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| cannabis dispensary saskatoon | 70 | 6 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| og diesel | 70 | 19 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/flowr-bc-og-sour-diesel |
| marijuana stores saskatoon | 70 | 4 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| alien chemdawg | 70 | 16 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/canaca-alien-dawg-dried-flower |
| canndara | 60 | 1 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/pages/canndara |
| pot shops saskatoon | 60 | 4 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/ |
| lbs moonbeam | 50 | 14 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/products/lbs-moonbeam-dried-flower |
| marijuana franchise | 20 | 13 | https://www.prairierecords.ca/pages/canndara |
Lots of interesting data above about how people are finding Prairie Records on Google and what they are searching for. Now we check their backlinks.
