Why did Alphagreen's traffic drop in late 2020?

Google's December 2020 core update deprioritized non-government and non-education sources for COVID-related health queries. Alphagreen had ranked several COVID articles during the pandemic; when those rankings were removed, overall organic traffic fell sharply.

What technical changes did NUOPTIMA make to Alphagreen's site?

NUOPTIMA integrated Hyva as a new frontend on top of Alphagreen's Magento backend, cutting page load time from over 10 seconds to under 1 second and achieving a 99/100 Google Web Dev Performance score. Schema markup was also updated across the site to capture richer SERP features.

How did link building contribute to the recovery?

NUOPTIMA built Alphagreen's referring domain count to over 1,600 unique domains, with anchor text and placements focused on specific CBD product and category pages to drive rankings on commercially relevant terms.

How much content did NUOPTIMA produce for Alphagreen?

Over 30,000 words per month. The blog was migrated from Magento to WordPress for better page load and SEO control, and on-page features like sticky contents bars were added to improve engagement signals. Organic keywords grew from 5,000 to over 15,000 during this period.

Alphagreen: 550% Organic Traffic Growth After Google Update

TLDR

Who: Alphagreen, the UK and Europe's leading CBD marketplace
What changed: Full technical overhaul, blog migration, and targeted link building after a December 2020 Google update wiped out COVID-related rankings
The number: 550% growth in organic traffic, reaching 15,000+ ranking keywords

550%

Traffic increase

15,000

Organic keywords

CBD marketplace

About Alphagreen

Alphagreen is the UK and Europe's leading CBD marketplace, owned by the Alphagreen Group. The Alphagreen Group is a house of brands that also includes NUOPTIMA.

Alphagreen.io homepage showing the UK and Europe's leading CBD marketplace — Alphagreen is the leading CBD marketplace

Who we were targeting

The SEO program was built around shoppers close to a purchase, not general CBD researchers, which is why the keyword targets shifted after the ranking drop.

UK and European CBD buyers searching brand, product, and category terms, the queries closest to a transaction, rather than the informational COVID-era health content that had driven traffic before.
Search users comparing marketplaces, which is why schema and rich snippet work was aimed at improving click-through against competitor CBD marketplaces in the search results.

The Challenge

Google's December 2020 core update hit Alphagreen hard. The site had ranked well for several COVID-related health articles during the pandemic. When Google began prioritizing government and education health authorities for those queries, those rankings collapsed, taking organic traffic down with them.

The new goal was clear: shift the traffic base toward CBD-focused keywords, closer to the transaction. Brand, product, and category terms were the target because of their proximity to purchases, not because they were easier.

What We Did

Technical SEO

Google had flagged Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. Alphagreen's site, built on Magento, loaded in over 10 seconds. NUOPTIMA dedicated Magento developers to address this by integrating Hyva as the new frontend, which required a full redesign of the site. The result: page load dropped from 10+ seconds to under 1 second.

This work forms the foundation of what we now offer as part of our technical SEO service: performance fixes that compound with every other channel you run.

Google Web Dev Performance report showing a 99/100 score with all green metrics for Alphagreen — Results of Google Web Dev Performance report, showing 99/100 and all green scores.

Schema markup across the site was also audited and updated to push richer information into Google's search results, winning more SERP real estate and improving click-through rates against competitor marketplaces.

Google search results showing multiple rich features for Alphagreen, including ratings and product schema — Example of multiple features being pushed to Google SERP

Link Building

1,600+

Referring domains

Domain rating

Working alongside the Alphagreen team, NUOPTIMA built the site's backlink profile to over 1,600 unique referring domains. Rather than broad outreach, we focused anchor text and placement on specific category pages where CBD keyword rankings had the clearest commercial upside.

Our link building service uses the same approach: targeted placements that move category-level rankings, not just domain authority.

Ahrefs chart showing growth to 1,600+ unique referring domains linking back to Alphagreen — Huge growth to 1,600+ unique domains linking back to Alphagreen as an authoritative site

Anchor text distribution chart for Alphagreen showing targeted CBD keyword anchor growth

Content

30,000+

Monthly words written

15,000+

Organic keywords

NUOPTIMA moved Alphagreen's blog from Magento onto WordPress to get better page load times and full control over SEO settings. Every article was restructured with on-page features designed to improve behavioral signals: sticky contents bars, clear headings, and improved internal linking.

Output ran at over 30,000 words per month. During this period, organic keyword rankings grew from 5,000 to over 15,000, including owning the top spot for "CBD lubricant" in Google's search results.

Example of an Alphagreen blog article with a sticky table of contents and structured layout — Example of an Alphagreen blog layout

Results

Google Search Console chart showing organic keyword growth from 5,000 to 15,000+ for Alphagreen — Increase of organic keywords to 15,000

Across the three workstreams, technical SEO, link building, and content, Alphagreen went from a post-update traffic low to a 550% increase in organic traffic. The site reached #1 CBD marketplace status in the UK and Europe, with 1,600+ referring domains and a domain rating of 51 supporting a keyword base of 15,000+ terms.

NUOPTIMA also supported Alphagreen on email, driving 127% month-on-month email revenue growth through 12 automated flows. The work was also recognized externally, covered in the Alphagreen best scale-up nomination case.

Key takeaways

Recovery after a Google core update starts with diagnosing what changed, not adding more content. Alphagreen's drop came from COVID-related rankings, not a site-wide penalty. Fixing the actual cause, and redirecting effort to transactional CBD keywords, was what turned traffic around. Good SEO strategy begins with an honest read of why rankings moved.
Page speed compounds. Cutting load time from 10+ seconds to under 1 second removed a ceiling on everything else. Rankings that were blocked by Core Web Vitals signals started moving once the performance score hit 99/100. Technical SEO is not a one-time audit; it's the foundation every other effort depends on.
Link building works best when it's targeted by category, not by volume. Directing anchor text to specific product and category pages, where commercial intent was highest, is what moved rankings on terms close to a purchase rather than just improving overall domain authority.

If you're working through a traffic recovery, a growth plateau, or want to build organic demand in a competitive category, book a call with NUOPTIMA to talk through what the right approach looks like for your site.