Quoted on SEO and content by the Shopify blog, MarTech, and other industry-leading publications 
- Who Is Cierto Tequila?
- Where We Started
- Our SEO Strategy
- Results
- Key Takeaways
Table of Contents
Most premium food and beverage brands face the same challenge: there’s no easy way to explain what makes your product different.
When someone searches for your product category, only the biggest brands appear.
Cierto Tequila came to us shortly after transitioning from a private-sale-only brand to a DTC brand.
Their growth team had two goals:
- Reach new audiences
- Teach readers why additive-free tequila matters
Between December 2023 and December 2024, we helped them turn organic search into their most valuable ecommerce revenue channel and grow organic search revenue by 243%.
Read on for a food and beverage industry SEO case study that any DTC or ecommerce brand can learn from.
Never heard of Cierto Tequila?
They’re the Most Awarded Tequila in History (811+ awards).
In a category where 95% of brands take serious shortcuts, Cierto stands out as the world’s first luxury additive-free tequila brand. They launched to the public in 2023.
Sarah Carey and Jim Ruane from the Cierto growth team came to us seeking a scalable way to drive direct-to-consumer (DTC) growth.
Where We Started
Here’s what Cierto’s organic search metrics looked like in 2023:
- Total ecommerce revenue: $3,068
- Organic search revenue: $1,072 (34% of total revenue)
- Organic traffic: 3,391 sessions
- Organic purchase rate: 0.21%
- Average order value (AOV): $153
Although Cierto had strong brand awareness driven by savvy PR, their organic search traffic was almost entirely branded. They appeared when people typed “Cierto Tequila” into a search engine, but not when people searched for broader terms like “luxury tequila” or “tequila blanco.”
But even those branded search visitors weren’t converting at a sufficient rate. With only one out of every 476 readers converting, it seemed the audience wasn’t convinced of Cierto’s value.
Furthermore, they were competing against established brands with much larger marketing budgets, like Clase Azul and Don Julio 1942. To grow their DTC revenue, they needed to appear next to those brands in search results.
Our SEO Strategy
We wanted to help customers discover Cierto when researching tequila, not just when searching for the Cierto brand.
We took a multi-part approach:
Technical SEO Foundation
Before creating content, we addressed critical technical issues:
- Improving Core Web Vitals scores (particularly page load speed)
- Fixing broken pages
- Redirecting valuable backlinks
- Implementing product and organization schema markup
- Updating missing or duplicate metadata across key pages
This technical SEO work ensured that their Shopify site was fast, easy to find, and positioned to drive sales.
Learn how to find the best Shopify SEO agency partner for your business.
Content Strategy
We optimized Cierto’s product pages around high-intent category terms like “reposado tequila” and “blanco tequila.”
At the same time, we built supporting content around informational searches that their target audience was already conducting, terms like “what’s the difference between reposado and blanco?”.
Throughout 2024, we published 20 articles across four areas:
- Educational content about tequila production and quality (ex. What Your Tequila’s NOM Says About Its Quality and The Nuances of the Tequila Aging Process).
- Practical guides for enjoying premium tequila (ex. How to Order Tequila at a Bar and What Makes the Perfect Tequila Glass?).
- Local city guides featuring bars and restaurants that carry Cierto (ex. New York City Tequila Spots We Recommend and Best Places to Drink Tequila in Los Angeles).
- Thought leadership profiles of Cierto’s master distillers and production innovations (ex. How Enrique Fonseca Became a Tequila Pioneer).
As educational content started to see engagement, Cierto’s product pages began ranking alongside better-known competitors for purchase-driven searches.
We were lucky to have Jim and Sarah involved, as they brought industry expertise that helped us identify content angles they hadn’t suggested. Their strong project management skills helped us move quickly from idea to publication.
Read about the ecommerce content marketing strategy that builds industry leaders.
Link Building
We built backlinks from other websites every month to help improve Google’s perception of Cierto’s website. This involved outreach to industry publications, partnerships with retailers featured in our city guides, and content designed to attract natural backlinks from tequila enthusiasts and influencers.
Our Results: Organic Search Revenue Grew 243% in 12 Months
By the end of 2024, organic search had become Cierto’s most valuable ecommerce revenue channel. Here’s what changed between December 2023 and December 2024:
- Organic search revenue: $1,072 → $3,681 (243% increase)
- Organic search as a share of total revenue: 34% → 65%
- Keywords ranking in top three positions: 41 → 135 (229% increase)
- Organic conversion rate: 0.21% → 2.9%
- Average order value: $153 → $334
- Organic traffic at peak: 5,030 sessions (48% increase)
Notably, Cierto also eliminated their paid ad spend by December 2024, spending $0 on PPC for most of Q4.
We paused publishing when Cierto began acquisition talks in early 2025. We’re thrilled to share that they were acquired in late 2025.
Key Takeaway: The Right Traffic Converts Differently
Cierto’s growth was not driven by traffic volume alone. It was driven by a shift in who was finding their website.
Early visitors were almost entirely people who already knew the brand. By the end of 2024, Cierto was appearing in searches their target audience was conducting while actively researching tequila, and those visitors converted at a dramatically higher rate (2.9% versus 0.21%).
Average order value grew from $153 to $334 over the same period, as more informed buyers gravitated toward higher-value purchases and bundle offerings.
Cierto entered the beverage market as a startup with strong brand equity but limited visibility. Within 12 months, they moved beyond branded search, began ranking for the terms that matter, and turned their online presence into an organic ecommerce growth engine.
Ready to build an organic revenue channel for your ecommerce brand? Let’s schedule a call.
Intergrowth helps DTC, CPG, and other types of B2C businesses get more customers through SEO, content marketing, and Meta Ads. We can help you turn your website into a sales machine that consistently brings in new customers.
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