Case Study – High Society
How an ambitious Michigan operator went from 2 locations and a basic website to 8 locations ranking #1 on Google — in under two years.
From 2 to 8 locations in a two year timeline
8 locations ranking #1 on Google
Google Business Profile Optimisation
The Challenge
The ambition was 8 locations.
The website was built for one.
- Only 2 locations open, with a clear plan to expand rapidly
- Basic website that didn’t reflect the brand’s premium ambitions
- No digital marketing direction or expansion playbook
- No Google presence for existing locations
- No website architecture that could scale as new locations opened
- No process for replicating marketing success across new markets
Anthony and the team at High Society came to Cannabud with a clear vision: build a premium multi-location cannabis brand in Michigan. Founded in 2020, they were already operating two stores when they reached out — but their sights were set much further.
The website they had in place was functional but rudimentary. It didn’t represent the brand they were building, and more importantly, it wasn’t built to scale. Adding a third or fourth location to that foundation would have created compounding problems — inconsistent branding, fragmented SEO, no unified architecture to carry rankings from one market into the next.
The question High Society needed answered wasn’t just “how do we get more traffic?” It was: “how do we build something that gets stronger every time we open a new store?”
The Expansion Journey
2 Locations
Before Cannabud
4 Locations
Infrastructure scaling
6 Locations
Playbook in motion
8 Locations
All ranking #1 on Google
The Solution
Build a website that scales.
Then build the playbook for every market.
Two moves. The first created the asset. The second created the system for multiplying it.
Full website overhaul — built for a brand that was going places
The original site needed to go. Not because it was broken, but because it was built for where High Society was, not where they were going. We rebuilt it to reflect a premium Michigan dispensary brand — one that could represent 8 locations as confidently as it represented 2. Critically, the architecture was designed from the start to accommodate new location pages without fragmenting the domain authority, diluting the brand, or requiring a rebuild every time a new store opened
An expansion blueprint — what works in one market gets carried to the next
This wasn’t a single-market SEO engagement. It was a repeatable system. For each new location that opened, we had a defined process: local keyword research, Google Business Profile setup and optimisation, location-specific on-page SEO, and citation building in the new market. The learnings from each store fed into the next. By the time location eight opened, the playbook was refined enough that ranking #1 on Google wasn’t a goal — it was the expected outcome.
The Outcome
8 locations. 8 markets.
#1 on Google in all of them.
8/8
Locations ranking #1 on Google
4×
Location count — from 2 to 8 in under 2 years
2yr
Timeline from 2 locations to a fully ranked 8-store operation
2020
Founded
Started with the ambition to build something bigger than a single store from day one.
2 → 8
Location growth
Every new location launched with a ranking strategy already in place, not added as an afterthought.
#1
Google ranking
All 8 Michigan locations ranking at the top of Google for their local market keywords.
"Since working with Cannabud we're one of the top ranking locations where we're at (8 locations)."
Kelsee Zabawski
Marketing Manager — High Society, Michigan
Planning to open more locations and need the marketing to keep up?
Expanding without the right digital infrastructure means rebuilding from scratch every time you open a new store. We build systems that get stronger with every location you add. Book a free call and we’ll show you what an expansion-ready marketing foundation looks like.