How This Black-Owned Business is Making an Impact in Search and Helping Youth

The Weekly Click Newsletter #17 - Black History Month Special

Welcome to The Weekly Click by Adogy! Each week, we analyze real-world websites to uncover valuable SEO insights. Our goal is to help readers learn from real-world successes and opportunities, offering actionable tips to boost organic search traffic.

Kate Shaw, VP of Digital for Adogy

About the Author

The newsletter is written by Kate Shaw, the VP of Digital Strategy for Adogy. She equips businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, to increase their organic visibility and establish thought leadership within their industries.

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Ever wondered how a coffee company goes from zero to landing deals with Target, Whole Foods, and Amazon? That's exactly what BLK & BOLD has done since launching in 2017.

As the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee brand, they've done more than just sell coffee - they've built a movement. While most coffee brands talk about ethically sourced beans (which BLK & BOLD does too), they went bigger: pledging 5% of profits to help youth across America.

Their impact caught major attention. The New York Times, Business Insider, Fast Company, and NBC News all covered their story. That media buzz turned into serious digital authority - 1.3K referring domains and 18.9K backlinks.

The timing couldn't be better. The specialty coffee market is booming as more people want great coffee with real impact. With 1.2K monthly organic visitors and distribution in over 11,000 retail locations, BLK & BOLD shows how to blend profit with purpose.

Let's break down what's working and what could take them even higher.

Here’s what I cover in this report:

  • Website overview

  • Major highlights

  • Competitor overview

  • Easy wins to increase revenue and/or traffic

  • Actionable takeaways you can apply

Let’s get into it.

How I collect the data: I do not have access to direct Google Analytics accounts and earnings. To collect data and information, I only use tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, and my personal experience to provide the report.

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Website Overview & First Thoughts

The site currently ranks for 2.2K keywords and generates 1.2K monthly organic traffic. Their backlink profile shows quality over quantity, with authoritative links from major news outlets and business publications.

The homepage hits you with striking visuals and clear navigation, but a few more things caught my eye…

Their product structure stands out:

  • Consumer options: Ground coffee, whole beans, cold brew

  • Convenience play: K-cup pods (smart move for mass market)

  • Brand building: Merch collection

What makes them different? Most coffee sites lead with taste or origins. BLK & BOLD leads with impact - "Coffee for you, impact for youth" dominates the homepage. They're selling more than coffee; they're selling change.

Why They're Growing:

  1. Distribution strategy: Started DTC, expanded to 11,000+ retail spots

  2. Press leverage: Turned media coverage into backlinks (1.3K referring domains)

  3. Clear market gap: First Black-owned national coffee brand in a $96B industry

  4. Smart positioning: Premium product + social impact appeals to both conscious consumers and mainstream buyers

Highlights

  • First Black-owned, nationally distributed coffee brand

  • Strong social impact mission (5% profit pledge)

  • Premium positioning in the specialty coffee market

  • National retail presence in over 11,000 locations

Why is this site winning?

Their unique positioning as a mission-driven, Black-owned coffee brand resonates with conscious consumers. Major retail partnerships and press coverage have built strong brand authority.

They receive 1,000s of monthly traffic from people searching specifically for their brand of coffee.

Top 3 competitors

  • Keurig.com - Leading coffee maker and pod manufacturer

  • Stashtea.com - Premium tea brand with diverse flavor offerings

  • Teasource.com - Specialty tea retailer focusing on loose leaf varieties

🚀 4 Easy Wins to Grow This Site

  1. Start a Mission-driven Blog

  2. Create Product Bundles

  3. Optimize Product Pages

  4. Implement Review Schema

Win 1: Start a Mission-Driven Blog

Most coffee brands blog about brewing tips and bean origins. BLK & BOLD has a different story - youth impact.

Create content that shows how coffee sales transform communities:

  • Feature stories of youth programs they've funded

  • Interview community leaders and program participants

  • Share the real impact of each purchase with data and visuals

This strategy targets high-intent buyers who choose brands based on values. While traffic might be lower than generic coffee content, conversion rates will likely be higher since readers already align with the mission

Instead of discussing the quality of their gear, Patagonia focuses on stories of their impact.

Takeaway: Blogs offer opportunities beyond increasing traffic to a website. Mission-focused blogs can increase trust and target lower-volume keywords full of mission-aligned customers.

Win 2: Create Product Bundles

Smart bundling does two things: boosts your average order value and opens doors to major press coverage. Create themed bundles (morning essentials, gift collections) priced at $50-100+. Then, pitch these to publishers like Forbes for gift guides with affiliate deals offering 15-20% commission. High-value bundles mean higher commissions, making your pitch more attractive for father's day roundups and holiday gift lists.’

Takeaway: Higher-value bundles ($50-100+) open doors to premium press coverage through affiliate marketing. The math is simple: $100 bundle at 20% commission = $20 per sale for publishers. That's an attractive pitch for major gift guides. And, everytime a publsiher lists you, that’s worth a $5,000 press placement. Huge potential value!

Win 3: Optimize Product Pages

Target high-intent keywords like "Dark Roast Coffee" to capture ready-to-buy traffic. This involves adding keywords related to dark roast coffee in the product description, getting positive reviews, and including the keyword early in the title.

Takeaway: Aligning product pages with shopping keywords drives qualified traffic.

Win 4: Implement Review Schema

Adding review markup would improve click-through rates on product pages.

Takeaway: Rich snippets increase visibility and trust signals in search results.

Takeaways for your website

  • Social impact can be a powerful differentiator

  • Quality backlinks from major publications build authority

  • Clear product categorization improves user experience

  • Strategic content can capture various buying stages

  • Technical SEO improvements drive bottom-line results

What strategies have you used to grow your digital presence? Comment below with your thoughts.

The information and views expressed in this newsletter are based on independent research conducted by the Adogy team. To ask how you can have your website featured on the weekly click, email [email protected].

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