Organic Traffic Up 469% in Eight Months
How Absolute Digital Media grew organic search for Lovers, a US adult retail chain, from 35,000 to 199,000 monthly visits, took page-one keywords from 3,100 to 11,600, and built the domain’s authority from 371 to more than 3,700 referring domains in a category most agencies will not touch.
What did Absolute Digital Media achieve for Lovers?
Absolute Digital Media's SEO campaign for Lovers delivered +469% organic traffic (35,006 to 199,042 visits a month), +268% page-one keywords (3,147 to 11,578), +899% referring domains (371 to 3,705) and 53 Domain Rating (from 47, peak 55).
A decades-old retailer in a category the ad platforms restrict
Lovers is a US adult retailer with physical stores across several states and an ecommerce site at loversstores.com. It has traded for decades as a bricks-and-mortar retailer and sells online nationally, carrying thousands of products across toys, lingerie, wellness and gifting, supported by an editorial blog that answers the questions customers are too embarrassed to ask in store.
It is a restricted category, and that defines the commercial position. Meta and Google limit or refuse paid promotion of adult products, most mainstream publishers will not link to an adult retailer, and the search results for the highest-value terms are held by a small number of national competitors with far larger content teams. Absolute Digital Media manages the organic search programme, content, technical SEO and link acquisition, because organic search is the brand’s most important scalable channel.
Organic traffic up 469% and page-one keywords up 268%
Traffic, keyword and authority figures are Ahrefs Site Explorer data, US database, retrieved 15 September 2026: metrics history, keywords history, referring domains history, Domain Rating history and organic keywords. Semrush Domain Overview, US database, monthly history to August 2026, is shown alongside wherever both tools cover the same period. Traffic value is converted from Ahrefs organic cost in US cents. All figures are third-party estimates and are quoted with their source and date.
Four constraints on an adult retailer in search
The choices that shaped the account
Category pages first, because they are the pages that convert
Collection pages for the highest-intent product terms were rebuilt with proper on-page structure, buying guidance and internal links, so the pages that convert were the ones that ranked. The alternative order, publishing editorial first and hoping authority reaches the catalogue later, is more comfortable and it leaves the commercial pages where they started. The largest single gains in the campaign came from this work: the sex chocolate collection moved from position 9 to 6 on a 9,500-a-month term and took a page-one position on the 14,000-a-month plural from nothing.
Editorial content that answers the questions customers ask privately
A blog programme was aimed at the informational searches customers make in private rather than in store, from how-to guides to product comparisons, giving the domain topical depth and a route into audiences the category pages could not reach. In a category where the purchase is discreet, the research happens long before the transaction and almost never on a product page. One guide alone holds position five for a 2,500-a-month search and page one for a cluster of related terms, bringing in an audience no product page could reach and passing it to the catalogue.
Link acquisition built for a restricted category
Outreach was directed at the publishers who will cover sexual wellness, lifestyle and relationships on their own terms, with the brand’s editorial content as the asset, growing referring domains steadily rather than in bursts. That pacing is deliberate. In a restricted category the placements that are easiest to obtain are frequently the ones that become liabilities at the next quality update, and a business with no paid alternative cannot absorb that risk. Referring domains grew in every year of the programme, from 371 in January 2023 to 1,152 in May 2025 and 3,705 in September 2026.
Put the store estate to work in search
Store pages were optimised for near-me and city-level searches, so the physical estate contributes organic visibility of its own. A retailer with stores across several states holds an asset a pure ecommerce competitor cannot reproduce, and in a category where a share of customers would rather buy in person than have a parcel delivered, local visibility is commercial rather than incidental.
Report on two independent datasets, not one
Growth of this size in a restricted category invites the question of whether the tool is wrong. Ahrefs and Semrush use different traffic models and different keyword databases, and both are reported here on the same periods. Ahrefs records US organic traffic rising from 35,006 visits in May 2023 to 199,042 in January 2024. Semrush records 78,082 rising to 253,502 over the same period, growth of 225%. Two tools with different methodologies agree on the shape and the scale of the result, which is a stronger claim than either makes alone.
Who ran what
SEO strategy, led by Ben Austin
The order of work was the strategy: collection pages for the high-intent product terms first because they convert, then editorial content for the private questions customers search for because it reaches audiences the catalogue cannot, with authority built steadily underneath both. Organic traffic grew more than fivefold in eight months on that sequencing, with no paid support available to the category.
Content and category rebuild
Collection pages for the highest-intent product terms were rebuilt with on-page structure, buying guidance and internal links, and the editorial programme was built around the informational searches customers make privately. Keywords on page one grew from 3,147 in May 2023 to 11,578 by March 2024, and keywords in the top three from 649 to 3,209.
Link acquisition in a restricted category
Outreach targeted the publishers who cover sexual wellness, relationships and lifestyle on their own terms, using the brand’s editorial content as the asset. Referring domains grew from 371 in January 2023 to 3,705 in September 2026 and Domain Rating rose from 47 to a peak of 55, which confirms the new links carry weight rather than volume alone.
Technical SEO and local visibility
Technical work supported a catalogue of thousands of products, and store pages were optimised for near-me and city-level searches so the physical estate earns organic visibility of its own. The compounding effect shows on the homepage, which now sits at position three for “adult fetish store” and position six for “adult sex toy shop” against national competitors.
Who worked on this account
Lewis Esson is Head of SEO at Absolute Digital Media, leading a team of seven across organic strategy for gambling, lending, adult and regulated ecommerce brands. He joined ADM as…
Alex is Head of Content at Absolute Digital Media, overseeing content production and ideation for regulated-sector clients in iGaming, finance, and healthcare. He specialises in creating content that performs reliably…
Jack Hawtin leads the outreach team at Absolute Digital Media, running link building and outreach strategy mainly for iGaming clients, alongside adult industry brands, interior design, and a smaller portfolio…
Shofiur Rahman is Head of Technical at Absolute Digital Media, leading the team responsible for everything the agency builds and runs: client websites, internal applications, infrastructure, AI systems and the…
What the campaign achieved
The growth phase ran from May 2023 to the first quarter of 2024. Ahrefs records US organic traffic rising from 35,006 visits in May 2023 to a peak of 199,042 in January 2024, an increase of 469%. Semrush, using a different model, records 78,082 rising to 253,502 over the same period, growth of 225%. Keywords in the top three grew from 649 to 3,209 by February 2024, up 394%, and keywords on page one from 3,147 to 11,578 by March 2024, up 268%. Ahrefs organic traffic value rose from $11,673 a month to $52,584 a month, up 350%.
The starting position gives the scale of the movement. In May 2023 the site had 35,006 monthly organic visits, 649 keywords in the top three, 3,147 on page one, 21,842 beyond it, 453 referring domains and a Domain Rating of 48.
A second phase of growth
A second phase followed in the winter of 2025 to 2026. Semrush records organic traffic rising from 51,981 in October 2025 to 82,279 in February 2026, up 58%, with ranking keywords up from 16,109 to 24,591, up 53%. Ahrefs records 27,055 rising to 50,126 over the same months, up 85%, with page-one keywords up 57%.
Authority grew in every year of the programme. Referring domains went from 371 in January 2023 to 687 in January 2024, 1,017 in January 2025, 1,847 in January 2026 and 3,705 in September 2026. Domain Rating rose from 47 to a peak of 55 and stands at 53. A tenfold increase in referring domains, with Domain Rating rising rather than flat, is what allows a regional retailer’s homepage to sit at position three for “adult fetish store” and position six for “adult sex toy shop” against national competitors.
| Keyword | Monthly volume | Sep 2025 | Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| sex chocolates | 14,000 | Unranked | 10 |
| sex chocolate | 9,500 | 9 | 6 |
| best pheromone perfume | 1,400 | Unranked | 8 |
| sex toys for gay couples | 1,100 | Unranked | 8 |
| adult sex toy shop | 300 | 22 | 6 |
| adult fetish store | 250 | 10 | 3 |
| sex shop online shop | 200 | 29 | 5 |
Non-brand terms where the position improved or was newly won between September 2025 and September 2026. Source: Ahrefs Site Explorer, US, best position by URL. The first four terms are held by collection pages and the last three by the homepage.
What retailers in restricted categories should take from this
Adult sector SEO, answered
Can adult retailers grow through SEO when paid channels are restricted?
They have to. Organic search is the one channel where an adult brand competes on the same terms as any other retailer. Lovers grew organic traffic more than fivefold in eight months with no paid support.
How do you build links for an adult brand?
By targeting the publishers who cover sexual wellness, relationships and lifestyle on their own terms, and by giving them editorial content worth citing. Referring domains grew from 371 to more than 3,700 and Domain Rating rose from 47 to 53.
Which pages should an adult retailer prioritise?
Collection pages for high-intent product terms first, because they convert, then editorial content for the private questions customers search for, because it reaches audiences the catalogue cannot.
How is the data measured?
Traffic, keyword and authority figures are Ahrefs and Semrush US data on the dates given. Both are third-party estimates and are quoted with their source. Where both tools cover the same period, both are shown.
Why do Ahrefs and Semrush report different traffic numbers?
Because they use different traffic models and different keyword databases, so the absolute figures will rarely match. What matters is whether they agree on direction and scale. Here Ahrefs records 35,006 rising to 199,042 and Semrush records 78,082 rising to 253,502 across the same eight months, which is the same result described by two independent methods.
How long does organic growth take in a restricted category?
The main growth phase here ran eight months, from May 2023 to January 2024, with keyword gains still landing into March 2024. Authority takes longer and does not arrive in bursts: referring domains grew in every year of the programme, from 371 in January 2023 to 3,705 in September 2026.
Do physical stores help an adult retailer's organic search?
Yes, and it is regularly left on the table. Store pages optimised for near-me and city-level searches give the estate organic visibility of its own, which a pure ecommerce competitor cannot reproduce, and in a category where some customers prefer to buy in person that visibility is commercial rather than incidental.
Can a regional chain outrank national competitors in this category?
On the right terms, yes. Authority that compounds and category pages built properly are what let this homepage hold position three for “adult fetish store” and position six for “adult sex toy shop” against competitors with far larger content teams.
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Is your category one the platforms restrict?
If your category is one the advertising platforms restrict, organic search is not one channel among several. It is the channel. We run SEO, content and link acquisition for adult, iGaming, CBD and other restricted sectors in the UK, the US and the Middle East.
