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Brands Ranked
Updated January 2025
"I am massively grateful for this report and there aren't many other useful ones I have found for online flower services."
- Arena Flowers, Data Scientist, Aaron Grove
"Really impressed with the work done behind the research, really well done to the team and Salience"
- Funding Options, , Head of Organic, Sonia Morrison
"The report it was very interesting as has been the case in previous years."
- BOX, Marketing Manager, Mike Hart
In our 2025 Alcohol Market Report, we raise a glass to the top-performing brands that have truly shaken up the industry this year. Analysing over 200 alcoholic drink brands, we take a deep dive into who’s pouring success, spotlighting their finest SEO strategies, along with those who may be on the rocks. From top keyword opportunities to social media wins and visibility rankings, our report serves up the perfect cocktail for success to help you navigate the year ahead.
Want to know how your brand is performing? Download our free Alcohol Market Report to find out where you rank against the industry’s top performers, as well as how to boost your marketing strategy.
The full report is completely free; it won’t cost you a penny. We perform comprehensive research and dive deep into what’s happening in the industry, so you don’t have too!
The Alcohol industry is constantly on the rise. It is projected to be worth over $1,594 billion in 2022. Therefore, it is more important than ever to assess how your online alcohol site is performing so you can keep the sales rolling in! Download the report now and learn how you can improve your SEO strategy to meet the needs of this growing market.
Here is a list of the most popular online alcohol retailers in 2019:
<ol>
<li>Fortnum and Mason</li>
<li>Naked Wines</li>
<li>Bargain Booze</li>
<li>The Whiskey Exchange</li>
<li>Majestic</li>
<li>BBR</li>
<li>Virgin Wines</li>
<li>Laith Waites</li>
<li>Master of Malt</li>
<li>Beer Hawk</li>
</ol>
These online retailers have seen the biggest decline in visibility since 2018:
<ol>
<li>The drinks Shop (-64%)</li>
<li>The Champagne Company (-71%)</li>
<li>Bring a Bottle (-46%)</li>
<li>Drinks Direct (-38%)</li>
</ol>
These online retailers have seen a large increase in visibility since 2016. Keeping an eye on these movers and their SEO strategies would definitely be a good idea.
<ol>
<li>Urban Drinks (2073%)</li>
<li>Honest Brew (253%)</li>
<li>31 Dover (968%)</li>
<li>Flavourly (457%)</li>
</ol>
All the brands we have featured can be viewed at the top of this page. If your brand isn’t on the list is might not have enough visibility to be included in our report. If we looked at every online alcohol retailer online, our report would be hundreds of pages long! However, if we haven’t included your brand by mistake and it DOES meet the threshold, please get in touch.
Alcohol Market Leaders
The online alcohol market is in high spirits, seeing a steady 10% increase over the past year. Joining in the toast, several brands have performed exceptionally well, maintaining their top spots high up on the drinks menu.
The brands ranking highest in visibility in the alcohol market are:
1. majestic.co.uk
2. thewhiskyexchange.com
3. fortnumandmason.com
4. waitrosecellar.com
5. laithwaites.co.uk
6. masterofmalt.com
7. brewdog.com
8. drinksupermarket.com
9. whiskyshop.com
10. thewinesociety.com
Alcohol Market Visibility Wins & Losses
Several brands have gone the extra mile to strengthen their SEO performance, successfully raising their visibility and climbing up the ranks.
Our top 5 winners are:
1. majestic.co.uk (+16%)
2. fortnumandmason.com (+15%)
3. waitrosecellar.com (+15%)
4. laithwaites.co.uk (+82%)
5. whiskyshop.com (+36%)
While some brands have faced the bitter reality of a decline in visibility over the past year, others have been left with a sour taste. Notable drops include thevineking.com, which saw a staggering -83% decrease YOY, and winemonkey.co.uk, which fell by 73%. These drops serve as a clear sign that their SEO strategies weren’t keeping pace with the ever-growing market.
These are the 5 brands that experienced the most significant losses:
1. drinksupermarket.com (-34%)
2. beerwulf.com (-23%)
3. auvodka.co.uk (-25%)
4. nakedwines.com (-58%)
5. winedirect.co.uk (-96%)
If your brand’s visibility has taken a little nosedive this year, don’t fret. Our report is brimming with actionable tips and top-performing examples to help you fine-tune your SEO and get back to top-shelf status.
Can’t spot your website in the rankings above? Want to know where you stand? Download our free Alcohol Market Report to see the full breakdown and raise your game.
Alcohol Keywords & Trends
If you’re looking to boost visibility and stir up growth, keywords are your best shot. They come in two key categories: high-competition and opportunity. Keep reading to uncork the details on what these are and which keywords will help you rise up in the alcohol market.
Examples of high-competition keywords for alcoholic drinks include “wine”, with 27,000 monthly searches and a competitiveness rating of 80, and “whisky”, which brings in 30,000 searches per month, earning a competitiveness rating of 59. Due to their high search volumes, these keywords are targeted by every online alcohol brand, both big and small, making them much harder to rank for. However, with the right SEO strategy, you can make your way onto the top results pages even for some of the most competitive of terms.
Less competitive due to their lower search quantities but more specific in intent, opportunity keywords are a great target for smaller businesses looking to build authority and market share. Some examples of these include “prosecco”, with a much lower competitiveness rating of 11 and wine types, such as “amarone”, scoring just 7 in competitiveness.
Read our Local SEO Cheat Sheet or download the full Alcohol Market Report for more keyword insights.
Social Media & Brand Reach
With algorithms constantly getting smarter, a strong social media strategy has never been more important. Having a good online presence tailored to your audience is essential to building brand awareness and increasing conversions and repeat purchases. In our Alcohol Market Report, we allocate each site an ‘owned social score’, representing their social performance and brand reach to identify the top performers easily.
With an owned social score of 28,579, johnniewalker.com is topping our social table. Thanks to celebrity collaborations and high-quality content that’s perfectly timed with the seasons, like cozy winter drink recipes, Johnnie Walker is taking its success neat.
Runner-up in the rankings, whisky makers themacallan.com have poured out perfectly timed assets and videos that exude their premium brand image, earning them an owned social score of 3,127 this year.
Eager to see where your brand landed in the full rankings? Download our free Alcohol Market Report for the complete results list.
The Most Trustworthy Alcohol Sites
Aiming to keep things smooth and user-friendly, Google and other search engines are always on the lookout for the most trustworthy and authoritative sites to land in the top spots of the SERPs. That’s why EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is the secret ingredient for getting into Google’s good books and keeping your rankings high.
One of the most effective ways to build trust with users is by showcasing customer reviews. These not only highlight your site’s reliability but also enhance your brand image, helping boost awareness and credibility.
We determined the brands with the best reputations in our Alcohol Market Report by using Trust Pilot reviews to get a reliable and non-biased impression of how users feel about the sites.
Here are the top 10 most trustworthy eyewear websites:
1. laithwaites.co.uk
2. thewhiskyexchange.com
3. drinksupermarket.com
4. sundaytimeswineclub.co.uk
5. masterofmalt.com
6. beerwulf.com
7. virginwines.co.uk
8. houseofmalt.co.uk
9. beersofeurope.co.uk
10. thebottleclub.com
The Fastest Alcohol Sites
Nobody wants a slow website. If loading times are too long, users are likely to lose patience, increasing your bounce rate. Therefore, maintaining good page speeds and ensuring your site is optimised for both mobile and desktop is crucial for improving your performance. We identified the speedy sites that are setting the example in this space.
The fastest alcohol websites are:
1. vipbottles.co.uk
2. vinissimus.co.uk
3. urban-drinks.co.uk
4. vinello.co.uk
5. thewhiskyworld.com
6. thewinesociety.com
7. virginwines.co.uk
8. beerwulf.com
9. houseofmalt.co.uk
10. clickndrink.co.uk
Download Our Free Alcohol Market Report
If your brand didn’t make it into this round-up and you’re curious where you stand in the market, download our full Alcohol Market Report for free. It’s packed with expert insights to help you refine your SEO strategy and stir up a storm this year!
Or, for a free strategy audit and a personalised performance review, contact our SEO team for a chat.
