3 Reasons Why Cannabis & CBD Companies Need SEO
For cannabis and CBD companies, marketing can something of a challenge. Platforms are able to remove any content they deem as “promoting drug use or paraphernalia” and the fact that CBD is legal in all 50 states and THC is legal in 11 has done little to mitigate this industry-wide discrimination. Enter SEO.
Even if you’ve heard the term SEO before, you may not be fully familiar with what it means or why it matters. A strong SEO strategy increases your organic search engine ranking position and makes it easy for customers to find your website, online store, or dispensary. A website than ranks on the first page of search engines will continually provide you with leads.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization and can be defined as the strategy through which you increase your search engine ranking position (typically with the goal of landing on the first page in the top 5 or 10 results) to increase your site traffic and ultimately your sales.
The exact algorithm through which Google, Bing, and Yahoo rank websites is of course a secret, but we do have strategies and tools to increase your ranking, which is where the SEO strategy comes in.
What is an SEO Strategy?
Backlinko defines an SEO strategy as “the process of planning, outlining and implementing steps designed to improve search engine rankings.”
In other words, an SEO strategy is the process or plan you follow to get increase your organic website traffic. It contains the words and phrases you want to rank for.
To understand your website, Google and the other search engines crawl your content looking for context clues as to who you are, what you do, and what searches are relevant for you. Whether you have an SEO strategy or not, Google has crawled your site and classified you under some search terms. Wouldn’t you rather those be the target terms your customers are searching for?
Why is SEO important for cannabis companies?
You have control over your SEO
Currently, cannabis companies have a limited number of paid channels and outlets through which to market. With federal prohibition still in place, companies like Mailchimp can and do outright refuse service to cannabis and CBD companies. Facebook rejects or limited the reach of ads they feel promote “illegal products or services”, including CBD which is legal in all 50 states. Weedtube was started as a response to Youtube banning “weedtubers”.
With the stigma and repression tactics from large companies in place, the channels you can own as a cannabis brand become that much more valuable. You won’t be banned from your website, and Google won’t remove your site from their pages (they could, but it’s not in the best business interests).
The ROI on SEO
SEO is a service that you can pay for once or on an ongoing basis, but once you invest in a solid strategy, it pays back dividends for years to come. Unlike social media posts with a fleeting shelf life or emails that get buried, Google can and will serve your page time and time again for years, once they understand what you do.
As a business owner, you can invest your time or your money in SEO, but you should invest at least one.
Google works like a positive reinforcement loop. If they see a page is getting quality traffic for targeted search terms, they will continue to serve that page high in their search results. The higher you rank in the search results, the more organic traffic you’ll see. And so on and so forth.
Time is on your side
It’s still early for the cannabis industry, on a national and global level. A mere 11 states have legalized recreation cannabis and just two countries in North America have full recreation legalization (Legalization is still pending in Mexico). But the global cannabis industry is predicted to hit $20 billion by 2024- just three years from now.
That means right now, there’s as little competition as there will ever be in the cannabis industry. Even the high volume search terms will never be easier to rank for. As more states and countries lift the prohibition on recreational weed, competition will continue to increase. With Senate Democrats vowing to bring a bill ending federal prohibition to the floor this year, a strong SEO strategy is not something you want to delay investing in.
SEO is cumulative. The longer your website is around for, the more trustworthy it’s considered by Google. The more traffic it gets, the more trustworthy it’s considered. Sites that are seen as trustworthy rank higher and get severed. And around we go again.
Now of course none of this is to say it will be impossible to rank high in search engines in the cannabis industry in 5 years. It will just become significantly harder.
Helpful SEO Tools
A free program through Google that allows site owners to monitor how their site is doing in search.
Offering paid and free versions of the tool that allows you to do keyword research, site audits, and competitive analysis.
A paid tool that allows you to do keyword research competition analysis, backlinks, content gap analysis. Widely regarded as one of the best SEO tools on the market.
A paid tool that gives you traffic insights for your website and your competitors, as well as site audits and keyword research
Industry-specific SEO tool
