The Value of SEO for CBD and Cannabis Websites
With more states legalizing the use of cannabis, entrepreneurs and medical professionals are making huge profits off the businesses. By 2025, the cannabis industry will be worth an estimated $30 billion. As a result, the industry is now more competitive than ever. The competition is so intense that sellers are exploring the internet to reach out to the broadest audience possible.
Like other industries, search engine optimization (SEO) can improve your cannabis business significantly. It improves your search engine ranking, which in turn grows your brand awareness and increases website traffic.
If you are yet to invest in SEO, you miss out on an opportunity to direct organic traffic to your website, generate new leads and get new customers.
Do You Need SEO?
If your business does not appear on the first page of Google’s search results when a user searches for a relevant keyword, prospective customers cannot see you at all. This means that you need to invest in SEO to increase your online visibility. Over time, this results in increased website traffic.
Benefits of SEO to CBD and Cannabis Businesses
Here is how SEO can help transform your CBD oil or cannabis start-up into an established business with a consistent flow of customers.
Increased Visibility
Choosing a relevant domain name is a crucial aspect of SEO. Although they were not a significant deal years ago, domain names are now an integral part of Google’s and other search engines’ ranking factors. The name you give to your website helps the search engines robots determine the relevance of your site to a user’s search query.
When you invest in SEO, your domain will have a relevant term such as ‘CBD’ or ‘cannabis’ in its address. This increases your chances of ranking higher on search engine result pages.
Faster Loading Speeds
Do you know that internet users prefer fast-loading web pages over slow websites? According to Google, the time it takes for your website to render pages affects your ranking on search results. Most internet users are impatient and willing to switch to a competing site if your website experiences some downtime, even if it lasts a few seconds.
Fortunately, you can increase your page loading speeds by implementing SEO strategies. One way to do this is by pricking a reliable web hosting company that guarantees your site is always online. More importantly, your pick must deliver fast and consistent loading speeds.
Mobile-Friendliness
Nowadays, most people access the internet using mobile devices, including cannabis users. It is not a coincidence that most of Google’s recent search algorithm updates have heavily focused on mobile. The world’s most popular search engine has two search indexes – one for desktop and another for mobile devices.
Building responsive websites and apps is a crucial aspect of SEO. With search engine optimization as part of your digital marketing campaign, you can capture a broader audience. This, in turn, increases your chances of improving your conversion rates.
More Local Customers
Many business owners mistakenly think that SEO focuses on increasing global reach. In reality, this marketing strategy can also make your establishment more popular among locals. Given that the cannabis market is mainly competitive having a solid customer base in your locale is a massive boost.
Implementing SEO on your cannabis website can help you in several ways. For instance, when you list your business on local directories, you are more likely to rank on the first page of search results. Ensure that you include your address, business name, contacts, and operation hours in your listing.
Another way of implementing local SEO is by seeking reviews from customers. People, particularly potential customers, are more likely to trust your brand if you establish a genuine online presence. This genuineness is more important to Google and other search engines, as it proves that your content, products and services meet the needs of users.
If your site has many positive reviews, your customer base will increase. This is because prospective buyers usually believe in the opinions of previous clients.
Increased Engagement
SEO often goes beyond website optimization – it covers other aspects such as social media marketing, email marketing, link building, influencer marketing, etc.
When ranking websites, one of the factors considered by Google is the quality of backlinks. These links help search engines in gauging the relevance and authority of your content. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher your rank in search results.
Besides Google, social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram are the most visited websites on the internet. Creating an account on each of these networks can help you gain higher authority, increase online visibility, generate more leads, and enhance conversion rates.
Enhanced Interaction
Many SEO strategists tend to overlook the importance of images and video, not knowing that 43% of internet users say that they prefer visual content over text.
The good thing about visual content, particularly video, is that only a few cannabis sellers use it. This means that using this strategy presents an opportunity to get an edge over your competitors.
Since most people own smartphones nowadays, videos are fast becoming the preferred means of communication. Most people would rather watch an informative video than read a lengthy article.
Seamless Navigation
Improving your website’s user experience is vital to any SEO marketing campaign. When your site is easy to navigate, users are more likely to spend more time browsing and hopefully buy one of your products or services.
On the contrary, websites that are not optimized tend to have high bounce and cart abandonment rates. Nobody wants to use a platform that does not organize products incategories, it is hard to use, request too much information, and so on.
Final Words
It is vital for all businesses, whether offline or online, to invest in search engine optimization in this digital age. Taking this step can help you gain an edge over your competition, increase your brand’s reach and grow your business.
If you want to take your business to a higher level, contact the CBD SEO Firm today. Our experienced strategists will give you smart insights on how to leverage SEO to transform your SME into a renowned enterprise.