Are you considering running your CBD business online? We have fantastic news for you. We will give you insider tips on how to improve SEO for CBD companies.
The CBD industry is experiencing a remarkable growth rate of 55% per year, indicating enormous potential for CBD businesses in the coming years. To leverage this opportunity, it is crucial to optimize CBD-related websites effectively, boosting their rankings and increasing sales.
By 2023, experts predict that CBD profit margins will surpass an impressive $1.5 billion in the United States alone. To illustrate the immense potential, let me share a success story from one of our CBD clients. Within a mere 90 days, they generated a staggering $300,000 in revenue through organic traffic alone. When it comes to promoting CBD products, online platforms prove to be an excellent choice for achieving substantial results.
While CBD is still undergoing extensive research to uncover its full potential, countless individuals have already experienced its remarkable benefits and willingly endorse it over traditional pharmaceutical drugs.
What Is SEO in Simple Terms?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In simple terms, it refers to the practice of optimizing a website or online content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results. The goal of SEO is to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to a website by making it more attractive and relevant to search engines like Google.
For ecommerce businesses, SEO can bring several benefits:
- Increased organic visibility
- Targeted traffic
- Cost-effective
- Long-term benefits
- Brand visibility and credibility
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SEO and CBD Brands
A good CBD SEO strategy is the first step in establishing an online CBD business. By implementing a strong SEO strategy, you can increase your visibility and sales.
Search Engine Optimization is crucial for websites aiming to drive direct traffic. SEO tools can assist with keyword research, enabling you to understand the preferences of your target audience.
So, how do you choose the best keywords and products for your CBD website to rank on Google? Here are some cannabis SEO tips to keep you motivated.
13 Tips on SEO for CBD
1. Use Non-Competitive Keywords
The non-competitive keyword ranks with minimal link-building effort and minimal domain authority.
Long-tail keywords are usually low in search volume but very specific. You can then target topics that are relevant to your audience.
These non-competitive keyword phrases can help you rank quickly and bring quick traffic when used correctly within your website content.
The effective unwritten rule is to choose keywords with a minimum of 100 search volume and 10 for difficulty. You can check these data using SEO tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, MOZ, etc.
2. You Can Speed Up Your Website
Website speed has a significant impact on user experience and conversions.
To keep users engaged, you need to maintain a website that is running at optimum speed.
You can ensure your website doesn’t slow down by following these tips.
- Regularly testing your website’s speed will give you a good idea of its performance. A website speed check will allow developers to identify areas for improvement, ensuring that users have a good experience.
- By caching content, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can dramatically reduce page loading time.
- Images usually take the most time to load. You can reduce the loading time of images on your website by optimizing them. This involves compressing their file size, reducing the dimensions or resolutions, and then optimizing the file sizes.
- By reducing the size of CSS and JavaScript files, you can increase your website’s loading speed and use less bandwidth.
- Reduce the number of HTTP requests. Each request involves a round-trip to and from a server that hosts the resource, which can increase the loading time of your website.
3. Make Sure Your Content Is EAT Ready
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) is the acronym for SEO. This concept was derived from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Google takes EAT into account when evaluating the overall quality of a website.
Why does Google determine the EAT for a web page? Google uses EAT to ensure that the results it provides are accurate, true, and helpful. Since anyone can upload content on the internet, it is difficult to verify the authenticity of the information. This is especially crucial for financial or medical content, where people may make life-changing decisions based on it. Therefore, Google measures the EAT of each content.
Expertise
Google only accepts content as authentic when it is written by someone whose formal training in the subject can be verified. EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), as you can see, is very important for YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) websites. These sites can significantly impact your finances, safety, or happiness. Therefore, Google will give more credibility to medical content written by verified doctors rather than any random author.
Authoritativeness
The word “authoritative” means being widely recognized as an authority in a particular field. It is a sign of authority when people recognize you as an expert, writer, leader in your industry, and a source of reliable information.
Trustworthiness
To be trustworthy, you must be trusted by others as a source of truthful and accurate information.
4. Conduct a Technical SEO Audit
It is important to periodically perform a technical audit on your website to maintain its performance and ensure a steady flow of traffic. If you don’t regularly audit your technical SEO, there’s a possibility that your website may not appear in the SERPs, regardless of the effort you put into on-page and off-page requirements. Identifying technical issues in your website’s backend and front, such as broken hyperlinks, crawling problems, duplicate content, and poor website structure, will help you address these errors promptly and maintain optimal site performance. You can utilize various premium and free technical SEO audit tools to identify and resolve technical errors on your site.
5. Add Internal Links Between Your Pages and Posts
An external link can be any link on a website that takes you from one page to another. Links are used by users to discover new content.
You can refer to internal links as context links since they direct users to related content.
Links allow search engines to better understand and evaluate your content. You can direct users to your most important pages with the help of an internal linking strategy.
Google crawls sites through internal and external links.
It is possible to establish a connection between your posts, pages, and other content by visiting the homepage of your website and following the link to another page or post on your site.
Avoid using the same anchor texts for two different links. Place links higher on the page and always use “follow” links.
6. Meta Tags for All Your Pages
Meta tags at the page level are useful for search engines in understanding a website better. Meta tags can be added to the webpage. The HTML code of a website is divided into sections, and the meta title and meta description are two major components.
Meta Title
The meta title is the title of the page as selected by the author. Search engines display the title on their search pages.
The page title is displayed in the search results. Users can then determine if the result matches their search query.
The title of the page should be short and accurately describe its contents.
Meta Description
Meta description summarizes the content of a website.
Google will use the text that it finds on a page if a meta description is not present. This may be illogical and random.
Keep your meta descriptions short and simple.
7. Create Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is simply the type of content that engages and educates your audience over an extended period. By mastering the art of writing evergreen content, you can ensure its relevance for many years to come, regardless of the season or year. This enduring nature allows it to consistently drive traffic. Here are some reasons why evergreen content is important.
Search Rankings Are Boosted
The majority of people do not scroll past the first page. If you can’t get your content on the first page of Google, it won’t reach your audience. If you can create evergreen content, it will increase your EAT score (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). A higher EAT score can help you improve your SEO rankings.
A Great Way to Attract More Visitors With Organic Traffic
Organic traffic refers to people who visit your website via the search engine results page, rather than through a paid advertisement. Evergreen content is a great way to increase interest and encourage people to return.
Maintains Your Business Relevance
Evergreen content helps readers find relevant and valuable information, resulting in a lower bounce rate as people stay on the page longer. Additionally, search engine rankings are boosted because search engines recognize the helpfulness of your content.
While evergreen content can be crucial, it doesn’t imply that every piece of content should be evergreen. Writing timeless, enduring content can help you stand out from your competition. Here are some tips to help you create evergreen content.
- You can use Google Analytics to find topics with a high traffic potential. Google Analytics can be used to do this. You should know the difference between trending and evergreen topics.
- Use the correct keyword to help your post appear in the search results.
- Avoid adding dates and events to your content. Otherwise, it will not be evergreen.
- Case studies are a great way to boost your credibility. Analytical, detailed content can increase your credibility, even if it doesn’t work for everybody.
- Create comprehensive and in-depth guides. Your audience will be able to find answers to their questions.
By using the techniques mentioned above, you can repurpose content to maximize your chances of ranking on page one.
8. Create Backlinks for Your Website
Backlinks are websites that link back to your site. However, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t just acquire links from any source. Your website will receive more traffic and achieve higher rankings if the linking website has authority. Google takes into account several factors to assess the quality and quantity of backlinks.
Obtaining high-quality backlinks can be challenging, but there are effective strategies to encourage authoritative websites to link to your site. Here are some tips to assist you:
Broken-Link Building
You will need to inform a webmaster about a broken link and suggest alternative websites. You can find broken links by searching for websites that have resource pages in your niche.
Infographics
Infographics are a great way to attract traffic and valuable links. They are easily understood due to their visual data. However, it’s important to be cautious when choosing infographics. Make sure to conduct thorough research and gather relevant data.
Guest Posting
It is the most effective way to reach new audiences. By publishing guest posts on popular websites, you will gain more exposure and attract new readers. Utilizing your professional connections can help increase your audience, as it’s not just about backlinks but also about improving your online reputation.
Links to Internal Pages
Internal links are crucial for a successful blog as they improve the user experience and help your audience navigate through your site. While it’s possible to create internal links automatically, it is still recommended that you manually do it.
Blogger Outreach
If you want to acquire backlinks, it is advisable to reach out to bloggers within your niche. The process can be challenging, but the rewards will be worthwhile in the end. Obtaining high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites can be difficult, but with the knowledge of how to identify link-building opportunities, it becomes easier.
9. Create and Submit a Sitemap
A sitemap contains information about all the files on your website. This file is used by search engines to intelligently crawl your website. Sitemaps are available in multiple formats, including Text, XML, and RSS. If your website has only a few internally linked URLs, you may not need a sitemap. However, a sitemap is very useful if your website has thousands of URLs.
How to Create a Sitemap
How to create an XML Sitemap from scratch
- All the URLs on Your Website
Here are some alternatives to using a crawler for a list of URLs:
- Manually look at your website and note down the URLs.
- Google can be used to search for a website and identify URLs that have been indexed by Google.
- To find the URL, check the landing page report in Google Analytics.
- Coding the URLs
Once you have collected the URLs you wish to include in your sitemap, it is time to encode the URLs in XML. Use a text editor to ensure that the coded URL is in the correct format.
Sitemap Submission
You must submit the sitemap to Google Search Console once you’ve created it. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Log in to your Google Search Console account.
- Click on the “Sitemaps” link in the left sidebar.
- At the top, you will see “Add a new sitemap.” Enter the URL of your sitemap.
- Click on “Submit.”
Google will then crawl your XML Sitemap. Search engines will be able to find your valuable content.
10. Use Google Search Console and the URL Inspection Feature
Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool helps diagnose SEO problems on your site. It allows you to access information that Google has about the accessibility and indexability of your URLs. Here’s how to use it:
- Search Console will open. Select the Property option on the left-hand side.
- Select the website you wish to inspect the URL of.
- Add the URL to the search box.
- You will find the crawl index in the search results. You will be able to see if the page has been indexed and AMP support.
Google URL
This shows if Google has indexed a page. This will also display other details, such as if the page has not been indexed or if no manual action was taken.
Index Coverage
You can view the entire page by selecting this option. You should be aware of the following options:
- Sitemaps – The sitemap that contains the index of the page.
- Referring Page – The referral page.
- Last crawl date – The last time Google crawled a page.
- Crawl Allow – Whether Google can crawl a page.
- Indexing Allowed – Indicates whether indexing on a page is permitted or not.
- Page Fetch – Whether the page fetch has been successful.
- Google Selected Canonical – Whether the canonical URLs were approved by Google.
- User-declared canonical – What is the URL’s canonical URL?
Enhancements
This section contains information on Amps and Non-Amps.
Check these details to fix any search issues on your website or blog.
11. Optimize Your Local Presence to Generate Quality Leads
You can optimize your Local SEO to generate quality leads. Here are some tips on how to optimize your website and content for local searches.
Local Online Directories
A strong online presence can be crucial. To achieve this, you need to utilize online directories. Doing so will not only market your business but also improve your ranking and drive organic traffic. With Google Business Pages, you will have access to a large number of people.
Local Keywords for Optimizing Content
Your business location must be shared. When writing your content, make sure to use relevant keywords to describe your location. This will improve your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and help you attract more high-quality leads. Avoid using too many keywords on your website, as it can make it appear spammy.
Positive Online Reviews
To build trust in your business, you need positive testimonials, which include customer testimonials and reviews from other websites. You can encourage consumers to leave positive reviews by providing high-quality products or services. It is even more challenging to generate leads for a local company, but by doing it right, you can establish a strong online and offline presence.
12. Consider the User’s Perspective
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes when marketing your CBD products. This is a good starting point for an SEO strategy. Use your keyword tool to determine user intentions and what users want from a CBD website. This will give you an idea of the keywords you need to use on your site and the type of CBD products you should sell.
Learn from our speakers who have helped a CBD site earn $300k in organic traffic through proper keyword research. However, relying solely on a keyword list generated by the Keyword Planning Tool and its implementation may not be enough to propel your website to the front page. It’s always a good idea to seek a second opinion. Compare the results of your Google Keyword Planner with those from Google Search Console and Analytics, and decide which keywords you want to implement.
13. Check Out Your Competitors
Do you know of any successful online CBD businesses? Check out their strategies to boost sales.
It’s possible to analyze the keywords your competitors are using and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
New companies may try to enter the rapidly growing and lucrative CBD market, so it’s crucial to stand out from the competition.
If your competitors have been around for a while, you might be able to learn valuable lessons from their business practices.
These tips will help you kickstart your online CBD business journey and improve SEO for CBD blogs to increase organic revenue.
Given the controversies surrounding the products you deal with, it’s not surprising.
The type of CBD you choose will also impact the traffic to your website, and expert guidance is the best way to achieve this goal.
Share that the CBD website generated $300k in revenue over 90 days solely through organic traffic.
Unlock Your CBD Brand’s Online Potential With LUX!
Enhancing the online presence of CBD companies through effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for staying ahead in today’s competitive digital landscape.
At Lux Digital Marketing, we understand the unique challenges faced by CBD businesses and offer tailored solutions to boost their visibility and attract organic traffic. Our team of SEO experts employs a comprehensive approach that includes optimizing website content, conducting keyword research, building authoritative backlinks, and implementing technical SEO strategies.
Trust Lux Digital Marketing to optimize your SEO and unlock the full potential of your CBD business online.
Services We Offer:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Web Design
- Google Maps Marketing
- Most importantly, ranking you number 1 on Google!