3 Unique Cannabis SEO Strategies That Work (2025)

Yeah, we’re a SaaS SEO agency, but plenty of people come to us for all sorts of innovative tactics in the SEO space. In particular, cannabis companies have come to us often. Those in the THC, TCHA, Delta-8 (or Delta-9), and CBD spaces often come to us because of the harsh restrictions Google has around advertising. As well as the complex nature of getting campaigns to actually convert.

Listen closely, because I’m going to show you the tactics that you can use to achieve the results of one of our clients: 3X to revenue (products sold) in 6-months, 400% growth in sessions, and using both national and local targeting to expand business outcomes.

Key Takeaways

• What are the best SEO strategies for cannabis companies? Focus on research-backed educational content to rank for legal and effects-related queries, honest product review pages targeting high-volume commercial keywords, and localized dispensary pages that capture traffic outside of the competitive Google Maps pack.
• How long does cannabis SEO take and what does it cost? Expect to invest $4,000–$8,000 per month on content and SEO work, with results typically starting in 3 to 6 months. Strong SEO efforts can achieve 2–3X return on ad spend (ROAS) by the end of the first year through compounded organic growth.
• What SEO metrics should cannabis brands track? Prioritize tracking organic traffic, keyword rankings, conversion rates from organic sessions, revenue tied to SEO, and for dispensaries, Google Business Profile actions like driving directions and calls — all while ensuring compliance with cannabis-specific search regulations.

3 Unique Cannabis SEO Strategies to Rank

Here are the exact cannabis SEO strategies that we use to help grow both national and local retailers that are servicing any type of cannabis-related products.

Strategy 1: Educational Content — National Companies

This might sound basic, but in reality, the cannabis space has plenty of innovation in it. The advancement of CBD products like Delta-8 and Delta-9 have left a lot of open-ended questions for consumers.

For example, they want to know legal restrictions in their state. And they want to know the effects of some of these substances. All of this educational material leaves an open door to bring in more demand to your e-Commerce store or drive demand for your individual products.

At a glance, here are just some of the keywords that people are looking for in just the CBD space:

• Does TCHA Turn into Delta 9 When Smoked - 600 MSV
• How Long Does HHC Stay in Your System - 600 MSV
• Is HHC Legal - 500 MSV
• How Long Does HHC High Last - 150 MSV
  

These queries are not easy to necessarily just “write content” for. In fact, the way to win in these categories is to use research-backed medical studies to better help consumers understand what they’re about to consume.

The “SEO” nature of that work is really in being factual and medical in the approach to content. Which is why clients came to us. The need to tap into the Information Gain Patent (#) is key. Google wants to see that you’re capable of bringing new and accurate insights to the internet, especially around topics where there is new demand.

Here is an example of a great research-backed cannabis article:

Here’s some ways to win:

• Avoid using completely AI-generated content: AI-generated content will often lack insightful and “new” information that makes it harder for younger websites to rank and increase impression share.
• Consider your material “medical content”: Based on the space, cannabis is being considered more and more “medical.” Making it YMYL (your money, your life) in Google’s terms. This means that you should always cite your research, use authoritative insights, and write your content marketing in a way that’s professional free or spelling errors or grammatical errors.
• Worry less about keywords: The “Google landscape” is changing. Focus more on your topic, new research, and comprehensive addressment of potential questions that consumers would have about the topic. Avoid trying to “stuff keywords” into the article thinking that there’s an easier way to rank using this tactic.

Key takeaways from this strategy:

Strategy 2: Product Reviews — National Companies

The cannabis space has a ton of innovation in it. And products are constantly being released into the market. As a result, consumers are looking for reviews on these products. Plenty of YouTube reviews have surfaced that show great potential for being turned into revenue-generating pieces.

For example, consider these types of articles that e-Commerce companies in the pet space often produce:

These types of product review pages contain things like:

• Lists of products around a particular category: Think reviews of the most common vapes. Reviews of the latest Delta-8 or Delta-9 products. Or even reviews of the latest edibles if you’re a multi-location operation in more than one state.
• Pros and cons: Honest reviews with original insights often perform the best. This could be gathered from your Budtenders or if you’re a user yourself, you could easily produce these types of reviews. Often, those consumers in the space want to know that you “talk the talk and walk the walk.” As a result, honest reviews often lead to product purchases knowing they’re getting the best from those that understand the cannabis space.
  

Targeting reviews often comes to thinking about keywords like the following:

• Best CBD Products - 1,500 MSV
• Best Delta-8 Flower - 3,000 MSV
• Best Delta-8 Cart - 5,700 MSV
  

Let’s say you were selling similar products nationally, even with that keyword basket, you’re looking at roughly 10,000 monthly searches. If 1% of those visitors convert to your product at a $80 AOV (average order value) for your e-Commerce business, that’s $8,000 in monthly recurring revenue that’s coming from SEO (organic search).

That’s why SEO is extremely powerful for cannabis-related businesses.

Here’s an example of a great product roundup or review article that’s performing well for SEO:

Key takeaways from this strategy:

Strategy 3: Localized Pages — Local Dispensaries

Many dispensaries want to target the “dispensary near me” term. However, the hard part here is that most of those listings that show up in business packs (the map pack on Google) tend to be driven by User reviews. In states like Oklahoma, where there are more than 12,000 dispensaries (source), that’s going to be steep competition to get into the top 5 listed businesses.

As a result, there’s a way around this. Produce location landing pages for specific neighborhoods. Meaning, those Users or Google searchers that scroll past the map pack might start to see your business page.

Think of them as producing pages like the following (presuming you’re in the Oklahoma area):

• Bricktown Dispensary
• Midtown Dispensary
• Paseo Dispensary
• Deep Deuce Dispensary
• Mesta Park Dispensary
  

These landing pages should contain information about the dispensary like store hours, availability, and other details about the products that you sell.

Star Buds (see this example here), one of the top dispensaries in the Oklahoma area, does a great job of this. They focus on creating landing pages for specific neighborhoods to help absorb clicks that aren’t being taken from the map pack.

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It’s a far easier way to both rank and get attention to your business.

And lastly, there’s an additional benefit in creating these pages, you’ll start the process of developing topical authority for your business. A method of showing Google that you’re an expert, trusted business. And avoid having to even think about backlinks (which aren’t really moving the needle when it comes to modern SEO in 2025 and beyond).

Related: What is Topical Authority? Facts, Strategies, and More

Key takeaways from this strategy:

Other Considerations With Cannabis SEO

From a national to a local level, there’s a lot of considerations to think about. For example, not every state has some CBD products legalized. Meaning, you might want to consider creating an SEO strategy that’s semi-national. Meaning, you’re targeting specific states. Or maybe you’re a dispensary that only operates in some states.

Your entire SEO strategy needs to consider these variables alongside the products that you’re trying to sell.

Here are some factors that your SEO team should be considering:

• The types of products that you sell (CBD or THC).
• Whether you have an online store (both shipped or pick-up in-person).
• What states your products are currently legalized in.
• Whether you’re a single-state or multi-state operation.
• Where the highest potential for demand generation sits.
• The goal of average order value that you’re trying to generate.

If your team is considering all of those factors above, they’re essentially just generating work. And not going to be generating results.

Common Questions

Here are some common questions around cannabis-related SEO work:

What metrics should a cannabis company care about when it comes to SEO?

Here is a comprehensive list of metrics that the campaign should track:

• Organic Traffic (Users and Sessions)
  • Measures how many people are finding you via search.
  • Important to split between branded vs non-branded.
• Keyword Rankings
  • Tracks whether target keywords (e.g., "buy cannabis online," "dispensary near me") are improving.
  • Track money keywords, local keywords, and informational keywords separately.
• New vs Returning Organic Users
  • Shows if SEO efforts are bringing in new customers or repeat users.
  • Growth in new users = brand expansion.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) on Organic Listings
  • Measures how attractive your titles and meta descriptions are.
  • Focus on improving pages with a CTR below 2%.
• Bounce Rate on Organic Landing Pages
  • Are visitors leaving immediately or engaging?
  • Lower bounce rates suggest a good match between content and search intent.
• Average Session Duration
  • Measures how long organic visitors stay on your site.
  • Longer sessions often correlate with higher conversion likelihood.
• Pages per Session
  • Indicates whether users explore beyond the landing page.
  • Aim for more than 2 pages per session.
• Indexed Pages
  • Ensures that important pages are visible to search engines.
  • Monitor for sudden de-indexing, especially with compliance-sensitive pages.
• Page Load Speed (Core Web Vitals)
  • Faster loading improves user experience and SEO.
  • Target <2 second load times, especially for mobile.
• Backlink Growth
  • Growing backlinks improve domain authority and rankings.
  • Focus on cannabis-friendly PR and safe link-building practices.
• Local Pack Rankings (Google Maps)
  • Especially for dispensaries ranking for "dispensary near me" and similar terms.
  • Critical for mobile search and local discovery.
• Google Business Profile (GBP) Actions
  • Tracks calls, website clicks, and directions from your GBP listing.
  • Direct proxy for local engagement.
• Top Landing Pages (Organic Only)
  • Identifies which SEO pages are driving the most traffic.
  • Use insights to double down on what’s working.
• SEO Conversion Rate
  • Measures the % of organic visitors who complete a goal (purchase, signup, call).
  • Strong evidence of SEO delivering business outcomes.
• Revenue from Organic Search
  • Tracks direct revenue from organic traffic.
  • For e-comm: product purchases. For dispensaries: leads, appointments, foot traffic proxies.
• Impression Growth (Google Search Console)
  • Measures the total number of times your site appears in search.
  • Healthy SEO campaigns show 10–30% quarterly impression growth.
• Compliance Monitoring (Cannabis Specific)
  • Ensures your SEO pages meet legal and Google policy standards.
• Organic Revenue per User (RPU)
  • Tracks how much revenue each organic visitor generates.
  • Useful for calculating customer LTV from SEO.
• Cart Abandonment Rate (Organic Traffic Only)
  • Measures how often organic visitors abandon their carts.
  • High rates suggest UX or trust issues.
• Top-Selling Products from Organic Traffic
  • Identifies which products are most purchased by organic users.
  • Helps prioritize SEO optimization on winning product pages.
• Product Page Organic Entrances
  • Measures if product pages are bringing in organic traffic directly.
  • Critical for programmatic SEO scaling.
• Organic Assisted Conversions
  • Tracks conversions where SEO helped initiate but another channel closed the sale.
  • Shows organic’s role in early-funnel activity.
• Schema Markup Health (Product, Review, FAQ)
  • Structured data improves visibility with rich snippets (stars, pricing, availability).
  • Important for higher CTR and better SERP presence.
• SEO-driven Email List Growth
  • Measures how SEO pages convert into email subscribers.
  • Important since email is a vital retargeting tool (ads are restricted).
• Lifetime Value of Organic Customers (LTV from SEO)
  • Measures how valuable SEO-acquired customers are over time.
  • Organic customers often yield higher LTV than paid ones.
• Local SEO Traffic (GMB/GBP Organic Only)
  • Measures traffic from your Google Business Profile (not from regular organic listings).
  • Helps you isolate and optimize local SEO impact.
• Driving Directions Requests
  • How many users asked for directions to your dispensary.
  • High signal of imminent in-store visits.
• Phone Calls from Google Maps/Organic
  • Counts direct calls from local search results.
  • Indicates strong local purchase intent.
• Photo Views (GMB)
  • Tracks how many users viewed your dispensary photos.
  • Frequent new photo uploads boost local SEO visibility.
• Reviews and Review Response Rate
  • Total reviews and how quickly you respond.
  • Strong influence on local pack rankings and customer trust.
• Local Citation Consistency (NAP: Name, Address, Phone)
  • Consistency across local directories improves trust and rankings.
  • Must keep NAP consistent on Yelp, Weedmaps, Leafly, and other directories.
• Proximity-Based Search Rankings
  • How well you rank based on distance from the searcher (1mi, 3mi, 5mi, etc.).
  • Key for hyperlocal customer acquisition.

What’s the average cost of a cannabis SEO campaign per month?

On average, with content, you could expect to spend anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000 per month. Historically speaking, results may take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to start to occur. However, that high initial upfront investment usually has a much longer LTV (lifetime value) of the marketing channel.

As mentioned above, even if you rank for keywords that generate a lower amount of traffic (10,000 searches per month), at a low 1% conversion rate, you’re expecting $8,000 per month in revenue. When you compound that against recurring buyers, email list generation, and more (all coming from the demand sourced from SEO), the channel often achieves a 2X to 3X ROAS (return on advertising spend) within the first year.