When it comes to the cannabis market in the United States, one state’s green is the other state’s red tape. Although cannabis is federally legal, US provinces have drafted their own regulations to monitor its sale, possession, and distribution across the country. As a result, several local shops have popped up in the legal states, fueling the competition in a niche that has already been competitive.
In recent years, we have successfully tackled projects for numerous of our pan-US CBD clients with plunging local sales and consumer base owing to the rising local competition. Here’s one of the case studies where we achieved the maximum goals.
Objectives
Let’s discuss the client’s background and business objectives! We have been associated with the client since they launched their global online CBD website in 2016. The client had been receiving orders worldwide, but unfortunately, due to immense local competition in the US, their regional sales were sharply depleting.
So, we set a few goals to bring’em back on track. Most local cannabis and CBD keywords with high search volume and competition used the suffix ‘near me’ like ‘Delta 9 near me, ‘Delta 8 CBD near me,’ ‘cheapest CBD shops near me,’ and so on. Our primary objective was to increase the client’s site rankings and SERP visibility for these keywords.
We also took several other measures specifically to increase the site's local organic traffic, especially in the states that were hotbeds for CBD sales. The end goal, though, was to drive local conversions and build a loyal regional audience via inexpensive and generous subscription plans.
Besides, it was also important for us to constantly engage with the local audience through query and comment replies so we could convince a few of them to order placements over time.
Challenges
Achieving the objectives was tougher than climbing the Rockies uphill, especially considering the challenges we faced with our client’s business and operational model. Here are a few obstacles we overcame through our journey.
No Physical Location
The client had no physical store in any of the US regions. From sales to shipping, it operated online. Its headquarters were located in New York, but only for official purposes. Most local users, on the other hand, usually search for physical shops or stores near them.
User Intent
Even the searches for local physical stores are usually not done with the same intent. While some users only search to get information and explore the shops in their locality, others actually approach to buy CBD products. A few others just check local stores to compare the prices with online retailers. Catering to all their needs was challenging when we first started.
High Competition
The client was facing colossal competition not just from its competitors online but also offline. We had a huge task at hand to optimize the website pages enough for top SERP visibility and focus on strategic offline branding methods to become the talk of the town and local streets.
Technical Limitations
Last but not least, the client’s website was flooded with technical SEO issues like slow page loading, broken links, missing alt and meta tags, poor mobile optimization, and more. We had to collaborate with the technical team on several fronts to overcome these problems and improve site performance.
Strategy and Implementation
Nevertheless, we leveraged our years of experience and knowledge about CBD and cannabis SEO to achieve all our targets, surpassing each and every challenge we faced strategically. Here are the highlights of what we planned and implemented!
Localized Content Creation
To tackle the issue of local visibility, we focused on creating highly localized content tailored to local audiences in regions where CBD was legal for sale. We developed city-specific blog posts, landing pages, and FAQs around keywords like “Delta 9 near me” and “Delta 8 shops near me.” We also used structured data markup to help search engines identify geographic relevance, which improved our chances of ranking for "near me" searches.
Link Building
We collaborated with influential industry bloggers, reputable publishers, news platforms, and community organizations in local cannabis markets for high-quality cannanbis backlinks. The platforms we approached were relevant to the client’s niche, had high domain authority, enjoyed top-notch traffic from a local audience, and had high SERP rankings on local searches.
Localized Paid Advertising
CBD is a grey niche; hence, popular search engines have prohibited their paid advertising, be it at the national or local level. However, that didn’t stop us from exploring this highly efficient marketing strategy. We ran ads on social media platforms, online CBD magazines, and local news sites, highlighting promotions, discounts, and offers to grab the attention of local users.
Results
After a long-driven project of 8 weeks, we were finally able to achieve the following results.
- Ranked in the top 3 for key "near me" keywords, including "delta 9 near me" and "delta 8 near me."
- Increased local organic traffic by 50%.
- Achieved a 35% increase in local conversions.
- Doubled the number of local subscriptions.
- Increased local sales volume by 40%.
