Over the past few years CBD has taken the world by storm and it’s exciting to see how the trend has given birth to tons of startup companies (e.g. CBD-infused foods like gummies) as well as large retailers beginning to stock CBD products. But in a highly regulated and unknown space where you’ll have trouble with everything from merchants to roadblocks that prevent you from running ads, how do you compete? And that’s where search engine optimization (SEO) shines.

Educating the Masses
With CBD being such a new thing that’s creating buzz people inherently have questions about it, and when looking for answers one of the first things they’ll do is pop open a search engine. As a business in the CBD space it’s your role to educate the masses and that includes first generating helpful, valuable content (blog posts, videos, etc.) then using SEO to ensure it ranks well and is actually seen. Keep in mind around 90% of people don’t go past the first page of search results.

Bypassing Online Ads
As the laws around CBD are being flushed out the top social networks and search engines aren’t allowing CBD-related ads to appear, which puts many businesses in a tough spot because they’re used to simply tossing fuel on the fire (aka boosting their ad spend) but this is a totally different animal. Focusing more on quality content and SEO instead of online advertising will allow CBD companies gain a competitive edge, boost brand awareness and ultimately sales.

The world of CBD will continue to evolve over time and as laws become more defined so will the terms and conditions on various ad platforms, so we envision having the ability to advertise CBD products in the future, though now is the time things are booming and leading brands will emerge. Therefore, Investing in search engine optimization today will produce big returns in the future.