Cannabis SEO Keywords Explained: How They Drive Traffic and Sales

Keyword research is the foundation of any successful cannabis dispensary SEO strategy. It helps you identify the search terms that potential customers use to find products and services like yours. With the right strategy and cannabis SEO keywords, you can show up in search engine results, drive qualified traffic to your website, and ultimately increase in-store and online sales.

How Do You Calculate the Value of a Cannabis Keyword?

How much is a keyword worth? Valuable keywords are: relevant to your products and services, accurate descriptors of your company’s expertise, and offer potential financial value. You can get a rough estimate of what any particular keyword might be worth to your business by following a few simple steps.

First, determine the average monthly search volume for the keyword in question. You can use free tools like Google Search Console, though other paid tools are available for cannabis keyword research. We’ll be covering some of our recommendations below.

You will also need to know your monthly average order value. Since you’re a retail cannabis store, you can use the average transaction value or average basket size to help determine the keyword value. Your dispensary’s point-of-sale (POS) system will be able to provide you with this information.

Example Keyword: "buy edibles in Oakland"

Let’s say you run a dispensary in Oakland and want to estimate the value of this keyword.

Estimated value of the keyword per month:

• Monthly Search Volume = 1,000
• % of users who click on page one results = 86.3% → 0.863
• % of those who click position #1 = 27.6% → 0.276
• Dispensary Website Conversion rate (visits → customers) =  5% → 0.05
• Average sale per customer = $90

The following is a calculation for estimated clicks, customers, and revenue if you rank well for that keyword.

Step 1: Estimated Clicks to Position #1

1,000×0.863×0.276=238.19 clicks/month

Step 2: Estimated Customers

238.19×0.05=11.91 customers/month

Step 3: Estimated Revenue

11.91×90=$1,071.85 per month​

In full transparency, you should know that you will never receive all 100 clicks even if you rank #1 for the keyword. According to an analysis of 4 million search engine results pages (SERPs), search results in the Top Ten will get 86.3% of all clicks. The top five accounts for 69.1% of clicks, and the #1 position receives 27.6%.

So, while you are not getting 100% of the clicks, being in position #1 receives an average of about 5x the amount of clicks compared to links in position #5.

Now that you know the importance and ROI of cannabis SEO keywords, let’s brainstorm keywords for your dispensary.

What Are the Most Important Cannabis SEO Keywords to Target?

To improve your dispensary’s SEO, focus on five key keyword types:

Branded Keywords 

• Include your dispensary seo keywords and brand name plus terms like menu, hours, or reviews (e.g., "[Dispensary Name] menu").

Location Keywords 

• Combine cannabis terms with city/state (e.g., marijuana store in San Francisco).

Areas Served Keywords 

• Target geo-intent searches like "dispensary near me" based on neighborhoods or delivery zones. Geo-targeted, non-branded keywords based on the user’s location hold incredible Cannabis SEO opportunities. Mobile device users commonly use keywords relevant to the neighborhood, district, or suburb they are located in to search “cannabis near me” in an area served by your dispensary. 

General Keywords 

• Broad cannabis-related terms (e.g., dispensary, cannabis club)—competitive, but high volume. General keywords are the most competitive because you compete with large websites such as Leafly, Weedmaps, and Yelp. Examples: cannabis club, dispensary, marijuana, and rec store.

Product Keywords 

• Focus on the specific items you carry—like “THC gummies,” “CBD tinctures,” or “indica flower”—and help match high-intent users with in-stock inventory.

Use a mix of these to attract local, mobile, and high-intent traffic.

Keyword research is essential for understanding how your target customers search for information about cannabis products and services. By identifying the keywords most valuable to your business, you can optimize your dispensary’s website and content to appear higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Want to Learn More? Visit our Academy – Learn Cannabis Dispensary SEO

How Do You Match Cannabis Keywords to User Intent?

When you uncover a list of potential keywords, the next crucial step is matching each to user search intent—understanding why someone is searching for that keyword in the first place. This helps ensure your content answers their question or meets their need.

There are four types of keyword intent to consider:

• Informational: These users want to learn more about cannabis products, effects, or regulations. Keywords may include “what is live resin” or “benefits of CBD oil.”
  Ideal content: Educational blog posts, explainer videos, and FAQs.
• Navigational: These people are trying to find a specific brand or website. Keywords include “[Dispensary Name] near me.”
  Ideal content: Branded pages, About Us pages, Google Business Profile optimization.
• Transactional: These users are ready to buy. They’ll search for things like “buy edibles in Oakland” or “cheap pre-rolls near me.”
  Ideal content: Product pages, online menus, local landing pages, and limited-time offers.
• Commercial Investigation: These are pre-purchase users comparing options. They may search for “best dispensary in Sacramento” or “top-rated weed delivery.”
  Ideal content: Comparison posts, review roundups, and testimonials.

Pro tip: Use Google SERPs to spot clues about intent. The intent is informational if a keyword brings up mostly blog posts. If it brings up maps or shopping results, it's likely transactional or navigational.

What Are the Best Keyword Research Tools for Cannabis Dispensaries?

Thankfully, several tools can make keyword research for your dispensary less of a guessing game and more of an analytical exercise. These tools can help you find out what people are searching for, allowing you to optimize your website to capture that search traffic.

If you're looking for the best keyword suggestion tool or the best keyword tool for SEO, the following options will get you started:

Google Trends

Source: Google Trends

We love free tools, and Google Trends can be used to understand how specific keywords and search terms are trending.

This tool lets you enter multiple keywords and filter by category, search history, and location. Google Trends can also provide valuable information about how popular specific keywords and search terms have been. All in the form of a beautiful interactive graph.

Which keywords to prioritize? See how they’re performing with Google Trends.

Ahrefs

Source: Ahrefs

We like Ahrefs for tracking a site’s SEO performance, but it’s also great for finding keywords. Ahrefs lets you check the viability of particular keywords, see what your competition is ranking for, and even point out “content gaps” between you and your competition.

This is a paid tool with different levels available depending on what your goals are.

SEMRush

Source: SEM Rush

SEMRush is a paid keyword research tool that does more than just determine keyword search volumes – It can also run audits of your content, spot backlink opportunities, generate pillar cluster content and more.

However, the real value of SEMRush lies in its ability to scope out the competition. SEMRush also offers you valuable insights into your competitors' keyword strategies. Knowing which specific keywords your closest competitors are trying to rank for can guide you in developing your strategy.

KeywordTool.io

Source: KeywordTool.io 

This free keyword research tool is excellent for generating long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords contain multiple words and are more specific with their intent. They can often take the form of questions or longer expressions seeking information.

KeywordTool.io uses Google’s autocomplete function to provide you with a list of relevant long-tail keywords for you to consider. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Other tools you can check

• Moz Keyword Explorer
• Microsoft Ads Keyword Planner
• Wordtracker’s Keyword Research Tool
• Authority Labs Rank Tracking Software
• SpyFu Competitor Research

Moz’s Keyword Explorer also provides estimated monthly search volume, difficulty to rank, click-through rate estimates, and potential to rank.

As SEO becomes an essential business activity and investment across sectors and markets, there are increasingly free and paid keyword research tools. Be sure to test and explore the functionality of any tools you’re considering, compare the results against tools you trust, or find out how the tool might have a competitive advantage, i.e., more data sources.

How Can You Use SEO to Grow Your Cannabis Dispensary?

Keyword research is the key contributor to organic traffic. Organic traffic is upwards of 50% of total site traffic for most of our clients. SEO strategy and execution can only be done well when you rank for cannabis SEO keywords that your target audiences seek, so it’s an activity worth doing well.

Spend time researching and analyzing the keywords relevant to your business and its location to get your local SEO efforts off to a strong start. It is also absolutely vital to track your target keywords over time, optimizing your content based on developing trends.

After all, the most critical job of your site is to deliver relevant results to the people who are querying terms within your realm of expertise! You can also hire experts to translate your cannabis knowledge into desirable content so you can spend your time doing what you’re best at—running your store!

MediaJel works with cannabis dispensaries of all sizes and all stages of their growth cycles to help them rank higher on search engines and score more organic traffic with SEO strategies crafted to drive people to your website and increase your dispensary sales. Want to learn more? Let’s connect!