In this article, we’ll talk about cannabis SEO and why it’s the best way to grow your business.

Is your cannabis business performing as it should? Unfortunately, chances are, you’re missing out on many opportunities. That’s because search engines follow certain protocols to ensure websites with the best solutions rank first. And there’s a method to ensure that happens.

But worry not. Cannabis SEO is not as complicated as it seems. A good strategy boosts the brand’s visibility, awareness, and sales. You, therefore, create content that caters to people’s needs.

Research keywords to know what users are searching for. Design a fast-loading website. And when combined, those ways reduce bounce rates on your website and promote impressive lead generation.

Read on for an in-depth explanation of using cannabis SEO for the best results. But first;

Why Cannabis SEO?

Search engine optimization is a strategy that leads to more sales, sign-ups, and more revenue when implemented.

And that method is not as complicated as it seems; it’s primarily based on solving people’s problems. Therefore, if you can anticipate your customer’s needs beforehand, you already have a competitive edge over other dispensaries.

SEO skills become more valuable with time. That’s because google algorithms are getting better at identifying problems.

And providing solutions such as what your company sells. Therefore, implementing cannabis SEO means that you’re leaving nothing on the table when it comes to growing your cannabis company.

How to Market a Dispensary or Cannabis Product

A good marketing strategy involves studying the market. You should also know what people need to make their lives easier and better. And finally teaching them what your product could do for them.

Use Customer Empathy to Market Your Business

Think of it this way. Your target audience has no experience with cannabis use. Others want to make an informed buying decision. Moreover, they want to know the best products for their needs and consume them.

Knowing your customer is the key to successful marketing because it works from the user’s search intent. User intent is what customers wanted to find answers to when they typed on the search bar.

And to figure that out, you need to develop exceptional empathy skills for the cannabis SEO strategy to succeed. Therefore, working from a customer’s perspective leads you to know more about your potential buyers. And genuinely caring about them.

You can then put high-quality free online resources with the data you collect. Those freebies include images, videos, slideshows, and apps on CBD information. In the end, you get to help your customers and indirectly persuade them to buy your cannabis products. 

Executing that marketing strategy also spreads word of mouth because as many people find your resources helpful, they’ll want to share with others. Eventually leading to more organic traffic.

Examples of questions you should be answering include:

• What will be happening before customers seek your cannabis product?
• What other solutions do they look for online?
• What common language do they use as it relates to your industry?
• What is their typical day like?
• What does achievement look like to them?
• What are the customers worried about in consuming cannabis?
• What do they want to know about cannabis?

All the customer data you collect helps you build a good strategy grounded on reality. That’s because you have a good idea of what users will be looking for through search engines to find your products.

And with the loyalty you build through the free cannabis content, your marketing strategy will be effective. Therefore tailor your blog articles, homepage, and product pages to address those FAQs.

Cannabis SEO Strategies and Tactics for Cannabis Companies

What is Cannabis SEO?

Do you need organic traffic to your website? Then a good SEO strategy will help you increase your brand’s awareness and get quality potential customers that eventually convert.

Cannabis SEO applies the same techniques as other industries, although there are some differences. For example, making any medical claims on your article enlists your site as less trustable, and search engines rank it lower, hence reducing traffic.

Therefore, it’s advisable not to make any health claims when marketing your products.

On-page, Off-page, and Technical Cannabis SEO

On-page Cannabis SEO

In short, on-page SEO deals mainly with content relevancy. Therefore, titles, headings, keywords, and meta-descriptions should be relevant to the customer’s search. 

Off-page Cannabis SEO

Off-page SEO helps prove your trust and authority. That feature includes backlinks or links from other websites to yours. Therefore, the more they are, the higher your page will rank.

How do you get backlinks? You reach out to high-ranking and reputable websites or collaborate with other marketers in the field. However, ensure that the links appear naturally, or else search engines will flag them as spammy.

Technical Cannabis SEO

Technical cannabis SEO refers to how fast your website is loading. Whether the site is crawler friendly and if it has an SSL certificate. Those factors further determine whether customers will opt to purchase products from you or your competitors.

Meta-Titles and Descriptions

Also called page titles, meta titles briefly describe each piece of content on your website. They appear on the search result page, and you can optimize them to ensure a high click rate.

Keyword Research

Keyword tools help you pick the best keywords to employ in your content strategy. Most of the tools are free, and you can identify keywords with the highest search rate and discover the user’s search intent. Thus overall, good optimization for your website. 

Keyword research also helps you evaluate the market size and whether the investment is worth it. Moreover, you get to see how competitive the words you want to use are, how they would blend into each other, and extract more content ideas.

Understand Buyer Intent Behind Keywords

Quality keywords matter as most popular ones involve non-purchasing users. In that case, long-tail keywords like ‘how to smoke CBD’ should be your priority.

Also, avoid highly competitive keywords by going for those with less to medium popularity, which you can dominate.

Analyze Existing Organic Search Traffic Before Starting Any Cannabis SEO Strategy

Search Engine Optimization involves knowing your current traffic status. And from that analysis, you can then gauge whether the strategies you employ lead to the results you desire.

Using that data can also help you plan your social media content since you have a good idea of the posts that resonate most. Therefore, look out for metrics such as;

• What is the average number of unique, organic users that visit your website on a given day?
• Which part of your website are they visiting the most?
• What are the keywords that consumers are using to find your content?

To analyze your cannabis SEO data involves using Google Analytics. You should have the feature installed on your website if you haven’t already. Next, examine your best-performing blogs and note down what they have in common. 

That could be:

• The quality of your articles.
• The length of the articles.
• The number of images you have included in every piece.
• The on-page SEO optimization strategy you used on the pieces.

Page Load and Mobile Friendliness

The user experience determines your website’s conversion rate. That’s because most customers have little patience for slow-loading pages.

Search engines like Google rank websites with faster load speeds higher. The company also prioritizes mobile-friendly sites as most people search using their cell phones. Because consumers often find it convenient to use the voice search feature on their phones.

Improve your site’s speed by using small-sized images and minimizing any large media in your content. Also, work with experienced web developers to increase your site’s speed.

Web Design

Make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. Ensure that by internally linking between contact pages and planning website content carefully. Web design, therefore, allows you not to miss out on any lead generation.

Link Building

Link building stamps your expertise, authority, and trust. You do that by acquiring backlinks or links from other sites to your site. Adding that is beneficial, especially where the industry is competitive. Therefore that strategy improves your visibility and helps you rank higher. 

Social Media

Digital media helps push your content further, thus reaching more people. Google also picks up social signals when the content you share on social media gains much attention. And thereby uses that feature to increase your search engine ranking.

Local Cannabis SEO

Local cannabis SEO helps you reach the audience around your dispensary to avoid missing out on potential local customers. 

But how do you implement local SEO? It’s easy, create a Google My Business account.

Mention the areas you serve on your website, create a specific page for every location you supply, and list the services you offer there. Also, add categories such as delivery service, hours of operation, and phone number.

Lastly, add pictures and videos to showcase your visual location.

Other measures include listing your business on cannabis directories such as Yelp and Foursquare. Because the more your brand’s name, address, and phone number appear on the web, the bigger your portfolio and the higher your rankings.

Content Marketing for Cannabis Companies

Catering to customer needs is the best recipe for successful marketing.

And it’s essential to note that that can’t happen without quality content as the main traffic driver. Therefore, you must consider cannabis SEO as just a tool to further boost your content.

In cannabis SEO, content creation forms the core of an effective strategy. Here are great ways to get ideas for your creative process. 

How to Identify Content Marketing Ideas

Talk to Your Customer

Conducting surveys is the best way to know your customer’s needs and thus create content suited for them. That tactic means getting to know who they are, what they do, and acquiring a feel of what they think. 

Create content that relates and speaks to them without the usual industry jargon, thus fostering a good connection. Therefore, use common words such as edibles, medical marijuana, weed, vape pens, etc.

And the more resources you provide, the greater your authority due to the high number of solutions you provide users. Consequently, you rank higher than any competitors.

Do Keyword Search

Keyword search involves creating blogs that cover all the customer’s questions. Furthermore, you can also write on topics and subtopics people search for about CBD. And when you include backlinks, that will help you dominate the industry and help you win.

Create a Shortlist

Note down all the relevant keywords. Those can be high-intent, low-intent, short-tail, and long-tail. The bigger the list, the more the content ideas, leading to a broader reach to potential customers.

Look at Content Types in SERPs

SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Page. That is whereby search engines display results in a certain way. And you should try to fit your content to cover all those areas. In application, that means that you should also produce images, videos, quizzes, and other interactive tools on your website.

Check out the Competition

Studying the competition gives you content ideas. Because perhaps a more in-depth article on one of their poorly covered topics could rank higher on your website. You might also want to partner with them to get backlinks. 

Those tactics are helpful to spark inspiration when you experience a creative block. Or for benchmarking with the best when you’re unsure how to kickstart an online cannabis business.

Conclusion

Good content isn’t enough to improve organic traffic on your cannabis website. You have to cater to the customer’s needs before visiting your website.

That process involves empathizing with users and creating content that resonates with them. When combined with quality keyword research, your business will thrive exponentially.

There is also high competition in the cannabis industry. Therefore, one has to implement the best marketing techniques such as cannabis SEO. Doing that ensures a high ranking on search engines, increases your brand’s visibility and translates to high conversion rates.

Creating content following a cannabis SEO strategy might seem hard. But when you brainstorm ideas by talking to customers, doing keyword searches, or visiting the competition’s websites, you’ll have months of content ready.

Therefore, it’s wise to experiment with various strategies and see what works best for you.