If you’re in the cannabis industry, organic reach is vital to your success. While paid search ads can help your brand get noticed, they don’t always have the same efficacy as organic search. And when it comes to organic reach, there’s no better place to start than cannabis SEO marketing. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about cannabis SEO marketing: how it works, why it matters, and how to use it effectively to increase your organic reach.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making your website or web page more visible in search results. When you optimize your site, you’ll be more likely to appear at the top of search results, which means more people will see and click on it. This can lead to a massive increase in traffic for your business! Good SEO doesn’t happen overnight, however. It’s a steady process of building both your on-page and off-page presence online before you see rankings for organic search increase. For search engines like Google and Bing, many things need to be completed to gain relevance in their rankings, and often changes on a monthly, sometimes daily, basis.
The following are some of the various types of SEO:
On-page SEO
On-page SEO refers to any activities carried out on your website that are considered an integral part of its content. These activities include keyword research, title tags and meta descriptions, headings and paragraphs, alt tags for images, etc. In general, on-page SEO refers to any activity that you carry out yourself on your website. So what is the importance of these on-page SEO activities?
Keyword Research: This is the first step in your on-page SEO strategy. Before you optimize other SEO items, you need to perform keyword research in order to determine which keywords and associated phrases your site should be ranking for. Once you develop a list of keywords, you are then able to use those in your title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags.
Title Tags: The title tag is the first thing a user sees within Google Search results. Its purpose is to get clicks and solidify ranking for your dedicated keywords. This can be completed on the admin side of the page itself before publishing.
Meta Descriptions: A meta description is a summary of your page or blog’s content. Along with the title tag, the meta description is one of the first things users see during search results, so it’s important to well summarize the content while ensuring the use of dedicated keywords. Meta descriptions can also be edited in the page settings before publishing.
Alt Tags: Adding alt tags to images on your website page or blog post can help improve search rankings for your dedicated keywords. Labeling your images can be done during the image upload process or through your CMS media library.
Off-site SEO
Off-site SEO refers to any activity carried away from your website but still impacts its performance in the SERPs. It includes things like link building, social media marketing, etc. So what is the importance of off-site SEO like link building?
Link Building: Link building adds value to your website by increasing its visibility in Google Search results. When working to build your website’s link building, you should reach out to associated websites and potential resource centers for your customers and inquire about adding your website to their pages.
How Does SEO Help Cannabis Brands?
Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
SEO is a powerful tool for increasing your search engine rankings, driving traffic to your website and generating leads. In the cannabis industry, the benefits of SEO are even more dramatic. Whether you’re cannabis dispensaries, manufacturing, retail, or dealing with the grow operations, the following are some benefits of cannabis SEO marketing you can leverage:
Increase In Organic Reach
With more than 700 million monthly visitors, Google is the most popular search engine on the planet. If you rank high on Google for keywords related to your products or services (and there are literally thousands of them), you’ll enjoy an increase in organic reach. Your content will appear higher on results pages when users search for terms related to your offer. This translates into more eyeballs on your site and additional traffic from new visitors interested in what you have to say or sell.
Increase Brand Awareness
People first turn to Google for information about a particular topic or product category. Your company might benefit from increased brand awareness when you have content published online appearing on top of the search engine results page. When people search on Google and find valuable information, they spread word-of-mouth recommendations within their social media circles, including friends and family members. These people may then share their findings via text messages or email.
Boost Conversions
By driving more website traffic, SEO helps cannabis brands improve conversion rates and increase revenue. For example, you run a dispensary that sells cannabis flower. You’ve done extensive research and know that most people who purchase cannabis flower search for it online by brand name or strain type (e.g., OG Kush). By optimizing your website for these keywords, you’ll be able to convert more visitors into customers because they’ll find precisely what they’re looking for when they visit your site.
The Importance of On-Page Cannabis SEO
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing the content of your website to make it more search-engine friendly. On-page SEO includes: Have a great time. It will be an experience you won’t soon forget.
Keyword Research
You’ll need to conduct keyword research to determine which keywords will be most effective. This involves identifying related search terms and analyzing them to see which ones are more relevant. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer for assistance with keyword research.
Content Creation
Once you know what keywords to target, it’s time to create content around them. You can do this using various methods, including blog posts, infographics, videos, and social media posts. The more carefully you write your content, the more likely someone will find it organically through their search engine. And if you want your site to rank high on Google, it needs to be optimized with relevant keywords so users can easily find what they’re looking for. For instance, if you run a dispensary in Colorado with a menu of strains available for sale online, Google will only be able to pick up this information if you optimize your site correctly. That means using keywords like “top strains” or “best strains” in your description.
Content Promotion (SEO)
After creating your content, promote it by driving traffic to your website through channels like social media advertising and guest blogging on other websites in your niche. This increases the site’s visibility in search engines like Google and Bing so that people can easily find your page when searching for certain keywords related to what you offer.
Learn how to revamp your marketing efforts and generate more leads:
The Importance of Off-Page Cannabis SEO
Off-page cannabis SEO is essential because it helps build your business authority, increase traffic and conversions, and even get more backlinks.
The Importance of a User-Friendly and Fast Cannabis Website and How That Impacts SEO
To improve your SEO rankings, you must ensure that your website is fast and easy to use. A fast website is better for SEO since Google has long favored sites that load quickly. A user-friendly site will also make people more likely to return.
How can I make my website faster?
If you have an older website or one that hasn’t been optimized yet (or even if you’re starting), there are several steps you can take right now to make sure your site loads as quickly as possible: Ensure your website is hosted on a server close to your target audience. This will help reduce lag time as the data travels from your website to the end user’s browser
Ensure that all images are optimized for size and quality before uploading them to your site. You can do this using a tool like TinyPNG or Photoshop’s Save for Web feature (File > Save for Web). Make sure that any plugins and widgets on your site are up-to-date and that any third-party tools are working optimally(e.g., Google Analytics). The more efficient these tools are, the fewer resources they’ll use from your host and the faster your site will load overall.
Remove unused plugins or widgets from your website if possible. These may be slowing down page loads without adding value to visitors’ experiences with your site.
Cannabis SEO Marketing
How To Get Started
If you’re ready to increase your organic reach, start by looking at your website’s current SEO strategy. Google has made massive changes this year, so if your current strategies aren’t working well anymore, it may be time for an update! Once you know what needs to be changed on your website, it’s time to start putting together a plan and getting it implemented. Here are some of the most effective ways to increase your organic reach:
• Use long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad terms like “cannabis” or “marijuana.” They include exact words that people might use when searching for products and services related to cannabis. For example, if you sell tinctures, a long-tail keyword would be something like “tincture recipes.”
• Optimize images with alt text. Alt text is the text that appears when someone hovers over an image with their mouse cursor. You can use this as an opportunity to add keywords related to your product or service into alt text so that your image attracts more clicks from search engine users.
• Create quality content and blog posts. Content is king on the internet — especially if it’s high quality. Creating original content can be time-consuming, but if you have a team of writers who can share their knowledge with the world, it might not be as difficult as you think.
Looking For Cannabis Marketing Services?
Look no further than ThrivePOP! We’ll help you increase organic reach and your overall website traffic with our cannabis SEO marketing services. Our team of experts can help you with everything from keyword research to link building so that you can dominate the search engines and make sure the right people see your products. And if you need help with branding or image optimization, we’ve got that covered too. Whether you’re a dispensary owner or an edible manufacturer, we can help you market your brand with confidence.
There are many ways to increase your organic reach. It’s not just about the quality of your content and keywords but also about how you market yourself as a brand online. If you want to succeed in the cannabis industry, you need to be willing to put in the work and invest time into building your brand and improving your SEO skills. Contact us by filling out the form today!