SEO for Cannabis benefits CBD companies by ranking higher on search engines, increasing online website traffic, connecting better with customers, building brand awareness, and converting more leads into sales.

SEO for Cannabis SEO for cannabis helps differentiate the CBD company from competitors, brings in more customers, and sells more CBD products. Do you know the Cannabis market size in the US was valued at 13.2 billion USD in the year 2022? The cannabis industry is ripening rapidly, with many states legalizing the market of cannabis products. It is forecasted that the market revenue of the cannabis business in the US will reach up to $33.6 billion by the end of 2023, denoting a splendid pool of opportunities for your company. 

SEO tips for Cannabis are discussed below in this article, where we have explained the legal and commercial complaints for cannabis keyword research, how to optimize Google My Business Profile to draw in local customers, what link building strategies are, and how to invest wisely in it, which type of content performs best for cannabis business and how to use it effectively, how to measure Cannabis SEO success, and various other SEO strategies for Cannabis. 

What is SEO for Cannabis?

As more and more marijuana and weed industries set up their online store, SEO for cannabis plays a significant role in promoting marijuana-based websites. Cannabis SEO helps you get more impressions, clicks, conversions, and yes customers. SEO for cannabis is the process through which you optimize your online presence in such a way that search engines can understand your content and rank you higher in SERP.

Why is SEO Important for Cannabis?

Cannabis is a challenging industry and the market will expand exponentially as more states legalize cannabis. Cannabis dispensaries and other cannabis businesses will quadruple their business if they follow proven marketing strategies. The fact is you can’t neglect Search engine optimization (SEO) when it comes to marketing and advertising in this digital era. In this article, we will help you navigate through the large, noisy, and confusing cannabis SEO strategies and help you form a tailored SEO plan for your cannabis company. 

How is Cannabis SEO Different From Other Industries?

The cannabis industry is a sensitive market. It involves a lot of laws and restrictions. The local or state government, national authorities, or even the payment processors can negatively impact your cannabis business or even shut it down if they find you implementing the wrong marketing tactics. For example, if you are using the wrong illegal keywords, you will lose not only traffic but also your company. SEO for cannabis becomes very complex to manage if you lack tailored expertise. Further, user search intent for cannabis and related keywords becomes extremely important. 

Therefore, it becomes your responsibility as a leader in a cannabis company to make sure your company legally markets its product and services. Further, if you prefer going for SEO consultancies, do your study and hand over your cannabis company SEO to a responsible expert. Long story short, if you implement cannabis SEO properly, it will be a game changer for your business. 

Cannabis SEO: Market Cannabis Business Online

Some of the best SEO tips for cannabis companies are listed below:

• Legally and commercially compliant keyword research
• Local SEO for cannabis dispensaries
• Content Marketing for Cannabis SEO
• Voice search optimization for Cannabis SEO
• Link-building strategies and Off Page SEO
• Monitor Cannabis SEO metrics
• Other Cannabis SEO tips

Legally and Commercially Compliant Cannabis Keyword Research

Keyword or search queries are what runs Google, literally. Identifying and incorporating the right cannabis keywords requires a lot of effort, research, and brainstorming. 

A good marijuana SEO strategy starts with the right cannabis keywords that will help you boost your online presence. Let us break down this large topic into small digestible chunks.

• You can take cannabis keyword inspiration from:

1. Google auto suggestion: Keywords or search queries Google shows while you type in the keyword. Google “cannabis” and see what various suggestions Google gives at its end.
2. Google-related searches: Present at the end of Google search engine page result
3. People also ask section: These are the questions people type in Google related to cannabis.
4. Analyzing competitor’s websites with the help of various tools such as Semrush, Ubersuggest, ahref, etc.
5. Put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes. Brainstorm what they might type in while searching for the cannabis industry.

• Once you are done with brainstorming and researching cannabis-related keywords, analyze them on keyword planning tools. This platform takes the burden off your shoulders and lets you decide which cannabis keyword will work the best for your business. 
• Check out the keyword trend history, regional variation, and projections in Google Trends.
• Focus on long-tail keywords, containing more than 3 words
•  Keyword Planning Tools you can use are listed below:

1. Ahrefs
2. SE Ranking
3. SEMrush
4. SECockpit
5. Keywords Everywhere
6. Moz
7. Ubersuggest
8. Google Keyword Planner
9. KeywordTool.io
10. KWFinder

Pro-tip for keyword planning: Choose high-volume keywords with low competition. Focus on user intent while selecting the keywords. 

There are 4 user search intents and here is what they mean:

• Transactional – The user wants to buy something or make a purchase
• Navigational – The user is searching a particular cannabis website or marijuana dispensary
• Commercial – The user wants to research and gather information before making a purchase.  
• Informational – The user wants to learn something related to cannabis

For example, if the user is googling “best CBD bath product”, he/she is probably thinking of buying a CBD bath product.

Case Study for Cannabis SEO

Firm Name: American Cannabis Company

American Cannabis is rated as Oklahoma’s #1 Cannabis company and it also sells its cannabis products to retailers.

Organic Traffic Growth: 784.12%

Get the best SEO consultancy for Cannabis

Local SEO for Cannabis Dispensaries

The next step is to do local search engine optimization (SEO) where cannabis is legal. Potential customers often tend to search “Cannabis dispensaries near me” or “CBD near Miami” while searching for marijuana or related psychoactive drugs. Local SEO is the best strategy to target your local audience. The best ways to do local SEO for the cannabis industry are:

• One of the easiest ways is Google My Business Profile. Take advantage of this free Google service and let your local targeted audience know that your cannabis dispensary exists.

The ways you can optimize your Google My Business accounts are:

1. Write a good catchy description for your cannabis company. Keep it concise and straightforward but to the point. 
2. Mention your contact details, phone no. working hours, and address
3. Use high-quality images with the proper file name
4. Encourage your customers and colleagues to write positive reviews for your cannabis dispensary service.

• The ranking of your GBM profile will be based on your relevance and the distance of your Canadian business from the targeted audience. 
• To ensure your enhanced online visibility, put your cannabis company in various online directories, local as well as global( as per your targeted market). The various directories are given below:

High domain authority: Google Business Profile, Yelp, Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, Better Business Bureau, Apple Business Connect, Yellow Pages, and MapQuest.

Marijuana dispensary directories: Weedmaps and Leafly.

Content Marketing for Cannabis SEO

How will content communicate your words to your audience? The answer lies in making it powerful enough to talk not only to users but also to search engines. Therefore, create informative, relevant, cannabis industry-specific, humanized, original, and unique content. Further, use the cannabis keyword seamlessly to tell Google algorithms your cannabis website has answers to the search queries. Make sure you have a crystal clear image of your goal behind the creation of cannabis content before making the content strategy plan.

Content Writing strategies for cannabis SEO

The relevant SEO tips for the cannabis industry are:

• • Use long tail keywords in your content. If you are writing content on the topic “Top 10 cannabis oil products,” you know that anyone typing “top cannabis oil” or “cannabidiol (CBD) oil” is looking for your website content.
  • Create a well-structured content calendar. Timing is an important factor while posting content. Ensure you use this feature to the fullest.
  • Create high-quality, informative, and original content that will hook your potential customers, enticing them to visit your cannabis website again and again.
  • Use SEO elements. Write in bullet points and list format.
  • Answer People and also ask queries in your content.
  • Give proper architecture to your content by using heading tags, small paragraphs, and small sentences. 
  • Write in appropriate font size and font color.
  • Understand your customer’s problem and give solutions to them through your content
  • 80% of your targeted keyword must be evergreen, keeping 20% are trending
  • Avoid stuffing keywords on one section/blog/content. 
  • Create “cluster” pieces of content. Implies main content being supported by already written supporting content
  • Write an engaging meta tag that catches users’ attention immediately. The meta tag should not exceed 60 character
  • Use interlinks and backlinks in your content. 

• Revisit, upgrade, and edit old content
• Optimize images(alt text, meta tag, description, and caption) and URls

Voice Search Optimization for Cannabis SEO

Many people are using Google Assistant or Siri as a voice search facility. Make sure the digital presence of your cannabis business is optimized enough to answer these voice searches. As per the data, Approximately 40% of U.S. internet users use voice facilities to find answers to their queries on a monthly basis. 40% is too big a number to neglect.

The ways you can optimize your cannabis business for voice searches are:

• Local SEO is important
• Incorporate target questions and other long-tail keywords
• Make your website mobile-friendly with quick loading speed and good UI/UX design
• Use schema markup. It is structured data that tells the search engine about the purpose of your website.
• Converse with your targeted audience through your content

Link-Building Strategies and Off-Page SEO

Building quality backlinks is one of the best ways to cannabis marketing on the internet. This Cannabis SEO strategy improves your SEO score, catapults your domain authority, boosts online visibility, and flourishes your cannabis business. 

Let us see what are the various Cannabis SEO tips to build backlinks for a cannabis business:

• Content is the king in every domain of online marketing. Creating good quality content will ensure your chances of getting backlinks from high domain authority website
• Take advantage of other booming online opportunities such as podcasts and interview
• Write and submit guest posts on high authority relevant websites. 
• The broken link method is yet another effective way to get quality backlinks. All you need to do is search for broken links( links that no longer exist or show a 404 error page when clicked) on various relevant good websites. For this, you can use tools such as Ubersuggest, SEmrush, ahref, etc. Write a quality value-adding blog or article on that particular topic and submit it to the website owner. Ask him to link it on the website. He/she got the broken link fixed, and you got your backlinks. Simple, right?
• Online directory listing will also give you a backlink
• Visual graphics such as video, images, and Infographics not only make your website attractive but also have the power to give you backlinks.

People always ask how many backlinks are good to go for their Cannabis Websites. Well, the simple answer is quality overshadows quality. Having 1 quality backlink from a high-domain website is far more advantageous than having 10 backlinks from a scam website. Therefore, keep tracking the number and source of backlinks to your cannabis website using platforms such as Semrush, Ubersuggest,ahref, etc. 

Case Study for Cannabis SEO

Firm Name: Barbary Coast

 Barbary Coast is one of the favorite destinations of locals and visitors when it comes to cannabis products in  San Francisco.

Organic Traffic Growth: 438.32%

Get the best SEO consultancy for Cannabis

Monitor Cannabis SEO Metric

Last but not least, monitor your Cannabis SEO metric and track your weekly, monthly, and annual success. See which strategy works for your cannabis system and which doesn’t. Regularly measure important KPIs such as bounce rate, impression, conversion rate, click-through rate, keyword rankings, etc. If your cannabis website is getting more impressions but fewer clicks, try modifying the title and meta tags. Adding an SSL certificate can also help, giving safety assurance to your user(which is crucial in the cannabis industry). Monitor your cannabis website SEO performance regularly with tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ubersuggest, etc.

Few More Cannabis SEO tips:

Some other Cannabis SEO tips are as follows:

• The next tip is that you need to keep your cannabis website well structured. 
• Add elements such as maps, and contact details, and make it super easy for the potential customer to interact with your website. 

For example, if you sell cannabis or marijuana products, use the right user search intent keyword that has more search traffic with low competition. Moreover, make the order placement process comfortable for your potential buyers. 

• Google keeps a note of how well your website is interacting with the user and improves or degrades your SERP ranking accordingly. Therefore, make sure you score high in this aspect. 

About WebKey Digital: Best SEO Agency for Cannabis 

Webkey Digital is one of the best performance driven SEO agencies for the Cannabis industry. We have been working exceptionally well for cannabis for the past 10 years and created the best SEO strategies that actually deliver results. 

Over this period, we have helped over 50+ cannabis companies such as American Cannabis Company, Barbary Coast, etc. We have earned esteemed recognition from various publications. Further, we have been awarded with Best SEO company of the year, Platinum MarCom Award, and DealCrunch Best digital marketing company award.

Here are the reasons to choose us:

• Customized Cannabis SEO solutions
• Cannabis SEO Reporting and Analysis
• Experienced Cannabis SEO Team
• Proven Results such as online sales, lead from web forms, website visits pageviews, and overall site traffic
• Competitive Pricing for Cannabis SEO Consultancy

Contact Now and get the best SEO consultancy for Cannabis

Conclusion

As more marijuana and weed retailers enter the digital marketplace, it becomes really important for you to make your cannabis company stand out of the crowd. That is where the above-mentioned cannabis SEO strategies come into the picture, providing you with a solid competitive edge in the cannabis market.