By Hillary Walker
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a breakthrough moment for the CBD industry. Consumer stress and uncertainty are still driving growth. Since 2020, sales in the US have been rising by over 50% annually. If you are thinking of launching your own dispensary, now is a great time to do it.
Cannabis-related businesses are not allowed to use conventional advertising channels like Google Ads. Such obstacles complicate digital promotion, but proper SEO brings impressive revenues. This article will provide you with top tips from seasoned CBD SEO companies.
Importance of SEO for CBD Brands
Building an attractive website is only the beginning. You need an all-round strategy for search engine optimization. It will make your online dispensary visible, attract visitors and drive sales. The purpose of all SEO methods is to catapult your site to top positions in organic search results.
Without SEO, there is no product visibility. Very few consumers ever look beyond the first SERP (search engine results page). The higher you rank, the more sales and revenue you generate. This is the key to direct online traffic. Learn about the role of Google Analytics and use our tips to make the most of SEO:
1. Target Non-Competitive Keywords
Every keyword is assigned a level of difficulty. Keywords that are easy to rank require little to no link-building efforts. To generate traffic faster and more easily, opt for long-tail combinations. These are also more specific and allow better targeting.
For example, ranking for “is CBD oil legal” or “CBD oil spray” is much easier than for just “CBD oil”. Longer keywords facilitate ranking and ensure that the target audience finds your content relevant.
2. Speed Up Your Website
Page load speed is one of the 200 ranking factors used by Google. It directly affects user experience, engagement, and conversions. To prevent your site from slowing down, do the following:
- Test website speed regularly to have it fixed when necessary;
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that will cache content;
- Optimize images by compressing them and reducing resolution or dimensions;
- Minify CSS and JavaScript (eliminate the necessary characters in the code) files to save bandwidth and boost speed;
- Use fewer HTTP requests (each triggers a round trip to and from the hosting server).
3. Provide Content with High EAT Rate
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are three crucial factors in Google rankings. They are used for content quality assessment. The information on your site must be accurate and useful, as Google aims to deliver helpful and relevant search results.
Expertise refers to the author’s qualifications. Content written by someone with formal training in the subject is authentic. For example, medical articles must be written by doctors. This is absolutely vital for the “Your Money, Your Life” sites — about finance, health, happiness, and safety.
Authoritativeness refers to the author’s reputation. Recognized experts and thought leaders are authoritative sources of information. Finally, trustworthiness means that users regard your site as a true and honest source.
4. Perform Technical SEO Audit
Does your website bring consistent results supporting the SEO strategy? Check its technical aspects from time to time. Otherwise, your online dispensary may suddenly disappear from the SERPs, despite any on-page and off-page efforts. You can use free or premium online audit tools.
The audit will highlight any errors on the front end (user side) and back end (server side). Common issues include broken links, duplicate content, poor structure, crawling obstacles, and low speed. Any technical problems should be resolved as soon as possible.
5. Add Contextual Links
These are links between different posts and pages on your website. Apart from helping users discover content, they are also good for SEO. Search engines use links (both internal and external) to understand and assess your content better.
Link your posts and pages together using anchors with keywords. Make sure they are all different and placed high up on each page.
6. Write Meta Tags for All Your Pages
These tags, which include the meta title and meta description, facilitate search engine crawling. They are added to the top of a page at thesection of its HTML coding.
The meta title is the title shown in the search results. It should be a concise and accurate description of page contents. A meta description contains a content summary. If it is missing, the search engine will show some text it finds on the page, which may look random.
7. Create Evergreen Content
Write content that will stay relevant for a long time. It must educate and engage the reader. Evergreen content boosts EAT and drives organic traffic, as such articles answer popular questions and pique users’ interest.
You do not have to make every single page timeless. Here are a few tips:
- Use Google Analytics to identify topics with persistent traffic potential (not just trending);
- Make sure the right keywords are placed correctly throughout the content;
- Do not add specific events or dates;
- Refer to case studies to increase content depth;
- Provide in-depth guides and tutorials.
8. Generate Backlinks to Your Website
Finally, pay attention to the quality of your backlink profile. Acquire links from authoritative sources, as only these sites will contribute to your Google rankings. This is not easy.
Create high-quality content other websites will want to refer to. Some of the best ways to improve backlinks are adding valuable infographics, posting guest articles, and using blogger outreach.
