For any cannabis brand or marijuana dispensary, SEO is one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools available. And yet, so many cannabusinesses aren’t using it to their advantage.

If search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t a foundational component of your marketing plan, you’re missing out on the opportunity to:

• Increase well-qualified website traffic
• Improve search engine rankings
• Boost brand awareness
• Support a higher conversion rate
• Drive more customers into your brick-and-mortar business

With benefits like that, it’s easy to see why SEO is a strategy you can’t afford to skip. But exactly how does SEO work for cannabis brands and dispensaries — and what’s the best way to approach it? That’s exactly what this guide is going to cover.

What is SEO for Cannabis Businesses?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a strategic process by which you can positively affect your website’s online visibility, certain web pages, landing pages, and more.

It specifically targets unpaid search engine results rather than paid search ads. And because cannabis businesses cannot utilize paid search, SEO is an especially critical marketing tool.

Essentially, SEO is what gets your website as close to the top of the search engine results page as possible. When a search user submits a query relevant to your business (for example, “best dispensaries near me”), a successful SEO strategy ensures they find your site before your competitors.

You’ll generally hear SEO referred to as either local SEO or organic SEO:

• Local SEO is specifically aimed at connecting with the users in your geographic area. For example, a Phoenix-based user that searches for “the best dispensary in Phoenix” will ideally find your Phoenix dispensary.
• Organic SEO casts a wider net, boosting your ranking in relevant search results, both local and not.

As you can imagine, any tactics that get your website in the top search results will be well worth your time. But even better, SEO doesn’t require the financial investment that paid advertising does. Although most businesses will pay an SEO agency for their expertise and services, you don’t have to pay for the SEO itself — which is a major plus for your marketing budget.

Top Tips for Cannabis SEO

So, exactly how do you “do” SEO for dispensaries and other cannabis businesses? Although every SEO strategy will be unique to a business’s individual goals and needs, some key tips can help you get a solid start.

1. Start By Analyzing Existing Organic Search Traffic

Before you implement (or even create) a marijuana search engine optimization strategy, you need to have a good grasp of how your website is performing right now.

Evaluating the current search traffic lets you:

• Pinpoint key metrics for use behavior
• Set appropriate goals
• Understand your strengths and challenges

When you analyze the existing search traffic for your cannabis website, you can answer important questions such as:

• Which web pages are the most popular?
• How many unique users are you attracting via organic search?
• What keywords and terms are connecting search users with your website?

Your cannabis SEO data is easily accessible with a Google Analytics account. If you don’t already have one up and running, this is your sign — it’s one of the most important marketing tools you could have! With Google Analytics, you’ll be provided a code to implement on your website so that you can effectively track data.

Use Google Analytics to determine which of your web pages (product pages, blog posts, and others) are the highest-performing. Try putting together a list of 8-10 of your top pages, then compare them to figure out what they have in common. For example, the best webpages for SEO might share characteristics such as:

• The length of the content
• The content quality
• Any on-page SEO optimization you may have used
• Media used (images, video, and others)
• Content topics

This information will then serve as an incredibly accurate “how-to” for the SEO improvements you can make on new and existing pages. Look for posts you can update based on what you’ve learned from your analysis. Then, use the analysis data as a starting point for your new and improved SEO strategy.

2.Understand How Users Search

One of the many benefits of professional SEO strategists is their impeccable understanding of how users search for cannabis-related content. In other words, exactly how does a user approach the process of looking for marijuana products and content?

At its core, SEO has always involved keyword research. You can find a variety of cannabis keyword research tools to find the specific words and phrases people are employing for their searches. Basic keyword research can be a great beginner strategy for SEO, but it’s no longer the only tool you should use.

Now, modern-day SEO largely focuses on users’ search intent. While keywords remain important, they are just one part of an effective strategy for driving qualified traffic. Rather, an SEO strategy that is both effective and sustainable must be based on cannabis search intent, not just cannabis keywords.

Some aspects of user intent include:

• People frequently use “long-tail” keywords, which are longer, more specific phrases. Although long-tail keywords tend to generate less overall search traffic, they typically have a significantly higher conversion value due to their specificity. A search user is likely to enter long-tail phrases when they are closer to being ready to make a purchase.
• Voice search has also become increasingly common due to the growing majority of users relying on smartphones for online searches. How people utilize voice search differs from how they would conduct a similar search on a desktop device. For example, voice search is more likely to use the long-tail keywords mentioned above and more conversational key phrases.

You can adapt your strategy accordingly as you develop a well-rounded understanding of how and why users are searching for cannabis content. Remember that user intent is ever-evolving, so researching it is an ongoing practice (another reason many businesses opt to partner with an SEO team).

3.Incorporate Mobile Optimization for a Strong SEO Strategy

Ask yourself this: how often are you using a desktop for online searches? If you’re anything like the vast majority of Americans, the answer is probably almost never. As of 2020, the number of mobile search users in the U.S. surpassed the 210 million mark, and it’s only continued to grow. For the purposes of SEO, this makes mobile optimization a necessity.

It is incredibly important to have a mobile-responsive dispensary website because most of your customers are going to be using a mobile device to access your content. If your website doesn’t work for mobile, you can bet that they’ll be leaving your site in seconds. Today’s consumers don’t just prefer mobile-friendly websites — they expect them.

Google’s Mobile Indexing

In 2019, Google officially implemented mobile-first indexing, meaning that, for indexing and ranking, Google primarily uses a website’s mobile version.

Their official statement is that a mobile-friendly website isn’t explicitly required but is “very strongly recommended.” If you’re trying to increase your Google ranking, you’re definitely going to want to take their recommendations seriously.

4.Use Social Media to Support Cannabis SEO

It’s no secret that social media for dispensaries is one of the top marketing tools available, particularly because paid ads are a no-go for the time being. But did you know that social media and SEO are inextricably linked?

There is considerable debate about how social media affects ranking. However, even though it might be tricky to pinpoint the exact ways using social media helps search ranking, what we do know is that a smart social media plan can benefit SEO.

With an effective social media strategy, you’ll be directly supporting your SEO goals. Here’s how:

• By using social media to share your website content, you’re gaining access to a far wider audience. Putting effort into developing excellent content is pointless if users can’t actually find your content — so why not increase your chances by sharing it on your social media platforms? Then, as more people visit and engage with your website, it sends positive user signals to Google, which helps improve search rankings.
• Attracting more traffic also boosts the odds that someone else will share your content via backlinking. Backlinking is a major component of successful SEO because it proves to search engines that your content is valuable.
• If users search for you using branded search terms, then your social media posts and websites can be ranked beside your website, which means they offer an alternative way of finding out about you. They’ll be able to “get to know” your brand that much better, which could be the push they need to trust you with their purchase.

5.Optimize Your Site Speed and Page Load Time

Are you likely to stay on a website if it’s taking too long to load? Speed matters, and it can easily be the factor that makes or breaks your website. Statistics show that 1 in 4 users will abandon a website that takes more than four seconds to fully load, and that even a one-second delay reduces user satisfaction by 16%.

We live in a world of instant gratification, making mobile site speed and page load time two crucial factors for SEO optimization. You can use a site speed check to assess your current loading time, then implement some simple strategies to improve it, such as:

• Invest in a quality, performance-optimized hosting provider
• Minimize the server response time
• Make sure all images are compressed and optimized to a maximum of 150 to 200kb
• Reduce redirects
• Cache web pages
• Enable browser caching
• Use asynchronous/defer loading for CSS and JavaScript
• Get rid of unnecessary plug-ins

6.Utilize Blogging to Improve SEO and Increase Rankings

Content creation is one of your best tactics for SEO, and for good reason. In particular, blog content is a key factor in your SEO strategy.

With high-quality blog content, you can establish relevance, authority, and trust — all of which increase your ranking position in the eyes of Google. So, when you focus on developing SEO-optimized cannabis blog content, you are giving Google exactly what it wants.

Remember that churning out so-so blogs isn’t enough to improve your SEO. Rather, you need to invest the time and effort into crafting well-written, original content that is intentionally optimized for SEO. It must be targeted to align with your target customer’s interests and needs and provide relevant and useful information to interested users.

7.Create Quality Video Content to Boost SEO

Video is quickly becoming the latest and greatest marketing tool, offering an excellent way to communicate with users and strengthen your brand. For many users, getting information from videos is preferable to reading written content. Depending on your audience, a one-minute video might garner more engagement than a 1,000-word article.

But don’t think of video as a substitute for effectively-written text. Instead, look at it as a complementary medium that can connect you with even more users.

When you’re working on cannabis video marketing, remember to:

• Use relevant keywords in video descriptions and titles
• Optimize the audio and video quality, as well as images/graphics
• Seamlessly integrate videos into your content
• Share video content on social media for even more engagement

Bonus Tip: Implement Technical SEO For Cannabis Websites

Technical SEO goes “behind the scenes” of your website to optimize it for peak performance. In many cases, you’ll need help from an SEO professional to optimize technical SEO.

Some practical steps for cannabusiness and dispensary technical SEO include:

• Creating and submitting an XML sitemap to Google and Bing so your website is crawlable.
• Using schema markup or structured data to classify your content, so Google can better index your web pages.
• Understanding how to use the robots.txt file (including why you don’t want to block CSS and JS files completely).
• Hunting down and eliminating dead links.
• Staying away from duplicate content, which negatively impacts your ranking.
• Implementing HTTPS for a secure website.

Make the Most of Marijuana SEO By Partnering with the Professionals

As one of the most effective tools for delivering measurable results, SEO is essential — but it can also be complex. At Marijuana Marketing Xperts, our SEO strategists have the skill, expertise, and creativity to provide the smart solutions you need.

Get more information about how to use SEO to market your cannabis brand when you contact our team today!