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As the demand for weed products on the market increases, cannabis SEO is quickly becoming crucial for businesses to be successful in this industry. Dispensaries and other cannabis businesses face unique advertising challenges. Search engine optimization is the only way for your website to get any traffic in the cannabis industry, as most platforms don't allow paid advertising.
Take your cannabis business to the next level with MjSeo, the leading cannabis SEO agency in 2024. Reach more potential customers and grow your brand with SEO strategies that meet your business needs.
Learning cannabis SEO on your own is ineffective, as it is complex to navigate and ineffective if you don't know what you're doing. Working with a professional cannabis SEO agency is the best way to put your website on the first page of Google.
The cannabis industry has been evolving rapidly in the United States over the last 10 years. As more states loosen regulations, the demand for weed has surged. The market is estimated to reach almost $40 billion in annual sales by the end of 2024.
You'd be hard-pressed to visit a city in a legal state and not find more than a couple of dispensaries available. Cannabis companies are also booming online, with website-based dispensaries providing cannabis to those who cannot visit a physical location.
The cannabis marketing vertical is highly competitive. This is largely because cannabis businesses have to use search engine optimization (SEO) as their main form of advertising due to the regulations surrounding weed.
Cannabis SEO also presents a unique problem in that it is constantly evolving based on trends and ever-changing regulations. Customers are doing more research than ever before and, as such, changing their user search intent.
Keywords don't work on their own in cannabis SEO. With the advent of voice options on devices, long-tail queries are more frequently used in search engines, providing cannabis brands with a way to specifically target their audience.
For example, as customers start taking advantage of voice options on their devices, their search queries become more complex. Instead of searching "CBD near me," they are asking, "Where is there a store that sells CBD near me?"
The simple answer is that SEO strategies help you appear in organic search results. Organic search results account for 41% of website traffic for retail and e-commerce websites. This means that it outperforms both display advertising and social media campaigns.
One of the main issues with cannabis marketing is that, since the industry is so new to the US, people aren't as warmed up to the idea of buying weed yet. It takes a lot of time to develop a brand that people trust. On top of that, figuring out where you can promote your brand can be a bit of a hurdle.
A cannabis SEO company can develop a strategy to help gain the trust of your customers by understanding what it is that they're searching for. Everyone has questions, and if your website can provide the answers, you'll become credible and recommended on search engines. SEO specialists know this and can help drive that traffic to your site through diligent keyword research and other strategies.
There are legal restrictions that prohibit a lot of advertising on various platforms, including social media sites. Depending on the US state that the cannabis business operates in, they may only be allowed to promote their products using specific online services. It is primarily these restrictions that can make it difficult to build a new cannabis brand.
Luckily, people will generally turn to the internet's search engines to help them figure out the answers. This is the main reason why SEO for cannabis is incredibly effective. It bypasses digital marketing issues and makes an internet search engine do it all for you.
Google and other search engines suggest your products on the search engine results page (SERP) based on the user's intent. Ultimately, that helps direct the flow of online traffic to your website.
SEO for cannabis companies is fairly easy to scale. As you grow larger and add more pages to your website, you can potentially bring in more traffic to convert into paying customers. You can optimize old content with an updated strategy relatively easily.
The best way to implement marijuana SEO is by cooperating with a professional agency. There is a lot of research that goes into creating an effective SEO strategy, and it can take a lot of time to do it yourself. Here is how to start promoting your business online with SEO.
Marijuana SEO is largely a numbers game that has several metrics that identify success. A specialized SEO agent will take a look at different statistics that impact your search engine rankings. Specifically, they will identify the following metrics:
This is the most critical information that is needed to develop the strategy that will help convert searches into valuable organic traffic and, from there, convert that traffic into paying customers.
A good look at how your competitors do SEO lets you access a goldmine of information to help you create a framework for your cannabis marketing strategy. At its most basic level, an analysis of your competitors will show you:
A simple Google search with cannabis keywords relevant to your business will display the top performers. Even though you may already know your direct competitors in the niche, they may not be the same as your competitors in search engines.
Keywords are the specific inquiries that someone enters into a search engine. They are an integral part of what Google and other search engines look for to boost your content.
The cannabis market is still in its infancy, which means there is a small amount of keyword information available. Experienced cannabis SEO experts will be able to carve out their keyword shortlist based on what's trending.
A good marijuana SEO strategy involves optimizing your website with cannabis keywords to help boost your rank in a specific niche. A keyword research tool can help make the job easier by identifying search intent, keyword search volume, and keyword difficulty.
Search intent is the reason someone types in a query in a search engine. Understanding why people search for a specific term will help you develop content that matches the intent of what they are looking for. There are four main types of search intent:
For example, if someone searches for "best CBD oil," they are more than likely making a transactional search since they will probably end up buying something.
If the first search result is an informational article on making CBD oil, then the keywords are heavily mismatched with the search intent.
This means the article is irrelevant in the eyes of a search engine's algorithm, and it won't get boosted. You also won't see any traffic, as users will go looking for better sources.
You must create content that matches the intent of trending queries related to what you are selling. This means having authoritative content that gives users the best answers possible.
This metric shows you the average number of monthly searches for a specific keyword. The higher the volume, the more traffic that can be generated, as long as the website is optimized. Use page views compared to search volume to figure out a good benchmark for keywords in future content.
This is an SEO metric that can tell you how difficult it would be to rank on the first page of search engine results for a particular keyword. The score is usually measured on a scale of 0-100. A query with a difficulty score of 0–30 is considered easy, 31–70 is moderate, and 71–100 is difficult.
The metric allows for gauging how competitive a SERP is by looking at the domain ratings of pages that made it to the top 10. As we can see below, the competition in the CBD and cannabis niche is intense, with popular search queries being difficult to rank for:
If you have any technical problems with your site, then it's unlikely that Google will give it a boost. Additionally, customers won't return to a website that is slow or has broken links.
It is in your best interest to periodically take a look under the hood of your website to make sure everything is running smoothly. That's why technical SEO must also be included in your marijuana SEO strategy.
A technical SEO audit of your website is the best way to identify any issues in site architecture and performance. With its help, you can address such problems as:
It is known that Google will promote websites that have high loading speeds and accurate meta tags. Your technical audits should extend to the mobile-friendly version of your site as well, to ensure that it is properly structured.
On-page SEO is a popular tactic that helps configure the structure of your website to increase its visibility for search engines. The more optimized the website is, the better its chances are of ranking higher in the SERPs.
Generally, on-page optimization includes the following:
Using on-page optimization with proper keyword research is a strong combination to create high-quality content. While the keywords signal the search algorithms to look at your page for specific queries, on-page optimization helps boost you as a credible source of information.
Link building is the tactic of acquiring links from other sites to yours, which is a signal to search engines that someone else finds your content credible. A proper link building strategy is vital in search engine optimization for cannabis companies, since the competition is high and the number of referring domains in the niche is growing exponentially:
Marijuana business websites also fall into the category of "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL) online resources since they can potentially impact someone's future happiness, health, or financial stability.
YMYL pages are held to a higher standard than other content, which makes it tougher to gain those rankings. Therefore, it's safe to say that any cannabis company that doesn't take advantage of backlink building will not survive because their web pages will have fewer chances of getting to the top of the SERPs.
Analytics is the best way to keep track of how successful your marijuana SEO strategy is. Before you begin building one, it is important to set clear KPIs (key performance indicators) to identify strengths and weaknesses. This can be in the form of organic traffic growth or traffic conversion rates.
It's also important to set deadlines for these results. It makes sense to set goals for three, six, and 12 months to check in and assess the current reality. If you haven't achieved the metrics you established within the specified time, then it is wise to revisit your cannabis SEO strategy and change it if necessary.
SEO is all about evolving with current trends and showcasing your brand with authoritative content. Implementing these practical marijuana SEO tips will increase organic (unpaid) traffic to your website and boost your rankings in search results:
The last practical tip is to find a trusted marijuana SEO agency for these digital marketing services. They should be experienced in the cannabis business to understand what's needed to boost a cannabis-related website.
While doing cannabis SEO yourself is possible, it's less likely to be as effective as hiring an agency. Many cannabis businesses that try to manage it without professional SEO assistance often fall in page rankings and don't recover.
The maze of advertising restrictions paired with a high level of competition makes marijuana SEO tricky to get into on your own. Market trends often shift, so people search for different things, and laws seem to change every year, making SEO a full-time job.
A cannabis SEO company lives and breathes search engine optimization. They will use best practices such as thorough keyword research, precise content marketing, and other curated cannabis SEO services to put your website on the first page of search results.
The added benefit is that cannabis marketing experts will monitor and update your content to ensure that you stay at the top of the rankings. Their goal is to give your brand a robust online presence to attract your target audience, and if you win, they win too.
Here is how the two approaches stack up against each other:
Cannabis SEO Companies | DIY Strategies |
● Full non-biased website audits ● Customized strategies ● Detailed analytics ● KPI-based results ● Time-saving | ● You create the SEO strategy ● Your brand, your SEO decision ● Can be difficult to learn ● Can be daunting to learn ● Inefficient way to spend money |
As you can see, working with an SEO agency for cannabis marketing can let you run your business while still growing your online presence. A lot of agencies will work closely with you to ensure that you are notified every step of the way.
The easiest way to choose the best company to handle your marijuana SEO needs is to simply type "cannabis SEO" or "cannabis SEO agency" into Google. The ones that made it to the top are your best bet since they have implemented their custom strategies with great success.
To save you some work, here are the top five agencies that specialize in SEO for companies in the cannabis industry to make their site rank higher on Google and subsequently bring them more website traffic.
Founded: 2020
Rates: $50-$99 / hr
Employees: 10-49
Website: https://mjseo.agency/
The top choice on Google, MjSeo specializes in increasing website traffic, ranking cannabis websites higher on SERPs, and ultimately getting them more sales. Before even suggesting a strategy, their team of SEO specialists will do an in-depth SEO audit of your website.
From there, they will work with your brand's vision to create a personalized marijuana SEO strategy consisting of content marketing, strong link building, and much more. Their approach will be focused on the things that will promote your marijuana business online most efficiently.
The key benefit of MjSeo is that they are 100% focused on cannabis businesses. Their in-depth knowledge of cannabis and SEO will guarantee the results you're looking for, quickly.
Founded: 2013
Rates: $100-$149 / hr
Employees: 50-249
Website: https://victoriousseo.com/
Victorious cultivates a customer-first mentality while providing strong SEO services for cannabis websites. Their dedicated teams provide a 12-month campaign plan that is designed to increase organic traffic.
Founded: 2009
Rates: $50-$99 / hr
Employees: 50-249
Website: https://coalitiontechnologies.com/
Coalition Technologies has an entire suite of cannabis marketing services, including SEO, PPC, social media, and email marketing strategies. They use advanced technological systems, such as AI-powered tools, to produce high-quality work. This agency also covers a variety of niches aside from cannabis.
Founded: 2014
Rates:$100-$149 / hr
Employees: 2-9
Website: https://avalanchegr.com/
Avalanche Creative focuses on a simple process of identifying demand, creating attractive content, and using that content to build authority online. They offer comprehensive strategies for both local and national SEO for cannabis businesses. They perform a complete website audit to build an understanding of where improvements can be made, and then a plan is implemented from there.
Founded: 2016
Rates: n/a
Employees: 11-50
Website: https://www.marijuanaseo.com/
Marijuana SEO is a digital marketing agency that specializes in growing search traffic and creating a stream of potential customers in the cannabis industry. Their team of cannabis marketing experts will keep track of your results with weekly reports for keyword ranking, backlinks, search traffic, and various KPIs.
To remain competitive, cannabis businesses have a strong SEO strategy. While you can do some work yourself, it is still in your best interest to hire professionals to take care of it for you.
They can give you an objective audit, suggest a customized plan to get more traffic and improve rankings, and then follow up to ensure that you are on track to hit the results you want. If you include specialized SEO strategies in your online marketing, your marijuana business can beat the competition and reach more potential customers.
