Cannabis SEO: Guide to Ranking at the Top of Google

Navigating the digital landscape in the cannabis industry can be challenging, but with the right approach, you can significantly boost your online visibility. This is where cannabis SEO comes into play, serving as a crucial tool to elevate your business’s online presence and connect with your target audience effectively.

In an industry as competitive and unique as cannabis, standard SEO techniques don’t always cut it. That’s why understanding and implementing SEO for cannabis companies is essential. It’s not just about reaching the top of search results; it’s about reaching the right audience with the right message.

This guide is your comprehensive roadmap to mastering cannabis SEO. From understanding the nuances of the cannabis industry’s online landscape to implementing tailored strategies that resonate with your audience, we’ve got you covered. With these insights and tips, you’ll be well on your way to seeing your cannabis business thrive online.

Start rising to the top of Google with our specialized cannabis SEO services today!

 

What Is Cannabis SEO?

Cannabis SEO is a specialized approach to Search Engine Optimization tailored specifically for businesses in the cannabis industry. It involves optimizing your website and online content to rank higher in search engine results, specifically for keywords and phrases related to cannabis products, services, and information.

Given the unique regulatory and market challenges faced by cannabis businesses, cannabis SEO requires a deep understanding of both SEO best practices and the cannabis industry’s specific needs.

This form of SEO goes beyond traditional techniques by addressing the specific hurdles and opportunities in the cannabis market. It includes optimizing for local search, as many cannabis businesses operate in specific regions or states due to legal restrictions.

Additionally, it involves creating high-quality, informative content that adheres to the industry’s regulatory guidelines while engaging a target audience interested in cannabis products. That’s why you may need a reliable partner to help you through the journey of cannabis SEO.

 

Why Is SEO So Incredibly Important for Cannabis Companies?

SEO is vital for cannabis companies due to advertising restrictions in the industry, as it allows them to reach customers without breaking these rules. It targets traffic effectively, attracting users actively searching for cannabis products, leading to better conversions.

SEO is also more cost-effective in the long term compared to paid ads, and it helps build trust and credibility, crucial in an industry facing skepticism. Lastly, SEO is the most scalable traffic source for cannabis companies, given the limitations of paid advertising and social media marketing.

Here’s a table comparing SEO with other traffic sources for cannabis companies:

Traffic Source	Compliance with Regulations	Targeted Traffic	Cost Effectiveness	Scalability
SEO	High (compliant)	Very High	High (long-term)	Very High
Paid Advertising	Variable (often limited)	High	Low (ongoing cost)	Medium
Social Media	Variable (often restricted)	Medium	Medium	Low
Traditional Marketing	Variable	Low	Low	Low

This table demonstrates that while other traffic sources have their place, SEO stands out for its compliance, targeted traffic, cost effectiveness, and scalability, making it an indispensable tool for cannabis companies.

 

Cannabis SEO Ranking Factors

In order to excel in cannabis SEO, it’s crucial to concentrate on certain fundamental elements, often referred to as “ranking factors.” These factors are instrumental in boosting organic traffic. Below, we’ll explore some of the primary ranking factors that should be emphasized in your marijuana SEO efforts:

Backlinks

The internet functions like an interconnected chain. One website links to another, and the more networks a website has built, the more credible it appears. You get backlinks when other webmasters place a link to your domain in their own content.

For effective SEO for any specific niche, including cannabis dispensary SEO, your domain needs to accrue backlinks from reputable sites with plenty of links themselves. The linking page should have a relationship to the linked page, whether it’s giving users more context or recommending products and services you offer. Additionally, backlinks should not be labeled with a sponsored tag or no follow to allow search engines to pass authority to your site.

Content

One of the great pillars of a solid marijuana SEO strategy is quality content. Remember that a customer goes through an entire lifecycle before they purchase products online. They may want to learn about their problems, discover potential solutions, and receive guidance in making the final decision.

You have the golden opportunity to offer the right content that will rank among the top search results. If you truly want to rank well, you just need to follow Google content recommendations that include creating people-first content.

The guidelines stipulate that your content should be of exemplary quality, compelling enough to inspire sharing by readers. It should be informative, engaging, and well-crafted, reflecting a level of professionalism and expertise that resonates with your audience and establishes your authority in the field.

User Experience

Google is keen on ensuring that websites deliver a stellar user experience to visitors. That means offering an easy-to-navigate website. As more people are using their mobile devices to search online, cannabis websites also need to offer mobile-friendly sites.

Great websites also take a short time to load, as bounce rates increase with every second a page takes to load. So, you should focus on improving your UX experience as one of the key pillars of your marijuana SEO efforts.

Local SEO

If you’re a dispensary, grower facility, or cannabis professional, you no doubt want more local business. Therefore, your cannabis search engine optimization efforts should center on claiming higher search positions for local queries.

Now, if you examine local searches for “Cannabis dispensary near me,” a common query in dispensary SEO, you’ll undoubtedly notice the prominence of Google Business Profile listings.

Again, in the realm of dispensary SEO, you’ll notice that websites optimize for local keywords and integrate them into their content. Thus, optimizing for local SEO is entirely achievable; it requires adopting a local mindset and strategy.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves optimizing a website’s infrastructure for better search engine indexing and ranking. Key aspects include enhancing site speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, implementing SSL security, optimizing crawlability and indexing, using structured data, maintaining a logical URL structure, managing canonical tags and redirects, handling errors effectively, and ensuring a clear site architecture for optimal user navigation.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO involves optimizing individual web pages to rank higher in search engines and earn more relevant traffic. Key elements include high-quality, keyword-rich content, effective use of HTML tags (title, meta, header), optimized images, URL structure, and internal linking. Ensuring a good user experience with mobile-friendliness and fast loading speeds is also crucial.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO involves optimizing external factors that influence a website’s ranking in search engine results. This includes building high-quality backlinks from reputable sources, which signal trust and authority to search engines. Social media marketing, guest blogging, and influencer collaborations are also key strategies.

Engaging in local SEO practices, like managing Google My Business profiles and acquiring local citations, is crucial for local businesses. Off-page SEO enhances a site’s visibility and reputation, complementing on-page and technical SEO efforts for a holistic SEO strategy.

 

Cannabis SEO Strategies and Tips

Starting with a brand new site that needs SEO done can be quite intimidating. However, don’t let that weigh you down. You can still undertake marijuana SEO by following some simple cannabis SEO tips. And if you feel overwhelmed, you can always receive professional help from experienced SEO companies. Let’s get started:

1.     See What’s Working for Your Key Competitors

The top-ranking websites in your locality or niche must be doing something right. They likely produced content targeting different keywords as part of their cannabis SEO marketing. Your top competitors may have even found link building techniques that work for them.

To understand their strategy, look closely at how they get their links and what kind of content they create. Check who is linking to their website and why – are they linking because the content is good or for another reason? Use SEO tools to find out what content is missing and which pages are bringing in the most traffic. Also, take a look at how their website is set up and analyze their weaknesses and strengths.

As an illustration, let’s say you want to become the number-one-ranked dispensary in Chicago, IL. The first task is to know who your top competitors are. You can easily find this out by carrying out a Google search. In this case, Sunnyside ranks on the first search engine results page.

What are they doing right? Well, on the surface, they have a great-looking website that provides an intuitive site experience to users.

If we take a look at their blog, it’s clear that they have a strong focus on creating quality content that often gets first-page placements.

Aside from what you can glean from the surface, a backlink analysis reveals that they have garnered over 67K backlinks, many of which are dofollow.

The site also has an above-average domain rating. You can dig further by performing a competitor analysis using reliable tools such as Aherfs, Similarweb, and Semrush.

Organic competitor research on SEMRush

So at the end of your competitor research for cannabis SEO, you should know:

• Their Top-Ranking Pages: Identify which pages on their site are performing best in search engine rankings.
• Keyword Strategies: Understand the specific cannabis keywords they are targeting and how effectively they are using them.
• Content Quality and Style: Analyze the quality, style, and types of content they are publishing and how they contribute to their SEO success.
• Backlink Profile: Examine their backlink portfolio to see where their links are coming from and the quality of these links.
• User Experience (UX): Evaluate the overall user experience offered by their site, including navigation, design, and usability.
• And more.

This knowledge will come in handy as you develop your cannabis SEO strategy.

2.     Conduct Keyword Research

What are keywords, and why are they important for SEO for cannabis? Well, keywords are what users enter into the search engine search box to discover new topics or products. You need to be at the center of what’s popular, and that means researching what people are searching for.

You can begin building your cannabis keyword list by brainstorming. Then, you can take it a notch higher by using SEO tools to discover more keywords.

A simple keyword research tool such as Soolve can help you build a sizable keyword list as it sources popular keywords from different search engines, including Amazon, Wikipedia, Overstock, and Buy.com.

For instance, if we enter “Cannabis store” in Soolve, we get great suggestions such as:

• The closest cannabis store to my location
• How can I purchase cannabis products from your store

But don’t stop there. You need to perform thorough keyword research. Dive deeper by finding out about each keyword metric. Is it popular based on the search volume? Does it have a difficult rating?

The search phrase “Cannabis store near me” has a keyword difficulty of 76 and a search volume of 8.7K, according to Aherfs keyword generator:

If we enter this keyword in the Aherfs keyword generator, it provides more relevant keywords that we can target.

Make sure that your target keywords are relevant to your target audience. For effective cannabis SEO, they should drive targeted traffic that’s mostly likely to convert!

3.     Technical SEO

Targeting the right keywords and having a good handle on your competitors won’t mean much if you have an error-laden website full of technical issues.

In your cannabis SEO strategy, a technical website audit is crucial. Focus on key aspects such as site speed, mobile responsiveness, SSL security, crawlability and indexing, clear URL structure, fixing broken links and errors, avoiding duplicate content, implementing structured data, effective internal linking, and optimizing meta tags. These elements are essential for enhancing both search engine performance and the user experience.

Some great tools that you can use to perform your technical analysis include Screaming Frog, Aherfs, Google Search Console, and SEMrush. You need consistent audits to keep improving your SEO for cannabis, as regular issues can crop up.

4.     Build Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are a strong pillar for search engine optimization for cannabis businesses. That’s because after producing stellar content, you need some endorsements that communicate to search engines that the content is good and informative. Good content will naturally acquire backlinks. Additionally, viral content, such as insightful studies, can generate high-quality backlinks.

But you don’t need to be static. You can proactively reach out to webmasters to promote any new content that you create. Other techniques, like guest posting or earning brand mentions by doing newsworthy things, can result in more backlinks.

Be wary of shortcuts! Gaining new backlinks can be audious. It may be tempting to buy links from unrelated websites to improve your SEO for cannabis websites. Note that this can be a sure way to risk getting penalties and manual actions that will result in the demotion of your web pages from search rankings.

If you decide to work with a backlinking agency, they should use above-the-board techniques and build safe links naturally from high-quality domains.

5.     On-Page Optimization

You need to “perfect” your on-page elements as you undertake cannabis SEO. So, what should you focus on to improve your organic search results:

• Quality Content: Create informative, engaging, and keyword-rich content relevant to your audience and cannabis topics.
• Keyword Optimization: Strategically use targeted keywords in your content, including titles, headers, and body text.
• Meta Tags: Craft compelling meta titles and descriptions incorporating your primary keywords.
• URL Structure: Use clear, concise URLs with relevant keywords.
• Image Optimization: Optimize images with descriptive alt tags and compressed file sizes.
• Internal Linking: Implement a logical internal linking structure to guide users and search engines through your site.
• User Experience (UX): Ensure your website is easy to navigate and provides a positive user experience.

Focusing on these on-page factors will not only boost your cannabis SEO but also enhance the overall effectiveness of your website in the cannabis niche in attracting and engaging visitors.

6.     Create Valuable Content

There is a simple formula you can follow to ensure that you’re producing stellar content every time. Simply create helpful, reliable, and people-first content. What does this mean? Well, the content should hit a few quality metrics:

• Provides original research, reporting, or analysis;
• Contains a complete or in-depth description of your target topic;
• Gives more details beyond what’s obvious;
• Offers a different perspective or contributes more information than already-indexed pages.
• Positions the website as a leading authority on the topic.

As you undertake search engine optimization for cannabis sites, remember that content is still king. It’s what keeps visitors returning, as it educates and empowers them to make better decisions to address their needs. Keep tabs on who your target audience is and ensure that you’re meeting their information needs for effective marijuana SEO.

7.     Improve Your E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T simply stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Google has long used this concept to assess the quality of information, particularly for subjects where it is crucial. But the quality guidelines started as E-A-T and got the extra “E” for Experience following updates to the quality rater guidelines in Google’s December 2022 update.

But you don’t need to know all that for effective weed SEO. What matters is how you can improve your E-E-A-T. Well, the answer lies in the quality guidelines themselves:

• Experience: Demonstrate how long you have been in the cannabis business by always including details about when you got started or how many clients you have served.
• Expertise: Produce expert-written content. Blog pages should come with an author bio citing the author’s accreditations and familiarity with the topic.
• Authoritativeness: From taking on complex topics to providing original research, you should aim to become an authority in the cannabis niche, a thought leader that drives discussions.
• Trustworthiness: Google can tell if the content is trusted if more people are interacting with it, sharing it, or linking to it. So, aim to generate more endorsements for your content and cannabis business.

8.     Local SEO for Cannabis

Focusing on attracting more local visitors to your website is critical for SEO for cannabis. So, which aspects do you need to improve on to build an effective SEO strategy?

• Conduct comprehensive location-based keyword research, as consumers may use different search terms depending on their primary location. Filter the keywords to find relevant keywords to drive more conversions.
• Build your reputation by focusing on the top things you want to be known for. Do you want to be reputed for quality, speed, knowledge, or variety?
• Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile listing. Include up-to-date information about your operating hours and location, and enhance your listing with photos and videos.
• Keep tabs on your top-performing pages for local searches and keep updating them to retain their rankings.
• Build trust by featuring testimonials and getting brand mentions on other local websites to send strong social proof signals to Google and other search engines.
• Leverage the power of visual content, including photos and videos, to bridge the gap with your local consumers and speak to them in a language they understand.

There are no shortcuts to local marijuana SEO. But showing up every day and building an authentic local experience can translate to more website traffic.

9.     Create Goals and KPIs

Goals are the benchmarks you’ve set for yourself as you undertake cannabis SEO. Perhaps you want to increase your organic traffic by 100% in the next 6 months. Or, you may be shooting for ten new backlinks every month. The goals for your cannabis search engine optimization need to be actionable and measurable. Your capabilities as well as industry standards set by rivals should inform them.

Key Performance Indicators are the metrics you track on a minute-to-minute, day-by-day, or month-to-month basis to determine if you’re making progress toward your SEO goals. Some key KPIs include the number of backlinks, high volume keywords, more traffic, ROI, and new backlinks, among others.

So, goals and KPIs will keep you focused on your SEO. Make it a priority to have them, even if you engage with a third-party service for cannabis marketing services.

 

How Much Should I Spend on SEO?

SEO can entail a lot of steps to give your web pages the best chance of ranking well. You could need audit services, technical optimization, content creation, and more, depending on where you’re starting from.

The minimum you’ll need to spend when engaging with professional SEO services will differ based on their service terms, with most starting at $1000. However, this will include the bare minimums, but you may need to spend a little bit more, from $4000 to $7000 per month, if you have a site that requires a full suite of marijuana SEO services.

 

Should You Hire a Cannabis SEO Agency?

The short answer is yes. If not, you’ll need to set up your in-house team, which comes with a longer setup time and higher costs. With a cannabis SEO agency, you instantly tap into a working playbook of effective tactics. The right agency will have cannabis SEO experts who can work on different aspects of your site, from technical optimization to content creation.

Unfortunately, finding the right cannabis SEO company is not clear-cut. Some agencies produce great results that are entirely fabricated. They may not have the expertise or niche knowledge. So, here are some vital criteria that will allow you to find the right provider:

• Experience: Ask about how long the company has provided cannabis SEO services;
• Reputation: Find out what past customers have said about them from reviews on Clutch and other sites;
• Team composition: Ask about how your cannabis SEO team will be constituted. Top-tier services will create an ad hoc team with experts working exclusively on your project.
• Tools and expertise: Find out about their main service areas and which tools they use.

Certain agencies will just create landing pages dedicated to cannabis SEO and claim to be experts in the niche. Be careful about such cannabis SEO agencies, and always aim to work with upfront providers.

 

Top-5 Cannabis SEO Companies

You certainly need a bit of help finding the best cannabis SEO services. And it helps to have a shortlist of companies that pass the core evaluation criteria. So, right away, here are some marijuana SEO providers that you can consider for your next SEO project:

• SeoProfy: Based in Miami, Florida, SeoProfy is a top provider of marijuana SEO You can receive help with content creation, link building, SEO audits, local SEO, and more. The company has direct experience working with clients in this niche. CEO and founder, Victor Karpenko, has had a keen interest in the field as he appreciates its potential and importance due to the limited marketing opportunities. Victor has held a masterclass to expound on best practices in this field.
• MjSeo Agency: The agency bills itself as a cannabis-friendly agency and was one of the earliest fully dedicated providers in the industry.
• Marijuana SEO: The agency offers a suite of services for cannabis companies, including national SEO and marijuana website design.
• Nisonco: With a focus on branding and media relations, Nisonco has mainly specialized in PR for cannabis firms but similarly offers SEO services.
• Coalition Technologies: Their services cut across many industries, but they have worked with some cannabis companies, like CanEX Delivery.

 

SEO for the Cannabis Industry: Key Takeaways

The key takeaway is that cannabis SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies to undertake in an industry where advertising is greatly restricted. You lay a strong cannabis SEO foundation by focusing on the core ranking factors. They include backlinks, local SEO, content, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.

There is a definite path you can take to improve, and it only entails following simple cannabis SEO tips. Some of the top tips that have been reviewed include optimizing for local SEO, finding the best target keywords, improving the E-E-A-T, carrying out audits, and producing stellar content.

With so much focus on this marketing strategy, it certainly takes more time now to get any results. That’s where cannabis SEO companies come in. They have the team, resources, and expertise needed to take your website to the top. And you should consider their services if you want to craft a strong cannabis SEO strategy.