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If you have found yourself looking to increase traffic to your cannabis site, you may have considered cannabis SEO. Whether your operation is large and covers vast geographical audiences, or is small and only serves a single town, you probably feel the need to get more traffic to your site. With more site traffic comes more sales, and with more sales comes growth.

But what is the best way to increase traffic? How can you get more people to your website? Buying online advertisements is one way to go, or partnering with an affiliate advertiser may be another route. But one avenue that should never be overlooked is one that is perhaps the most powerful and influential: SEO. This article will help you understand some basic SEO principles, their benefits, and how you can start using SEO for your cannabis business.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. At its core, SEO is meant to raise a site’s ranking in search engine results. It does this through a huge range of factors and variables, like the use of links and keywords. Google alone has hundreds of factors that determine search engine ranking. After understanding how these factors work together (as well as which have the most impact), you can craft a page so it will appear higher in the rankings. This page crafting can be done by a range of people. Those with little experience or those trained in SEO can access the benefits of SEO. Of course, the higher quality SEO services you receive, the more traffic your site will see.

How Can Marijuana SEO Help My Business?

How does this relate to the cannabis industry? In today’s digital world, any self-respecting business will have a website. The extent and function of the website may vary, but so much business is conducted online that it is almost impossible to get by without a basic site. Websites are important for cannabis businesses because they will determine whether a potential customer will turn into a paying customer. So if you don’t have a website in the first place, potential customers will usually default to locations that do have sites. But just having a site isn’t enough. You need your page to compete for views. That is where cannabis SEO comes into play.

If you want people to purchase your products, you need people either in your stores or at the digital checkout. But to get them there, they need to know that your company is trustworthy, let alone exists. There are several reasons that cannabis and marijuana SEO should be at the center of your online marketing efforts.

It Raises Your Rank in Local Searches

If your business is reliant upon in-person sales, this may be the deciding point for you. While you can optimize your listings to rank high in national search results, you can also optimize them to rank high in local results. This will also help your location appear higher on in-app searches like Google Maps. Not much else can increase the foot traffic to your store better than this.

Improves Site Usability

Some of the more important SEO factors that determine ranking go hand-in-hand with site usability. SEO, in essence, requires you to craft your website to have a high crawlability index. This will drastically increase the trust a customer has in your business. The reason for that is because people tend to trust operations that have smooth-operating and easy-to-use sites. Not only that, but having a site that is easy to use will surely increase online sales. Customers tend to leave a site that is difficult to use (or one that has slow loading times). But with cannabis SEO practices forcing you to revamp your site, you won’t lose those customers.

Can Save You Money

SEO tends to be cheaper than other marketing avenues. Search engines like Google and Bing are constantly combing through web pages. Simply taking advantage of the algorithms of these search engines that millions, if not billions, of people use every day doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Some advertising campaigns like commercials or print ads can end up costing more money than they are worth. But with SEO, the little money you will spend will always pay off.

Works Well with PPC Campaigns

SEO and PPC can combine to create a seriously powerful marketing force. As SEO helps sites rank higher on organic search results, PPC helps sites rank higher in paid search results. This will, first off, give you double the chance to appear high in search engine rankings. Second, if a customer saw your site as an ad and listed organically, your credibility in their eyes would rise.

Gives You Credibility

Optimizing your site shows search engines that your site is more trustworthy and credible than sites that don’t optimize. That is why search engines put optimized sites at the top of search results. They think those sites are trustworthy and credible enough to recommend to the public. The public also knows this, whether consciously or subconsciously. They will trust the first five results more than any other results just because they ranked higher. If your site is in the top five, you will be considered credible by searching customers.

How Can I Start Utilizing CBD SEO?

Now that you understand a little bit more about what SEO is in general, and how cannabis SEO can help your business, you are probably wondering how you can get started. There are essentially two options when you start: you can do it yourself, or you can hire a professional. Both options have potential ups and downs, in addition to more options within themselves. So it is important to consider your business needs and do your research before you make a decision.

Do it Yourself

Doing your own CBD SEO is ideal if you have a small organization that runs on a tight budget. Time to spend on your website and reliance on local sales may also justify doing your own SEO. The biggest benefit of doing your own SEO is that you have the potential to not spend a cent. You can do it how you want, and you can have complete creative control.

There will, however, be downsides to doing cannabis SEO on your own. Without the help of a professional, there is always the risk of mistakes. Your efforts may not be as effective without the technical knowhow. It can also be difficult to manage if you become busy. There is a chance that your site and SEO needs could become neglected. These are important things to keep in mind as you make a decision.

If you do decide you want to do SEO on your own, here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Use WordPress and Plug-ins –– Using WordPress to create your website and its content is a great option. WordPress is easy to use and has a lot of tools that can aid in SEO. Plug-ins are also available to show you exactly what to do to optimize your site.
• Teach Yourself SEO Principles –– You can teach yourself how to optimize sites by studying SEO principles. There are booklets and courses available through various companies and organizations. Through study and training, you can learn how to optimize your site like professionals do. This approach, however, is more rigorous and may take more time.

Hire a Professional

This is an ideal approach if you have a larger operation that brings in a lot of income from online sales. If your site needs to be competitive both locally and globally, and you don’t have the time or resources to optimize yourself, this may be the ideal option. Of course, even small companies who just need local SEO done can greatly benefit from hiring professionals too. The benefits of hiring a professional to do your cannabis SEO are numerous. Professionals provide quality optimization and results while you can continue to focus your time and efforts on your own work.

There are only a few downsides that come with hiring professionals, and they are all contingent upon who you hire. It will almost always cost money to hire a cannabis SEO professional. The goal of any business is to balance costs, so the tendency is to find cheaper services. Be cautious, however, because cheap SEO may actually do more harm than good. Do your research and find services for good prices that also provide quality services. SEO Design Chicago is one such organization that provides high-quality services for great prices.

Cannabis SEO is Necessary

There is really no reason that you shouldn’t be utilizing SEO in your cannabis marketing and advertising campaigns. It provides so many benefits, is relatively cheap, and is not that difficult to start using. If you wonder whether or not SEO is necessary for your cannabis business, the answer is simple: yes it is!

Without it, your SEO-utilizing competition will leave you in the dust. If you need help with SEO for your cannabis business, reach out to our team at SEO Design Chicago for a free consultation.