SEO for Cannabis: Can Dispensaries Ever Rank #1 on Google?

Helping your cannabis dispensary website rank higher

Running a CBD dispensary has become a booming business, but if you want to tap into new markets and improve organic traffic to your website.

To achieve this, you need to place a lot more focus on your SEO efforts. This is a great long-term way of improving your brand’s reach and awareness. In this article, we look at the best practices to improve your dispensary’s SEO standings.

What does Google have to say about CBD?

Before you begin your efforts, it’s always a good idea to know the red tape surrounding Google and CBD. 

In areas like California, Puerto Rico, and Colorado Google allows adverts for FDA-approved pharmaceutical products with CBD as well as topical hemp-derived CBD products that have less than 0.3% THC content. They also need to be certified before any ads can run. 

There is a lot of red tape surrounding ads that promote recreational marijuana use, cannabis supplements, or products that alter the state of mind. 

Because of this, cannabis dispensaries need to take a little precaution when making an effort. Sites can still be indexed and appear organically on searches, but the search engine will be slightly more selective about their approach. 

Ultimately, cannibis businesses need a viable and alternative way to boost their business. This is why focusing on SEO efforts is probably your best bet. 

A  brand that has seen much success thanks to SEO is a cannabis and mushroom-infused drink, Brēz, which is ranking in the top 3 results when searching up major cannabis-related drink terms on Google.

How to approach SEO as a dispensary

General aspects that affect your SEO rankability are factors like the quality of the website and ensuring that the website is compliant with local laws surrounding the selling and distribution of cannabis. You also want to focus on the quality of your content and SEO efforts, the user experience, the quality of content you put out, and local SEO strategies that can make the most impact on you.  

Link Building

This aspect of SEO requires time and effort in order to be successful. White hat link building is considered to be the cornerstone of SEO, and it has been around since its inception. This process helps businesses build relationships and leverages well-written content to obtain high-quality and contextual links back to your site. Enlisting the help of a knowledgeable consultant with industry-related experience can help improve your SEO and link building efforts. This can help as a cannabis dispensary; you will want to reach out to other sites that are relevant to yours and build and foster mutually beneficial relationships in order to successfully gain links to your site. 

Content focus

Not only does a good content strategy improve your dispensary’s online visibility, it helps spread information on the nature of your business. You will be able to provide customers with information relating to your product, infographics that can help them make better decisions, and learn more about cannabis and dispensaries. If your content hits the mark, then our resources will utilize your content and provide a link back to your site. 

Focus on local searches

Say someone is traveling and looking for a new dispensary to try out, you want your business to stand out and be identifiable among other dispensaries that may be based in your local area. 

Including “near me” or the area where you are based into your long tailed keywords helps boost your business when people are searching locally. 

Claim your Google Business Profile listing. Make sure that the information is accurate, as it will be beneficial for your customers. On the topic of information, ensure that your contact information and address are listed on all GBP and on your site to prevent confusion. 

TIP: Advise your customers to be mindful of the cannabis laws of different regions when they are traveling. Depending on the state and how they are traveling, they may face legal repercussions for not adhering to local and federal laws. 

Side note

To be successful with SEO, it is important that you follow your local guidelines and regulations on cannabis dispensaries in your region. You also need to make sure that you follow through and engage in ethical SEO practices so that your website gets a boost on search engine ranking pages. 

Summary

While advertising a cannabis dispensary on Google comes with a lot of red tape surrounding it, you can always go for the alternative way of helping boost your website’s place on search engine results pages, and that is through SEO efforts. Some important aspects that you should add to your campaign include optimizing your site for local searches, engaging in link building, and focusing on creating strong and high-quality content for your blog and guest posting effort.