If you are the owner of a site and want not only to be found in the search engines like Google but also to get to the top of the search results, then this article is for you. This material will be an introduction to search engine optimization (SEO) for the cannabis industry and an overview of the must-have marketing tactics.
What is SEO, and why is it important?
You’ve probably heard about SEO. And if not, then you could just read the definition of the term on Wikipedia. But understanding that basic notion of SEO does not really help to solve the problems of your business and site. You can use SEO effectively to drive more relevant traffic to your website, increase the leads, sales, and ultimately, revenue and profits for your business.
Billions of people search for something on the internet every day. Organic traffic is extremely powerful, not only because it is large in quantitative terms but also because it consists of specific requests, often containing a certain intent.
To get into the search results of search engines, you need to understand the basic principles of their algorithms and the principles of site ranking. Search engine algorithms are constantly being updated, and every year it becomes harder and harder to get to the top of the search results and keep your positions there. And many cheap and easy ways to increase your rankings have become extremely risky and are threatened with sanctions from the search engines.
Main SEO Types
There are four key SEO strategies:
1. On-page SEO
It includes the optimization of your website: content, containing high-quality and up-to-date information about the user’s request, relevance, how people interact with your site (do they find the information they want and stay on the site, or return to the search page and click on another link? Or are they just ignoring you in the search results?), and how much unique content you have (versus low value or duplicate content).
2. Off-page SEO
It is everything that happens outside your website. This is guest posting, competitor research, and so on.
3. Technical SEO
This is about site structure, your website loading speed, and mobile friendliness.
4. Local SEO
This is just a variation that focuses on a specific area to increase your business’s online presence in a certain community. This includes creating a Google My Business page and filling it out correctly.
Drawbacks of Doing SEO by Yourself
Google’s algorithm is complex, and the basic principles that guide it when ranking sites are also compound and tricky. For example, it determines the quality of a website in various ways, but the quantity and quality of other websites that link to your page and your site, in general, are still crucial.
Google’s algorithm takes into account hundreds of ranking factors in response to search queries, and they are constantly updating and improving their process. In that way, it is possible to make mistakes and choose the wrong path of optimization.
Moreover, it requires a lot of time as you need to conduct an analysis of keywords and competitors, create technical specifications for writers, improve the structure of the website, cooperate with webmasters and various platforms, and so on. Thus, it is difficult to cope with everything alone. And working on improvements in the complex is the only effective strategy.
Using an SEO Agency Services
A professional agency like MjSeo will help you create a website optimization strategy and guide you while following it. The first step in search engine optimization is to determine what you are actually optimizing it for correctly. This means identifying the queries that people are looking for or the keywords for which you want your site to rank in search engines.
This also must comply with your vision and goals. An SEO agency will consider various factors to create the best strategy for a certain business. Moreover, it is necessary to remember that the cannabis industry has certain strict limitations when it comes to marketing and for many businesses it becomes difficult to promote their services while using completely legal methods.
In local SEO, you also have to consider the potential costs and the likelihood of success. For local SEO, this means understanding the relative competition (and the likelihood of ranking) for specific conditions. Of course, MjSeo Agency pays increased attention to these issues.
You also need to understand who your potential customers are and what they are looking for. If you don’t already understand who your audience is, an experienced agency will also help you to do it. This is a good start not only for SEO but for the business in general.
How to Choose the Right Agency?
Choosing an SEO agency is similar to choosing any product or service. First of all, visit the website of the potential agency and check what they offer, what they tell about themselves, and what their website looks like. Try to find some information about their former cases. However, it is necessary to consider that this information might be not available for third parties.
It is essential to check the reviews about the chosen agencies and assess them correctly. Read everything you can find carefully and make sure that those reviews are real. Of course, it takes time, and if you don’t want to waste it, just contact the agency and ask them to provide you with all the information you need.
Some SEO organizations have free counseling for new clients. It allows you to assess the level of the agency better and ask all the questions you are interested in. Don’t hesitate to contact the agency again if you didn’t completely understand something.
More About MjSEO
Working with mjseo.agency means creating a clear and understandable strategy for search engine optimization that goes along with the goals and objectives of your business. We offer ways to increase the visibility of your brand and attract new clients. We use not only traditional tried-and-true instruments but also new ones that cover the latest Google updates.
We also provide our clients with up-to-date information on all the processes and data that reveals how effective our optimization strategies are. Furthermore, we make understandable reports with all the necessary information so that our clients always know what is happening to their websites and businesses.
It is crucial to build the promotion process correctly. Each new stage should be based on the data obtained in the previous one. At each point, we need to focus as much as possible on the key task — building a promotion strategy that is profitable for the business.
The logic of building the strategy and the sequence of actions:
- Competitor analysis.
- Optimization of site pages.
- Technical optimization.
- Working with Google My Business.
- Getting links.
- Search for additional points of traffic growth.
SEO promotion of any business, whether local or not, must begin with understanding and analyzing the actions of competitors. Without this, it is impossible to create an SEO strategy that will bring the desired result to the business owner.
The next mandatory step is to analyze your direct competitors in the niche. Knowing those with whom you will have to compete for positions in Google search results, you can understand how to outrank them.
Of course, do not forget about the technical condition of the site. It is necessary to ensure that the site is in line with the recommendations of the search engines. Another ranking factor that is important to consider when creating a promotion strategy is the link profile.
A correct analysis of competitors and the correct implementation of SEO recommendations can give the regional business customers and high positions in Google search. Write to us hello@mjseo.agency right away and get a free SEO audit for any website!