Search engine optimization is absolutely vital for the cannabis industry, as it is still censored. Businesses may not advertise on Google or social media, so organic search is their best bet. Whether you sell cannabis, CBD, or paraphernalia, your e-store will not succeed without an influx of traffic. If it runs on WordPress, you should learn the best SEO tips and tricks for this CMS.
WordPress is one of the most popular systems used by anyone from bloggers to major corporations. SEO-friendliness is one of its many benefits. Yet, there is so much more to learn to make your business flourish online!
Making the Most of WordPress SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of making websites more visible in organic search. This means that more users looking for cannabis-related products or services will see your brand when googling. The higher you rank on the pages, the more traffic and potential customers you get.
SEO is not about gaming the system, but about compliance with its fundamental principles. These services are in high demand. You can visit site to learn more about cannabis SEO and check your target keywords to increase the number of conversions on WordPress.
The goal is to get your site indexed and ranked highly, so more users visit it. As ads are still off-limits, how else are you going to grow your cannabis business in the digital age? Millions of people use Google every fraction of a second. Clever WordPress SEO is your key to massive exposure. Here are the key aspects to learn about.
Visibility Controls
WordPress lets you hide your website from search engines or make it visible. This allows you to work on improvements comfortably and go public when you are ready to show your cannabis business to the world.
SEO-friendly URLs
To contribute to SEO, a page URL must include words that describe its content. Hence, users know what to expect when they click on the link. If your URLs are confusing, you will not get very far. Check the structure on the permalink page.
WWW Is Not Obligatory
The address of your dispensary can start right after http://. Note that search engines treat URLs with and without “www” differently, so make sure you stick to the same structure. You can change these preferences in the Site Address area.
SEO Plugins
On WordPress, there is a plug-in for everything, including SEO. As there is so much choice, beginners find it difficult to pick just one. Whether you settle on Yoast or Framework, it must suit your needs. Some of these elements are free, others require a subscription.
Add XML Sitemaps
In layman’s terms, an XML sitemap is a file that lists every page of your website. It does not contribute to rankings directly, but helps search engines index and rank the website correctly. Yoast creates sitemaps automatically.
Discover Google Search Console
This dashboard gives you an idea of how Google assesses your content. Here, you can generate reports and data describing how your pages appear, what search terms users enter, what is working, and what isn’t. Check this information at least once a month.
Optimize Your Blog, Too!
Effective SEO plugins for WordPress let you add keywords, titles, and descriptions to every single blog post, so this section is also optimized for search. Instead of guessing these words or phrases, you need to find out what users actually enter into Google. This requires a solid keyword research strategy.
Best Practices for WordPress SEO
The techniques below are not too technical, so you do not have to be proficient in SEO to understand them. Here is how to boost organic traffic to your cannabis site:
Set Categories & Tags for Blog Posts
This will help you manage the content better, while users will find what they need more easily. A category list is like a table of contents in a book. Tags can be linked to any posts in the blog that touches upon the same topic.
Set up Internal Links
These links boost the scores of your pages in the eyes of search engines. After creating a new article, insert links to older posts and pages into it.
Take Care of Comments
Comments indicate user engagement, which is good for SEO and traffic. Allow visitors to share their opinions and use anti-spam tools to keep bots at bay. You need only genuine comments, so be vigilant. Too many comments are also counterproductive for SEO.
NoFollow WordPress Links
You need more backlinks than links from your site to other resources. Every link to an external website takes away some “link juice” from you. Sounds selfish? You can still include referrals if you give them the NoFollow attribute. This way, they will not be followed by search engines, so you won’t lose anything!
Show Article Summaries
When WordPress links to your posts from other pages, it shows the entire article content including tags archives, category archives, etc. For search engines, duplicating the content is difficult, so full-length articles slow down page loading. Meanwhile, RSS subscribers can read the entire posts in their reader instead of visiting your site. As a result, you get fewer page views. To solve this problem, program your CMS to show summaries.
Prevent Slowing Down
Speed is another crucial condition for visibility. Note that images, GIFs, and videos can affect the loading time. While they are definitely more engaging than text, you need to explore your quality options. Optimize graphics for quick loading and add accurate descriptions and alt tags for SEO. In WordPress, you can add titles and alt tags when uploading an image.
Take Care of Safety
If your website is attacked by hackers, it may disappear from public search altogether. This is the worst-case scenario! Set up an external firewall or tools like Sucuri. Get an SSL/HTTPS certificate to encrypt the data exchange between users and the server. Protect your visitors’ personal and financial data to continue ranking high!
