8 On-Page SEO Techniques to Increase Cannabis Dispensary Local Rankings

Title Tag Optimization

When it comes to on-page optimization for cannabis dispensaries, title tags are major factor. Title tags are displayed in the browser header when visitors view your website. Search engines utilize title tags to determine if the content is relevant to a user’s search query. Read the full guide on how to write title tags for cannabis dispensary.

5 Tips for High-Ranking Title Tags

1. Write compelling title tags; Appeal to your reader
2. Implement your keyword research findings; Consider what your audience might be searching
3. Don’t over-optimize - Target main keyword phrases
4. Try to move relevant keywords to the beginning of the title
5. Restrict your titles to 55 characters max. - Otherwise, search engines will abbreviate your title tag on search results pages

Media Optimization

Search engines always want the best user experience for visitors. And today’s user is just not interested in pages full of text - It’s not engaging. By adding images, videos and diagrams to your web pages, you are not only engaging your readers with a better experience, but you are achieving lower bounce rates and increased time-on-page - Google uses both metrics to rank the quality of your content.

6 Tips for Optimizing Your On-Page Multimedia

1. Use high quality, high-res videos, and pictures
2. Don’t limit yourself to only using stock photography
3. Optimize your files names by adding your keywords
4. Don’t forget to use alt-image text to describe your content
5. Optimize videos/ pictures for faster page load speeds
6. For pages with video, include a transcription

SEO-Friendly URLs

Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines alike use your website’s URLs to determine relevance and hierarchy of your site. How can you optimize your site to rank higher? Think about the user and what makes sense to them. A visitor should clearly understand where they are, and what page they’re viewing on your site.

A BAD Example:
www.cannabisdispensary.com/ed-adf123

A GOOD Example:
www.cannabisdispensary.com/products/edible/xyzchocolate-10mg

6 Tips for SEO-Friendly URLs

1. Use valuable keywords
2. Use hyphens instead of underscores
3. 301 redirect any ‘error’ URL to the new, correct URL
4. Consolidate your www and non-www domain versions
5. Don’t over-optimize - Keep URLs short and clean
6. Use subfolders instead of subdomains

Meta Descriptions (CTR)

A well-written meta description, the 156 character snippet that appears in search results, should clearly identify what the content on the page. Focus on crafting a unique story that includes your target keywords. Use tools to accurately preview what your completed description will look like on Google.

Header Tags

H1, H2, H3… Header tags help Google navigate the hierarchy of your content while prioritizing content for your reader. You should preferably have only 1 H1 tag per page - your headline. Then, use H2 tags for your subheads and H3 tags for your sub-subheads. If appropriate, include your keywords towards the front of your header tags. Above all, make sure it makes sense to the reader as Google is becoming more intuitive as to how your formatting is affecting the user experience.

Anchor Text Optimization

Anchor text is an excellent opportunity to link to internal pages within your website. Optimizing your anchor text is important because you’re giving Google more information about your site and how you’re relevant to that keyword. For example, if you’re a dispensary, you want to hyperlink ‘edibles’ to your website’s edibles page.

Content Quality

In addition to creating a hierarchy with the use of photos and video, the quality of your copy is also important to ranking well with your on-page SEO. Understand your target audience and write content that resonates with them. Quality content will result in lower bounce rates and increased time on page. You also want to be aware of the length of your content - More words is not necessarily better. You want to ensure that you include your keywords in a natural manner (Do not over-optimize) and create value for the reader. Another important factor overall is how frequently you are creating new content - Google monitors this closely.

Page Structure

We touched on this above in adding multimedia to your page, but we want to emphasize how important it is to compress and correctly size all elements on your page. If you don’t invest the time to do this, it will result in a lower page load speed. Not only will this negatively affect your SEO efforts, but it’s important to know that the longer the delay, the higher your bounce rate. 79% of traffic will never return to a website that took more than 4 seconds to load. Lastly, you need to ensure that your pages are mobile-friendly as more users are engaging in content on their phones. Unsure how your website ranks in mobile usability? Use Google’s tool.

Alright, so what's the moral of the story when it comes to successfully optimizing your dispensary’s on-page SEO? Focus on creating a valuable and relevant experience for your reader, ensure that your keywords are used efficiently, and implement an optimal page structure.