Imagine for a moment that the web we browse daily was an actual spider web. The center point of the web is the most important part, as it’s connected to so many other strands that make the web a nice, sound structure. The point in the center is the most linked to part of the web. If you apply this thinking, you can see why having a lot of backlinks to your website would be beneficial. Google’s algorithm uses this same concept. If your website is linked to a lot, it’s more likely to be seen as an authority website with quality, relevant information, and content that people will find useful.
The more backlinks you have, the more authority your website will have and the higher you will rank in Google searches. However, generating a ton of spam backlinks can actually hinder your growth more than help it. For this reason, we’d like to go in-depth on 7 of the best sources available for you to submit your dispensary’s website in order to earn quality, tactical backlinks that will increase your standing on a Google search, and help you grow your business.
1. Create Good Content
Most of us are well aware that the “Content is King!” mantra is still 100% true to this day. Good content attracts and engages users. One of your most important tools for earning backlinks is good content that other people find useful enough to repost, share, and link to. High quality content is the best way to get more traffic from Google and other search engines.
2. Guest Write Cannabis Blogs
A lot of what we do in marketing is collaborative in a lot of ways. Guest posting on other cannabis industry and relevant websites is a great way to get high quality, organic backlinks to your own website. It sounds like it could be difficult to share content on other people’s blogs, but this practice is as beneficial for the blog’s owner as it is for you. Simply try a google search containing an industry keywords like “cannabis” or “growing cannabis” and add an action phrase like “contribute” or “guest post” or “write for us”. There are a lot of cannabis only job boards seeking content writers to collaborate with. Just be sure that you’re following the content guidelines for wherever you submit your content. Your content should also be 100% original. We accept content submissions here at Team MaryJane, too!
3. Join Discussions on Cannabis Forums
There are forums out there for every possible subject relating to cannabis, and they’re all wonderful to use for gaining good backlinks and a good amount of referral traffic. You can use popular forums like Cannabis Boards, GrassCity, and THCTalk to grow a network of followers while also generating quality backlinks. Keep in mind though that the goal is to be HUMAN on these boards and NOT a business. You will be banned for spamming forums and posting business links everywhere.
Try answering questions that you see spring up on the forums with your blog content, and casually drop the link to these blogs that answer the questions in the forum. You can approach the situation as a human with good intentions and no affiliation to the brand and people will be more likely to check it out, learn something, and share the content further.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of time on the forums, or you want to play it safe by not dropping too many links at all, you can always put your backlinks in your signature. That way, when you post great comments or answer questions, you will see that you get a good amount of referral traffic from people checking you out because of your own knowledge.
4. Submit a Press Release
Press Releases are an awesome way to get your cannabis business a quick blast of powerful backlinks.
When you write and submit a good press release to the right sources, you’ll find that it gets picked up by thousands of networkers who will share your press release on their own news websites. Big news sites like Washington Post and Huffington Post are great places to start.
Make sure you add in some natural backlinks to your website to your press release so that when the news picks it up, you will get backlinks from great local news sources and possibly even larger national sources.
5. Create a Cannabis Job
It’s a little-known fact that you can create high-quality backlinks by creating a cannabis job and submitting it to job boards, directories, and news feeds.
Create a profile on these job boards and list your company information as well as a link to your website. If this isn’t available, you can always add your backlink into the description of the job you’re posting.
There are even cannabis-specific job boards where you can post a cannabis job (and of course your backlink) for free. Weed Hire and 420 Careers are both great examples.
6. Build a 2.0 Website
For those of you wondering what a 2.0 website is, have no fear. 2.0 websites are sites like WordPress, Joomla, or Medium, and they allow you to create a FREE website under their subdomain. This helps you create a powerful backlink from high authority domains like WordPress.
All you have to do is create a blog on a few 2.0 sites and publish great content to them, as long as all of it links back to your main website. This will help you create trusted and higher quality links to your site.
7. List in Cannabis Directories
Adding your business to any directory is a good idea. Even Yellowpages and Foursquare. Find as many directory and local listing websites as you can and submit your business information, making sure that you are consistent across every site.No typos, no errors in the address or phone number, and the same website link throughout.
Don’t forget about cannabis-specific directories like Leafly, Leafbuyer, Cannapages, and Weedmaps. Adding yourself to as many listings as you can will increase your odds of a higher search ranking in search engines as well as help you earn great referral traffic. To aid local SEO, make sure all of your listings are consistent.
Final Thoughts
If you gather up all of these techniques and use them for your cannabis business, you’ll find a much larger influx of traffic and prospective customers to your website. Quality content and backlinks are the foundation of any solid marketing plan and is necessary in order to get more customers and a higher search engine rank.
If you still have questions on other cannabis SEO tips and tricks, be sure to check out our SEO blog content, or get in touch with us today to get started on your very own cannabis marketing plan.