SEO Content Writing for Cannabis Dispensaries
Whether you recently founded a dispensary or have been a mainstay in your community for years, building a strong website for your cannabis brand can help you grow your business. Your website is a key way for customers to find you, both for brick-and-mortar dispensaries and online cannabis products retailers. So, what’s the main ingredient for online visibility and success? Search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing.
But SEO content writing for dispensaries comes with specific concerns that impact how you approach the content creation process. At Acadia Content Solutions, we help cannabis dispensaries like yours understand how SEO impacts the cannabis industry and how you can optimize visibility while following all the rules and regulations. We help cannabis dispensary owners build powerful content strategies to outperform competitors and grow a thriving brand.
Helping Cannabis Content Thrive Online
Writing powerful content for both search engine algorithms and your clients is a balancing act that requires SEO content expertise. Let’s take a look at how our content services at Acadia Content Solutions serve and support cannabis dispensary owners like you.
Up-to-Date Research on State and National Regulations
Cannabis is a hotly debated topic in the United States, and laws surrounding its legality are changing constantly. When your customers find your website, they might be wondering how these rules affect them. To help your potential customers feel safe and confident, we stay updated on the latest research, incorporating helpful regulatory information into the content we create for dispensary websites.
By creating educational and informative content for your dispensary website, we can:
Help your customers feel better about buying your products
Signal to industry regulators that you’re staying above board
Establish you as a knowledgeable leader in the world of cannabis products
Keyword Research
One of the key ways a site becomes visible to search engines is by using targeted keywords. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out which keywords your ideal customers are searching for — things like “dispensaries near me,” for example. But in other cases, your potential customers might be searching for long-tail keywords or phrases like “best cannabis strain for pain relief” or “women-owned dispensaries in Seattle, WA.” By conducting thorough SEO keyword research, we determine exactly which keywords the potential customers in your area are searching for online. We then help you decide which keywords and phrases to target based on popularity, ranking difficulty, search frequency, and more.
When keywords are used effectively, they can help your page climb in the rankings. However, it’s important not to over-optimize or “keyword stuff,” as this can hurt your site’s visibility online.
Local SEO Efforts
Due to changing regulations on the state and federal levels, your dispensary sales are likely focused on regional customers. Because of this, local SEO is a crucial focus for dispensaries. This is why we focus on optimizing your keywords for specific locales, helping you narrow your competition pool and climb search engine rankings faster. This process includes things like making sure your Google Business Profile and local directories are up to date and optimizing your website’s SEO content articles for local rankings.
Search Intent for Cannabis Dispensaries
Search intent is the reason a search engine user Googles a certain topic or question. While this concept is extremely important for effective SEO, it’s often overlooked by inexperienced SEO content creators. It’s also the reason why keyword stuffing is so ineffective. When a potential customer Googles the phrase “best cannabis strains for sleep,” they’re not just looking for a random page that happens to use that key phrase. They’re most likely looking for a page full of detailed information about which strains can help them address their sleep issues, why those strains work, and where they can find them.
To understand search intent, we can’t just stop at keyword research. Once we’ve located a specific keyword or long-tail phrase your business should be targeting, we then have to ask, “Why are people searching for this keyword or phrase, and what are they hoping to find or learn?” From there, we can craft an ideal piece of SEO content for your dispensary website that actually addresses the needs and questions of your site visitors.
Prioritizing Your Customers
While SEO and keyword optimization are important, they’re not the only things we consider when writing your content. At Acadia Content Solutions, we believe the reader should always be top priority. After all, ranking high on Google will only benefit you so much if the people who visit your site aren’t having a good experience or finding the information they need. That’s why we focus our dispensary content on helping your potential customers find the goods and services they really want.
Some of the strategies we use for optimizing content for readers include:
Writing at an accessible reading level
Using a conversational yet professional writing style
Avoiding overly scientific terminology or topics whenever possible
Explaining laws and regulations in plain language
Answering the questions that bring readers to your site in the first place
Creating SEO Cannabis Content Can Be Risky Without Help
If you’re trying to optimize your marketing budget, it can be tempting to manage your SEO and create your website content on your own. But this option comes with some distinct risks that are important to be aware of.
Your Cannabis Dispensary Website Might Not Rank As High
Search engine optimization is a complicated game, and it requires dedicated focus. While it can be very tempting to want to handle SEO content creation on your own, the time and effort you spend doing it might not get you the results you're looking for. The best way to optimize the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and give your site the best chance possible of ranking high on Google is to work with a professional SEO content writer with experience creating content for the cannabis industry.
You Might Accidentally Violate Certain Rules or Regulations
Any time you’re creating content for a highly regulated industry like the cannabis industry, it’s crucial to be aware of the rules and regulations that govern the way certain products and processes can be discussed. As a dispensary owner, you want to make sure the content on your website follows these rules.
Even beyond cannabis, the natural products industry as a whole has strict rules about how these products can be discussed. For example, because cannabis products are not approved by the FDA, they cannot legally be referred to as treatments or cures for any disease or condition. If your dispensary website accidentally discusses your products in a way that violates FDA regulations, your business could face massive legal fines or even be forced to close.
Your Business Reputation Could Suffer
While you may put a lot of effort into creating the content for your website, it’s easy to have blindspots that could unfortunately cause your business reputation to suffer. For example, if you accidentally include outdated information, violate FDA regulations, or post articles that contain errors or typos, this could drastically affect the way potential customers view your business. To ensure your content hits the mark and helps bolster your business reputation, partner with an experienced SEO content creator who knows the ins and outs of writing for the cannabis industry.
Our Expert Writers Can Help Your Cannabis Dispensary Dominate Search Rankings
While you may have an encyclopedic knowledge of the products you sell, it can be difficult to run your dispensary and your website at the same time. Trying to juggle your content marketing strategy along with the rest of your business responsibilities can unfortunately lead to mistakes that can be costly to your website's visibility and reputation.
At Acadia Content Solutions, we provide the tools dispensaries need to establish a strong content marketing strategy and generate new customer leads through their websites. To learn more about our services, fill out our online contact form any time or email Dianna Mason at dianna@acadiacontentsolutions.com.
