The Most Effective Strategies and Tips in 2023

Mastering Cannabis SEO

As the demand for weed products on the market increases, cannabis SEO is quickly becoming crucial for businesses to be successful in this industry.

Cannabis dispensaries and other cannabis businesses face unique advertising challenges. SEO for the cannabis industry is the only way that your website will get any traffic, as most platforms don’t allow paid advertising.

Learning cannabis SEO on your own is ineffective, as it can be complex to navigate and ineffective if you don’t know what you’re doing. Using a professional cannabis SEO agency is the best way to put your website on the first page of Google.

Cannabis SEO vs. Other Industries

The cannabis industry has been evolving rapidly in the United States over the last 10 years. As more states loosen regulations, the demand for weed has surged. The market is estimated to reach over $31.8 billion in annual sales by the end of 2023.

You’d be hard-pressed to visit a city in a legal state and not find more than a couple of dispensaries available. The online cannabis market is booming as well, with website-based dispensaries providing cannabis to those who cannot visit a physical location.

The cannabis marketing vertical is highly competitive. This is largely because cannabis brands have to use SEO as their main form of advertising due to the regulations surrounding weed.

Cannabis SEO also presents a unique problem in that it is constantly evolving based on trends and ever-changing regulations. Customers are doing more research than ever before  and as such, changing their user search intent.

Keywords don’t work on their own in cannabis SEO. With the advent of voice options on devices, long-tail queries create organic searches, providing cannabis  brands with a way to specifically target their audience.

For example, customers are now taking advantage of voice options on their devices, which means their search queries are more complex. Instead of searching “CBD near me,” they are searching “Where is there a store that sells CBD near me?”

Why Should You Use SEO for Cannabis Companies?

The simple answer is that organic search results from SEO strategies work. Organic search results accounted for 41% of website traffic for retail and eCommerce websites. This means that it outperforms both display advertising and social media campaigns.

One of the main issues with marketing cannabis is that, since the industry is so new to the US, people aren’t as warmed up to the idea of buying weed yet. It takes a lot of time to develop a brand that people trust. On top of that, figuring out where you can promote your brand can be a bit of a hurdle.

An SEO company can develop a strategy to help gain the trust of your customers by understanding what it is that they’re searching for. Everyone has questions, and if your website can provide the answers, you’ll become credible and recommended on search engines. SEO specialists know this and can help drive that traffic to your site through diligent keyword research and other

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5 Tips for Using Images and Video for SEO

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When seeking to improve organic search result rankings, you often first evaluate keywords, content, backlinks, metadata, and the likes. And although those are important to the SEO workflow, it’s also important to consider high-quality images and videos.

Images and video ensure that your content is in front of potential customers—in Web search listings, Google News, Google Discover, Image Search, and elsewhere in search results.

The time and effort you spend on SEO is vital to connecting with new customers: Fully 61% of B2B decision-makers start the buying process with a Web search, while a whopping 87% of retail shoppers do the same—vastly exceeding other channels, including displays and social media.

So, how can you improve the rankings of your websites, content, apps, products, and business listings in search engines, whether Google, Bing, Yahoo, or others?

Optimizing imagery can be a game changer for businesses looking to boost their SEO strategy. In fact, it has become increasingly important over the last few years; many search results now contain images, and in some situations search algorithms require imagery in order to rank in content.

That can be seen in this screenshot of Google search results for “conference room” from an incognito browser in the US. Imagery appears in a large amount of space at the top of the results page, and it is therefore critical for ranking.

Google search for 'conference room' results

Here are five tips on how to use imagery and videos for stronger SEO drivers.

1. Use stock photos and stock imagery if they look authentic and relevant

You don’t need original imagery for your company’s content to rank. Stock photos and imagery can actually be good for SEO.

We often see iStock’s content in our customers’ search results and in featured modules, proving that the original imagery isn’t necessary and the old myth that stock photos impede SEO just isn’t true.

Stock imagery and video work well to represent the content they’re paired with for organic search, and they are used around the world every day.

For best SEO results, choose imagery that helps customers identify with your brand, the content you’re creating, and that content’s objectives.

2. Prioritize high-quality images and use the right file size and dimensions

As of May 2022, more than 50% of searches had a group of images or carousel of images in the organic search results on Google. That number has grown by more than three times in just the last 10 years. Choosing high-quality and correctly sized imagery is important for making the most of such results.

Use a high-resolution image—at least 1,200 pixels (px) wide—and one with an aspect ratio of 16×9, 4×3, or 1×1. When selecting images, make sure your images aren’t too big, or of low quality or resolution. For example, if your hero image space is 1200 px wide and 628 px high, do not use an image

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7 Powerful On-Page SEO Tips For Small Teams In 2023

This post was sponsored by Shutterstock. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

High-quality media is a major component of your on-page SEO strategy.

When you’re a small or medium business owner (SMB), the quality of your visual content can make a major difference in how your target audience perceives your products and services.

In 2023, high-quality images, graphics, and other next-generation media are the on-page SEO keys to help you:

  • Improve search engine results page (SERP) rankings.
  • Rank for competitive keywords in short-form video SERPs.
  • Build organic backlinks.

To make these marketing goals possible, the two easiest things you can do for your SEO strategy right now are:

  1. Step away from using stock images in blog articles and social media posts. Focus on creating or generating unique images for your site.
  2. Double down on implementing SEO best practices to help your content get seen.

Let’s discover how the right media backed by a strong SEO strategy can help elevate your brand and maximize your ROI.

1. Create Content That Automatically Generates Backlink Opportunities

Backlinks are essential to helping search engines determine the quality of your website and where it should rank on SERPs.

High-quality backlinks can help you get to the top of Google.

But before we uncover how small teams can build backlinks faster, let’s take a crash course on how backlinks can improve your SEO and help your business grow.

7 Powerful On-Page SEO Tips For Small Teams In 2023Image created by Shutterstock, April 2023

How Backlinks Help Improve SEO & SERP Rankings

Backlinks are a vital part of your overall SEO strategy because of the role they play in your site’s discoverability.

They indicate your site’s popularity with users, and they signal to Google that your content is valuable and worth linking to.

Think of it as a vote of confidence; the more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your website performs on SERPs.

When it comes to link building, your goal is to have multiple trusted resource vouchers for your website.

So, how do you easily convince reputable, related websites to link to yours?

How do you tell Google that your site is trustworthy?

By building backlinks.

If you’re a small team, it’s best to create content that builds links organically.

The Key To Building Organic Backlinks

To get the strongest backlinks, make sure you’re creating content that’s unique, up-to-date, and more accurate than your competitors.

Accurate, unique content is very valuable to high-reputation websites.

Backlinks make it easy to cite statistics, source claims, or even add context – so by providing relevant information within your niche, you’re establishing your site

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Google’s 6 SEO Tips For Ecommerce Websites

Google shares six SEO tips that combine structured data and Merchant Center to get the most out of your website’s presence in search results.

Alan Kent, a Developer Advocate at Google, describes each tip in detail in a new video published on the Google Search Central YouTube channel.

Throughout the video, Kent emphasizes using Google Merchant Center because it allows retailers to upload product data via structured feeds.

Merchant Center feeds are designed to be read by computers, which means data is extracted more reliably than Googlebot crawls your website.

However, that doesn’t mean you should forego using structured data on product pages and relying on Merchant Center alone. Structured product data remains essential even if you provide product data directly to Google with a Merchant Center feed.

Google may crosscheck data from the Merchant Center feed against structured data on your website.

Google’s SEO recommendations for ecommerce sites revolve around getting the most out of both tools.

1. Ensure Products Are Indexed

Googlebot can miss pages when crawling a site if they’re not linked to other pages. On e-commerce sites, for example, some product pages are only reachable from on-site search results.

You can ensure Google crawls all your product pages by utilizing tools such as an XML sitemap and Google Merchant Center.

Creating a Merchant Center product feed will help Google discover all the products on your website. The product page URLs are shared with the Googlebot crawler to use as starting point for crawls of potentially additional pages.

2. Check Accuracy Of Product Prices Search Results

If Google incorrectly extracts pricing data from your product pages, it may list your original price in search results, not the discounted price.

To accurately provide product information such as list prices, discounts, and net prices, it’s recommended to add structured data to your product pages and provide Google Merchant Center with structured feeds of your product data.

This will help Google extract the correct price from product pages.

3. Minimize Price & Availability Lag

Google crawls webpages on your site according to its own schedule. That means Googlebot may not notice changes on your site until the next crawl.

These delays can lead to search results lagging behind site changes, such as a product going out of stock.

It would be best if you aim to minimize inconsistencies in pricing and availability of data between your website and Google’s understanding of your site due to timing lags.

Google recommends utilizing Merchant Center product feeds to keep pages updated on a more consistent schedule.

4. Ensure Products Are Eligible For Rich Product Results

Eligibility for rich product results requires the use of structured product data.

To get the special rich product presentation format, Google recommends providing structured data on your product pages and a product feed in Merchant Center.

This will help ensure that Google understands how to extract product data to display rich results.

However, even with the correct structured data in place, rich results are displayed at Google’s discretion.

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15 Local SEO Tips for Your Law Firm | Good2bSocial

[author: Noreen Fishman]

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is important for many businesses, including law firms. in fact, 46% of all Googlelocal seo for law firms searches are seeking local information, and that number is only likely to be higher for regionally operating practices. There also tends to be a strong correlation between organic website traffic and local searches. What does that mean for your firm? It means that if you can improve your website traffic through local search engine optimization, you’re likely to get more website traffic and leads overall. Here are some simple tweaks your law firm can make within your local SEO strategy for better local visibility.

The Benefits of Local SEO

Local SEO refers to a search engine optimization strategy that focuses on improving search rankings in local search results. So, if someone searches ‘Pennsylvania law firm’ this indicates to Google that they’re searching for a law firm in a specific location.

With all the information Google has to look at with web pages, one of the most important ranking factors is geolocation.

Local SEO is about marketing your firm to those that are specifically looking at your location. If you’re a law firm, especially a smaller or mid-sized firm, local SEO is very important. For law firms operating at a regional level local SEO is essential, it allows firms to lessen the advantage of bigger, national firms that can rank for more broad keywords, while also gaining traffic from a more relevant audience.

15 Local SEO Tips for Law Firms

1. Take a Look at Overall Speed ​​and Performance

Before you dive into other tactics, you want to make sure everything you’re driving traffic loads properly. Website performance studies show that for your site to retain visitors, its page load time should not exceed three seconds. Before you focus on driving additional people to your site, make sure they won’t bounce once they get there.

2. Ensure You’re Using the Right, Local Keywords for Your Services

It’s important to make sure the descriptions of your services on your website reflect what people are actually searching for in your area. Use a keyword research tool like Semrush or Ahrefs. These let you determine the most popular search phrases for law practices like yours — and how difficult it will be to rank for them locally too.

Follow these steps:

  1. Choose whichever is relevant, local keywords you’d like to target. You can use one of the above tools and try typing in relevant keywords based on location into Google.
  2. Integrate the keywords throughout your site, including on relevant pages and blogs
  3. Optimize pages for keywords by including them in titles, in the body copy, and in the URLs

3. Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

Your law firm’s profile on Google My Business is your local listing that appears in Google Maps, the local results of Google Search, and even the right-side Knowledge Panel on Google Search. Just as with websites and ads, Google ranks Business Profiles

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