How to increase website authority for your cannabis or hemp business using simple and safe backlink building methods.
Digital marketing in the cannabis and hemp industries is like walking a tightrope - on one side of the balancing pole, you have an audience that you need to reach - using the vocabulary they use. On the other end, you have Google algorithms limiting your visibility and restricting your content.
Regardless of industry, most marketers know, building backlinks is a solid way to increase domain authority. A backlink is an outgoing URL leading from one website to an external website. Backlinks inform search engines of the most popular/shared pages. Therefore, the most useful pages create domain authority for your website, which can heavily tip the scales for any business attempting to rank online.
For the cannabis industry, backlink building can be a minefield! With many cannabis websites containing flagged content or holding low domain authority, building backlinks can make or break a website domain.
To avoid common backlink building mistakes, here are three simple and natural ways to build your domain authority using backlinks. These methods are fast, free, and easily added to the daily management of any canna-business.
SUBMIT YOUR BUSINESS TO CANNABIS DIRECTORIES
Directory listings can build domain authority; however, they must be relevant to your target audience, and the directory itself has to be reputable. To build backlinks safely, you need to utilize tools such as Moz Link Explorer to check for healthy domains. Only use cannabis directories with a domain authority score of 40+ and spam percentage of 65% or less.
Start with reputable directory listings such as Google my business, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, and Yell. Search engines ‘expect’ to see these directory listings when they crawl your cannabis website. Next, you will want to start building directories around your target keywords and begin branching out to your industry's directories.
Of course, start with our Cannabis Tech Directory, but you can also find a full list of cannabis directories on Foot Traffic. To find local directories, try searching your location and include terms similar to; ‘Medical + Cannabis Directory,’ ‘Recreational + Cannabis Directory,’ ‘Cannabis Directory.’
Suppose you are willing to invest in a premium directory listing, such as Leafly. In that case, you will want to check that the directory has either: a high volume of traffic to the directory or a highly targeted and highly engaged customer user base. You will also want to ensure the directory has been around for at least two years and the directory listing has public visibility - not restricted to users only. You can ask for this information directly from the directory itself.
Top Tip: When building your directory listings, spend extra attention ensuring the addresses, emails, and phone numbers match up. Keep a list of your directory listings; you might need to change your email address or phone number at a later date.
BROKEN BACKLINK METHOD
Website pages and their owners change over time. These pages can become irrelevant or deleted, losing purpose for their user. When any website links to one of these ‘broken pages’ in their article or website, it is called a broken link. full article here
7 GREAT BACKLINK SOURCES FOR CANNABIS BRANDS
In seo by Nicole FlaniganJune 14, 2018
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 full article here