People search for everything these days. The search engine has become the birthplace of many new clients for many businesses. It’s no wonder it is important to show up on the first page of the search results – it’s crucial to rank within the top three search results. So how exactly do you do that, especially in extremely competitive industries like medicine, law, and more recently, cannabis? Now as medicinal marijuana becomes a more popular form of treatment, the level of competition has increased. Medical SEO has become a concentrated area of SEO, or search engine optimization, that makes a substantial difference in helping your business outrank some of its most difficult competitors. Keep reading to learn more about why you should look into developing a high-level medical SEO strategy for your up-and-coming medical marijuana dispensary.

First of All, What is Medical SEO?

Medical SEO, otherwise known as healthcare SEO, involves optimization services that are specific to medical practices and healthcare agencies. Because of how competitive the medical industry it is, it can be very difficult for businesses to rank organically. Medical SEO is curated specifically to address this. Thanks to this, patients and clients are able to more easily find the healthcare they need and deserve.

So, Does the Medical Cannabis Industry Need Medical SEO?

In short, the answer is yes. SEO for medicine marketing is a little different than your standard SEO. The reason being is that users utilize very specific criteria to decide whether they want to become a patient or client at that particular healthcare facility. The same applies to medical marijuana dispensaries, as clients tend to be picky with where they purchase their cannabis products. There are three determining factors that medical SEO is judged on, which can be easily remembered by the acronym, E.A.T.

E – Expertise

Users look at your expertise to determine how knowledgeable you are about the subject at hand. For example, your website’s content should thoroughly detail different strains of medical cannabis and their impact on various health conditions. Users will look to you for the most up-to-date and informative content on what kind of cannabis strains they can use to treat their specific health conditions. Content should aim to answer relevant, commonly searched questions. 

A – Authority

Are you an expert in your field? Users are more likely to believe the content on your website if its written (or ghostwritten, rather) by a medical professional or another expert in the industry. An individual’s credentials will make the content look more authoritative and believable, which helps promote trust between the business and the potential client. This brings us to the final letter of our acronym…

T – Trustworthiness

Without trust, there are no sales. Having correct, up-to-date information within the content on your website is the first step. However, adding an author bio helps put a face to the name responsible for the content on the page. If the author was mentioned in any media or other references, this can be added somewhere on the page as well, as all this works to promote trustworthiness. When a user sees credentials and references, they are more likely to believe that the content is trustworthy and true.

Medical SEO Helps Your Medical Cannabis Dispensary Target Relevant Terms

In places where both medical and recreational marijuana is legal, cannabis marketing is super competitive. Getting your medical marijuana dispensary to rank for relevant search terms is crucial for success. Thankfully, SEO is a gift that keeps on giving. With a team of SEO experts behind the wheel and a high-level strategy, your traffic and rankings can grow exponentially in a matter of a few months. Organic traffic is what they call “free traffic” as you’re paying for a strategy that awards you with sustainable, long-term traffic as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which can get you immediate traffic but on a more expensive and short-term basis. However, this does not mean PPC doesn’t have its perks. If anything, the two should work together in unison.

Medical SEO Can Boost Your Website’s Visibility & Help Clients Get The Relief They Deserve!

One of the main goals of medical SEO services includes boosting your cannabis website’s visibility. To make things simple, visibility is a metric that gauges how visible your website is in organic search results. Visibility is calculated by various data metrics, but your website’s visibility is mostly determined by the volume of relevant keywords and where your URLs are ranking in terms of search results.

Statistically, the overwhelming majority of users barely make it to the tenth search result at the bottom of the first page. Shockingly, only 1% of users actually click on any search result on the second page, making it downright crucial to make sure you rank within the first few search results. What does this mean for the medical marijuana industry? This means that users who are looking for…

• Pain relief
• Anxiety relief
• Improvement in appetite and/or nausea
• Muscle relaxation

… can find the help they need with your medical cannabis products. As you already know, medical cannabis can help alleviate symptoms associated with a variety of physical, mental, and neurological conditions. Some of these conditions include:

• Post-tramautic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Tourette Syndrome
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Epilepsy

Many people are just now discovering some of the many benefits associated with medical cannabis use, and to help push the wave in the right direction, get your medical cannabis company the SEO strategy it needs!

Conclusion – Do You Need SEO for Your Medical Marijuana Dispensary?

To sum things up, YES, your medical marijuana dispensary needs medical SEO. To facilitate a trusting relationship between the client and the dispensary, you need up-to-date, relevant, and correct content on your website. Due to the competitive nature of the marijuana and healthcare industries, developing a high level SEO strategy is crucial for long-term, sustainable growth. Boost your revenue, increase your client outreach, and brand visibility with the ultimate medical SEO strategy.