How To Do SEO For SaaS Companies: Practice Guide

SaaS (software as a service) is a fairly popular and growing business model today. This was facilitated by a significant increase in the digitization of society. There are also changes in the behavioral model of companies, including software. New needs have necessitated the use of new services that are present in SaaS.

For a SaaS company, the growing interest in digital services and products can mean both a constant flow of customers and profits and losing the game under the pressure of competition. For your company to be among the winners, you need no luck, but a competent SaaS SEO strategy. 

In this article, experts from the NaturalLinks SEO company share with you the specific steps you can take to achieve top search engine rankings. You’ll find valuable insights into keyword research, internal and external optimization, content creation, and link building specifically for SaaS companies. So, let’s dive in and learn how to do SaaS SEO!

What is SaaS SEO?

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a business model of cooperation, that involves obtaining client access to software through a subscription for a certain period of time. SaaS SEO is the promotion of a company, providing a digital service or product, in a search engine. SEO for SaaS websites helps to popularize the service, gain benefits, outperform competitors, and increase the number of customers. 

The main features of SaaS are that it is a highly competitive and dynamically developing industry. This makes it hard to predict what your product will be in a year, five, or ten years from now. That is why, SaaS marketing and online promotion require you to be flexible, entrepreneurial, and ready to rebuild your work strategy and its principles as soon as possible. Moreover, not all SEO tools effective in other industries are suitable for promoting SaaS products. Therefore, we will look at a set of strategies and tools, called SaaS SEO, which are specifically adapted for this niche to work efficiently for it.

Why is SEO for SaaS Important?

The one-word answer is: competition. The two-word answer is cut-throat competition. The latest statistics show that there are about 30,000 SaaS companies worldwide, the lion’s share of which (17,000) are located in the US. In 2008, the SaaS market was worth a little over $5 billion, and by 2020, it had grown more than 28 times to $157 billion. And this is not the limit, as people increasingly move digitally and need related services and products. To survive in a competitive environment, it is useless to work on the development of your product if it is not properly promoted on the network under the guidance of a competent SEO for SaaS.

The second reason why SaaS SEO is important for that type of business relates to the mutable nature of SaaS products. Due to the need for dynamic development required by the market and the evolving conditions in the world, SaaS promotion methods must also be flexible and adaptive in order to be able adjusting to changing business needs and goals.

How To Build a SaaS SEO Strategy

There is no one-size-fits-all SaaS SEO strategy, just as there are no two identical SaaS products. Each of them is unique and therefore requires a unique approach to its promotion. Moreover, as already mentioned, the SaaS niche tends to constantly evolve, so the quality of an SEO strategy is largely determined by its ability to adapt to changing realities. However, there is a core of the SEO strategy that works well in most cases to promote modern SaaS products. It consists of five steps:

Step 1: Do SEO Competitor Research in SaaS niche;

Step 2: Do Keyword Research For SaaS Companies;

Step 3: Make a Content Plan for the SaaS Website;

Step 4: Do SEO Optimization of the Website;

Step 5: Do Link Building For SaaS.

Let’s go through these 5 steps together and see what they can bring to your SaaS business.

Step 1: Do SEO Competitor Research in the SaaS Niche

SaaS SEO doesn’t have to be all about trial and error. Personal experience is great, but! If there is an opportunity to study someone else’s achievements and failures, draw the right conclusions, and use ready-made and successfully working solutions, then why not use it? Therefore, any good promotion strategy should start with SEO competitor research, that is, getting to know competitive websites, namely, their structure, backlinks, and content. All this is necessary to know in which direction to move.

What To Look For When You Do SEO Competitor Research

What do the competitors’ websites look like? When visiting a competitor’s site, the first thing you may notice is the design, usability, and selling elements of the website, including the product range, pricing policy, loyalty program, contact details, service and warranty, etc.

Particular attention should be paid not only to the visual component of the site but also to the source of traffic, that is, the main channel where competitors get customers from. This can be traffic from search results, contextual advertising referrals from social networks, and so on. Also, check the technical optimizations that apply to site parameters such as page load time and mobile compatibility.

What content is posted on your competitors’ websites? Content is a key element of a selling site, whether it is a description of the services provided or a product review. The content should be clear and interesting for the user. First of all, it is worth checking the text on the main page and on the pages of categories of goods or services.

Rate the quality of content in the following categories:

• text size and uniqueness;
• stylistics;
• availability of images and videos;
• structuring.

What keywords your competitors are targeting? Researching a competitor’s semantic core is a vital component of a successful SaaS SEO strategy. Competitor keyword analysis will help you understand:

• what keywords your competitors rank for;
• which pages rank for these keywords;
• what kind of content is on those pages and how competitive these queries are;
• what you should do to rank for these keywords as well.

A comprehensive analysis of competitors’ keywords will give you ideas for refining the semantic core of your resource by adding words and phrases that are popular with users to the content.

What backlinks do your competitors have? Backlinks are important to analyze because they are still considered by search engines when ranking. Understanding how strong your competitors’ backlink profiles are will allow you to understand what exactly you need to do and where to get backlinks in order for your website to be considered an authoritative resource. At the same time, you will know which backlinks and domains to avoid so as not to spoil your reputation.

Step 2: Do Keyword Research For SaaS Companies

To create content that your target audience will search for, you need to know what words they will type in a search engine like Google. In addition, you need to know what content Google considers relevant to the keywords you will use. Keyword research can help you get into the minds of your users and search engines. The process of analyzing and collecting semantics consists of researching competitors’ keywords, collecting keywords and analyzing them by metrics, clustering semantics, and auditing.

How to Find Keyword Ideas

If you know the SaaS industry, understand the search intent of your potential customers, and know how to use keyword research tools, the process of generating keyword ideas won’t be difficult for you.

First, brainstorm the main keywords, these will be the basis for finding many other variations of the keywords. To search for long tail words, use Google autofill suggestions (just start typing your keyword). One of the richest sources of keywords is your competitors. That is why you should get keyword ideas from competitors’ websites.

The final prerequisite for generating complete semantics in SaaS keyword research is the use of special SEO tools to create synonymous keywords. They are easy to use and can be paid or free, like Google’s Keyword Planner.

Metrics to Analyze Keywords

The next stage of your SaaS keyword research is conclusions, and ranking collected keywords according to the value they carry. This way you can get rid of useless words and focus on the most promising ones. But how to determine which one is better? There are specific keyword metrics for this:

• Search volume: determines how often users use a particular keyword in their searches;
• Keyword Difficulty (KD): helps you estimate how difficult or easy a particular keyword will rank;
• Clicks: reports how many clicks a certain keyword brought;
• Traffic Potential: helps assess the overall search traffic potential for a topic.
• Cost Per Click (CPC): shows how much advertisers are willing to pay for each click on a keyword.

Step 3: Make a Content Plan for the SaaS Website

SEO-optimized and simply high-quality content is one of those elements that bring the target audience to you. It’s not just about texts with keywords on the site. Content is everything that conveys important, useful, and relevant information to the user:

• video and audio;
• blog entries;
• images, infographics, etc.

Even animation and emoticons are also elements of content that affect the effectiveness of attracting the target audience and its loyalty. Generating quality content in a systematic way requires a plan. The content plan is a calendar for publishing content, which includes types, volumes, topics, sites, and dates of placement. It is filled out one or two months in advance so that the posts are published regularly.

How to make a content plan for a SaaS niche?

Developing a content plan for SaaS involves systematic work on its compilation. The step-by-step creation of a content plan is carried out approximately as follows:

1. Selection of the main query for the page. Most often it will be its title.
2. Choice of placement (landing page, blog, category).
3. Selection of additional queries on the topic of the article, which will help increase the page relevance.
4. Clarification of the essence of the text (a brief description or other materials in the form of videos, images, etc.).
5. Determining the release date.

In addition, each article should also have a plan and be structured according to a clearly defined hierarchy (H1 headings, meta tags, meta descriptions, lists, subheadings, etc.).

Where to look for ideas for content in a SaaS niche? 

For SaaS developers who are far from writing, it can be hard to come up with ideas for engaging and competitive content. Here are 6 ideas for SaaS content:

1. Get content ideas from your competitors.
2. Get ideas from your target audience. Draw a map of your audience’s needs and how your products can benefit them.
3. Create competitor comparison pages.
4. Get ideas from your SaaS products and the problems they solve.
5. Get ideas from semantics. Find long-tail keywords, which will lead you to a topic where they could be placed.
6. If possible, divide your SaaC product into related mini-products that have semantics and are similar in theme to your main product, and get more topics to write about.

Step 4: Do SEO Optimization of Website

A comprehensive SaaS SEO consists of both internal and external optimization. Internal optimization, also called on-page SEO, are optimization techniques that are applied to your SaaS resource. This includes optimizing your content, title tag, meta description, headings, URLs, and everything else on your website for the target keywords. It is essential to do SEO in order to make your website look relevant enough to show up at the top of the search results. Unlike external SEO, which is not very controllable, on-page SEO site optimization is in your hands, so you need to make the most of this advantage.

Technical SEO Optimization Checklist

When checking a SaaS site for technical optimization, there are several important aspects to consider.

Here is a checklist with advice for each item:

1. General State of the Site:

• Check if the site is mobile-friendly and responsive.
• Verify that the site is secure with HTTPS.
• Ensure that the site has a clear structure and logical navigation.
• Check for broken links and redirects.

       2. Google Core Web Vitals:

• Test the site’s speed using Google PageSpeed Insights.
• Use the Google Search Console to evaluate the site’s performance and identify issues.
• Monitor the site’s Core Web Vitals, including LCP, FID, and CLS.

       3. Site Audit and Error Correction:

• Check for duplicate content and ensure that each page has a unique title tag and meta description.
• Optimize images for size and load speed.
• Ensure that the site’s code is optimized for search engines.
• Fix broken links and 404 errors.

Some of the most common errors that can have a negative impact on a SaaS site’s performance include slow load times, broken links, duplicate content, and poor mobile responsiveness. By addressing these issues and following the checklist outlined above, you can optimize your SaaS site for better performance and user experience.

On-Page SEO Optimization Checklist 

Optimizing a SaaS site from an on-page perspective is crucial to increasing its visibility in search engines and attracting organic traffic. After collecting semantics and forming a content plan, here is a checklist with advice for optimizing SEO on-page elements:

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions:

• Ensure that each page has a unique and descriptive title tag and meta description.
• Use relevant keywords in both the title tag and meta description to improve their relevance to search queries.
• Keep title tags under 60 characters and meta descriptions under 155 characters.

Header Tags:

• Use H1 tags for main headings and H2-H6 tags for subheadings.
• Incorporate relevant keywords into header tags to indicate the page’s topic and improve relevance to search queries.

Content Optimization:

• Ensure that the content is relevant, informative, and engaging for users.
• Use relevant keywords throughout the content to improve its relevance to search queries.
• Optimize images by adding alt text, compressing their size, and ensuring they are relevant to the page’s content.

URL Structure:

• Use descriptive and concise URLs that accurately reflect the page’s content.
• Include relevant keywords in the URL, separated by hyphens.

Step 5: Do Link Building For SaaS

To build a good reputation for a SaaS site and bring it to the top, you need to take care of the link profile. This requires a working link-building strategy. There are some ground rules to adhere to so that the websites that refer to your site do not harm it, but bring referral traffic and high rankings. Among these, getting only high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites, and creating valuable content that other websites won’t want to link to. Still, link building for SaaS companies can be a little different from getting links for other industries.

What is special about Link Building For SaaS?

Link building for SaaS companies can be a little tricky as it involves building backlinks for non-physical products or services. SaaS companies usually target a specific market niche, which can make it hard to find relevant and authoritative websites to build backlinks.

However, SaaS companies often have access to a wealth of data and insights that can be used to create compelling content and build authoritative backlinks. In addition, there are some link building strategies that go beyond the typical approach, but will work just fine for a SaaS company. For example, strategic and integration partnerships, during which you negotiate with companies whose products are integrated or can be used with your SaaS products, on mutual referral advertising.

Where to get Backlinks? SaaS Link Building Tips:

Broken-link building

Use specialized tools to scan websites related to your SaaS niche for any broken links. Once you’ve identified any broken links, reach out to the website owner and offer to replace the broken link with a working one that directs users to your own website.

Forum links

Leveraging community sites such as forums can be an effective way to promote your SaaS brand. By leaving insightful comments and including links to your website, you can attract a targeted audience to your site. While these links may often be nofollow, engaging in relevant discussions within your industry can help you establish authority and showcase your product to potential customers.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is a tried and true method for building links to your SaaS website. Here’s how it works: you write an article for a website in your niche, and in return, they post it and allow you to include a link back to your own site.

Internal links

By adding links to relevant pages within your own website, you can improve overall SEO and help visitors navigate your platform more easily. While internal links won’t bring in outside visitors, they can increase visitor retention and keep them engaged with your content. Make sure to use descriptive anchor text and include links within the body of your content for the best results.

Blogger Outreach

Outreach is a powerful tactic for building quality backlinks and driving referrals to your SaaS product. By connecting with influencers, bloggers, and public figures in your niche, you can build trust and credibility with their audiences. If a blogger shares how great your SaaS product is with their large following, it can lead to a significant boost in traffic and conversions.

The bottom line

SEO for SaaS Companies can be a challenge. This is due to a fairly narrow specialization, which reduces the volume of search, and with great competition from both small startups and huge corporations. However, with the help of a competent SaaS SEO specialist, any SaaS website has all chances to cut its way through the intense competition, climb up the rankings and improve its organic performance. With the above tips and techniques in mind, you can try optimizing your site yourself. However, by opting for a SaaS SEO campaign led by experienced professionals, you can achieve greater success and avoid mistakes that can damage your website. In addition, SEO for SaaS companies is an ongoing process that includes analytics, regular tracking of results, and a willingness to change strategy in case of a product change.

FAQ – SaaS SEO 

Inhouse SaaS SEO vs Outsourcing SaaS SEO:  What to choose? 

Deciding between inhouse SaaS SEO and outsourcing SaaS SEO ultimately comes down to your specific business needs and resources. Inhouse SEO allows for greater control and customization, but can be more costly and time-consuming. Outsourcing SEO can be more cost-effective and efficient, but may result in less control over the strategy and implementation. 

Consider factors such as budget, expertise, and time constraints before making a decision. If you have the resources and expertise inhouse, it may be beneficial to keep SEO efforts internal. However, if you lack the necessary expertise or resources, outsourcing may be a better option.

How much do SaaS SEO Services cost?

SaaS SEO service costs can be unpredictable based on project size and complexity. Ongoing services typically range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month, while one-time projects or audits can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars. At our company, we prioritize transparency in pricing and employ proven strategies tailored to your specific needs. Before establishing costs, we’ll take the time to understand your goals and requirements to provide an accurate quote. Contact our team of SaaS SEO specialists for a free consultation and pricing information.

Do Natural Links do SEO for SaaS companies? Any case study examples?

Yes, Natural Links is experienced in SEO for SaaS companies. We have successfully helped businesses like AJAX Systems and Osome achieve significant growth through our comprehensive SEO services. For AJAX Systems, our link building efforts resulted in a doubling of website traffic in the first year, and an impressive five-fold increase over the following two years.

With Osome, we provided complex SEO services that resulted in a staggering 40 times increase in organic traffic to their website, bringing in over 40,000 unique visitors per month. Additionally, we were able to increase their conversion rate from organic visitors from 5.14% to 10.84%, demonstrating our ability to not just drive traffic, but to convert it into tangible results for our clients.

How can I get started with SaaS SEO Services?

Begin your SaaS SEO journey by completing a brief form on the Natural Links website to request a complimentary consultation. Simply enter your contact information and your SaaS website’s URL, allowing our specialist to conduct a preliminary evaluation. During the consultation, discuss your website’s current status and objectives with one of our SEO experts, and receive personalized recommendations on top-notch SaaS SEO strategies. Alternatively, contact us through email at [email protected], Skype at support_70095?chat, or @naturallinks on Telegram to schedule a consultation. Let us help you achieve your SEO goals.

How long does it take to get results with SaaS SEO?

Achieving success with SaaS SEO requires ongoing commitment and patience. While it may take time to see significant results, proper implementation can yield noticeable improvements within 2 to 12 months. Given the competitiveness of the SaaS industry, it takes time for search engines to acknowledge and rank new websites or content. As a website gains credibility and authority in the SaaS sector, rankings and traffic will begin to increase. Ultimately, businesses should consider SEO as a long-term investment but can anticipate some initial results within several months of implementing effective strategies.

Evidence of the potential health benefits of CBD products and their legalization in many countries has led to a rapid growth of the market. At the same time, due to a lack of sufficient regulation, there are few quality and purity standards, raising concerns about the safety and efficacy of many marijuana products. On top of that, the use of cannabis products is still associated with cultural stigma. It makes it harder for CBD brands to promote their products.

Due to the nature of the industry, associated with ever-changing rules and regulations around CBD marketing, CBD brands need a specific approach to SEO. It will take into account the peculiarities of the regulated and legal cannabis trade. In this guide, we will explore some expert CBD SEO tips and strategies that will boost your online visibility, help you reach more potential customers, and grow your business.

Why is SEO Important for CBD Brands?

The simple answer is that it works great. Cannabis consumers turn to search engines like Google to find and purchase a product or get information about it. Users trust search engines, which means that it is important for any CBD brand to gain search engine trust in order to get to the top of search results.

Using the right CBD SEO strategies wisely will help you build trust and encourage Google to recommend you based on the fact that your products and content are exactly what your target audience needs.

Now, what do the numbers say? According to BrightEdge research, 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search. This means, that by taking advantage of organic search, cannabis dispensaries will provide themselves with traffic. It can convert into a loyal customer base and, therefore, into ongoing, growing revenue streams.

Ultimately, buying a first-line property in a search engine, through SEO for CBD brands, is the most profitable and promising deal for the prosperity and growth of your cannabis business.

How Do You Build a CBD SEO Strategy for Your Brand?

If you’re running a CBD company, you know how challenging it can be to stand out in a crowded market. Below, you’ll find concrete steps to help you improve your SEO and drive more traffic to your website, which will ultimately increase your business’s revenue.

We’ll talk about why it’s important to decide on the type of business you’re running, learn how to leverage your competitors and share a detailed guide to building your own CBD SEO strategy.

Key Points of the CBD SEO Guide:

Step 1: What type of business you are going to run?

Step 2: Know your competitors 

Step 3: Build your own CBD SEO strategy:

• Find keywords to rank in relevant search results
• Make a Content Plan for the CBD Website
• Do On-Page Optimization on a website
• Make a link-building SEO Strategy

Step 1: What Type of Business Are You Going to Run?

Local Business

For cannabis brands whose target audience is within a city or region, local SEO for CDB will be the preferred choice of promotion. This method focuses on location-based strategies and the placement of keywords in a specific area.

Successful implementation of a local SEO promotes a regional CBD business by optimizing its resources for local potential customers, who are most likely to indicate geolocation when searching for cannabis products. The principles of ranking in the regional SERPs have their own peculiarities. Optimization here requires the mandatory use of some methods that are not so important when the site is promoted at the global level.

Nationwide Business

CDB companies that want to develop their business within a particular nation can resort to strategies that fall within the scope of nationwide CDB SEO. This method convinces Google that people across the country should know about your wonderful cannabis products, regardless of your business address or the searcher’s location. This is achieved through the right set of techniques and settings. They include the use of the right non-local keywords. The competition is fiercer at the national level than at the local one. To get top ranking and nationwide visibility, the marijuana business needs to have a really good national SEO roadmap.

Step 2: Know Your Competitors

As the popularity of CBD products continues to grow, competition among CBD companies has become increasingly fierce. In such a crowded market, it’s more important than ever for CBD companies to have a solid SEO plan in place. However, building a successful SEO strategy requires more than just selecting the right keywords and optimizing on-page content. CBD companies must also understand their competitors’ SEO efforts in order to identify opportunities and avoid pitfalls. This includes analyzing competitors’ website structure, services offered, backlinks, and content strategies. By doing so, CBD brands can gain insights into what works and what doesn’t. They can also tailor their own SEO plan accordingly to stay ahead of the competition.

What Do Your Competitors’ Websites Look Like?

Analyzing competitors’ websites is a crucial step in developing a successful SEO strategy. By understanding which sites are currently occupying the first position and why, businesses can discover areas for development and tailor their own approach accordingly. This involves examining factors such as website structure, content quality and relevance, backlink profile, and user experience. By taking a comprehensive approach to analyzing competitors’ sites, CBD businesses can gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t in their industry. Later they can make informed decisions concerning the best ways to optimize their own site for better search engine rankings and increased traffic.

What Kind of Content is Posted on Your Competitors’ Websites?

Content is the pith of any website: it plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining visitors. Knowing what kind of content your competitors are posting on their websites is essential to staying relevant in the competitive cannabis niche. By researching your competitors’ websites, you can gain valuable insights into what topics they cover, the type of content they publish, and the tone and style of their writing. This information can help you tailor your own content to appeal to your target audience and stand out from the crowd. Remember, in the world of digital marketing, content is king, and investing in quality, relevant, and engaging content can significantly boost your online presence and bring traffic to your website.

What Are the Keywords Targeted by Your Competitors?

Analysis of competitor websites should include keyword research, during which you will find out: what target keywords your competitors have; which pages rank for those keywords; and what content is on those pages. How competitive those queries are is the next step. Identifying effective keywords that work for other sites in your niche but are somehow missing from yours will help you build a workable content strategy.

What backlinks do your competitors have?

Analysis of competitors’ backlinks is needed to understand the volumes required to reach the top of search results. You should as well consider the dynamics of backlink growth, as well as the sources from which competitors receive links. Anchor list analysis is carried out to understand the correct ratio of anchor and non-anchor links. All this will allow you to put together a plan for building your link profile and building a reputation as an authoritative source for your cannabis website in the most effective way.

Step 3: Build your own CBD SEO strategy

Building an effective SEO strategy for your CBD business involves more than just using a few keywords or optimizing your website’s content. To truly stand out in the competitive CBD market, you need to develop a complex strategy that incorporates a range of SEO tactics, from on-page optimization and link building to content creation and social media engagement. Take a look at some brilliant insights and actionable tips from the experts who have already blazed the trail.

Find keywords to rank in relevant search results

Using the right keywords in your cannabis-related content is your ticket to the top rank of search results. To identify and research related keywords, a cannabis SEO specialist uses special tools without resorting to guesswork. Then, your keywords are listed by their commercial potential, search intent, domain authority, and ranking difficulty.

CBD SEO keywords strategy should include both short-tail keywords and long-tail ones. Long tail phrases are more specific and attract the target audience to the site. What’s more, due to the combination of several words in the subject, long keywords contribute to a sharp decrease in competition in search queries.

If you google the keyword “buy CBD oil”, the number of sites returned by the system will be more than 65 million.

By changing the search query to “buy unflavored CBD oil”, the search circle will narrow down to about 2 million sites.

Make a Content Plan for CBD Website

Once you have the semantic core in hand, you can start creating compelling, relevant, and up-to-date content for your cannabis blog (yes, you can’t get by with an online store alone!). Think about your target audience: what interests them and what they want. In addition to the main articles, don’t ignore supporting articles like “CBD hot drink recipes for cold days” or “How to Recover from Running” with subtle commercial interest. To generate regular organic traffic, publishing content must be on a regular basis and in sufficient volume. Ideally, your cannabis content should be updated with one main article and several supporting articles for each new topic or category of keywords. Also, don’t forget that content is not just about text, but also about illustrations, videos, gifs, and other elements that add value to your site.

Do On-Page Optimization on a website

In addition to the collection of semantics and content plans for competently and systematically filling the site with quality content, there are other important aspects to consider while working on your CBD website. On-page optimization, also known as internal optimization, includes elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags. By optimizing these elements of your CBD website, you will make it more user-friendly and easy to navigate. In addition, this way you will increase the likelihood that your web resource will rank higher in search results.

Title tags

Using the right tags and headings will improve the overall readability of the text and enable search bots to follow the hierarchy from the most important on the page to the least important. It’s the very first thing users see in search results and on social media.

The title tag is a great opportunity to grab the user’s attention and encourage them to click through to the page. Determine the page you want to rank for each target keyword and then make your title stand out from the rest. Here are some tips for writing title tags:

• use concise (50 to 60 characters) but informative titles;
• match the search intent and the title tag;
• do not duplicate title tags with site content;
• use numbers if appropriate;
• audit multiple heading tag variations.

Meta description

A meta description is a snippet of the HTML code of a web page with text that appears immediately below the title tag. The purpose of the meta description is to convey to the user a brief, informative description of your page with competitive advantages that encourages the user to click.

Meta description is like a storefront, only in text design. The user, after reading it, must decide: “Yes! This is exactly what I’m looking for!” Here are some tips for writing meta descriptions:

• use between 150 and 200 characters (about 20 words);
• match the user’s search intent;
• do not duplicate the text anywhere on the site;
• use target keywords at the beginning;
• encourage specific action.

Header tags

Tags allow you to highlight headings and make your article easier to read. In addition, they ensure your site’s ranking advantage by streamlining the html code of the page. In total, there are 6 heading tags in HTML – from < h1 > to < h6 >.

This is what the heading hierarchy looks like:

H1 is the main heading that contains keywords and reflects the topic of the page:

H2 – a subheading that reveals the topic of the section;

H3 – a subheading that fills keywords with content and gives a description;

H4, 5, 6 – subheadings to separate small elements of the page from the main text.

Make a link-building SEO Strategy

One of the significant indicators of site ranking in the search is its authority and the presence of backlinks from other Internet resources. Therefore, after you have made sure that there are no technical errors and have carried out internal optimization, you can start promoting your CBD website externally with links.

A good link-building SEO Strategy includes:

• search for all the links leading to your resource;
• analysis of link profiles: one’s own and competitors;
• preparation of the anchor list;
• removal of low-quality links;
• Search for donor sites.

As for donor sites, it is naive to believe that other resources will suddenly start actively linking to you, especially since marijuana content is associated with many prejudices and restrictions. Therefore, we share several effective ways to get authoritative backlinks from external websites.

Broken-link building

Quite a fun and not obvious method for most people who are interested in how to build free backlinks. It lies in the fact that, with the help of special tools, you scan the sites you are interested in for broken links. If you find any, you contact the owner of the website and offer to replace the broken link with a working one, which will lead to your site.

Forum links

Community sites like forums are good places to promote your SBD brand. You can leave interesting thoughtful comments with links to your website. Such links are almost always a nofollow attribute. However, participating in discussions that are somehow related to the cannabis industry will allow you to present your product to a large targeted audience.

Guest posting

Guest posting is one of the oldest link building tactics. How does it work? You are writing an article for another site in your niche. They post it and you link to yourself from that article. It’s as easy as a piece of cake! So look for suitable CBD or health-related websites and then post on them. Most sites are open to accepting guest posts, even if they don’t explicitly state it.

Internal links

This is by far the most obvious solution: just post links on your own resources. It won’t bring any outside visitors to your site. But this approach can have a positive effect on the overall SEO of your site. In addition, it will increase visitor retention and make it easier for them to navigate your web platform.

Blogger outreach

Outreach is probably one of the most effective tactics for getting quality backlinks and referrals. The idea is that you reach out to influencers, bloggers and public figures to introduce them to your cannabis products. People trust their favorite bloggers. Therefore, if a blogger shares with his large audience how CBD gummies help him cope with stress and workload, with a reference to your brand, it will be a clear victory for you.

The bottom line

Promoting a CBD business can be challenging due to the nature of the product which is often subject to controversy between federal, state, and local laws. A marijuana SEO strategy differs from most other industries in the need for ethically and legally safe targeting of your brand’s audience. Therefore, cannabis pharmacies, e-commerce companies, and other cannabis businesses should turn to medical marijuana SEO companies for promotion. The help of experts will lead to the best results with a lasting effect and will help to avoid mistakes that can be critical in the mind of a tricky CBD business.

FAQ – CBD SEO 

Inhouse CBD SEO vs Outsourcing CBD SEO:  What to choose?

There are pros and cons to both options. In-house SEO provides greater control and flexibility, as the team can be tailored to meet the company’s specific needs. Outsourcing, on the other hand, provides access to a broader range of expertise and resources.

Ultimately, the decision should be based on the company’s goals, resources, and expertise. Businesses with a strong understanding of SEO and the resources to hire and train an in-house team may benefit from keeping SEO in-house. Companies with limited resources or expertise may benefit from outsourcing to a specialized agency.

How much do CBD SEO Services cost?

The cost of CBD SEO services can vary depending on several factors, including the size and complexity of the website, the scope of the SEO services required, and the level of competition in the CBD market.

The average cost of CBD SEO services can range from a few hundred dollars per month to several thousand dollars per month. We offer transparent pricing and a set of working-specific strategies and tactics, but first, we need to get to know you. For a quote and a free consultation, contact our CBD SEO experts.

Do Natural Links do SEO for CBD brands? Any case study examples?

Yes, Natural Links is experienced in SEO for CBD brands. One of the most recent services we provided was SEO for PureKana, a popular online store for quality products made from hemp-derived CBD. The case study showed success in the industry with clear metrics such as increased website traffic, improved search engine rankings, and higher conversion rates. PureKana’s organic traffic growth has quadrupled, and keyword rankings are showing steady growth from the TOP 100 to the TOP 10 of Google.

How can I get started with CBD SEO Services?

To start your exciting CBD SEO journey, fill out a short form on the Natural Links website to request a free consultation. There you can provide a convenient channel to contact you and write the URL of your CBD site so that our specialist can make a sketchy preliminary assessment.

During the consultation, you can discuss the current status and goals of your website with one of their SEO experts and get recommendations on first-rate CBD SEO strategies to help you achieve your goals. Alternatively, you can also email us at [email protected], skype:support_70095?chat, or @naturallinks (Telegram) to schedule a consultation.

How long does it take to get results with CBD SEO?

CBD SEO can be a long-term process that requires consistent effort and patience. However, with proper implementation, it’s possible to start seeing notable results within 2 to 6 months. This is because CBD is a highly competitive industry, and search engines typically take some time to recognize and rank new websites or content. 

As search engines begin to recognize the website as a credible source of information or products in the CBD industry, rankings and traffic can start to increase.

Overall, CBD businesses should view SEO as a long-term investment, but they can expect to see some initial results within a few months of implementation.

Content writing is the process of researching, planning, writing, editing, and publishing content for the Internet. It can be a blog post, a script for a video, or a sales page. i.e. anything that is published online. SEO content writing is important because content helps you attract and retain customers.

If a webmaster neglects to competently fill up a web resource, sooner or later, worse ranking will occur. A carefully balanced article helps attract traffic by increasing conversion rates and making users take the target action. In this article, we will consider practical tips which you can apply to your content creation for SEO.

What is SEO Content?

SEO content is the articles that are placed on the pages of a website helping with its promotion to the top of the search engine rankings. These articles have to meet certain quantitative and qualitative characteristics and capture the interest of both search engines and the users, who visit a particular resource.

You have to take into account a number of features of the top-grade content, which include

• effective solution to a specific problem. The text should be of interest not only to search engines but also to users;
• depth of the material, an unconventional approach to solving standard problems;
• relevant information;
• clear logic;
• maximum semantic originality;
• thematic subsections with subheadings;
• concise, informative title;
• optimal size;
• incoming links from other sites;
• numbered and bulleted lists;
• natural anchors without overtly advertising nature;
• photo and the name of the author of the material;
• examples for a better understanding of the meaning;
• links to the source code.

Types of SEO content

Filling the site regularly with various materials is quite important for its promotion. Frequency of updates and uniqueness are extremely important for search engines, but users instead can only have a vested interest in attractive and useful text and graphics relevant to the subject matter of the site.

Having analyzed Google`s top-ranked sites, we would like to indicate the following types of SEO content to be applied when optimizing any resource:

• Balanced product pages play both a significant role in your sales and also act as SEO content. They encourage people to press the cherished ‘buy’ button.
• Blog posts are often used to attract organic traffic through content that matches the general queries of the audience, and tend to engage more inbound links in comparison with product pages.
• Articles are the main type of content. They include short or long texts, news, interviews, or feature stories, which give the most complete answer to a user’s questions.
• A guide is a detailed content on several pages about how to do something. You can give your audience tips in the form of an article, video, or infographic.

• Videos make up a large part of media consumption and web traffic today

• They are more engaging than any article or infographic and can be a great way to engage your audience. You can always add a text transcription of your video if necessary.
• Infographics (often in the form of graphs or charts) allow you to visualize almost any data easily. Since much of the content is embedded in the image and therefore cannot be read by search engines as text, it is important to carefully optimize the rest of the page.
• A well-compiled glossary can be a good way to attract some search traffic, especially in terms of some specialized fields of industry.
• A directory is a useful taxonomy of links to sites or resources on a particular topic, influencing all sources of traffic. 

Build SEO Content Strategy

To draw attention to your brand, you have to create a thoughtful content strategy to help drive traffic, and audience, as well as to increase sales via the content to achieve key business objectives. This is a detailed plan for creating, posting, and promoting your content with set budgets and performance metrics. The key to every successful content marketing strategy is high-quality content creation.

Creating a website promotion strategy is a rather extensive task that needs to be handled responsibly in order to promote your website effectively. Thus, the focus should be on the following:

• Defining a goal, measuring current performance, and setting a timeline to achieve a desired ROI.
• Conducting an audit of the site to identify a list of all the technical, visual, and other problems.
• Analyzing competitors to find out what should be used on your own site to add interface elements, category information, subcategories, and keywords. Obtaining information on the reference mass of a competitor`s site and a list of donor sites.
• Choosing an individual SEO content strategy based on the topic of the site, a budget for promotion, and the desired timing for gaining results.
• Making internal optimization based on identified issues and a semantic kernel created and external promotion through the purchase of eternal and rented links, analyzing their effectiveness.

How to Create SEO Content that Helps You Rank Higher in SERP?

How does your website look in search engine results? Are you satisfied with its clickability? So that people will be more likely to convert to your website, it shall be attractive. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. Below we will focus on the specific techniques to help your website rank higher in SERPs and thus drive more traffic to your website such as

• Writing for Humans
• Comprehending the Google’s Algorithm
• Choosing Keywords
• Writing a Long Content
• Making a Unique Content
• Using Related Words
• Linking to High-Quality Sites
• Using Varied Content Types
• Writing meta-information
• Using Headings and Subheadings

1. Writing for Humans

The SEO-optimized text should be written intelligently and clearly for a reader. Most users prefer a simple presentation. They do not want to unravel complex language constructions and professional jargon.

Google tracks how much time users spend on a website. And if the content is easy to read, it keeps customers’ attention on the page longer, which increases its search engine ranking.

Even if a person doesn’t find a comprehensive expert answer to their question in an article, they will still end up on your website. Further on, the user can follow menu links, look up products/services, read other articles, etc. In this way, even a simple SEO article attracts traffic, provided quality keywords are used.

2. Comprehending the Google Algorithm

Google is the world’s most popular online search engine, used by billions of people, answering tens of thousands of queries per second.

Google’s search results are generated by an algorithm that works according to a formula with a large number of variables. Google search robots evaluate a web resource based on many parameters, including security features (SSL certificate), page load speed, mobile friendliness, useful texts, and links.

Key features of Google’s search engine are the following:

• There is no strict regional binding to cities. In fact, for Google, the country is considered the region. But for local organizations, there is a very strong binding to a geographic location within a kilometer;
• contextual advertising service;
• Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) proprietary technology to load pages instantly directly from mobile search results.

3. Choosing Keywords

Keywords and search phrases are entered by a user into search engines to be matched with relevant content.

Keywords should be included in page titles, meta tags, text, and URLs. However, overuse of keywords should be avoided as this can lead to a downgrade of the site.

If you feel that a certain search phrase can no longer be mentioned in the content of your site (organically), you may try adding more content to the site. Please make sure that these additions benefit your site visitors.

Each search phrase should contain 1 to 4 words.

You have to consider the number of competitors for a given keyword or search phrase and try to use specific and unique phrases.

4. Writing a Long Content

The recommended word count for blogs and articles is between 1,000 and 2,600 words. Shorter texts tend to drop down in search engine rankings.

An informative blog or an article with detailed, accurate, and valuable information will keep readers on the page longer. Insightful and useful texts that provide users with detailed answers to their questions are the key to promoting a project. If the articles do not meet the audience’s demands, the bounce rate will increase. And vice versa, if the content is of high quality, the user who has gone to the site will quit seeking further similar information somewhere else.

5. Making a unique content

Writing basic text with keywords is not enough. You have to create unique content on a regular basis. Because search engines look at how often the site is updated and whether it actually contains something of interest to users. If you create unique content, then you have the chance that organic promotion increases decently. In most cases, the text uniqueness depends on the subject and the presence of the text wording that can not be changed. Text content has an acceptable uniqueness rating of 85 percent, although it is better to get at least 90 percent. Articles full of phrases and words that do not carry any meaning are likely to be filtered by search engines.

6. Using Related Words

For the text to appeal to the reader, it must be varied by alternating long sentences with shorter ones, changing the sequence of words, and most importantly, using alternate keywords. Related keywords are variations, synonyms, or semantically related terms to the main keywords you are targeting and trying to rank for in SERPs. In some cases, these are variants of long-tail keywords. In other cases, these will be alternative keywords that your audience uses to find businesses similar to yours. The main reason for using synonyms and related keywords in text is that they make the text easier to read.

7. Linking to High-Quality Sites

Links to reliable and trustworthy resources show that your content is blue-chip and accurate.

The types of links include:

• Internal links to articles and publications on your website.
• External links to third-party resources.
• Inbound links when your platform is mentioned on other websites.

The more inbound links, the higher your ranking is, as Google views your site as a trustworthy and relevant resource.

Citations work similarly to inbound links. Search engines track mentions of your brand, e.g. your company name or the name of an expert. The more you build up these mentions, especially in a positive context, the more likely you are to promote your site to the top of search engines.

8. Using Varied Content Types

Texts supplemented with pictures, infographics, and videos are better accepted by any audience than just an array of words. The sheer number of formats extends the reach of your brand and satisfies even specific audience preferences. You have the ability to distribute content across multiple channels at once and attract different segments of your target customers.

This approach also allows you to always share information in the best way possible. For example, a large list of statistics is better understood with a visual infographic, a customer success story is made clearer with a video interview, and a blog post is easier to share on social media.

9. Writing Meta Information

A meta description is a preview, a small enticing text that appears in the search engine results below the link to the page. By reading the description, a user determines whether they should visit the site or not.

The presence of an intriguing meta-description encourages people to click from search results to your site.

Please follow these five tips to create meta descriptions quickly and easily:

• Supplement the text in the title tag;
• Match your search intent;
• Use strong incentive sentences;
• Keep it short;
• Embed the meta description in the page code.

The recommended length of the meta description is 155-160 characters. If search engines find your meta description inaccurate, they may replace it with their own.

10. Using Headings and subheadings

When used correctly, headings and subheadings improve search engine ranking, influence the readability of the text, structure long materials. and help you understand in a few seconds what the article is about, whether it is worth reading or not. Each subheading shall be thoroughly worked out.

Users are not only attracted to subheadings but also to the first lines of paragraphs after them. Therefore, each paragraph after a subheading should be based on the principle of an inverted pyramid that the important thing is on the first line.

The main requirements for the headings on the page include the presence of keywords in the title, distinct H1 with the main key, all subtitles must go strictly after each other and the title tag should not duplicate H1. 

The Bottom Line

The conclusion is that SEO content is important for a website, both for attracting information traffic and building brand loyalty, increasing the company’s visibility. This is why you should approach this issue in detail, form an action plan and follow it. While preparing the plan, the seasonality of demand should be taken into account.

And do not forget about the pool of “evergreen” content, which will keep attracting traffic to your site for years.

Although content creation takes time and effort, it is a worthwhile investment in potential traffic and conversions. Therefore, you should not skimp on SEO promotion. The key is to remember that content is not created for search engines, but for people, and if it is interesting to users, it will get into the top 10 and bring traffic.

Thus, you have to keep up to date with the latest trends and algorithm updates and keep testing and optimizing your site for the best results.