With the popularity of CBD continuing to rise in the market, there’s little surprise competition between brands has also increased. eCommerce is a cut-throat industry. However, you can stand out against competitors in the digital landscape by using backlinks.
When done right, backlinks help improve your search engine ranking to increase your advantage in the thriving CBD market. The future of digital marketing lies in mastering search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) strategies that backlinks contribute towards. Read on to learn what backlinks are, the importance of CBD backlinks, how to leverage them for digital marketing success, and tips on using them the right way.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are links found on other websites that lead back to your website. They are also known as “incoming links,” “inbound links,” and “one-way links.” In other words, when someone links to your site, you now have a backlink from them. When you link to another website on your page or blog, they have a backlink from you.
Search engines, such as Google, use backlinks to find your website and confirm you have a reputable site. Google uses hundreds of ranking factors when they decide which websites to show up top on search result pages. One of the major factors is the number of quality backlinks a website has.
Identifying Quality CBD Backlinks
Although backlinks are one of Google’s go-to ranking signals, they now also focus on link quality, not just quantity. So, how do you identify quality CBD backlinks? Quality CBD backlinks are from reputable and relevant CBD websites. You don’t want to be associated with spammy or low-quality sites. Having a backlink from a website outside the CBD landscape, such as finance or real estate, won’t benefit you as much as something relevant.
Other factors for a quality backlink include:
- The domain’s age: aged and well-known domains are more powerful than having a backlink from a new website
- The authority ranking: backlinks from domains with higher authority rankings are more favorable
- Contextual links: links embedded in a page’s content are generally better
The Importance of CBD Backlinks
Having CBD backlinks helps improve your search engine visibility allowing you to get found by more consumers. Platforms like Google also use cannabis links to figure out what your site is about. Quality backlinks will help them pinpoint your area of expertise and niche, so you rank higher in related search queries. Since backlinks are an important factor search engines consider for rankings, having the right backlinks will help you get ahead of the competition.
To help you better understand the importance of CBD backlinks, here are 4 major things backlinks can provide for your business.
Improves Website Ranking
As previously mentioned, search engines use backlinks as one of the factors to rank search results. You want them to know your niche, so they list your website as a top result when a user enters related search queries. Having a higher ranking gives your CBD website a better chance of getting seen.
Not only are people more likely to click the first two results, 75% of users never scroll past the first search result page. Improving your rankings improves everything connected to your business’s digital visibility.
Boosts Website Traffic and Sales
Ultimately, ranking higher on search engines increases visitors to your website. Without people clicking on your website from the results, you won’t be able to convert them into paying consumers. More website traffic means higher conversion rates and sales.
Increases Brand Visibility
The more users see your website on google search results, the better consumers can remember and recognize your brand. Backlinking is a cost-effective and efficient way to increase brand visibility without having to invest in an expensive marketing strategy. This is especially beneficial for new businesses or startups that don’t have a lot of extra resources
Improves Brand Reputation
When consumers frequently see your website and recognize your brand as a source for their CBD-related needs, your reputation will also increase. They will relate your brand to CBD products or information and trust your website as a reputable source when they need something CBD-related. More consumers will trust your brand as a reliable business.
8 Ways to Earn CBD Backlinks
You might be wondering, how do I earn quality backlinks? Although it seems you just have to leave it to chance and hope people link back to your website, there are methods to get your links on reputable sites strategically. Here are 8 methods you can implement to earn CBD backlinks.
Report Broken Links
Broken links lead to a nonexistent page or an error 404 page. You’ve probably experienced it where you’re browsing articles on CBD, click a link, find it’s not working, and leave the site disappointed. Now you can take advantage of these broken links.
Report the broken link by contacting the owner of the website. Additionally, suggest a link to replace the broken one by finding a similar link from your site. Although you can’t guarantee the webmaster will take your offer, there is a chance they will since you’re helping them update their sources.
Notify Web Admins
If you have well-performing links, chances are people will want to link to them. Get in touch with the web admins to notify them of your links. There are plenty of journals and bloggers focused on promoting CBD who are always looking for new content. If you have a new website, you can do a content promotion to increase your website traffic and develop well-performing links.
Submit Guest Blogs
Guest blogging is when a business lets other companies or bloggers write and publish on their platform. Numerous websites in the CBD landscape welcome guest bloggers. You can include a link to your website, whether in the content or your guest profile and get a backlink.
Be careful not to overdo it because the webmaster has to approve the final version. However, even getting just one backlink to your site from a reputable website is profitable. Guest blogging is a reliable, efficient, and successful method to earn CBD backlinks.
Guest on Podcasts and Interviews
Besides guest blogging, you can also become a guest on a podcast or interview. Most podcast and interview hosts have a digital platform, which means your website can be linked when they feature the episode you’re in. The increased popularity of CBD products with increasing cannabis legalization makes CBD a controversial field that attracts many listeners.
Use Visual Assets
Infographics are a popular visual asset you can use to earn CBD backlinks. Many people like to mention or link back to well-made infographics. Besides infographics, you can also create:
- Diagrams to explain concepts
- Graphs and charts with original data
- One-page templates
Leave Reviews and Testimonials
Customer reviews and testimonials are important to build trust among consumers and increase your brand’s reputation. Unfortunately, reviews on your website don’t contribute to backlinking. Leaving reviews, on the hand can. But you need to do it the right way.
When leaving a positive review on another CBD website, naturally insert a link to your website in your comment. Make sure not to make it sound promotional since your comment can be deleted if it appears like spamming. Phrase your comments properly and leave them on different websites to build your backlinks.
Become a Source
Using your CBD expertise and unique data, you can become a source for other journalists and bloggers. You can reach out to journalists directly or subscribe to Help a Reporter Out (HARO). It’s a free service connecting experts to journalists and bloggers looking for contributors.
Implement Skyscraper Method
The skyscraper method is a little controversial since some people believe it’s unethical. It’s where you find a blog post or content that ranks highly in search results. Then you create content that is significantly better even though you use the same topic and foundation. Promote this upgraded version to everyone who linked to the original content you found.
Getting Started with CBD Backlinks
Now you know why CBD backlinks are important and how to earn backlinks. But is every backlink made equally? No. There are ways to ensure you make the best backlinks and here are 6 things to keep in mind when you get started on backlinking.
Targeted Keywords
High-quality keywords for your CBD backlinks are extremely important. You’ll want to start with some keyword research to identify the best CBD keywords. There are online tools that help with keyword research, including providing data on how often people search for it. Then strategically use these keywords for your backlinks. However, make sure not to overstuff keywords or it might negatively impact search engine results. SEO experts recommend a keyword density of 1 to 2 percent of the total word count.
Anchor Text
The anchor text is the highlighted, clickable text that contains the link. The best backlinks use high-quality and authentic anchor texts with relevant keywords. When creating great anchor texts, make sure to:
- Keep variation
- Avoid long anchor texts
- Use commonly used keywords
- Implement it into the content
- Use a moderate number of links
Domain Authority
Domain authority (DA) is a ranking score measuring how successful a website is regarding search engine results. Most search engines rank DA out of 100; the higher the number, the better. Having a higher DA website backlink will be more favorable for the search engine. In contrast, CBD sites with too many low-quality links signal to the search engine that something is wrong.
Number of Backlinks
Having as many backlinks as possible from high-authority websites will help increase your ranking. However, if you are wondering what’s the minimum number of backlinks you’ll need, it depends on the keyword difficulty rating. SEO tools show a rating of up to 100 and low-rated keywords don’t need as many backlinks. You could get away with 10 backlinks with a 10-rated keyword difficulty but will need twice as many backlinks for a 60-rated keyword.
Avoid Unnatural Links
Any link that search engines determine as unnatural is less likely to be counted toward your ranking. Too many unnatural backlinks can even get your page penalized or blacklisted. Make sure you are aware of search engine restrictions since any link intended to manipulate their ranking is considered unnatural. For example, here are some things Google lists as situations that will penalize your site:
- Forum or comment spams
- Obvious paid links
- Bulk, low-quality directory submissions
- Links from unsavory sites
- Low-quality links from non-relevant sites
Use a Cannabis Backlink Checker
To help avoid, too many unnatural backlinks, you can use a backlink checker to quickly monitor backlinks for your website. You just enter your URL and they will provide you a report of the backlinks to your site. This can include the anchor text, the domain rating, link type, and more.
Conclusion – Importance of CBD Backlinks
CBD backlinks are an important part of a brand’s digital strategy to get ahead of competitors. They’ll help you increase your website ranking, boost traffic, improve brand reputation, and more. However, you want to make sure you focus on quality links when implementing the ways to earn CBD backlinks. Also, be patient as it can take time to do the proper research and build your backlinking to take your website to the first page of search engine results.