Evan is the President and Founder of NisonCo Cannabis PR and SEO. He also sits on the Board of Directors of NORML and SSDP.
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SEO is set to see significant changes this year. Leading the excitement is Google’s announcement concerning the launch of its page user experience (UX) update, which is designed to amplify web pages that provide exceptional UX. Exceptional web pages are set apart by features that allow users to progress through the website in an easy-to-understand manner.
The update was initially scheduled for May but likely will not be fully live until August. The extra time comes as a gift, granting SEO experts and businesses extra time to make impactful alterations and enhance SEO strategies.
In particular, there’s a facet of SEO taking the scene by storm: the role of entities, which will be enhanced by Google’s page experience update.
What Are Entities, And Why Add Them To Your Cannabis SEO Strategy?
Essentially, entities are larger topics that house specific sets of keywords. Entities help search engines attain a higher rate of accuracy in delivering results, which is further extended with the support of keywords. Keywords then act as building blocks to define the entities they uphold.
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For example, if you’re a cannabis packaging wholesaler developing an apt SEO strategy, “cannabis packaging” for your brand would be the defined entity. You could then home the power of keywords such as “quality cannabis packaging” and “child-resistant packaging” to create a web to secure the entity and strengthen it. The belief is that entities link relevant topics and keywords together and add necessary context.
Employing entity-strengthening measures will ensure you rank higher in search results. This is because entities act to link associated terms into a more complex, data-rich, searchable web. This means associated keywords and other SEO entities can be just as useful — if not more useful — than individually targeted keywords.
Employed effectively, entities improve the user search experience leading to your business’ site, making content more relatable to your target audience by adding appropriate context. Unlike keywords alone, which demarcate the words and phrases used in searches, entities encompass ideas including people, products, places and abstract concepts.
In order for your cannabis business to properly tap into the potential of SEO entities, familiarize yourself with Google’s Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph is equipped with millions of unique entries that describe entities. The graph is ultimately responsible for helping users to quickly and easily find the content they’re searching for.
When Google patented entities, it defined a system composed of multiple factors to determine ranking. The patent notes that entities are ranked by features such as quality, relevance and context. In the cannabis industry, for example, this means that more effectively SEO-crafted and curated cannabis brand sites will strengthen relationships between entities. This is because Google will have the ability to understand those web of relations to a greater extent, leading to increased visibility. Cannabis brands can go about strengthening SEO entities in diverse ways. Brands can link relevant entities together, such as hardware like herbal vaporizers and electric dab straws. Another option could be promoting valuable links. For example, if your cannabis brand is featured in a high-profile article, linking to that article frequently across content can enhance qualification metrics. Essentially, by weaving an interconnected UX on-site, entity-based search optimization is made more effective.
Search Engines Need Clarity
SEO entities allow search engines to develop accuracy while also clarifying web pages that make them machine-readable. Since SEO keywords are ultimately determined by people, they often carry a level of ambiguity. However, entities are defined by data, limiting the likelihood of ambiguity and bolstering machines’ ability to understand the information presented to them.
In order for search engines to understand search intent, the user must be clear with their goal. Clarity is at the core of entities. For instance, when searching for a dispensary in a local area, the dispensary should be accompanied by another entity such as “near me” to give Google the clearest idea of search intent and strengthen the entities’ relationship. With entities, machines further gain comprehension of language and tone. Furthermore, your SEO strategy must increase the likelihood of meeting user search intent and gain customers’ trust.
Building Authority Using The Power Of SEO Entities
Used correctly, entities can help lead to increased traffic and conversions. Entities enable you to be more specific and convey intent about topics with a higher degree of precision. The content and keywords you use define entities, so creating an interwoven web of relevant information on sites you work on can enhance overall strategy. By strengthening your grasp of entities, you can build your cannabis brand’s authority.
Unsuccessful SEO strategies employ keywords without any meaningful purpose. This is why SEO entities are so important: They enhance the overall experience of your website by giving your keywords and content a world of context. Entities can help boost your business’s visibility if used correctly. When employing entities, it’s crucial to build rich and engaging content to enhance your brand’s authority. At NisonCo, some of the ways we do this are by creating impactful blogs, updating our educational YouTube series and designing relevant social media campaigns.
Developing a positive, streamlined user experience is becoming increasingly important in the SEO world. Aligning entities with other key SEO strategies, such as Core Web Vitals, creates systems that work in tandem to cultivate excellent user interaction with your website. Additionally, tools like social media and Google My Business as well as directory placements can help to boost brand presence and strengthen user experience.
It’s clear that SEO entities are here to stay, and they’re only going to continue to get more prominent in search engine optimization. Although the value is clear, SEO needs to be used correctly in order to be effective, and adding entities to your cannabis SEO strategy is one impactful tool you can use to that end. Be a leader in your cannabis business sector and implement entities into your cannabis SEO strategy to promote user experience and move your business in the right direction.
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Author: Evan Nison, Forbes Councils Member
