Underlining or color changes are not recommended due to potential clashes with the formatting of anchor text in the WordPress theme settings on certain websites

Step 4: Proofreading

For subtitles (text under images)

Managing greenhouse microclimate

“Given the rise in cannabis use within the U.S. and the reliance on the Internet as a source of information, considerable efforts are needed to provide accurate on-line cannabis education to minimize harms and maximize benefits for individuals and society.”

Now that you understand the contextual elements of cannabis SEO, we can focus on the nuts and bolts. Here are five major goals your Cannabis SEO marketing plan should strive to achieve:

Content Creation: Generation of content that utilizes keywords to drive website traffic, educates and informs consumers, and entices them to purchase products

So who is doing this writing? Most articles don’t even have authors or citations. However, if you go on freelancer platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork, you’ll quickly learn who is writing this content. Most content writers are freelancers. Some have marketing experience or education, but most are self-taught.

Artisanal CBD products

Cannabis greenhouse operating costs

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing…… 1

Tunnel greenhouses

Gothic greenhouses

Cannabis greenhouse lighting

Final Thoughts (Conclusion)

Likewise, if a product claims to be “GMP,” it must be registered as such with the FDA. This requires independent certification, but without a registration number from the FDA you cannot make any GMP-related claim! When it comes to wholesale and white-labeling, the product ceases to be GMP unless the seller/final brand of the product maintains those GMP conditions. This means also registering with the FDA.

Images

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing technique that works for both products and information. It is a method of creating content that is optimized to be highly visible in search results. This is accomplished through technical measures like structuring website pages in an organized way and ensuring that website metadata is optimized, and also in creative ways such as using keywords in blogs and product descriptions and having high-quality information and backlinks.

What Not to Say About Cannabis

References should be cited in a numbered and alphabetized list. The reference section will be at the end of the writing sample. Put primary research in the references section. Make other references into embedded text links. To reference a citation in-text cite the number in-between brackets (example: [1]).

Researching Content Topics

Before moving on, it is important to understand some definitions and terms used in SEO.

1% of conditions have moderate evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Google Seach Console https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?hl=en

The main keyword is not used more than 30 times, to avoid keyword stuffing

The paper “A content analysis of internet information sources on medical cannabis (Kruger, et al. 2020)” illustrates the tension between conventional medicine, the interested public audience, and content marketing. They point out that medical cannabis users put more trust in medical cannabis than in mainstream healthcare and are less likely to seek information from healthcare providers. They also report on where this demographic is getting their information and what sources they are putting trust in.

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 2)

What font type and size (and color) is used?

Freelance Writing Agencies

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing

Offer to have a conference call with a client before taking on their project

To familiarize yourself with the style of writing we have in mind, you can view some of these blog posts: [insert links to examples of content you desire]

This Cannabis SEO Guide will educate and empower you to create successful cannabis content. In addition to providing technical guidance, this guide will give you context and advice specific to cannabis. Whether you are a cannabis product maker, marketer, or writer, you will get a comprehensive understanding that will set you up for success. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of cannabis SEO, this guide will give you some background information and legal information that will help you better understand the audience, the products, and the regulatory and legal environment that you’ll be working in.

Don’t make medical claims

Educate and entice consumers

Creating a Content Plan…………………………….. 12

Energy, focus, attentiveness, alertness

Identifying SEO Topics…………………………… 10

References (Use this, or replace with your own style guide)

Amazing Title About Five to Seven Words Long

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Finally, one last thing to avoid in CBD marketing is CBD recipes. The FDA prohibits adding CBD to food. People do it anyway, after all, there are tons of CBD drinks and cannabinoid edibles on the market. Are they legal? Not entirely, but the FDA has yet to enforce action against CBD drinks, gummies, chocolates, and the like. However, you should not write CBD recipe blogs or put recipes on your website.

Cannabis nutrients

SEO Style Guide……………………………………….. 15

You can also use Keywords Everywhere, Answer the Public, or Moz to do free keyword research. You’ll notice that some keywords are single words and others are phrases. These phrases are called “longtail keywords.”

CBD “Recipes”

The article has one external link (to another website)

“72% of internet users seek out health information using an internet search engine.”

Someone would want to click on these if they saw them on Google (use power words)

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content……………………………………… 16

The article has a clear introduction and a clear conclusion

C

The Writing Sample itself should not take more than two hours to complete

Social media content

There is also a very wide spectrum when it comes to skill and quality. You can get a blog for as little as five dollars from a foreign Fiverr freelancer, but the quality of this blog is going to be very low. It will use the keywords you specify, but will essentially be vacant of useful, factual, and/or interesting information and likely will sound like it wasn’t written by a native English speaker. This information-vacant content can also be called “copypasta.” While you might think, “At least I’ll have something that uses some good keywords.” You’ll be disappointed to learn that search engines will penalize your website for using information-vacant content that is stuffed with keywords.

Cornerstone Content: Long articles (1500-3000 words) that cover key features, links to internal web pages and highly credible external links, updated to link to general content

Step 3: Writing

Consider the intent behind the keywords

Keyword Analysis: Intent, Relevance, and Competition

West Coast

In return for this writing, you will receive payment on individually agreed-upon terms

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 1)

People still want and need to know

Body Text

Please read through this entire exercise. There are many helpful links and resources that will help you create the best writing sample possible.

General Content: Shorter articles (500-1200 words) that cover sub-topics and news and link to the cornerstone content

“Start low and go slow” is one practical and accurate recommendation. Starting at low amounts of product and slowly increasing (titration) has been recommended in some CBD research. It is vague and not too helpful, but it isn’t inaccurate. It should also be mentioned that if someone takes too much CBD, they will likely feel side effects.

Content Plan for Cannabis Greenhouses

Specific phrases or comments can be formatted with bold or italics for emphasis as necessary

Below is a sample outline of the style and layout expected in the writing sample

Consider the massive amount of health and medical information that you find on the front page of Google. Virtually none of the sites you see first have information that is written by a doctor or person with any medical training. But what you do find is information that answers the search query from websites with high domain ratings and near-perfect data structure.

First Topic (Overview)

There are many scams to be wary of as a freelance cannabis writer. New writers and people new to hiring writers can have a hard time telling what the standards are. Here are some tips for avoiding freelancer scams and beginning client-writer relationships.

It is ok to ask for references from previous clients

Moz https://moz.com/explorer

General content should cover sub-topics of your website and specific topics such as information on specific products, addressing common customer questions, and reporting on news and announcements.

9% of conditions have no or insufficient evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Page Rating

“Understanding of cannabis is generally modest among the general public. Medical cannabis users have remarkably low to moderate knowledge of important aspects of cannabis such as medical effectiveness, cannabinoid content and effective dosages, and effective harm reduction techniques.”

High pressure sodium lamps

Types of greenhouse plastics

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product. Attribute “observations,” “study findings,” “[source] claims/found/suggested that…”

In-text citations also need a consistent style, either (author last name, year), or more commonly [#] which refers to a numbered reference list

To date, FDA has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition and thus has not determined that cannabis is safe and effective for any particular disease or condition.”

For H1 headers (title only)

Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?………………………………………………….. 3

These goals can be archived by creating content that is driven by keyword research and published with proper technical formatting. Here is a brief explanation of these three key elements.

You can get a more clear idea of what not to do by looking at the agency’s behavior. This includes the many warning letters https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/warning-letters-and-test-results-cannabidiol-related-products they have issued against CBD companies.

DO NOT rely on AI content, be original and put in the work to get results that last

Use professional organizations and government websites such as:

6% of conditions have limited evidence of the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis/cannabinoids

Answer the Public https://answerthepublic.com/

Topics:

Creating a Content Plan

Table of Contents

Inorganic Website Traffic: Website traffic driven by paid advertising

LED lighting

Here is an example of using a topic list to identify keywords:

Sub-Topic A

So how do you describe the effects of cannabis? You need to get creative and use words that describe a feeling. Examples include:

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey…………………………………………………….. 20

In addition to the FDA guidance, CBD recipes are impractical and ineffective. In most cases, they are just a waste to people. This is because CBD tinctures, CBD oil, and CBD isolate powders are not water-soluble. That is, they only dissolve in oil (and have a bad taste). Also, if a product is intended to be heated, the CBD will be in its acidic form (CBDA). CBDA is not active in the body until it is decarboxylated into CBD (the same goes for THCA and THC). So the CBD product may not be in the right form to be eaten.

Supplemental lighting for cannabis greenhouses

Never ask for or provide unpaid custom writing or “samples”

Differs from person to person

Title/main headline to be defined as H1 and formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 20 and bolded

At the end of the day, it is extremely unlikely that any organic claim for cannabis can be legally supported. Using this term will only bring you trouble. Education is again the answer. Help your customers understand that they should be highly skeptical of organic claims. You can also offer transparency by creating content that shows your production and farming processes. This is high-quality content that lets your product speak for itself instead of making erroneous claims.

“FDA is aware that unapproved cannabis or cannabis-derived products are being used for the treatment of a number of medical conditions including, for example, AIDS wasting, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, and cancer and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Here are some provided references that can be found using Google Scholar:

Title: Heading 1 format (note- do not use the “title” format option)

The conclusion has a call to action

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations

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Conclusion paragraph text

Content Plan Example……………………………. 13

pure cbd tincture

SEO Style Guide

If you are not already familiar with the legal status of your topic, take some time to do so. This is especially important when talking about CBD.

Your writing is your client’s property, self-plagiarism is still plagiarism

Crafting Cornerstone Content…………………. 12

–FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD)

1.15 line spacing

[Use default Google Doc settings:

Millar, S. A., Maguire, R. F., Yates, A. S., and O’Sullivan, S. E. (2020). Towards better delivery of cannabidiol (CBD). Pharmaceuticals, 13(9), 219. file:///C:/Users/16123/Downloads/pharmaceuticals-13-00219-v2%20(1).pdf

Building a Cannabis Greenhouse

Domain Rating

Relaxing

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

DIY versus hiring a contractor

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing

How to Identify SEO Keywords………………….. 10

74% of the conditions claimed to be treatable with cannabis are not even acknowledged by the NASEM report

Drive internet traffic to your website using keywords

92% of sites suggested using cannabis for specific health or medical conditions

All cornerstone content should also be evergreen content. This means that you need to have a schedule for actively updating articles to ensure they are relevant. Updates should include adding links to new content and updating technical SEO as new search features and changes to search algorithms arise. This helps cornerstone content retain and improve its search ranking. None of your content should ever be orphan content. Orphan content is a sign that you have deviated from your content plan and this type of content will be virtually invisible to search engines.

Greenhouse coverings

In order to get a feel for your writing, we invite you to take part in this writing sample. If you have any questions please correspond with your email contact to address them.

Don’t give customers exaggerated expectations

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower………… 6

Image files should have a name that describes the image with keywords

Metal halide lamps

Marketing “Organic” Hemp and CBD…………. 6

Claiming that cannabis products are organic is a HUGE no! Even if the product is cultivated using organic practices, it CAN NOT be called “organic” and you should not try to mince words when it comes to organic classification.

American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/)

Goal: Sell artisanal CBD products that naturally support health and well-being

Audience: CBD consumers, age 35-50, natural product consumers, moms, farmer’s market shoppers, natural product boutiques

CBD tinctures

For H2 headers (paragraph headers)

Find keywords from a variety of sources

Suggested Further Reading

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research” is the official US report on cannabis that summarized what is currently known about the use of cannabis to treat health and medical conditions. Kruger, et al. (2020) compared this report to the 151 medical and health conditions that were mentioned by internet content as being treatable with cannabis.

Use “marijuana” not “marihuana” unless it is a direct quote or specific to a keyword

Be careful with wording if you put a recommended dose on packaging

Buying a Cannabis Greenhouse

Finding SEO Keywords for Free……………… 10

If information from other sources was used, the source is credited and hyperlinked

Differs based on product formulation

Color should mostly be black

Keywords Everywhere https://keywordseverywhere.com/

Block quotes should not be used except for long quotations or citations. Denote block quotes within Google Docs using triple quotes in its own paragraph:

Southern

Do I have any questions about the topic or keyword phrase?

What citation style is used for references?

Once you have identified your audience, topics, and keywords, it is time to create a content plan. Your content plan will give you a roadmap to creating a blog that is organized, successful, and impactful. These are the four types of content you will address in your content plan:

Default font formatting has a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color and size 11

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Another research paper titled “Public interest in Cannabis during election season: a Google Trends analysis (Torgerson, et al. 2020)” points out that interest in cannabis and the demand for online information about it is growing while medical professionals remain reluctant to provide the public with that information. There are many unfortunate reasons that doctors aren’t talking about cannabis, but the ethical take-away is that your marketing content can easily be misunderstood as health advice by the general public, or worse, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

SEO Definitions

Cannabis greenhouse light deprivation

No standardized recommendation

In WordPress, images have alt tags that use keywords to describe the image

Hemp and CBD must be certified organic by a USDA accredited agency and registered as such to legally make the claim of being organic.

How to Identify SEO Keywords

4% of conditions do have conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective treatments

The end of this article is just the beginning of your cannabis SEO journey. It is good to start this journey by creating your content plan, identifying your major keywords, and creating a style guide. With these starting elements in place, you can decide what elements to take on yourself and what should be hired out to a freelance writer or SEO agency. You will also want to make sure you have your marketing budget and marketing priorities planned before reaching out. Freelancers and SEO agencies can be the most effective when you have clear goals for them to meet.

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

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References

How to select the right greenhouse for your location

Subtopic paragraph text

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Topic paragraph text

However, that page as well as the brands found when searching for “artisanal CBD products” can be considered competition. You would want to follow the search results to these websites and look at those competing results. They can give you insights about what you should include in your content if you want to compete with them. In some keyword tools, you’ll also be able to see the competitiveness of keywords and search volume. The best keywords to target first are the ones with moderate competitiveness and moderate search volume. You can target more niche keywords or higher competition keywords later, but don’t make them a priority since you are unlikely to convert those results to website visits.

Avoid the use of bank transfers; get paid through an agency website if you are using one

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?

There is either one photo per H2 OR one photo for every 500 words

Freelancer Scams and Etiquette

Iffland, K., and Grotenhermen, F. (2017). An update on safety and side effects of cannabidiol: a review of clinical data and relevant animal studies. Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 2(1), 139-154. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2016.0034

A

Infrastructure

Likewise, a writer may ask a client if they have any references from previous freelancers

Let’s talk about technical formatting now that you understand how to identify your audience, generate content topics, and find keywords. The technical side of SEO can be the most difficult to perfect, but it has a huge influence on making your content visible to search engines. The most basic aspect of technical SEO is ensuring your content is written in the proper style. For this, you will want to create a style guide that will give your website a consistent appearance.

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Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?

Example blockquote: “””This is a example of a wise sounding quote — Author, Source”””

The internet has become a ubiquitous tool for every industry. A business simply cannot exist without an online presence. In addition to playing an essential role in business, the internet also plays a crucial role in education. In this context, the public gets online seeking out products and information. Search engines, especially Google, are the most popular way to find what they want. That means businesses need to have an online presence that is visible through search engines.

The Writing Sample should be completed and delivered within 72 hours (three days).

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations…………………………………………… 3

Water-soluble and nanoemulsion CBD preparations do exist. If you are making edible cannabinoid products, you should consider using these preparations for better product quality. At the end of the day, just don’t bother with CBD recipe blogs though.

The text is broken up with headers tagged as H2s, then H3s and H4s if needed

Keyword: Words that people use in search engines

Identifying SEO keywords is an essential step in writing effective content. Doing good keyword research ensures you have a solid basis for your content marketing plan. It is also important to keep doing this research over time. That’s because people’s interests change, and also Google search algorithms change. Here is an overview of how to identify SEO keywords:

Legal Considerations

Cannabis content comes with a variety of price tags. Cannabis blog articles under 1000 words can be found for as little as $15 per article. These tend to be very low-quality articles that can actually hurt a website’s Google analytics. Most clients are willing to pay at least $20 per hour for good content writing. For typical posts under 1500 words, this can be a $20 to $100 cannabis article. For longer posts and cannabis ultimate guides that take more time to write $75 to $200 is a more accurate price tag. If you are paying by the word, $0.05 to $0.07 is reasonable for a decent writer, experts may cost more. Remember- You get what you pay for!

Soil for growing cannabis

Be clear and agree on billing terms, the scope of work, and deliverable due dates

After finding keywords, there’s three main steps to complete before you start writing cannabis content:

There are a few different types of service agreements cannabis content writers commonly work with. These include hourly, by-the-word, and by-the-project. Billing frequencies are usually monthly or bi-monthly. You will want to negotiate these terms with your client and write them up in a service agreement.

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H4 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 12 and bolded

PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Site selection

Another effective approach to talking about cannabinoid dosage is to explain to customers how to calculate and estimate CBD mg per g in a product. If you are someone who makes a cannabinoid product, consider these recommendations when designing your labeling:

Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are an industry standard and always recommended

If you are using AI like chatGPT, remember the following

wink cbd

There is just one space between sentences and one line break between paragraphs

CBD lotion

You never, in any way state, suggest, or imply that CBD, hemp, or any cannabinoid product is a medical product! It is outrageous and ethically irresponsible to talk about retail CBD and hemp products in this way. Not only that, but many consumers are actually becoming turned off from CBD products because of the over-promised and under-delivered effects.

Many of these conditions lack conclusive or substantial evidence to support the claim that cannabis/cannabinoids were effective treatments. While it is expected that cannabis is not well supported as a treatment for most conditions, some of the medical claims being made are actually quite dangerous and misleading.

The headline options are between 40-60 characters

Remember, CBD products are not new at this point. They were very recklessly marketed when they first came available, so responsible and educational marketing is very important. Integrity in CBD marketing means accepting and acknowledging the limitations and risks of the product as well as the benefits. If you aren’t honest about the full picture, you have no business producing or selling a product that can hurt people and does have side effects.

Ranking: Position a website shows up in when searching related keywords on a search engine, where everyone is competing to reach the first page of search results

Analyze the competition

CBD “Recipes”………………………………………… 7

Wind loading and snow loading

Links

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?

For body text

Step 1: Background

Have a food safety lawyer review labeling and dosage-related information

Talking about dosage for cannabis and cannabinoids like CBD is challenging for four main reasons:

Images not be in-lined and should only follow paragraphs after a single line break and be succeeded with a single line break

best cbd tinctures

SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) identifies the elements of content that search engines rank and leverages those elements to drive organic website traffic

Is Cannabis Actually an Effective Treatment?

There are many online freelancing platforms such as Upwork and Fivver that are great for writers. Upwork tends to have higher quality writers with more experience. Fivver has a lot of foreign content writers with cheaper work that typically needs to be reworked to be usable.

What Not to Say About Cannabis………………… 4

Wellness

Landscape images to be used where possible

AI content can be detected, in the future, search engines will likely improve algorithms so AI content will be less valued than original content

When you look over the keywords that you’ve found, you’ll immediately notice that some are totally irrelevant or don’t make sense. You can just delete these or ignore them since they are very obviously lacking in relevance. Next, look at each keyword and consider what the intent is when someone types it into Google. Some keywords have very vague intent or intent that does not match your goals. An example of this is “CBD tincture Reddit” this keyword is both irrelevant and does not meet intent since a person searching this is looking for that Reddit page.

The result is a comprehensive knowledge base that engages and educates consumers while attracting website traffic. You can actually see this project at hortitechdirect.com to see how the end result was executed. The last step in your content plan should be to keep a schedule of when to update articles. For cornerstone content, this should happen once or twice a year. For general content, you can update them less frequently. In either case, you should plan an annual SEO audit of your website to make sure everything is kept fresh. One great way to do this is to assign employees to read blog articles and provide feedback as part of their training. This helps to identify issues and areas for improvement and also educates employees so they can provide better customer care and have a deeper understanding of the business.

Be sure to proofread your article when you are done. You may want to take some time away from writing before proofreading. The free Grammarly browser extension can help detect errors that Google does not pick up. Keep in mind there are some cannabis grammar quirks and preferences that exist. Here are some simple ones to keep in mind:

The main keyword is used in the first sentence of the article

-Torgerson, et al. (2020)

When writing content, you’ll need to do some research on the topic itself. To do this you should turn to sources that are very trustworthy. Not only that but since you will likely be linking to these sources, you need to be sure they do not compete with your own business. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Google Search Bar https://www.google.com/

Backlink: A link to your content that appears on another website, typically helps to increase ranking, domain ratings, and page ratings

The FDA has withheld from classifying CBD under its regulations. This means that CBD is not a dietary supplement and cannot be marketed as such.

Be sure that you review your work to make sure that it reads well, that it is formatted correctly, and free of spelling and grammar errors.

Keyword Research: Identifies the words and phrases that people are searching for

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing

Step 2: Format (Replace with your own style guide)

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?…………………………….. 8

Before you start hunting for keywords, make a list of topics and words that are relevant to your website. If you have many different products, creating separate lists for each might work best. You’ll use these topics and words to help find keywords to use in your content. You will also want to have a clear idea of your brand, your audience, and your goals. Here’s an example of topics:

No mixing CBD with food

Content: The words, images, and video associated with a website

Metadata: Data (such as tags) that tells search engines about your website and content that makes it easier for search engines to know what your content is about

SEO Definitions………………………………………….. 9

Do put cannabinoid/mg and total volume on packaging

You could throw in a quote:

Personal anecdotal experiences

Sub-Headings: Heading 2 and Heading 3 formats

Make sure line spacing height and use of indentations is consistent throughout the content and throughout the website.

Cannabis cultivation supplies

East Coast

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey

Introduction paragraph text

Once your writing sample is complete, you can submit it to your email contact. This writing sample is a great way for clients and writers to learn about each other. The guidelines set out in this exercise will be similar to those expected of you as a cannabis content writer. Providing cannabis content writers with clear guidelines for cannabis content helps their talent shine through and reduces the time it takes to post content.

Longtail Keywords: Phrases that people use in search engines

For H3 headers (sub-paragraph headers)

APA is the most common citation style, but others can be used if desired as long as you keep it consistent

“Writing samples are the most fun ever!” -No One, Ever

Before starting, you will want to consider these points:

No medical claims

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?……. 5

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.]

It is vitally important to remember that your cannabis content has a second audience behind your consumers. This audience is the FDA, the agency that regulates consumable products and pharmaceuticals. Understanding their regulation and authority is of vital importance because an FDA warning letter will live right next to your website in search results! It can also carry financial consequences great enough to put you out of business.

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Read competing content to get an idea of what your content should cover but DO NOT copy their content- make yours better

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower

Have I read other blogs on this client’s site to get an understanding of their style?

Cannabis greenhouse pest control

Identifying SEO Topics

The first step in writing cannabis content is to identify relevant keywords. There are many free tools that can be used to identify keywords. First, you should have Google Search Console set up for your website. If you don’t, do that right away! In addition to finding keywords on Google Search Console, you can also just go to Google and type in words. You’ll see a drop-down list start to populate, those phrases are some keywords you should consider using.

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References……………………………………………….. 21

Paying a Cannabis Content Writer

Crafting General Content……………………….. 12

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Study your topic, define your brand, define your audience, and set a goal

Media reports (may or may not be paid sponsored content)

Only capitalize “cannabis” as “Cannabis” when it is the first word in a sentence or is being used as a proper noun to refer to the species cannabis.

An FDA warning letter is a letter that can be issued for many reasons. Most of the CBD companies that have been issued warning letters have violated FDA marketing restrictions for CBD. Namely, they are making medical claims about their products. Anyone selling cannabis or CBD, or marketing it, should read “FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD) https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-regulation-cannabis-and-cannabis-derived-products-including-cannabidiol-cbd.”

“The current study found that information related to medical cannabis on the Internet is abundant, generally positive, but lacking in the depth and detail that would ideally inform medical treatment. Over 150 different health and medical conditions were suggested for treatment by cannabis, yet only 4% of the conditions mentioned have substantial empirical support.”

Hydroponic nutrients

The article has two to three internal links (to other webpages in your website)

Evergreen Content: Content that is regularly updated to ensure it is still relevant

3% of conditions show evidence that using cannabis would increase the person’s risks

Ignore irrelevant keywords

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Chilling out

The next step with this outline is to create article outlines for the three major topics. However, you’ll also want to consider your keyword research. In this example, buying, building, and operating a greenhouse are all top keywords and major themes. However, keyword data also suggests that cannabis lighting and cultivation are also very relevant. In this case, the greenhouse company needs to consider if it is something to give more attention to. Since this greenhouse company also sells lighting and cultivation supplies, they will add these as cornerstone topics as well as include them as part of their operational content.

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Website content

Organic nutrients

Use scholar.google.com to find open-access articles from scholarly sources

AI can lie! Always fact-check claims!

Topic paragraph text

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Analyze the keywords, and study their intent, relevance, and competition

The article uses active voice instead of passive voice

If you do not use a freelancing agency website, PayPal and Venmo are standard (be wary of Zelle)

Calm/calmness

The main keyword is inserted in at least one H2

Gable top greenhouses

Artisanal CBD products

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Tension relief

Living soil

The article uses AP Style

B

Crafting General Content

Crafting Cornerstone Content

Titles and Headers/Headlines

Maybe a good place for a list:

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Glasshouses

H3 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 14 and bolded

Researching Content Topics…………………….. 14

Cannabis SEO Content 101

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

Operating a Cannabis Greenhouse

Uplifting, happy, euphoric, bliss

Overall, the writing sample does not need to be more than 750 words and should not exceed 1000 words. A minimum of 500 words is requested. The formatting template above may be helpful to use as a template. Your individual topic and keyword target will vary. You will want to keep them in mind as you write. For a great guide on how to use SEO keywords, you can go to Moz. In addition to your assigned keyword, you can use related keywords to really beef up your SEO. You can find related keywords simply by entering the keyword target in the google search bar. The phrases that come up below will be related keywords and long-tail keywords.

H2 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 16 and bolded

Larsen, C., and Shahinas, J. (2020). Dosage, efficacy and safety of cannabidiol administration in adults: a systematic review of human trials. Journal of clinical medicine research, 12(3), 129. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7092763/

Types of greenhouses and their features

No path to register CBD products with the FDA

Here is an example of a content plan for a cannabis greenhouse company that utilizes these elements. Notice that there are three main topics that form cornerstones and subtopics that are suitable for general content.

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The full keyword is in each headline (as much as possible)

Here is an example of the Dope SEO Style Guide that is given to content writers. When working with hired content writers, they will typically provide you with the content in a Word document or Google document so actual formatting (font, size, color, etc.) is not too critical as the WordPress theme will typically update these aspects.

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” and “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product.

Finding SEO Keywords for Free

Internet content about medical cannabis use is a growing concern not just because the information is inaccurate and misleading, but because it is actually dangerous in some instances. Many of these blogs are hosted by companies that are trying to sell products. Even in “news” websites, companies can pay to have their blog material published so it looks like it is coming from an unbiased source. The cost for this can be as low as $100 and up to $2000 for big-name publications. Most readers don’t really know the meaning of “Sponsored Post” is that it is paid advertising from a private company with biased interests. This is a big problem because misleading information can hurt people.

Font: Arial, 11

Cornerstone content should encompass the major themes and topics of your website. These themes and topics are often very general keywords with very high competition for search rankings, so you need to say a lot about them and say it well. A good practice for identifying cornerstone content topics is to create a flow chart or outline.

National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Packaging should comply with Dietary Supplement FDA requirements, however, you should not claim or imply to actually be a dietary supplement or any other type of FDA-regulated product

Second Topic

This article from the FDA will give you an in-depth understanding of what is and is not legal when selling and marketing cannabis products. The FDA guidelines for CBD products are both as clear a vague as possible:

A “therapy” or “therapeutic” substance must be FDA regulated and approved. Epidiolex is one of the only cannabinoid products that meets these criteria (for limited pharmaceutical applications). Therapeutic and therapy are protected words that are explicit to products with FDA approval for medical uses.

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Cannabis SEO Content 101…………………………. 9

Body: “Normal text” (use ctrl+shift+v to paste without source formatting)

CBD Company A

Subtopic paragraph text

Rejuvenation, Invigorating

The headers have AP Style capitalization (capitalizemytitle.com)

3% of conditions actually have evidence that cannabis/cannabinoids are an ineffective treatment

If you are in need of hiring highly skilled cannabis content writers, you will want to get a writing sample. From a client perspective, you can always re-work writing samples into your blog. From a cannabis content writer angle, you are doing a guaranteed paid project. So, writing samples are win-win. Below is a hiring exercise for cannabis content writers. You are free to use and adapt this writing sample exercise. It is a great tool for hiring content writers and educating new content writers on good habits. When using this template, be sure to customize it, fields that are bracketed in red will require you to customize them.

Midwest

Additionally, it is useful to explain bioavailability to customers. Bioavailability is the amount of a product that actually makes it into the body when consumed. Remember, you are not a doctor or pharmacist, but when selling or marketing cannabinoid products it is best to have some understanding of how they actually work in the body. To better understand CBD dosage, CBD bioavailability, and CBD side effects, it is strongly recommended to read these three scholarly research papers:

“Organic” is a serious legal claim that MUST be backed up with documentation. There are many unaccredited agencies offering to “certify” organic hemp. However, if they are not accredited by the USDA, their certification is meaningless! You are responsible for proving that your product is organic if you make that claim. That means fact-checking the farmers that are selling you their “organic” hemp.

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Organic Website Traffic: Unpaid website traffic driven

CBD lotion

AI is good for article filler like introductions to articles and paragraphs but you still need to do the work to give the article its “meat and bones”

Introduction

CBD Company A

Most FDA violations come from making medical claims about products. The term “medical claims” is broader than direct claims like, “CBD tincture relieves pain.” In addition to claims about medical effects, “medical claims” also encompass claims about dosage, certifications, and classifications of products.

Orphan Content: Content that does not link to other internal content or webpages

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Cannabis storage solutions

Stylistic Considerations

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Your client will provide you with a writing topic and target keyword phrase

Spacing and indentations

Cannabis lighting

DopeSEO Style Guide

Third Topic

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Sub-Topic B

Style Guide Creation

Your writing sample should be written in a [Google Doc], and submitted via a link to it. Be sure you have a [Google account, and familiarize yourself with the Google Drive and Google Doc] interface if you haven’t used it before.

Cannabis trimming supplies

Avoid the term “weed”

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Am I clear about the agreed-upon rate and billing terms for my writing sample?

Do list all ingredients, active and inactive

Only capitalize “sativa” and “indica” when it is the first word in a sentence.

Technical Formatting: Use of proper headings, tags, meta descriptions, and other technical elements to ensure that content is visible and highly rated by search engines

Nutrient dosers

Top Medical Cannabis User Information Sources

CBD tinctures

You can see how this content plan ensures that there is no orphan content. As each general content article is written, it can be linked to the cornerstone content article. The general content articles that are lettered are bigger subtopics, so these should all have 800-1200 words. The general content that is bulleted has more specific topics likely to discuss specific products, these should have 500-750 words.

Step 5: Submit Your Writing Sample

Links have no formatting requirements (WordPress will format them per your theme)

Left justified

Educate and entice consumers

Creating a Content Plan…………………………….. 12

Energy, focus, attentiveness, alertness

Identifying SEO Topics…………………………… 10

References (Use this, or replace with your own style guide)

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing

Offer to have a conference call with a client before taking on their project

To familiarize yourself with the style of writing we have in mind, you can view some of these blog posts: [insert links to examples of content you desire]

This Cannabis SEO Guide will educate and empower you to create successful cannabis content. In addition to providing technical guidance, this guide will give you context and advice specific to cannabis. Whether you are a cannabis product maker, marketer, or writer, you will get a comprehensive understanding that will set you up for success. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of cannabis SEO, this guide will give you some background information and legal information that will help you better understand the audience, the products, and the regulatory and legal environment that you’ll be working in.

Don’t make medical claims

Marketing “Organic” Hemp and CBD

Underlining or color changes are not recommended due to potential clashes with the formatting of anchor text in the WordPress theme settings on certain websites

Step 4: Proofreading

For subtitles (text under images)

Managing greenhouse microclimate

“Given the rise in cannabis use within the U.S. and the reliance on the Internet as a source of information, considerable efforts are needed to provide accurate on-line cannabis education to minimize harms and maximize benefits for individuals and society.”

1% of conditions have moderate evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Google Seach Console https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?hl=en

The main keyword is not used more than 30 times, to avoid keyword stuffing

The paper “A content analysis of internet information sources on medical cannabis (Kruger, et al. 2020)” illustrates the tension between conventional medicine, the interested public audience, and content marketing. They point out that medical cannabis users put more trust in medical cannabis than in mainstream healthcare and are less likely to seek information from healthcare providers. They also report on where this demographic is getting their information and what sources they are putting trust in.

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 2)

What font type and size (and color) is used?

Now that you understand the contextual elements of cannabis SEO, we can focus on the nuts and bolts. Here are five major goals your Cannabis SEO marketing plan should strive to achieve:

Content Creation: Generation of content that utilizes keywords to drive website traffic, educates and informs consumers, and entices them to purchase products

So who is doing this writing? Most articles don’t even have authors or citations. However, if you go on freelancer platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork, you’ll quickly learn who is writing this content. Most content writers are freelancers. Some have marketing experience or education, but most are self-taught.

Artisanal CBD products

Cannabis greenhouse operating costs

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing…… 1

Consider the massive amount of health and medical information that you find on the front page of Google. Virtually none of the sites you see first have information that is written by a doctor or person with any medical training. But what you do find is information that answers the search query from websites with high domain ratings and near-perfect data structure.

First Topic (Overview)

There are many scams to be wary of as a freelance cannabis writer. New writers and people new to hiring writers can have a hard time telling what the standards are. Here are some tips for avoiding freelancer scams and beginning client-writer relationships.

It is ok to ask for references from previous clients

Moz https://moz.com/explorer

Tunnel greenhouses

Gothic greenhouses

Cannabis greenhouse lighting

Final Thoughts (Conclusion)

Likewise, if a product claims to be “GMP,” it must be registered as such with the FDA. This requires independent certification, but without a registration number from the FDA you cannot make any GMP-related claim! When it comes to wholesale and white-labeling, the product ceases to be GMP unless the seller/final brand of the product maintains those GMP conditions. This means also registering with the FDA.

Images

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing technique that works for both products and information. It is a method of creating content that is optimized to be highly visible in search results. This is accomplished through technical measures like structuring website pages in an organized way and ensuring that website metadata is optimized, and also in creative ways such as using keywords in blogs and product descriptions and having high-quality information and backlinks.

What Not to Say About Cannabis

References should be cited in a numbered and alphabetized list. The reference section will be at the end of the writing sample. Put primary research in the references section. Make other references into embedded text links. To reference a citation in-text cite the number in-between brackets (example: [1]).

Researching Content Topics

Before moving on, it is important to understand some definitions and terms used in SEO.

9% of conditions have no or insufficient evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Page Rating

“Understanding of cannabis is generally modest among the general public. Medical cannabis users have remarkably low to moderate knowledge of important aspects of cannabis such as medical effectiveness, cannabinoid content and effective dosages, and effective harm reduction techniques.”

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Topics:

Creating a Content Plan

Table of Contents

Inorganic Website Traffic: Website traffic driven by paid advertising

LED lighting

Here is an example of using a topic list to identify keywords:

Rhizobacteria inoculant

Amazing Title About Five to Seven Words Long

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Finally, one last thing to avoid in CBD marketing is CBD recipes. The FDA prohibits adding CBD to food. People do it anyway, after all, there are tons of CBD drinks and cannabinoid edibles on the market. Are they legal? Not entirely, but the FDA has yet to enforce action against CBD drinks, gummies, chocolates, and the like. However, you should not write CBD recipe blogs or put recipes on your website.

Cannabis nutrients

SEO Style Guide……………………………………….. 15

Keyword Analysis: Intent, Relevance, and Competition

West Coast

In return for this writing, you will receive payment on individually agreed-upon terms

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 1)

People still want and need to know

You can also use Keywords Everywhere, Answer the Public, or Moz to do free keyword research. You’ll notice that some keywords are single words and others are phrases. These phrases are called “longtail keywords.”

CBD “Recipes”

The article has one external link (to another website)

“72% of internet users seek out health information using an internet search engine.”

Someone would want to click on these if they saw them on Google (use power words)

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content……………………………………… 16

The article has a clear introduction and a clear conclusion

Body Text

Please read through this entire exercise. There are many helpful links and resources that will help you create the best writing sample possible.

General Content: Shorter articles (500-1200 words) that cover sub-topics and news and link to the cornerstone content

“Start low and go slow” is one practical and accurate recommendation. Starting at low amounts of product and slowly increasing (titration) has been recommended in some CBD research. It is vague and not too helpful, but it isn’t inaccurate. It should also be mentioned that if someone takes too much CBD, they will likely feel side effects.

Content Plan for Cannabis Greenhouses

Specific phrases or comments can be formatted with bold or italics for emphasis as necessary

Below is a sample outline of the style and layout expected in the writing sample

C

The Writing Sample itself should not take more than two hours to complete

Social media content

There is also a very wide spectrum when it comes to skill and quality. You can get a blog for as little as five dollars from a foreign Fiverr freelancer, but the quality of this blog is going to be very low. It will use the keywords you specify, but will essentially be vacant of useful, factual, and/or interesting information and likely will sound like it wasn’t written by a native English speaker. This information-vacant content can also be called “copypasta.” While you might think, “At least I’ll have something that uses some good keywords.” You’ll be disappointed to learn that search engines will penalize your website for using information-vacant content that is stuffed with keywords.

Cornerstone Content: Long articles (1500-3000 words) that cover key features, links to internal web pages and highly credible external links, updated to link to general content

Step 3: Writing

Consider the intent behind the keywords

You can get a more clear idea of what not to do by looking at the agency’s behavior. This includes the many warning letters https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/warning-letters-and-test-results-cannabidiol-related-products they have issued against CBD companies.

DO NOT rely on AI content, be original and put in the work to get results that last

Use professional organizations and government websites such as:

6% of conditions have limited evidence of the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis/cannabinoids

Answer the Public https://answerthepublic.com/

Buying a Cannabis Greenhouse

Finding SEO Keywords for Free……………… 10

If information from other sources was used, the source is credited and hyperlinked

Differs based on product formulation

Color should mostly be black

Content Plan Example……………………………. 13

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SEO Style Guide

If you are not already familiar with the legal status of your topic, take some time to do so. This is especially important when talking about CBD.

Your writing is your client’s property, self-plagiarism is still plagiarism

Crafting Cornerstone Content…………………. 12

–FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD)

Topic paragraph text

Types of greenhouse plastics

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product. Attribute “observations,” “study findings,” “[source] claims/found/suggested that…”

In-text citations also need a consistent style, either (author last name, year), or more commonly [#] which refers to a numbered reference list

To date, FDA has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition and thus has not determined that cannabis is safe and effective for any particular disease or condition.”

For H1 headers (title only)

Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?………………………………………………….. 3

Sub-Topic A

So how do you describe the effects of cannabis? You need to get creative and use words that describe a feeling. Examples include:

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey…………………………………………………….. 20

In addition to the FDA guidance, CBD recipes are impractical and ineffective. In most cases, they are just a waste to people. This is because CBD tinctures, CBD oil, and CBD isolate powders are not water-soluble. That is, they only dissolve in oil (and have a bad taste). Also, if a product is intended to be heated, the CBD will be in its acidic form (CBDA). CBDA is not active in the body until it is decarboxylated into CBD (the same goes for THCA and THC). So the CBD product may not be in the right form to be eaten.

Supplemental lighting for cannabis greenhouses

Never ask for or provide unpaid custom writing or “samples”

Differs from person to person

Title/main headline to be defined as H1 and formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 20 and bolded

At the end of the day, it is extremely unlikely that any organic claim for cannabis can be legally supported. Using this term will only bring you trouble. Education is again the answer. Help your customers understand that they should be highly skeptical of organic claims. You can also offer transparency by creating content that shows your production and farming processes. This is high-quality content that lets your product speak for itself instead of making erroneous claims.

“FDA is aware that unapproved cannabis or cannabis-derived products are being used for the treatment of a number of medical conditions including, for example, AIDS wasting, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, and cancer and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Here are some provided references that can be found using Google Scholar:

Title: Heading 1 format (note- do not use the “title” format option)

The conclusion has a call to action

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations

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Conclusion paragraph text

1.15 line spacing

[Use default Google Doc settings:

Millar, S. A., Maguire, R. F., Yates, A. S., and O’Sullivan, S. E. (2020). Towards better delivery of cannabidiol (CBD). Pharmaceuticals, 13(9), 219. file:///C:/Users/16123/Downloads/pharmaceuticals-13-00219-v2%20(1).pdf

Building a Cannabis Greenhouse

Marketing “Organic” Hemp and CBD…………. 6

Claiming that cannabis products are organic is a HUGE no! Even if the product is cultivated using organic practices, it CAN NOT be called “organic” and you should not try to mince words when it comes to organic classification.

American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/)

Goal: Sell artisanal CBD products that naturally support health and well-being

Audience: CBD consumers, age 35-50, natural product consumers, moms, farmer’s market shoppers, natural product boutiques

CBD tinctures

For H2 headers (paragraph headers)

Find keywords from a variety of sources

Suggested Further Reading

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research” is the official US report on cannabis that summarized what is currently known about the use of cannabis to treat health and medical conditions. Kruger, et al. (2020) compared this report to the 151 medical and health conditions that were mentioned by internet content as being treatable with cannabis.

Use “marijuana” not “marihuana” unless it is a direct quote or specific to a keyword

Be careful with wording if you put a recommended dose on packaging

Greenhouse coverings

In order to get a feel for your writing, we invite you to take part in this writing sample. If you have any questions please correspond with your email contact to address them.

Don’t give customers exaggerated expectations

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower………… 6

Image files should have a name that describes the image with keywords

Metal halide lamps

Domain Rating

Relaxing

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

DIY versus hiring a contractor

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing

Cannabis greenhouse light deprivation

No standardized recommendation

In WordPress, images have alt tags that use keywords to describe the image

Hemp and CBD must be certified organic by a USDA accredited agency and registered as such to legally make the claim of being organic.

How to Identify SEO Keywords

4% of conditions do have conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective treatments

The end of this article is just the beginning of your cannabis SEO journey. It is good to start this journey by creating your content plan, identifying your major keywords, and creating a style guide. With these starting elements in place, you can decide what elements to take on yourself and what should be hired out to a freelance writer or SEO agency. You will also want to make sure you have your marketing budget and marketing priorities planned before reaching out. Freelancers and SEO agencies can be the most effective when you have clear goals for them to meet.

How to Identify SEO Keywords………………….. 10

74% of the conditions claimed to be treatable with cannabis are not even acknowledged by the NASEM report

Drive internet traffic to your website using keywords

92% of sites suggested using cannabis for specific health or medical conditions

All cornerstone content should also be evergreen content. This means that you need to have a schedule for actively updating articles to ensure they are relevant. Updates should include adding links to new content and updating technical SEO as new search features and changes to search algorithms arise. This helps cornerstone content retain and improve its search ranking. None of your content should ever be orphan content. Orphan content is a sign that you have deviated from your content plan and this type of content will be virtually invisible to search engines.

Likewise, a writer may ask a client if they have any references from previous freelancers

Let’s talk about technical formatting now that you understand how to identify your audience, generate content topics, and find keywords. The technical side of SEO can be the most difficult to perfect, but it has a huge influence on making your content visible to search engines. The most basic aspect of technical SEO is ensuring your content is written in the proper style. For this, you will want to create a style guide that will give your website a consistent appearance.

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Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?

Example blockquote: “””This is a example of a wise sounding quote — Author, Source”””

Answer the questions that people Google

Legal Considerations

Cannabis content comes with a variety of price tags. Cannabis blog articles under 1000 words can be found for as little as $15 per article. These tend to be very low-quality articles that can actually hurt a website’s Google analytics. Most clients are willing to pay at least $20 per hour for good content writing. For typical posts under 1500 words, this can be a $20 to $100 cannabis article. For longer posts and cannabis ultimate guides that take more time to write $75 to $200 is a more accurate price tag. If you are paying by the word, $0.05 to $0.07 is reasonable for a decent writer, experts may cost more. Remember- You get what you pay for!

Soil for growing cannabis

Be clear and agree on billing terms, the scope of work, and deliverable due dates

After finding keywords, there’s three main steps to complete before you start writing cannabis content:

There are a few different types of service agreements cannabis content writers commonly work with. These include hourly, by-the-word, and by-the-project. Billing frequencies are usually monthly or bi-monthly. You will want to negotiate these terms with your client and write them up in a service agreement.

However, that page as well as the brands found when searching for “artisanal CBD products” can be considered competition. You would want to follow the search results to these websites and look at those competing results. They can give you insights about what you should include in your content if you want to compete with them. In some keyword tools, you’ll also be able to see the competitiveness of keywords and search volume. The best keywords to target first are the ones with moderate competitiveness and moderate search volume. You can target more niche keywords or higher competition keywords later, but don’t make them a priority since you are unlikely to convert those results to website visits.

Avoid the use of bank transfers; get paid through an agency website if you are using one

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?

There is either one photo per H2 OR one photo for every 500 words

Freelancer Scams and Etiquette

Iffland, K., and Grotenhermen, F. (2017). An update on safety and side effects of cannabidiol: a review of clinical data and relevant animal studies. Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 2(1), 139-154. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2016.0034

A

Keyword Analysis: Intent, Relevance, and Competition…………………………………………… 11

Keywords Everywhere https://keywordseverywhere.com/

Block quotes should not be used except for long quotations or citations. Denote block quotes within Google Docs using triple quotes in its own paragraph:

Southern

Do I have any questions about the topic or keyword phrase?

What citation style is used for references?

Once you have identified your audience, topics, and keywords, it is time to create a content plan. Your content plan will give you a roadmap to creating a blog that is organized, successful, and impactful. These are the four types of content you will address in your content plan:

Default font formatting has a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color and size 11

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Another research paper titled “Public interest in Cannabis during election season: a Google Trends analysis (Torgerson, et al. 2020)” points out that interest in cannabis and the demand for online information about it is growing while medical professionals remain reluctant to provide the public with that information. There are many unfortunate reasons that doctors aren’t talking about cannabis, but the ethical take-away is that your marketing content can easily be misunderstood as health advice by the general public, or worse, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

SEO Definitions

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

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References

How to select the right greenhouse for your location

Subtopic paragraph text

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Topic paragraph text

The internet has become a ubiquitous tool for every industry. A business simply cannot exist without an online presence. In addition to playing an essential role in business, the internet also plays a crucial role in education. In this context, the public gets online seeking out products and information. Search engines, especially Google, are the most popular way to find what they want. That means businesses need to have an online presence that is visible through search engines.

The Writing Sample should be completed and delivered within 72 hours (three days).

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations…………………………………………… 3

Water-soluble and nanoemulsion CBD preparations do exist. If you are making edible cannabinoid products, you should consider using these preparations for better product quality. At the end of the day, just don’t bother with CBD recipe blogs though.

The text is broken up with headers tagged as H2s, then H3s and H4s if needed

Keyword: Words that people use in search engines

Identifying SEO keywords is an essential step in writing effective content. Doing good keyword research ensures you have a solid basis for your content marketing plan. It is also important to keep doing this research over time. That’s because people’s interests change, and also Google search algorithms change. Here is an overview of how to identify SEO keywords:

Is Cannabis Actually an Effective Treatment?

There are many online freelancing platforms such as Upwork and Fivver that are great for writers. Upwork tends to have higher quality writers with more experience. Fivver has a lot of foreign content writers with cheaper work that typically needs to be reworked to be usable.

What Not to Say About Cannabis………………… 4

Wellness

Landscape images to be used where possible

AI content can be detected, in the future, search engines will likely improve algorithms so AI content will be less valued than original content

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H4 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 12 and bolded

PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Site selection

Another effective approach to talking about cannabinoid dosage is to explain to customers how to calculate and estimate CBD mg per g in a product. If you are someone who makes a cannabinoid product, consider these recommendations when designing your labeling:

Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are an industry standard and always recommended

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?

For body text

Step 1: Background

Have a food safety lawyer review labeling and dosage-related information

Talking about dosage for cannabis and cannabinoids like CBD is challenging for four main reasons:

Images not be in-lined and should only follow paragraphs after a single line break and be succeeded with a single line break

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When you look over the keywords that you’ve found, you’ll immediately notice that some are totally irrelevant or don’t make sense. You can just delete these or ignore them since they are very obviously lacking in relevance. Next, look at each keyword and consider what the intent is when someone types it into Google. Some keywords have very vague intent or intent that does not match your goals. An example of this is “CBD tincture Reddit” this keyword is both irrelevant and does not meet intent since a person searching this is looking for that Reddit page.

The result is a comprehensive knowledge base that engages and educates consumers while attracting website traffic. You can actually see this project at hortitechdirect.com to see how the end result was executed. The last step in your content plan should be to keep a schedule of when to update articles. For cornerstone content, this should happen once or twice a year. For general content, you can update them less frequently. In either case, you should plan an annual SEO audit of your website to make sure everything is kept fresh. One great way to do this is to assign employees to read blog articles and provide feedback as part of their training. This helps to identify issues and areas for improvement and also educates employees so they can provide better customer care and have a deeper understanding of the business.

Be sure to proofread your article when you are done. You may want to take some time away from writing before proofreading. The free Grammarly browser extension can help detect errors that Google does not pick up. Keep in mind there are some cannabis grammar quirks and preferences that exist. Here are some simple ones to keep in mind:

The main keyword is used in the first sentence of the article

-Torgerson, et al. (2020)

When writing content, you’ll need to do some research on the topic itself. To do this you should turn to sources that are very trustworthy. Not only that but since you will likely be linking to these sources, you need to be sure they do not compete with your own business. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Step 2: Format (Replace with your own style guide)

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?…………………………….. 8

Before you start hunting for keywords, make a list of topics and words that are relevant to your website. If you have many different products, creating separate lists for each might work best. You’ll use these topics and words to help find keywords to use in your content. You will also want to have a clear idea of your brand, your audience, and your goals. Here’s an example of topics:

No mixing CBD with food

Content: The words, images, and video associated with a website

The headline options are between 40-60 characters

Remember, CBD products are not new at this point. They were very recklessly marketed when they first came available, so responsible and educational marketing is very important. Integrity in CBD marketing means accepting and acknowledging the limitations and risks of the product as well as the benefits. If you aren’t honest about the full picture, you have no business producing or selling a product that can hurt people and does have side effects.

Ranking: Position a website shows up in when searching related keywords on a search engine, where everyone is competing to reach the first page of search results

Analyze the competition

CBD “Recipes”………………………………………… 7

Wind loading and snow loading

Links

If you are using AI like chatGPT, remember the following

wink cbd

There is just one space between sentences and one line break between paragraphs

CBD lotion

You never, in any way state, suggest, or imply that CBD, hemp, or any cannabinoid product is a medical product! It is outrageous and ethically irresponsible to talk about retail CBD and hemp products in this way. Not only that, but many consumers are actually becoming turned off from CBD products because of the over-promised and under-delivered effects.

Many of these conditions lack conclusive or substantial evidence to support the claim that cannabis/cannabinoids were effective treatments. While it is expected that cannabis is not well supported as a treatment for most conditions, some of the medical claims being made are actually quite dangerous and misleading.

“Writing samples are the most fun ever!” -No One, Ever

Before starting, you will want to consider these points:

No medical claims

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?……. 5

Sub-Headings: Heading 2 and Heading 3 formats

Make sure line spacing height and use of indentations is consistent throughout the content and throughout the website.

Cannabis cultivation supplies

East Coast

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey

Tension relief

Living soil

The article uses AP Style

B

Crafting General Content

Crafting Cornerstone Content

Titles and Headers/Headlines

Content Plan Example

Google Search Bar https://www.google.com/

Backlink: A link to your content that appears on another website, typically helps to increase ranking, domain ratings, and page ratings

The FDA has withheld from classifying CBD under its regulations. This means that CBD is not a dietary supplement and cannot be marketed as such.

Be sure that you review your work to make sure that it reads well, that it is formatted correctly, and free of spelling and grammar errors.

Keyword Research: Identifies the words and phrases that people are searching for

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing

Metadata: Data (such as tags) that tells search engines about your website and content that makes it easier for search engines to know what your content is about

SEO Definitions………………………………………….. 9

Do put cannabinoid/mg and total volume on packaging

You could throw in a quote:

Personal anecdotal experiences

Introduction paragraph text

Once your writing sample is complete, you can submit it to your email contact. This writing sample is a great way for clients and writers to learn about each other. The guidelines set out in this exercise will be similar to those expected of you as a cannabis content writer. Providing cannabis content writers with clear guidelines for cannabis content helps their talent shine through and reduces the time it takes to post content.

Longtail Keywords: Phrases that people use in search engines

For H3 headers (sub-paragraph headers)

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.]

It is vitally important to remember that your cannabis content has a second audience behind your consumers. This audience is the FDA, the agency that regulates consumable products and pharmaceuticals. Understanding their regulation and authority is of vital importance because an FDA warning letter will live right next to your website in search results! It can also carry financial consequences great enough to put you out of business.

wild by nature cbd reviews

Read competing content to get an idea of what your content should cover but DO NOT copy their content- make yours better

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower

Have I read other blogs on this client’s site to get an understanding of their style?

Chilling out

The next step with this outline is to create article outlines for the three major topics. However, you’ll also want to consider your keyword research. In this example, buying, building, and operating a greenhouse are all top keywords and major themes. However, keyword data also suggests that cannabis lighting and cultivation are also very relevant. In this case, the greenhouse company needs to consider if it is something to give more attention to. Since this greenhouse company also sells lighting and cultivation supplies, they will add these as cornerstone topics as well as include them as part of their operational content.

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Website content

Organic nutrients

“The current study found that information related to medical cannabis on the Internet is abundant, generally positive, but lacking in the depth and detail that would ideally inform medical treatment. Over 150 different health and medical conditions were suggested for treatment by cannabis, yet only 4% of the conditions mentioned have substantial empirical support.”

Hydroponic nutrients

The article has two to three internal links (to other webpages in your website)

Evergreen Content: Content that is regularly updated to ensure it is still relevant

3% of conditions show evidence that using cannabis would increase the person’s risks

Ignore irrelevant keywords

H2 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 16 and bolded

Larsen, C., and Shahinas, J. (2020). Dosage, efficacy and safety of cannabidiol administration in adults: a systematic review of human trials. Journal of clinical medicine research, 12(3), 129. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7092763/

Types of greenhouses and their features

No path to register CBD products with the FDA

Here is an example of a content plan for a cannabis greenhouse company that utilizes these elements. Notice that there are three main topics that form cornerstones and subtopics that are suitable for general content.

cbd cream 5000mg

The full keyword is in each headline (as much as possible)

Crafting General Content……………………….. 12

best cbd lotion for pain

Study your topic, define your brand, define your audience, and set a goal

Media reports (may or may not be paid sponsored content)

Only capitalize “cannabis” as “Cannabis” when it is the first word in a sentence or is being used as a proper noun to refer to the species cannabis.

An FDA warning letter is a letter that can be issued for many reasons. Most of the CBD companies that have been issued warning letters have violated FDA marketing restrictions for CBD. Namely, they are making medical claims about their products. Anyone selling cannabis or CBD, or marketing it, should read “FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD) https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-regulation-cannabis-and-cannabis-derived-products-including-cannabidiol-cbd.”

Calm/calmness

The main keyword is inserted in at least one H2

Gable top greenhouses

Artisanal CBD products

cbd tincture 1500mg

There are also great online tools for reviewing writing for passive voice. You will want to write in an active voice as much as possible.

Cannabis greenhouse pest control

Identifying SEO Topics

The first step in writing cannabis content is to identify relevant keywords. There are many free tools that can be used to identify keywords. First, you should have Google Search Console set up for your website. If you don’t, do that right away! In addition to finding keywords on Google Search Console, you can also just go to Google and type in words. You’ll see a drop-down list start to populate, those phrases are some keywords you should consider using.

womens cbd products

References……………………………………………….. 21

Paying a Cannabis Content Writer

Use scholar.google.com to find open-access articles from scholarly sources

AI can lie! Always fact-check claims!

Topic paragraph text

cbd lotion for nerve pain

Analyze the keywords, and study their intent, relevance, and competition

The article uses active voice instead of passive voice

If you do not use a freelancing agency website, PayPal and Venmo are standard (be wary of Zelle)

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” and “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product.

Finding SEO Keywords for Free

Internet content about medical cannabis use is a growing concern not just because the information is inaccurate and misleading, but because it is actually dangerous in some instances. Many of these blogs are hosted by companies that are trying to sell products. Even in “news” websites, companies can pay to have their blog material published so it looks like it is coming from an unbiased source. The cost for this can be as low as $100 and up to $2000 for big-name publications. Most readers don’t really know the meaning of “Sponsored Post” is that it is paid advertising from a private company with biased interests. This is a big problem because misleading information can hurt people.

Font: Arial, 11

Cornerstone content should encompass the major themes and topics of your website. These themes and topics are often very general keywords with very high competition for search rankings, so you need to say a lot about them and say it well. A good practice for identifying cornerstone content topics is to create a flow chart or outline.

National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Packaging should comply with Dietary Supplement FDA requirements, however, you should not claim or imply to actually be a dietary supplement or any other type of FDA-regulated product

Second Topic

This article from the FDA will give you an in-depth understanding of what is and is not legal when selling and marketing cannabis products. The FDA guidelines for CBD products are both as clear a vague as possible:

Rejuvenation, Invigorating

The headers have AP Style capitalization (capitalizemytitle.com)

3% of conditions actually have evidence that cannabis/cannabinoids are an ineffective treatment

If you are in need of hiring highly skilled cannabis content writers, you will want to get a writing sample. From a client perspective, you can always re-work writing samples into your blog. From a cannabis content writer angle, you are doing a guaranteed paid project. So, writing samples are win-win. Below is a hiring exercise for cannabis content writers. You are free to use and adapt this writing sample exercise. It is a great tool for hiring content writers and educating new content writers on good habits. When using this template, be sure to customize it, fields that are bracketed in red will require you to customize them.

Midwest

Additionally, it is useful to explain bioavailability to customers. Bioavailability is the amount of a product that actually makes it into the body when consumed. Remember, you are not a doctor or pharmacist, but when selling or marketing cannabinoid products it is best to have some understanding of how they actually work in the body. To better understand CBD dosage, CBD bioavailability, and CBD side effects, it is strongly recommended to read these three scholarly research papers:

“Organic” is a serious legal claim that MUST be backed up with documentation. There are many unaccredited agencies offering to “certify” organic hemp. However, if they are not accredited by the USDA, their certification is meaningless! You are responsible for proving that your product is organic if you make that claim. That means fact-checking the farmers that are selling you their “organic” hemp.

wild brand cbd

Maybe a good place for a list:

cbd tincture vs gummies

Glasshouses

H3 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 14 and bolded

Researching Content Topics…………………….. 14

Nutrient dosers

Top Medical Cannabis User Information Sources

CBD tinctures

You can see how this content plan ensures that there is no orphan content. As each general content article is written, it can be linked to the cornerstone content article. The general content articles that are lettered are bigger subtopics, so these should all have 800-1200 words. The general content that is bulleted has more specific topics likely to discuss specific products, these should have 500-750 words.

Step 5: Submit Your Writing Sample

Links have no formatting requirements (WordPress will format them per your theme)

Left justified

Cannabis SEO Content 101

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

Operating a Cannabis Greenhouse

Uplifting, happy, euphoric, bliss

Overall, the writing sample does not need to be more than 750 words and should not exceed 1000 words. A minimum of 500 words is requested. The formatting template above may be helpful to use as a template. Your individual topic and keyword target will vary. You will want to keep them in mind as you write. For a great guide on how to use SEO keywords, you can go to Moz. In addition to your assigned keyword, you can use related keywords to really beef up your SEO. You can find related keywords simply by entering the keyword target in the google search bar. The phrases that come up below will be related keywords and long-tail keywords.

A “therapy” or “therapeutic” substance must be FDA regulated and approved. Epidiolex is one of the only cannabinoid products that meets these criteria (for limited pharmaceutical applications). Therapeutic and therapy are protected words that are explicit to products with FDA approval for medical uses.

cbd gummies for morning

Cannabis SEO Content 101…………………………. 9

Body: “Normal text” (use ctrl+shift+v to paste without source formatting)

CBD Company A

Subtopic paragraph text

cbd tincture reddit

Organic Website Traffic: Unpaid website traffic driven

CBD lotion

AI is good for article filler like introductions to articles and paragraphs but you still need to do the work to give the article its “meat and bones”

Introduction

CBD Company A

Most FDA violations come from making medical claims about products. The term “medical claims” is broader than direct claims like, “CBD tincture relieves pain.” In addition to claims about medical effects, “medical claims” also encompass claims about dosage, certifications, and classifications of products.

Orphan Content: Content that does not link to other internal content or webpages

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Cannabis trimming supplies

Avoid the term “weed”

greater goods cbd

Am I clear about the agreed-upon rate and billing terms for my writing sample?

Do list all ingredients, active and inactive

Only capitalize “sativa” and “indica” when it is the first word in a sentence.

Technical Formatting: Use of proper headings, tags, meta descriptions, and other technical elements to ensure that content is visible and highly rated by search engines

Educate and entice consumers

Creating a Content Plan…………………………….. 12

Energy, focus, attentiveness, alertness

Identifying SEO Topics…………………………… 10

References (Use this, or replace with your own style guide)

Cannabis storage solutions

Stylistic Considerations

beam cbd oil

Your client will provide you with a writing topic and target keyword phrase

Spacing and indentations

Cannabis lighting

DopeSEO Style Guide

Third Topic

cbd tincture vs oil

Sub-Topic B

Style Guide Creation

Your writing sample should be written in a [Google Doc], and submitted via a link to it. Be sure you have a [Google account, and familiarize yourself with the Google Drive and Google Doc] interface if you haven’t used it before.

1% of conditions have moderate evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Google Seach Console https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?hl=en

The main keyword is not used more than 30 times, to avoid keyword stuffing

The paper “A content analysis of internet information sources on medical cannabis (Kruger, et al. 2020)” illustrates the tension between conventional medicine, the interested public audience, and content marketing. They point out that medical cannabis users put more trust in medical cannabis than in mainstream healthcare and are less likely to seek information from healthcare providers. They also report on where this demographic is getting their information and what sources they are putting trust in.

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 2)

What font type and size (and color) is used?

Content Creation: Generation of content that utilizes keywords to drive website traffic, educates and informs consumers, and entices them to purchase products

So who is doing this writing? Most articles don’t even have authors or citations. However, if you go on freelancer platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork, you’ll quickly learn who is writing this content. Most content writers are freelancers. Some have marketing experience or education, but most are self-taught.

Artisanal CBD products

Cannabis greenhouse operating costs

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing…… 1

You can also use Keywords Everywhere, Answer the Public, or Moz to do free keyword research. You’ll notice that some keywords are single words and others are phrases. These phrases are called “longtail keywords.”

CBD “Recipes”

The article has one external link (to another website)

“72% of internet users seek out health information using an internet search engine.”

Someone would want to click on these if they saw them on Google (use power words)

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content……………………………………… 16

The article has a clear introduction and a clear conclusion

Freelance Writing Agencies

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing

Offer to have a conference call with a client before taking on their project

To familiarize yourself with the style of writing we have in mind, you can view some of these blog posts: [insert links to examples of content you desire]

This Cannabis SEO Guide will educate and empower you to create successful cannabis content. In addition to providing technical guidance, this guide will give you context and advice specific to cannabis. Whether you are a cannabis product maker, marketer, or writer, you will get a comprehensive understanding that will set you up for success. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of cannabis SEO, this guide will give you some background information and legal information that will help you better understand the audience, the products, and the regulatory and legal environment that you’ll be working in.

Don’t make medical claims

Consider the massive amount of health and medical information that you find on the front page of Google. Virtually none of the sites you see first have information that is written by a doctor or person with any medical training. But what you do find is information that answers the search query from websites with high domain ratings and near-perfect data structure.

First Topic (Overview)

There are many scams to be wary of as a freelance cannabis writer. New writers and people new to hiring writers can have a hard time telling what the standards are. Here are some tips for avoiding freelancer scams and beginning client-writer relationships.

It is ok to ask for references from previous clients

Moz https://moz.com/explorer

Tunnel greenhouses

Gothic greenhouses

Cannabis greenhouse lighting

Final Thoughts (Conclusion)

Likewise, if a product claims to be “GMP,” it must be registered as such with the FDA. This requires independent certification, but without a registration number from the FDA you cannot make any GMP-related claim! When it comes to wholesale and white-labeling, the product ceases to be GMP unless the seller/final brand of the product maintains those GMP conditions. This means also registering with the FDA.

Images

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing technique that works for both products and information. It is a method of creating content that is optimized to be highly visible in search results. This is accomplished through technical measures like structuring website pages in an organized way and ensuring that website metadata is optimized, and also in creative ways such as using keywords in blogs and product descriptions and having high-quality information and backlinks.

What Not to Say About Cannabis

References should be cited in a numbered and alphabetized list. The reference section will be at the end of the writing sample. Put primary research in the references section. Make other references into embedded text links. To reference a citation in-text cite the number in-between brackets (example: [1]).

Researching Content Topics

Before moving on, it is important to understand some definitions and terms used in SEO.

Marketing “Organic” Hemp and CBD

Underlining or color changes are not recommended due to potential clashes with the formatting of anchor text in the WordPress theme settings on certain websites

Step 4: Proofreading

For subtitles (text under images)

Managing greenhouse microclimate

“Given the rise in cannabis use within the U.S. and the reliance on the Internet as a source of information, considerable efforts are needed to provide accurate on-line cannabis education to minimize harms and maximize benefits for individuals and society.”

West Coast

In return for this writing, you will receive payment on individually agreed-upon terms

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 1)

People still want and need to know

Topic paragraph text

Types of greenhouse plastics

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product. Attribute “observations,” “study findings,” “[source] claims/found/suggested that…”

In-text citations also need a consistent style, either (author last name, year), or more commonly [#] which refers to a numbered reference list

To date, FDA has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition and thus has not determined that cannabis is safe and effective for any particular disease or condition.”

For H1 headers (title only)

Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?………………………………………………….. 3

C

The Writing Sample itself should not take more than two hours to complete

Social media content

There is also a very wide spectrum when it comes to skill and quality. You can get a blog for as little as five dollars from a foreign Fiverr freelancer, but the quality of this blog is going to be very low. It will use the keywords you specify, but will essentially be vacant of useful, factual, and/or interesting information and likely will sound like it wasn’t written by a native English speaker. This information-vacant content can also be called “copypasta.” While you might think, “At least I’ll have something that uses some good keywords.” You’ll be disappointed to learn that search engines will penalize your website for using information-vacant content that is stuffed with keywords.

Cornerstone Content: Long articles (1500-3000 words) that cover key features, links to internal web pages and highly credible external links, updated to link to general content

Step 3: Writing

Consider the intent behind the keywords

Topics:

Creating a Content Plan

Table of Contents

Inorganic Website Traffic: Website traffic driven by paid advertising

LED lighting

Here is an example of using a topic list to identify keywords:

General content should cover sub-topics of your website and specific topics such as information on specific products, addressing common customer questions, and reporting on news and announcements.

9% of conditions have no or insufficient evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Page Rating

“Understanding of cannabis is generally modest among the general public. Medical cannabis users have remarkably low to moderate knowledge of important aspects of cannabis such as medical effectiveness, cannabinoid content and effective dosages, and effective harm reduction techniques.”

High pressure sodium lamps

Rhizobacteria inoculant

Amazing Title About Five to Seven Words Long

cbd cream for foot pain

Finally, one last thing to avoid in CBD marketing is CBD recipes. The FDA prohibits adding CBD to food. People do it anyway, after all, there are tons of CBD drinks and cannabinoid edibles on the market. Are they legal? Not entirely, but the FDA has yet to enforce action against CBD drinks, gummies, chocolates, and the like. However, you should not write CBD recipe blogs or put recipes on your website.

Cannabis nutrients

SEO Style Guide……………………………………….. 15

Body Text

Please read through this entire exercise. There are many helpful links and resources that will help you create the best writing sample possible.

General Content: Shorter articles (500-1200 words) that cover sub-topics and news and link to the cornerstone content

“Start low and go slow” is one practical and accurate recommendation. Starting at low amounts of product and slowly increasing (titration) has been recommended in some CBD research. It is vague and not too helpful, but it isn’t inaccurate. It should also be mentioned that if someone takes too much CBD, they will likely feel side effects.

Content Plan for Cannabis Greenhouses

Specific phrases or comments can be formatted with bold or italics for emphasis as necessary

Below is a sample outline of the style and layout expected in the writing sample

The conclusion has a call to action

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations

greater goods gummies relax

cbd tincture 1000mg

Conclusion paragraph text

These goals can be archived by creating content that is driven by keyword research and published with proper technical formatting. Here is a brief explanation of these three key elements.

You can get a more clear idea of what not to do by looking at the agency’s behavior. This includes the many warning letters https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/warning-letters-and-test-results-cannabidiol-related-products they have issued against CBD companies.

DO NOT rely on AI content, be original and put in the work to get results that last

Use professional organizations and government websites such as:

6% of conditions have limited evidence of the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis/cannabinoids

Answer the Public https://answerthepublic.com/

Content Plan Example……………………………. 13

pure cbd tincture

SEO Style Guide

If you are not already familiar with the legal status of your topic, take some time to do so. This is especially important when talking about CBD.

Your writing is your client’s property, self-plagiarism is still plagiarism

Crafting Cornerstone Content…………………. 12

–FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD)

Buying a Cannabis Greenhouse

Finding SEO Keywords for Free……………… 10

If information from other sources was used, the source is credited and hyperlinked

Differs based on product formulation

Color should mostly be black

Domain Rating

Relaxing

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

DIY versus hiring a contractor

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing

Sub-Topic A

So how do you describe the effects of cannabis? You need to get creative and use words that describe a feeling. Examples include:

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey…………………………………………………….. 20

In addition to the FDA guidance, CBD recipes are impractical and ineffective. In most cases, they are just a waste to people. This is because CBD tinctures, CBD oil, and CBD isolate powders are not water-soluble. That is, they only dissolve in oil (and have a bad taste). Also, if a product is intended to be heated, the CBD will be in its acidic form (CBDA). CBDA is not active in the body until it is decarboxylated into CBD (the same goes for THCA and THC). So the CBD product may not be in the right form to be eaten.

Supplemental lighting for cannabis greenhouses

Never ask for or provide unpaid custom writing or “samples”

Differs from person to person

Title/main headline to be defined as H1 and formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 20 and bolded

At the end of the day, it is extremely unlikely that any organic claim for cannabis can be legally supported. Using this term will only bring you trouble. Education is again the answer. Help your customers understand that they should be highly skeptical of organic claims. You can also offer transparency by creating content that shows your production and farming processes. This is high-quality content that lets your product speak for itself instead of making erroneous claims.

“FDA is aware that unapproved cannabis or cannabis-derived products are being used for the treatment of a number of medical conditions including, for example, AIDS wasting, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, and cancer and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Here are some provided references that can be found using Google Scholar:

Claiming that cannabis products are organic is a HUGE no! Even if the product is cultivated using organic practices, it CAN NOT be called “organic” and you should not try to mince words when it comes to organic classification.

American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/)

Goal: Sell artisanal CBD products that naturally support health and well-being

Audience: CBD consumers, age 35-50, natural product consumers, moms, farmer’s market shoppers, natural product boutiques

CBD tinctures

How to Identify SEO Keywords………………….. 10

74% of the conditions claimed to be treatable with cannabis are not even acknowledged by the NASEM report

Drive internet traffic to your website using keywords

92% of sites suggested using cannabis for specific health or medical conditions

All cornerstone content should also be evergreen content. This means that you need to have a schedule for actively updating articles to ensure they are relevant. Updates should include adding links to new content and updating technical SEO as new search features and changes to search algorithms arise. This helps cornerstone content retain and improve its search ranking. None of your content should ever be orphan content. Orphan content is a sign that you have deviated from your content plan and this type of content will be virtually invisible to search engines.

Cannabis greenhouse light deprivation

No standardized recommendation

In WordPress, images have alt tags that use keywords to describe the image

Hemp and CBD must be certified organic by a USDA accredited agency and registered as such to legally make the claim of being organic.

How to Identify SEO Keywords

4% of conditions do have conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective treatments

The end of this article is just the beginning of your cannabis SEO journey. It is good to start this journey by creating your content plan, identifying your major keywords, and creating a style guide. With these starting elements in place, you can decide what elements to take on yourself and what should be hired out to a freelance writer or SEO agency. You will also want to make sure you have your marketing budget and marketing priorities planned before reaching out. Freelancers and SEO agencies can be the most effective when you have clear goals for them to meet.

For H2 headers (paragraph headers)

Find keywords from a variety of sources

Suggested Further Reading

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research” is the official US report on cannabis that summarized what is currently known about the use of cannabis to treat health and medical conditions. Kruger, et al. (2020) compared this report to the 151 medical and health conditions that were mentioned by internet content as being treatable with cannabis.

Use “marijuana” not “marihuana” unless it is a direct quote or specific to a keyword

Be careful with wording if you put a recommended dose on packaging

Lastly, the product gets diluted so much that it does not likely deliver a significant dose to have activity. The bioavailability of CBD when eaten/drank is very low, estimated to be around 6% (Millar, et al. 2020), so in addition to dilution, only a very small ineffective amount actually makes it to the bloodstream. Since you aren’t a pharmacist or doctor, you should not try to advise people on dosing their food with CBD. However, CBD recipes essentially do just that (and they do it poorly).

1.15 line spacing

[Use default Google Doc settings:

Millar, S. A., Maguire, R. F., Yates, A. S., and O’Sullivan, S. E. (2020). Towards better delivery of cannabidiol (CBD). Pharmaceuticals, 13(9), 219. file:///C:/Users/16123/Downloads/pharmaceuticals-13-00219-v2%20(1).pdf

Building a Cannabis Greenhouse

However, that page as well as the brands found when searching for “artisanal CBD products” can be considered competition. You would want to follow the search results to these websites and look at those competing results. They can give you insights about what you should include in your content if you want to compete with them. In some keyword tools, you’ll also be able to see the competitiveness of keywords and search volume. The best keywords to target first are the ones with moderate competitiveness and moderate search volume. You can target more niche keywords or higher competition keywords later, but don’t make them a priority since you are unlikely to convert those results to website visits.

Avoid the use of bank transfers; get paid through an agency website if you are using one

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?

There is either one photo per H2 OR one photo for every 500 words

Freelancer Scams and Etiquette

Iffland, K., and Grotenhermen, F. (2017). An update on safety and side effects of cannabidiol: a review of clinical data and relevant animal studies. Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 2(1), 139-154. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2016.0034

A

Greenhouse coverings

In order to get a feel for your writing, we invite you to take part in this writing sample. If you have any questions please correspond with your email contact to address them.

Don’t give customers exaggerated expectations

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower………… 6

Image files should have a name that describes the image with keywords

Metal halide lamps

Keywords Everywhere https://keywordseverywhere.com/

Block quotes should not be used except for long quotations or citations. Denote block quotes within Google Docs using triple quotes in its own paragraph:

Southern

Do I have any questions about the topic or keyword phrase?

What citation style is used for references?

Infrastructure

Likewise, a writer may ask a client if they have any references from previous freelancers

Let’s talk about technical formatting now that you understand how to identify your audience, generate content topics, and find keywords. The technical side of SEO can be the most difficult to perfect, but it has a huge influence on making your content visible to search engines. The most basic aspect of technical SEO is ensuring your content is written in the proper style. For this, you will want to create a style guide that will give your website a consistent appearance.

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Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?

Example blockquote: “””This is a example of a wise sounding quote — Author, Source”””

Once you have identified your audience, topics, and keywords, it is time to create a content plan. Your content plan will give you a roadmap to creating a blog that is organized, successful, and impactful. These are the four types of content you will address in your content plan:

Default font formatting has a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color and size 11

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Another research paper titled “Public interest in Cannabis during election season: a Google Trends analysis (Torgerson, et al. 2020)” points out that interest in cannabis and the demand for online information about it is growing while medical professionals remain reluctant to provide the public with that information. There are many unfortunate reasons that doctors aren’t talking about cannabis, but the ethical take-away is that your marketing content can easily be misunderstood as health advice by the general public, or worse, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

SEO Definitions

Answer the questions that people Google

Legal Considerations

Cannabis content comes with a variety of price tags. Cannabis blog articles under 1000 words can be found for as little as $15 per article. These tend to be very low-quality articles that can actually hurt a website’s Google analytics. Most clients are willing to pay at least $20 per hour for good content writing. For typical posts under 1500 words, this can be a $20 to $100 cannabis article. For longer posts and cannabis ultimate guides that take more time to write $75 to $200 is a more accurate price tag. If you are paying by the word, $0.05 to $0.07 is reasonable for a decent writer, experts may cost more. Remember- You get what you pay for!

Soil for growing cannabis

Be clear and agree on billing terms, the scope of work, and deliverable due dates

After finding keywords, there’s three main steps to complete before you start writing cannabis content:

There are a few different types of service agreements cannabis content writers commonly work with. These include hourly, by-the-word, and by-the-project. Billing frequencies are usually monthly or bi-monthly. You will want to negotiate these terms with your client and write them up in a service agreement.

The internet has become a ubiquitous tool for every industry. A business simply cannot exist without an online presence. In addition to playing an essential role in business, the internet also plays a crucial role in education. In this context, the public gets online seeking out products and information. Search engines, especially Google, are the most popular way to find what they want. That means businesses need to have an online presence that is visible through search engines.

The Writing Sample should be completed and delivered within 72 hours (three days).

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations…………………………………………… 3

Water-soluble and nanoemulsion CBD preparations do exist. If you are making edible cannabinoid products, you should consider using these preparations for better product quality. At the end of the day, just don’t bother with CBD recipe blogs though.

The text is broken up with headers tagged as H2s, then H3s and H4s if needed

Keyword: Words that people use in search engines

Identifying SEO keywords is an essential step in writing effective content. Doing good keyword research ensures you have a solid basis for your content marketing plan. It is also important to keep doing this research over time. That’s because people’s interests change, and also Google search algorithms change. Here is an overview of how to identify SEO keywords:

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

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References

How to select the right greenhouse for your location

Subtopic paragraph text

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Topic paragraph text

If you are using AI like chatGPT, remember the following

wink cbd

There is just one space between sentences and one line break between paragraphs

CBD lotion

You never, in any way state, suggest, or imply that CBD, hemp, or any cannabinoid product is a medical product! It is outrageous and ethically irresponsible to talk about retail CBD and hemp products in this way. Not only that, but many consumers are actually becoming turned off from CBD products because of the over-promised and under-delivered effects.

Many of these conditions lack conclusive or substantial evidence to support the claim that cannabis/cannabinoids were effective treatments. While it is expected that cannabis is not well supported as a treatment for most conditions, some of the medical claims being made are actually quite dangerous and misleading.

H4 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 12 and bolded

PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Site selection

Another effective approach to talking about cannabinoid dosage is to explain to customers how to calculate and estimate CBD mg per g in a product. If you are someone who makes a cannabinoid product, consider these recommendations when designing your labeling:

Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are an industry standard and always recommended

Step 2: Format (Replace with your own style guide)

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?…………………………….. 8

Before you start hunting for keywords, make a list of topics and words that are relevant to your website. If you have many different products, creating separate lists for each might work best. You’ll use these topics and words to help find keywords to use in your content. You will also want to have a clear idea of your brand, your audience, and your goals. Here’s an example of topics:

No mixing CBD with food

Content: The words, images, and video associated with a website

The headline options are between 40-60 characters

Remember, CBD products are not new at this point. They were very recklessly marketed when they first came available, so responsible and educational marketing is very important. Integrity in CBD marketing means accepting and acknowledging the limitations and risks of the product as well as the benefits. If you aren’t honest about the full picture, you have no business producing or selling a product that can hurt people and does have side effects.

Ranking: Position a website shows up in when searching related keywords on a search engine, where everyone is competing to reach the first page of search results

Analyze the competition

CBD “Recipes”………………………………………… 7

Wind loading and snow loading

Links

SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) identifies the elements of content that search engines rank and leverages those elements to drive organic website traffic

Is Cannabis Actually an Effective Treatment?

There are many online freelancing platforms such as Upwork and Fivver that are great for writers. Upwork tends to have higher quality writers with more experience. Fivver has a lot of foreign content writers with cheaper work that typically needs to be reworked to be usable.

What Not to Say About Cannabis………………… 4

Wellness

Landscape images to be used where possible

AI content can be detected, in the future, search engines will likely improve algorithms so AI content will be less valued than original content

Metadata: Data (such as tags) that tells search engines about your website and content that makes it easier for search engines to know what your content is about

SEO Definitions………………………………………….. 9

Do put cannabinoid/mg and total volume on packaging

You could throw in a quote:

Personal anecdotal experiences

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?

For body text

Step 1: Background

Have a food safety lawyer review labeling and dosage-related information

Talking about dosage for cannabis and cannabinoids like CBD is challenging for four main reasons:

Images not be in-lined and should only follow paragraphs after a single line break and be succeeded with a single line break

best cbd tinctures

When you look over the keywords that you’ve found, you’ll immediately notice that some are totally irrelevant or don’t make sense. You can just delete these or ignore them since they are very obviously lacking in relevance. Next, look at each keyword and consider what the intent is when someone types it into Google. Some keywords have very vague intent or intent that does not match your goals. An example of this is “CBD tincture Reddit” this keyword is both irrelevant and does not meet intent since a person searching this is looking for that Reddit page.

The result is a comprehensive knowledge base that engages and educates consumers while attracting website traffic. You can actually see this project at hortitechdirect.com to see how the end result was executed. The last step in your content plan should be to keep a schedule of when to update articles. For cornerstone content, this should happen once or twice a year. For general content, you can update them less frequently. In either case, you should plan an annual SEO audit of your website to make sure everything is kept fresh. One great way to do this is to assign employees to read blog articles and provide feedback as part of their training. This helps to identify issues and areas for improvement and also educates employees so they can provide better customer care and have a deeper understanding of the business.

Be sure to proofread your article when you are done. You may want to take some time away from writing before proofreading. The free Grammarly browser extension can help detect errors that Google does not pick up. Keep in mind there are some cannabis grammar quirks and preferences that exist. Here are some simple ones to keep in mind:

The main keyword is used in the first sentence of the article

-Torgerson, et al. (2020)

When writing content, you’ll need to do some research on the topic itself. To do this you should turn to sources that are very trustworthy. Not only that but since you will likely be linking to these sources, you need to be sure they do not compete with your own business. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Google Search Bar https://www.google.com/

Backlink: A link to your content that appears on another website, typically helps to increase ranking, domain ratings, and page ratings

The FDA has withheld from classifying CBD under its regulations. This means that CBD is not a dietary supplement and cannot be marketed as such.

Be sure that you review your work to make sure that it reads well, that it is formatted correctly, and free of spelling and grammar errors.

Keyword Research: Identifies the words and phrases that people are searching for

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing

APA is the most common citation style, but others can be used if desired as long as you keep it consistent

“Writing samples are the most fun ever!” -No One, Ever

Before starting, you will want to consider these points:

No medical claims

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?……. 5

There are also great online tools for reviewing writing for passive voice. You will want to write in an active voice as much as possible.

Cannabis greenhouse pest control

Identifying SEO Topics

The first step in writing cannabis content is to identify relevant keywords. There are many free tools that can be used to identify keywords. First, you should have Google Search Console set up for your website. If you don’t, do that right away! In addition to finding keywords on Google Search Console, you can also just go to Google and type in words. You’ll see a drop-down list start to populate, those phrases are some keywords you should consider using.

womens cbd products

References……………………………………………….. 21

Paying a Cannabis Content Writer

Sub-Headings: Heading 2 and Heading 3 formats

Make sure line spacing height and use of indentations is consistent throughout the content and throughout the website.

Cannabis cultivation supplies

East Coast

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey

Introduction paragraph text

Once your writing sample is complete, you can submit it to your email contact. This writing sample is a great way for clients and writers to learn about each other. The guidelines set out in this exercise will be similar to those expected of you as a cannabis content writer. Providing cannabis content writers with clear guidelines for cannabis content helps their talent shine through and reduces the time it takes to post content.

Longtail Keywords: Phrases that people use in search engines

For H3 headers (sub-paragraph headers)

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.]

It is vitally important to remember that your cannabis content has a second audience behind your consumers. This audience is the FDA, the agency that regulates consumable products and pharmaceuticals. Understanding their regulation and authority is of vital importance because an FDA warning letter will live right next to your website in search results! It can also carry financial consequences great enough to put you out of business.

wild by nature cbd reviews

Read competing content to get an idea of what your content should cover but DO NOT copy their content- make yours better

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower

Have I read other blogs on this client’s site to get an understanding of their style?

Tension relief

Living soil

The article uses AP Style

B

Crafting General Content

Crafting Cornerstone Content

Titles and Headers/Headlines

Font: Arial, 11

Cornerstone content should encompass the major themes and topics of your website. These themes and topics are often very general keywords with very high competition for search rankings, so you need to say a lot about them and say it well. A good practice for identifying cornerstone content topics is to create a flow chart or outline.

National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Packaging should comply with Dietary Supplement FDA requirements, however, you should not claim or imply to actually be a dietary supplement or any other type of FDA-regulated product

Second Topic

This article from the FDA will give you an in-depth understanding of what is and is not legal when selling and marketing cannabis products. The FDA guidelines for CBD products are both as clear a vague as possible:

H2 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 16 and bolded

Larsen, C., and Shahinas, J. (2020). Dosage, efficacy and safety of cannabidiol administration in adults: a systematic review of human trials. Journal of clinical medicine research, 12(3), 129. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7092763/

Types of greenhouses and their features

No path to register CBD products with the FDA

Here is an example of a content plan for a cannabis greenhouse company that utilizes these elements. Notice that there are three main topics that form cornerstones and subtopics that are suitable for general content.

cbd cream 5000mg

The full keyword is in each headline (as much as possible)

Crafting General Content……………………….. 12

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Study your topic, define your brand, define your audience, and set a goal

Media reports (may or may not be paid sponsored content)

Only capitalize “cannabis” as “Cannabis” when it is the first word in a sentence or is being used as a proper noun to refer to the species cannabis.

An FDA warning letter is a letter that can be issued for many reasons. Most of the CBD companies that have been issued warning letters have violated FDA marketing restrictions for CBD. Namely, they are making medical claims about their products. Anyone selling cannabis or CBD, or marketing it, should read “FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD) https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-regulation-cannabis-and-cannabis-derived-products-including-cannabidiol-cbd.”

“The current study found that information related to medical cannabis on the Internet is abundant, generally positive, but lacking in the depth and detail that would ideally inform medical treatment. Over 150 different health and medical conditions were suggested for treatment by cannabis, yet only 4% of the conditions mentioned have substantial empirical support.”

Hydroponic nutrients

The article has two to three internal links (to other webpages in your website)

Evergreen Content: Content that is regularly updated to ensure it is still relevant

3% of conditions show evidence that using cannabis would increase the person’s risks

Ignore irrelevant keywords

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Chilling out

The next step with this outline is to create article outlines for the three major topics. However, you’ll also want to consider your keyword research. In this example, buying, building, and operating a greenhouse are all top keywords and major themes. However, keyword data also suggests that cannabis lighting and cultivation are also very relevant. In this case, the greenhouse company needs to consider if it is something to give more attention to. Since this greenhouse company also sells lighting and cultivation supplies, they will add these as cornerstone topics as well as include them as part of their operational content.

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Website content

Organic nutrients

Use scholar.google.com to find open-access articles from scholarly sources

AI can lie! Always fact-check claims!

Topic paragraph text

cbd lotion for nerve pain

Analyze the keywords, and study their intent, relevance, and competition

The article uses active voice instead of passive voice

If you do not use a freelancing agency website, PayPal and Venmo are standard (be wary of Zelle)

Calm/calmness

The main keyword is inserted in at least one H2

Gable top greenhouses

Artisanal CBD products

cbd tincture 1500mg

Top Medical Cannabis User Information Sources

CBD tinctures

You can see how this content plan ensures that there is no orphan content. As each general content article is written, it can be linked to the cornerstone content article. The general content articles that are lettered are bigger subtopics, so these should all have 800-1200 words. The general content that is bulleted has more specific topics likely to discuss specific products, these should have 500-750 words.

Step 5: Submit Your Writing Sample

Links have no formatting requirements (WordPress will format them per your theme)

Left justified

Cannabis SEO Content 101

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

Operating a Cannabis Greenhouse

Uplifting, happy, euphoric, bliss

Overall, the writing sample does not need to be more than 750 words and should not exceed 1000 words. A minimum of 500 words is requested. The formatting template above may be helpful to use as a template. Your individual topic and keyword target will vary. You will want to keep them in mind as you write. For a great guide on how to use SEO keywords, you can go to Moz. In addition to your assigned keyword, you can use related keywords to really beef up your SEO. You can find related keywords simply by entering the keyword target in the google search bar. The phrases that come up below will be related keywords and long-tail keywords.

A “therapy” or “therapeutic” substance must be FDA regulated and approved. Epidiolex is one of the only cannabinoid products that meets these criteria (for limited pharmaceutical applications). Therapeutic and therapy are protected words that are explicit to products with FDA approval for medical uses.

cbd gummies for morning

Cannabis SEO Content 101…………………………. 9

Body: “Normal text” (use ctrl+shift+v to paste without source formatting)

CBD Company A

Subtopic paragraph text

wild brand cbd

Maybe a good place for a list:

cbd tincture vs gummies

Glasshouses

H3 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 14 and bolded

Researching Content Topics…………………….. 14

When writing about cannabis, especially CBD, it is extremely important to account for legal considerations. Be sure to read these two articles to get a deeper understanding of what regulators will take issue with:

cbd tincture reddit

Organic Website Traffic: Unpaid website traffic driven

CBD lotion

AI is good for article filler like introductions to articles and paragraphs but you still need to do the work to give the article its “meat and bones”

Here is an example of the Dope SEO Style Guide that is given to content writers. When working with hired content writers, they will typically provide you with the content in a Word document or Google document so actual formatting (font, size, color, etc.) is not too critical as the WordPress theme will typically update these aspects.

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” and “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product.

Finding SEO Keywords for Free

Rejuvenation, Invigorating

The headers have AP Style capitalization (capitalizemytitle.com)

3% of conditions actually have evidence that cannabis/cannabinoids are an ineffective treatment

If you are in need of hiring highly skilled cannabis content writers, you will want to get a writing sample. From a client perspective, you can always re-work writing samples into your blog. From a cannabis content writer angle, you are doing a guaranteed paid project. So, writing samples are win-win. Below is a hiring exercise for cannabis content writers. You are free to use and adapt this writing sample exercise. It is a great tool for hiring content writers and educating new content writers on good habits. When using this template, be sure to customize it, fields that are bracketed in red will require you to customize them.

Midwest

Additionally, it is useful to explain bioavailability to customers. Bioavailability is the amount of a product that actually makes it into the body when consumed. Remember, you are not a doctor or pharmacist, but when selling or marketing cannabinoid products it is best to have some understanding of how they actually work in the body. To better understand CBD dosage, CBD bioavailability, and CBD side effects, it is strongly recommended to read these three scholarly research papers:

“Organic” is a serious legal claim that MUST be backed up with documentation. There are many unaccredited agencies offering to “certify” organic hemp. However, if they are not accredited by the USDA, their certification is meaningless! You are responsible for proving that your product is organic if you make that claim. That means fact-checking the farmers that are selling you their “organic” hemp.

Google Seach Console https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?hl=en

The main keyword is not used more than 30 times, to avoid keyword stuffing

The paper “A content analysis of internet information sources on medical cannabis (Kruger, et al. 2020)” illustrates the tension between conventional medicine, the interested public audience, and content marketing. They point out that medical cannabis users put more trust in medical cannabis than in mainstream healthcare and are less likely to seek information from healthcare providers. They also report on where this demographic is getting their information and what sources they are putting trust in.

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 2)

What font type and size (and color) is used?

Educate and entice consumers

Creating a Content Plan…………………………….. 12

Energy, focus, attentiveness, alertness

Identifying SEO Topics…………………………… 10

References (Use this, or replace with your own style guide)

Cannabis trimming supplies

Avoid the term “weed”

greater goods cbd

Am I clear about the agreed-upon rate and billing terms for my writing sample?

Do list all ingredients, active and inactive

Only capitalize “sativa” and “indica” when it is the first word in a sentence.

Technical Formatting: Use of proper headings, tags, meta descriptions, and other technical elements to ensure that content is visible and highly rated by search engines

Third Topic

cbd tincture vs oil

Sub-Topic B

Style Guide Creation

Your writing sample should be written in a [Google Doc], and submitted via a link to it. Be sure you have a [Google account, and familiarize yourself with the Google Drive and Google Doc] interface if you haven’t used it before.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing technique that works for both products and information. It is a method of creating content that is optimized to be highly visible in search results. This is accomplished through technical measures like structuring website pages in an organized way and ensuring that website metadata is optimized, and also in creative ways such as using keywords in blogs and product descriptions and having high-quality information and backlinks.

What Not to Say About Cannabis

References should be cited in a numbered and alphabetized list. The reference section will be at the end of the writing sample. Put primary research in the references section. Make other references into embedded text links. To reference a citation in-text cite the number in-between brackets (example: [1]).

Researching Content Topics

Before moving on, it is important to understand some definitions and terms used in SEO.

Cannabis storage solutions

Stylistic Considerations

beam cbd oil

Your client will provide you with a writing topic and target keyword phrase

Spacing and indentations

Cannabis lighting

DopeSEO Style Guide

Introduction

CBD Company A

Most FDA violations come from making medical claims about products. The term “medical claims” is broader than direct claims like, “CBD tincture relieves pain.” In addition to claims about medical effects, “medical claims” also encompass claims about dosage, certifications, and classifications of products.

Orphan Content: Content that does not link to other internal content or webpages

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Amazing Title About Five to Seven Words Long

cbd cream for foot pain

Finally, one last thing to avoid in CBD marketing is CBD recipes. The FDA prohibits adding CBD to food. People do it anyway, after all, there are tons of CBD drinks and cannabinoid edibles on the market. Are they legal? Not entirely, but the FDA has yet to enforce action against CBD drinks, gummies, chocolates, and the like. However, you should not write CBD recipe blogs or put recipes on your website.

Cannabis nutrients

SEO Style Guide……………………………………….. 15

Tunnel greenhouses

Gothic greenhouses

Cannabis greenhouse lighting

Final Thoughts (Conclusion)

Likewise, if a product claims to be “GMP,” it must be registered as such with the FDA. This requires independent certification, but without a registration number from the FDA you cannot make any GMP-related claim! When it comes to wholesale and white-labeling, the product ceases to be GMP unless the seller/final brand of the product maintains those GMP conditions. This means also registering with the FDA.

Images

Now that you understand the contextual elements of cannabis SEO, we can focus on the nuts and bolts. Here are five major goals your Cannabis SEO marketing plan should strive to achieve:

Content Creation: Generation of content that utilizes keywords to drive website traffic, educates and informs consumers, and entices them to purchase products

So who is doing this writing? Most articles don’t even have authors or citations. However, if you go on freelancer platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork, you’ll quickly learn who is writing this content. Most content writers are freelancers. Some have marketing experience or education, but most are self-taught.

Artisanal CBD products

Cannabis greenhouse operating costs

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing…… 1

Marketing “Organic” Hemp and CBD

Underlining or color changes are not recommended due to potential clashes with the formatting of anchor text in the WordPress theme settings on certain websites

Step 4: Proofreading

For subtitles (text under images)

Managing greenhouse microclimate

“Given the rise in cannabis use within the U.S. and the reliance on the Internet as a source of information, considerable efforts are needed to provide accurate on-line cannabis education to minimize harms and maximize benefits for individuals and society.”

Consider the massive amount of health and medical information that you find on the front page of Google. Virtually none of the sites you see first have information that is written by a doctor or person with any medical training. But what you do find is information that answers the search query from websites with high domain ratings and near-perfect data structure.

First Topic (Overview)

There are many scams to be wary of as a freelance cannabis writer. New writers and people new to hiring writers can have a hard time telling what the standards are. Here are some tips for avoiding freelancer scams and beginning client-writer relationships.

It is ok to ask for references from previous clients

Moz https://moz.com/explorer

You can also use Keywords Everywhere, Answer the Public, or Moz to do free keyword research. You’ll notice that some keywords are single words and others are phrases. These phrases are called “longtail keywords.”

CBD “Recipes”

The article has one external link (to another website)

“72% of internet users seek out health information using an internet search engine.”

Someone would want to click on these if they saw them on Google (use power words)

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content……………………………………… 16

The article has a clear introduction and a clear conclusion

Freelance Writing Agencies

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing

Offer to have a conference call with a client before taking on their project

To familiarize yourself with the style of writing we have in mind, you can view some of these blog posts: [insert links to examples of content you desire]

This Cannabis SEO Guide will educate and empower you to create successful cannabis content. In addition to providing technical guidance, this guide will give you context and advice specific to cannabis. Whether you are a cannabis product maker, marketer, or writer, you will get a comprehensive understanding that will set you up for success. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of cannabis SEO, this guide will give you some background information and legal information that will help you better understand the audience, the products, and the regulatory and legal environment that you’ll be working in.

Don’t make medical claims

9% of conditions have no or insufficient evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Page Rating

“Understanding of cannabis is generally modest among the general public. Medical cannabis users have remarkably low to moderate knowledge of important aspects of cannabis such as medical effectiveness, cannabinoid content and effective dosages, and effective harm reduction techniques.”

High pressure sodium lamps

Keyword Analysis: Intent, Relevance, and Competition

West Coast

In return for this writing, you will receive payment on individually agreed-upon terms

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 1)

People still want and need to know

Topics:

Creating a Content Plan

Table of Contents

Inorganic Website Traffic: Website traffic driven by paid advertising

LED lighting

Here is an example of using a topic list to identify keywords:

C

The Writing Sample itself should not take more than two hours to complete

Social media content

There is also a very wide spectrum when it comes to skill and quality. You can get a blog for as little as five dollars from a foreign Fiverr freelancer, but the quality of this blog is going to be very low. It will use the keywords you specify, but will essentially be vacant of useful, factual, and/or interesting information and likely will sound like it wasn’t written by a native English speaker. This information-vacant content can also be called “copypasta.” While you might think, “At least I’ll have something that uses some good keywords.” You’ll be disappointed to learn that search engines will penalize your website for using information-vacant content that is stuffed with keywords.

Cornerstone Content: Long articles (1500-3000 words) that cover key features, links to internal web pages and highly credible external links, updated to link to general content

Step 3: Writing

Consider the intent behind the keywords

Body Text

Please read through this entire exercise. There are many helpful links and resources that will help you create the best writing sample possible.

General Content: Shorter articles (500-1200 words) that cover sub-topics and news and link to the cornerstone content

“Start low and go slow” is one practical and accurate recommendation. Starting at low amounts of product and slowly increasing (titration) has been recommended in some CBD research. It is vague and not too helpful, but it isn’t inaccurate. It should also be mentioned that if someone takes too much CBD, they will likely feel side effects.

Content Plan for Cannabis Greenhouses

Specific phrases or comments can be formatted with bold or italics for emphasis as necessary

Below is a sample outline of the style and layout expected in the writing sample

These goals can be archived by creating content that is driven by keyword research and published with proper technical formatting. Here is a brief explanation of these three key elements.

You can get a more clear idea of what not to do by looking at the agency’s behavior. This includes the many warning letters https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/warning-letters-and-test-results-cannabidiol-related-products they have issued against CBD companies.

DO NOT rely on AI content, be original and put in the work to get results that last

Use professional organizations and government websites such as:

6% of conditions have limited evidence of the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis/cannabinoids

Answer the Public https://answerthepublic.com/

Topic paragraph text

Types of greenhouse plastics

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product. Attribute “observations,” “study findings,” “[source] claims/found/suggested that…”

In-text citations also need a consistent style, either (author last name, year), or more commonly [#] which refers to a numbered reference list

To date, FDA has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition and thus has not determined that cannabis is safe and effective for any particular disease or condition.”

For H1 headers (title only)

Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?………………………………………………….. 3

The conclusion has a call to action

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations

greater goods gummies relax

cbd tincture 1000mg

Conclusion paragraph text

Content Plan Example……………………………. 13

pure cbd tincture

SEO Style Guide

If you are not already familiar with the legal status of your topic, take some time to do so. This is especially important when talking about CBD.

Your writing is your client’s property, self-plagiarism is still plagiarism

Crafting Cornerstone Content…………………. 12

–FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD)

Sub-Topic A

So how do you describe the effects of cannabis? You need to get creative and use words that describe a feeling. Examples include:

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey…………………………………………………….. 20

In addition to the FDA guidance, CBD recipes are impractical and ineffective. In most cases, they are just a waste to people. This is because CBD tinctures, CBD oil, and CBD isolate powders are not water-soluble. That is, they only dissolve in oil (and have a bad taste). Also, if a product is intended to be heated, the CBD will be in its acidic form (CBDA). CBDA is not active in the body until it is decarboxylated into CBD (the same goes for THCA and THC). So the CBD product may not be in the right form to be eaten.

Supplemental lighting for cannabis greenhouses

Never ask for or provide unpaid custom writing or “samples”

Buying a Cannabis Greenhouse

Finding SEO Keywords for Free……………… 10

If information from other sources was used, the source is credited and hyperlinked

Differs based on product formulation

Color should mostly be black

Differs from person to person

Title/main headline to be defined as H1 and formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 20 and bolded

At the end of the day, it is extremely unlikely that any organic claim for cannabis can be legally supported. Using this term will only bring you trouble. Education is again the answer. Help your customers understand that they should be highly skeptical of organic claims. You can also offer transparency by creating content that shows your production and farming processes. This is high-quality content that lets your product speak for itself instead of making erroneous claims.

“FDA is aware that unapproved cannabis or cannabis-derived products are being used for the treatment of a number of medical conditions including, for example, AIDS wasting, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, and cancer and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Here are some provided references that can be found using Google Scholar:

Marketing “Organic” Hemp and CBD…………. 6

Claiming that cannabis products are organic is a HUGE no! Even if the product is cultivated using organic practices, it CAN NOT be called “organic” and you should not try to mince words when it comes to organic classification.

American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/)

Goal: Sell artisanal CBD products that naturally support health and well-being

Audience: CBD consumers, age 35-50, natural product consumers, moms, farmer’s market shoppers, natural product boutiques

CBD tinctures

Domain Rating

Relaxing

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

DIY versus hiring a contractor

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing

No standardized recommendation

In WordPress, images have alt tags that use keywords to describe the image

Hemp and CBD must be certified organic by a USDA accredited agency and registered as such to legally make the claim of being organic.

How to Identify SEO Keywords

4% of conditions do have conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective treatments

The end of this article is just the beginning of your cannabis SEO journey. It is good to start this journey by creating your content plan, identifying your major keywords, and creating a style guide. With these starting elements in place, you can decide what elements to take on yourself and what should be hired out to a freelance writer or SEO agency. You will also want to make sure you have your marketing budget and marketing priorities planned before reaching out. Freelancers and SEO agencies can be the most effective when you have clear goals for them to meet.

Lastly, the product gets diluted so much that it does not likely deliver a significant dose to have activity. The bioavailability of CBD when eaten/drank is very low, estimated to be around 6% (Millar, et al. 2020), so in addition to dilution, only a very small ineffective amount actually makes it to the bloodstream. Since you aren’t a pharmacist or doctor, you should not try to advise people on dosing their food with CBD. However, CBD recipes essentially do just that (and they do it poorly).

1.15 line spacing

[Use default Google Doc settings:

Millar, S. A., Maguire, R. F., Yates, A. S., and O’Sullivan, S. E. (2020). Towards better delivery of cannabidiol (CBD). Pharmaceuticals, 13(9), 219. file:///C:/Users/16123/Downloads/pharmaceuticals-13-00219-v2%20(1).pdf

Building a Cannabis Greenhouse

Greenhouse coverings

In order to get a feel for your writing, we invite you to take part in this writing sample. If you have any questions please correspond with your email contact to address them.

Don’t give customers exaggerated expectations

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower………… 6

Image files should have a name that describes the image with keywords

Metal halide lamps

However, that page as well as the brands found when searching for “artisanal CBD products” can be considered competition. You would want to follow the search results to these websites and look at those competing results. They can give you insights about what you should include in your content if you want to compete with them. In some keyword tools, you’ll also be able to see the competitiveness of keywords and search volume. The best keywords to target first are the ones with moderate competitiveness and moderate search volume. You can target more niche keywords or higher competition keywords later, but don’t make them a priority since you are unlikely to convert those results to website visits.

Avoid the use of bank transfers; get paid through an agency website if you are using one

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?

There is either one photo per H2 OR one photo for every 500 words

Freelancer Scams and Etiquette

Iffland, K., and Grotenhermen, F. (2017). An update on safety and side effects of cannabidiol: a review of clinical data and relevant animal studies. Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 2(1), 139-154. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2016.0034

A

For H2 headers (paragraph headers)

Find keywords from a variety of sources

Suggested Further Reading

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research” is the official US report on cannabis that summarized what is currently known about the use of cannabis to treat health and medical conditions. Kruger, et al. (2020) compared this report to the 151 medical and health conditions that were mentioned by internet content as being treatable with cannabis.

Use “marijuana” not “marihuana” unless it is a direct quote or specific to a keyword

Be careful with wording if you put a recommended dose on packaging

How to Identify SEO Keywords………………….. 10

74% of the conditions claimed to be treatable with cannabis are not even acknowledged by the NASEM report

Drive internet traffic to your website using keywords

92% of sites suggested using cannabis for specific health or medical conditions

All cornerstone content should also be evergreen content. This means that you need to have a schedule for actively updating articles to ensure they are relevant. Updates should include adding links to new content and updating technical SEO as new search features and changes to search algorithms arise. This helps cornerstone content retain and improve its search ranking. None of your content should ever be orphan content. Orphan content is a sign that you have deviated from your content plan and this type of content will be virtually invisible to search engines.

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

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References

How to select the right greenhouse for your location

Subtopic paragraph text

FDA blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Topic paragraph text

Default font formatting has a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color and size 11

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Another research paper titled “Public interest in Cannabis during election season: a Google Trends analysis (Torgerson, et al. 2020)” points out that interest in cannabis and the demand for online information about it is growing while medical professionals remain reluctant to provide the public with that information. There are many unfortunate reasons that doctors aren’t talking about cannabis, but the ethical take-away is that your marketing content can easily be misunderstood as health advice by the general public, or worse, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

SEO Definitions

SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) identifies the elements of content that search engines rank and leverages those elements to drive organic website traffic

Is Cannabis Actually an Effective Treatment?

There are many online freelancing platforms such as Upwork and Fivver that are great for writers. Upwork tends to have higher quality writers with more experience. Fivver has a lot of foreign content writers with cheaper work that typically needs to be reworked to be usable.

What Not to Say About Cannabis………………… 4

Wellness

Landscape images to be used where possible

AI content can be detected, in the future, search engines will likely improve algorithms so AI content will be less valued than original content

The internet has become a ubiquitous tool for every industry. A business simply cannot exist without an online presence. In addition to playing an essential role in business, the internet also plays a crucial role in education. In this context, the public gets online seeking out products and information. Search engines, especially Google, are the most popular way to find what they want. That means businesses need to have an online presence that is visible through search engines.

The Writing Sample should be completed and delivered within 72 hours (three days).

Cannabis and the FDA: Important Writing Considerations…………………………………………… 3

Water-soluble and nanoemulsion CBD preparations do exist. If you are making edible cannabinoid products, you should consider using these preparations for better product quality. At the end of the day, just don’t bother with CBD recipe blogs though.

The text is broken up with headers tagged as H2s, then H3s and H4s if needed

Keyword: Words that people use in search engines

Identifying SEO keywords is an essential step in writing effective content. Doing good keyword research ensures you have a solid basis for your content marketing plan. It is also important to keep doing this research over time. That’s because people’s interests change, and also Google search algorithms change. Here is an overview of how to identify SEO keywords:

Keyword Analysis: Intent, Relevance, and Competition…………………………………………… 11

Keywords Everywhere https://keywordseverywhere.com/

Block quotes should not be used except for long quotations or citations. Denote block quotes within Google Docs using triple quotes in its own paragraph:

Southern

Do I have any questions about the topic or keyword phrase?

What citation style is used for references?

Answer the questions that people Google

Legal Considerations

Cannabis content comes with a variety of price tags. Cannabis blog articles under 1000 words can be found for as little as $15 per article. These tend to be very low-quality articles that can actually hurt a website’s Google analytics. Most clients are willing to pay at least $20 per hour for good content writing. For typical posts under 1500 words, this can be a $20 to $100 cannabis article. For longer posts and cannabis ultimate guides that take more time to write $75 to $200 is a more accurate price tag. If you are paying by the word, $0.05 to $0.07 is reasonable for a decent writer, experts may cost more. Remember- You get what you pay for!

Soil for growing cannabis

Be clear and agree on billing terms, the scope of work, and deliverable due dates

After finding keywords, there’s three main steps to complete before you start writing cannabis content:

There are a few different types of service agreements cannabis content writers commonly work with. These include hourly, by-the-word, and by-the-project. Billing frequencies are usually monthly or bi-monthly. You will want to negotiate these terms with your client and write them up in a service agreement.

If you are using AI like chatGPT, remember the following

wink cbd

There is just one space between sentences and one line break between paragraphs

CBD lotion

You never, in any way state, suggest, or imply that CBD, hemp, or any cannabinoid product is a medical product! It is outrageous and ethically irresponsible to talk about retail CBD and hemp products in this way. Not only that, but many consumers are actually becoming turned off from CBD products because of the over-promised and under-delivered effects.

Many of these conditions lack conclusive or substantial evidence to support the claim that cannabis/cannabinoids were effective treatments. While it is expected that cannabis is not well supported as a treatment for most conditions, some of the medical claims being made are actually quite dangerous and misleading.

Infrastructure

Likewise, a writer may ask a client if they have any references from previous freelancers

Let’s talk about technical formatting now that you understand how to identify your audience, generate content topics, and find keywords. The technical side of SEO can be the most difficult to perfect, but it has a huge influence on making your content visible to search engines. The most basic aspect of technical SEO is ensuring your content is written in the proper style. For this, you will want to create a style guide that will give your website a consistent appearance.

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Your Audience: What Do People Know About Cannabis?

Example blockquote: “””This is a example of a wise sounding quote — Author, Source”””

The result is a comprehensive knowledge base that engages and educates consumers while attracting website traffic. You can actually see this project at hortitechdirect.com to see how the end result was executed. The last step in your content plan should be to keep a schedule of when to update articles. For cornerstone content, this should happen once or twice a year. For general content, you can update them less frequently. In either case, you should plan an annual SEO audit of your website to make sure everything is kept fresh. One great way to do this is to assign employees to read blog articles and provide feedback as part of their training. This helps to identify issues and areas for improvement and also educates employees so they can provide better customer care and have a deeper understanding of the business.

Be sure to proofread your article when you are done. You may want to take some time away from writing before proofreading. The free Grammarly browser extension can help detect errors that Google does not pick up. Keep in mind there are some cannabis grammar quirks and preferences that exist. Here are some simple ones to keep in mind:

The main keyword is used in the first sentence of the article

-Torgerson, et al. (2020)

When writing content, you’ll need to do some research on the topic itself. To do this you should turn to sources that are very trustworthy. Not only that but since you will likely be linking to these sources, you need to be sure they do not compete with your own business. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

The headline options are between 40-60 characters

Remember, CBD products are not new at this point. They were very recklessly marketed when they first came available, so responsible and educational marketing is very important. Integrity in CBD marketing means accepting and acknowledging the limitations and risks of the product as well as the benefits. If you aren’t honest about the full picture, you have no business producing or selling a product that can hurt people and does have side effects.

Ranking: Position a website shows up in when searching related keywords on a search engine, where everyone is competing to reach the first page of search results

Analyze the competition

CBD “Recipes”………………………………………… 7

Wind loading and snow loading

Links

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?

For body text

Step 1: Background

Have a food safety lawyer review labeling and dosage-related information

Talking about dosage for cannabis and cannabinoids like CBD is challenging for four main reasons:

Images not be in-lined and should only follow paragraphs after a single line break and be succeeded with a single line break

best cbd tinctures

Step 2: Format (Replace with your own style guide)

How Inaccurate Are Internet Claims About Cannabis Treatments?…………………………….. 8

Before you start hunting for keywords, make a list of topics and words that are relevant to your website. If you have many different products, creating separate lists for each might work best. You’ll use these topics and words to help find keywords to use in your content. You will also want to have a clear idea of your brand, your audience, and your goals. Here’s an example of topics:

No mixing CBD with food

Content: The words, images, and video associated with a website

cbd lotion for arthritis hands

H4 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 12 and bolded

PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Site selection

Another effective approach to talking about cannabinoid dosage is to explain to customers how to calculate and estimate CBD mg per g in a product. If you are someone who makes a cannabinoid product, consider these recommendations when designing your labeling:

Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are an industry standard and always recommended

Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., and Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.]

It is vitally important to remember that your cannabis content has a second audience behind your consumers. This audience is the FDA, the agency that regulates consumable products and pharmaceuticals. Understanding their regulation and authority is of vital importance because an FDA warning letter will live right next to your website in search results! It can also carry financial consequences great enough to put you out of business.

wild by nature cbd reviews

Read competing content to get an idea of what your content should cover but DO NOT copy their content- make yours better

“Therapeutic” CBD and Hemp Flower

Have I read other blogs on this client’s site to get an understanding of their style?

Metadata: Data (such as tags) that tells search engines about your website and content that makes it easier for search engines to know what your content is about

SEO Definitions………………………………………….. 9

Do put cannabinoid/mg and total volume on packaging

You could throw in a quote:

Personal anecdotal experiences

Make sure line spacing height and use of indentations is consistent throughout the content and throughout the website.

Cannabis cultivation supplies

East Coast

Conclusion: Starting Your Cannabis SEO Journey

Content Plan Example

Google Search Bar https://www.google.com/

Backlink: A link to your content that appears on another website, typically helps to increase ranking, domain ratings, and page ratings

The FDA has withheld from classifying CBD under its regulations. This means that CBD is not a dietary supplement and cannot be marketed as such.

Be sure that you review your work to make sure that it reads well, that it is formatted correctly, and free of spelling and grammar errors.

Keyword Research: Identifies the words and phrases that people are searching for

Introduction to Cannabis Content Writing

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Chilling out

The next step with this outline is to create article outlines for the three major topics. However, you’ll also want to consider your keyword research. In this example, buying, building, and operating a greenhouse are all top keywords and major themes. However, keyword data also suggests that cannabis lighting and cultivation are also very relevant. In this case, the greenhouse company needs to consider if it is something to give more attention to. Since this greenhouse company also sells lighting and cultivation supplies, they will add these as cornerstone topics as well as include them as part of their operational content.

-Kruger, et al. (2020)

Website content

Organic nutrients

Tension relief

Living soil

The article uses AP Style

B

Crafting General Content

Crafting Cornerstone Content

Titles and Headers/Headlines

Introduction paragraph text

Once your writing sample is complete, you can submit it to your email contact. This writing sample is a great way for clients and writers to learn about each other. The guidelines set out in this exercise will be similar to those expected of you as a cannabis content writer. Providing cannabis content writers with clear guidelines for cannabis content helps their talent shine through and reduces the time it takes to post content.

Longtail Keywords: Phrases that people use in search engines

For H3 headers (sub-paragraph headers)

APA is the most common citation style, but others can be used if desired as long as you keep it consistent

“Writing samples are the most fun ever!” -No One, Ever

Before starting, you will want to consider these points:

No medical claims

How Can You Talk About CBD Dosage?……. 5

There are also great online tools for reviewing writing for passive voice. You will want to write in an active voice as much as possible.

Cannabis greenhouse pest control

Identifying SEO Topics

The first step in writing cannabis content is to identify relevant keywords. There are many free tools that can be used to identify keywords. First, you should have Google Search Console set up for your website. If you don’t, do that right away! In addition to finding keywords on Google Search Console, you can also just go to Google and type in words. You’ll see a drop-down list start to populate, those phrases are some keywords you should consider using.

womens cbd products

References……………………………………………….. 21

Paying a Cannabis Content Writer

Hydroponic nutrients

The article has two to three internal links (to other webpages in your website)

Evergreen Content: Content that is regularly updated to ensure it is still relevant

3% of conditions show evidence that using cannabis would increase the person’s risks

Ignore irrelevant keywords

Internet content about medical cannabis use is a growing concern not just because the information is inaccurate and misleading, but because it is actually dangerous in some instances. Many of these blogs are hosted by companies that are trying to sell products. Even in “news” websites, companies can pay to have their blog material published so it looks like it is coming from an unbiased source. The cost for this can be as low as $100 and up to $2000 for big-name publications. Most readers don’t really know the meaning of “Sponsored Post” is that it is paid advertising from a private company with biased interests. This is a big problem because misleading information can hurt people.

Font: Arial, 11

Cornerstone content should encompass the major themes and topics of your website. These themes and topics are often very general keywords with very high competition for search rankings, so you need to say a lot about them and say it well. A good practice for identifying cornerstone content topics is to create a flow chart or outline.

National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

Packaging should comply with Dietary Supplement FDA requirements, however, you should not claim or imply to actually be a dietary supplement or any other type of FDA-regulated product

Second Topic

This article from the FDA will give you an in-depth understanding of what is and is not legal when selling and marketing cannabis products. The FDA guidelines for CBD products are both as clear a vague as possible:

Calm/calmness

The main keyword is inserted in at least one H2

Gable top greenhouses

Artisanal CBD products

cbd tincture 1500mg

Crafting General Content……………………….. 12

best cbd lotion for pain

Study your topic, define your brand, define your audience, and set a goal

Media reports (may or may not be paid sponsored content)

Only capitalize “cannabis” as “Cannabis” when it is the first word in a sentence or is being used as a proper noun to refer to the species cannabis.

An FDA warning letter is a letter that can be issued for many reasons. Most of the CBD companies that have been issued warning letters have violated FDA marketing restrictions for CBD. Namely, they are making medical claims about their products. Anyone selling cannabis or CBD, or marketing it, should read “FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD) https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-regulation-cannabis-and-cannabis-derived-products-including-cannabidiol-cbd.”

Use scholar.google.com to find open-access articles from scholarly sources

AI can lie! Always fact-check claims!

Topic paragraph text

cbd lotion for nerve pain

Analyze the keywords, and study their intent, relevance, and competition

The article uses active voice instead of passive voice

If you do not use a freelancing agency website, PayPal and Venmo are standard (be wary of Zelle)

Rejuvenation, Invigorating

The headers have AP Style capitalization (capitalizemytitle.com)

3% of conditions actually have evidence that cannabis/cannabinoids are an ineffective treatment

If you are in need of hiring highly skilled cannabis content writers, you will want to get a writing sample. From a client perspective, you can always re-work writing samples into your blog. From a cannabis content writer angle, you are doing a guaranteed paid project. So, writing samples are win-win. Below is a hiring exercise for cannabis content writers. You are free to use and adapt this writing sample exercise. It is a great tool for hiring content writers and educating new content writers on good habits. When using this template, be sure to customize it, fields that are bracketed in red will require you to customize them.

Midwest

Additionally, it is useful to explain bioavailability to customers. Bioavailability is the amount of a product that actually makes it into the body when consumed. Remember, you are not a doctor or pharmacist, but when selling or marketing cannabinoid products it is best to have some understanding of how they actually work in the body. To better understand CBD dosage, CBD bioavailability, and CBD side effects, it is strongly recommended to read these three scholarly research papers:

“Organic” is a serious legal claim that MUST be backed up with documentation. There are many unaccredited agencies offering to “certify” organic hemp. However, if they are not accredited by the USDA, their certification is meaningless! You are responsible for proving that your product is organic if you make that claim. That means fact-checking the farmers that are selling you their “organic” hemp.

H2 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 16 and bolded

Larsen, C., and Shahinas, J. (2020). Dosage, efficacy and safety of cannabidiol administration in adults: a systematic review of human trials. Journal of clinical medicine research, 12(3), 129. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7092763/

Types of greenhouses and their features

No path to register CBD products with the FDA

Here is an example of a content plan for a cannabis greenhouse company that utilizes these elements. Notice that there are three main topics that form cornerstones and subtopics that are suitable for general content.

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The full keyword is in each headline (as much as possible)

cbd gummies for morning

Cannabis SEO Content 101…………………………. 9

Body: “Normal text” (use ctrl+shift+v to paste without source formatting)

CBD Company A

Subtopic paragraph text

Nutrient dosers

Top Medical Cannabis User Information Sources

CBD tinctures

You can see how this content plan ensures that there is no orphan content. As each general content article is written, it can be linked to the cornerstone content article. The general content articles that are lettered are bigger subtopics, so these should all have 800-1200 words. The general content that is bulleted has more specific topics likely to discuss specific products, these should have 500-750 words.

Step 5: Submit Your Writing Sample

Links have no formatting requirements (WordPress will format them per your theme)

Left justified

Cannabis storage solutions

Stylistic Considerations

beam cbd oil

Your client will provide you with a writing topic and target keyword phrase

Spacing and indentations

Cannabis lighting

DopeSEO Style Guide

When writing about cannabis, especially CBD, it is extremely important to account for legal considerations. Be sure to read these two articles to get a deeper understanding of what regulators will take issue with:

cbd tincture reddit

Organic Website Traffic: Unpaid website traffic driven

CBD lotion

AI is good for article filler like introductions to articles and paragraphs but you still need to do the work to give the article its “meat and bones”

Here is an example of the Dope SEO Style Guide that is given to content writers. When working with hired content writers, they will typically provide you with the content in a Word document or Google document so actual formatting (font, size, color, etc.) is not too critical as the WordPress theme will typically update these aspects.

Hiring Tool: SEO Content Writing Sample for Cannabis Content

Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A., Walker, L. A., and Potter, D. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy and Behavior, 70, 302–312.

Always avoid terms like, “treat,” “cure,” “therapy,” and “therapeutic,” that suggest CBD or cannabis is a medical product.

Finding SEO Keywords for Free

Cannabis SEO Content 101

Chandra, S., Lata, H., and ElSohly, M. A. (Eds.). (2017). Cannabis sativa L.-botany and biotechnology. Springer.

Operating a Cannabis Greenhouse

Uplifting, happy, euphoric, bliss

Overall, the writing sample does not need to be more than 750 words and should not exceed 1000 words. A minimum of 500 words is requested. The formatting template above may be helpful to use as a template. Your individual topic and keyword target will vary. You will want to keep them in mind as you write. For a great guide on how to use SEO keywords, you can go to Moz. In addition to your assigned keyword, you can use related keywords to really beef up your SEO. You can find related keywords simply by entering the keyword target in the google search bar. The phrases that come up below will be related keywords and long-tail keywords.

wild brand cbd

Maybe a good place for a list:

cbd tincture vs gummies

Glasshouses

H3 to be formatted with a font of Calibri, ‘black’ color, size 14 and bolded

Researching Content Topics…………………….. 14

CBD Company A

Most FDA violations come from making medical claims about products. The term “medical claims” is broader than direct claims like, “CBD tincture relieves pain.” In addition to claims about medical effects, “medical claims” also encompass claims about dosage, certifications, and classifications of products.

Orphan Content: Content that does not link to other internal content or webpages

FTC blog language guidance for CBD writing.

Third Topic

cbd tincture vs oil

Sub-Topic B

Style Guide Creation

Your writing sample should be written in a [Google Doc], and submitted via a link to it. Be sure you have a [Google account, and familiarize yourself with the Google Drive and Google Doc] interface if you haven’t used it before.

Cannabis trimming supplies

Avoid the term “weed”

greater goods cbd

Am I clear about the agreed-upon rate and billing terms for my writing sample?

Do list all ingredients, active and inactive

Only capitalize “sativa” and “indica” when it is the first word in a sentence.

Technical Formatting: Use of proper headings, tags, meta descriptions, and other technical elements to ensure that content is visible and highly rated by search engines

Tunnel greenhouses

Gothic greenhouses

Cannabis greenhouse lighting

Final Thoughts (Conclusion)

Likewise, if a product claims to be “GMP,” it must be registered as such with the FDA. This requires independent certification, but without a registration number from the FDA you cannot make any GMP-related claim! When it comes to wholesale and white-labeling, the product ceases to be GMP unless the seller/final brand of the product maintains those GMP conditions. This means also registering with the FDA.

Images

Educate and entice consumers

Creating a Content Plan…………………………….. 12

Energy, focus, attentiveness, alertness

Identifying SEO Topics…………………………… 10

References (Use this, or replace with your own style guide)

1% of conditions have moderate evidence for cannabis/cannabinoid treatment effectiveness

Google Seach Console https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?hl=en

The main keyword is not used more than 30 times, to avoid keyword stuffing

The paper “A content analysis of internet information sources on medical cannabis (Kruger, et al. 2020)” illustrates the tension between conventional medicine, the interested public audience, and content marketing. They point out that medical cannabis users put more trust in medical cannabis than in mainstream healthcare and are less likely to seek information from healthcare providers. They also report on where this demographic is getting their information and what sources they are putting trust in.

The FDA’s Stance on Hemp-Derived CBD as a Dietary Supplement (Part 2)

What font type and size (and color) is used?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing technique that works for both products and information. It is a method of creating content that is optimized to be highly visible in search results. This is accomplished through technical measures like structuring website pages in an organized way and ensuring that website metadata is optimized, and also in creative ways such as using keywords in blogs and product descriptions and having high-quality information and backlinks.

What Not to Say About Cannabis

References should be cited in a numbered and alphabetized list. The reference section will be at the end of the writing sample. Put primary research in the references section. Make other references into embedded text links. To reference a citation in-text cite the number in-between brackets (example: [1]).

Researching Content Topics

Before moving on, it is important to understand some definitions and terms used in SEO.