A Beginner's Guide to Dispensary SEO

If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? 

How often do you scroll to the second page of Google search results?

If something happens without anyone to see it, it loses impact. The same is true of your dispensary website. You have a great product, great store, and great website, but none of it matters if shoppers can’t find your business in search results.

Dispensary SEO 101

Though algorithms are a mystical enigma, Google is much more predictable. Like all search engines, Google’s likes and dislikes are a science, and you can take control of its preferences with SEO.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of driving free, organic traffic to your website with the goal of improving your site’s position in search results. 

Why is SEO important?

The higher up on Google your website, the more people will see it. More visibility = more business. Better SEO = more revenue. We did the math.

Where do I start?

What dispensaries need to focus on isn’t just SEO, but product-based SEO. Shoppers are searching for strains, brands, and specific products more than ever. Capture their attention with a dispensary website optimized for these exact product searches through cannabis SEO. Here’s how: 

1. Ditch your iFrame menu

eCommerce providers like Dutchie and iHeartJane run on iFrames, which is a detriment to your business. iFrames are (1) outdated, (2) provide zero SEO value, and are (3) not crawlable or indexable by search engines. iFrames essentially function like a website within a website, so all the traffic reaching your iFrame menu doesn’t belong to your dispensary website, but rather the domain hosting your menu.

Only 10-30% of online transactions flow through to Google Analytics from iframe menus. Why? Google simply cannot accurately crawl iFrames to track conversions properly. For example, a retailer who has 6,000 online orders from their iFame menu in one month may only see 600 of those orders make it into GA. Retailers cannot accurately make  marketing decisions when they're only getting 10% of the data.

Switch to a native eCommerce menu as soon as possible to retain your customer traffic and order data.

2. Set up your Google My Business profile

Online shopping is here to stay, and is becoming increasingly popular and accessible in the cannabis space. Get the most out of online shopping with this step-by-step guide to getting your GMB profile off the ground.

3. Pull keywords from your POS

All of the data you need is already in your Point of Sale. Automatically generate a product page for every single SKU in your inventory with Dispense. Custom solutions can cost 6-7 figures, but with Dispense you only pay $500 monthly per location. It takes 5 minutes to sync your POS data to your online menu, and you’ll start seeing improvements within 30-90 days with minimal effort.

4. Backlinks

Links from one website to another are known as backlinks, and they’re a great way to legitimize and advertise your business alongside boosting SEO. Leverage your dispensary’s partnerships, work with local news reporters, and ensure your business is listed in local directories. These are great ways to get your business mentioned and linked on other sites that will drive traffic back to you. There are many digital agencies that focus on helping you generate backlinks for your website, including deeproots.io.

Dispense Team

Dispense is ecommerce software for cannabis dispensaries. We give dispensaries the tools they need to list and sell products on their own website, leverage their menus and data to drive SEO traffic, build direct relationships with their customers, and scale their businesses.

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