76% of people who search for a dispensary online visit within 24 hours. Unsurprisingly, dispensary owners want to get more customers actively searching for the products they carry through search engines like Google.

One effective way to accomplish that is to hire a Cannabis SEO Agency. Unfortunately, not all service providers are created equal, and there's no guarantee that a party advertising itself as a "cannabis SEO expert" keeps that promise.

Like any hiring decision, choosing the right agency is like making the right hire. A bad hire can lead to lost time and money and set back the business for months. The right one? Change the long-term trajectory of your business.

A good partner will accelerate your learning, produce better results, and save time by completely owning the dispensary's entire SEO function.

I will teach you to avoid the former and ensure you achieve the latter.

I will walk you through a step-by-step process for defining your needs and budgets; how to find a shortlist of potential partners, and present a criteria framework for evaluating these agencies before making your choice.

You'll be able to hire quickly, confidently, and most importantly, stay under budget.

Key Takeaways

• Clearly defining your dispensary’s SEO needs and budget ensures you hire the right agency.
• Research and shortlisting are crucial aspects of the hiring process. You must evaluate experience, reputation, and past results with rigor.
• To find your ideal cannabis SEO partner, conduct interviews that focus on a potential partner's expertise, approach, and culture fit.
• Selecting the right SEO agency partner can make or break your dispensary's growth. The wrong hire costs time and money, while a good partner has the potential to change the trajectory of your business.

Defining Your Dispensary's SEO Needs & Budget

Before you start hiring, we must define what SEO services your dispensary needs and what you can responsibly budget.

At The Cannabis Marketing Agency, we follow a stage-specific methodology when quoting dispensary prospects. This allows us to give our partners exactly what they need based on their stage and nothing they don't.

When determining needs and budget, we consider the following:

1. How long has the business been open?
2. How competitive is the local market? (e.g. rural v. urban)
3. How big is the existing business?

Assessing these variables allows us to determine an overall marketing budget using a percentage of gross monthly sales. We typically recommend 1-2% of the topline for more established dispensaries, open over a year in a moderately competitive environment, and already doing over $1,000,000 in annual sales.

For a cannabis retailer processing $100,000 in monthly sales, we'd recommend a $1,000-$2,000 monthly marketing budget.

Depending on their specific needs and how they stack up to the criteria above, they can allocate all or part of this towards their cannabis seo program.

Newer dispensaries or those in highly competitive markets will typically need to invest higher percentages at earlier stages to gain and build traction.

Your dispensary can use our exact process to propose services and determine its budget before engaging with a third-party provider.

Determining Your Goals

SEO for dispensaries isn't a one-size-fits-all game. Your dispensary's specific goals and financial situation will uniquely determine the type of agency you need (and can afford).

Below are some different flavors of the common dispensary SEO goals we see:

• Drive More Foot Traffic: Your Google Business Profile appears in the top 3 local pack results for high-volume, competitive local searches like "dispensary near me."
• Increase Online Orders: Your product pages rank on page one for strain-specific, brand-specific, and category-related searches.
• Expand to New Markets: Each new location achieves local pack visibility within 90 days of opening, with consistent 3-pack rankings across all key local and navigational search intent buckets.

A strong, detailed understanding of your goals allows you and your agency partner to set clear, realistic expectations and build an action plan towards achieving them.

For example, instead of setting a goal for "more traffic," define success as acquiring an additional "50 new customers per month" or "increasing online orders by 20%"

Be specific about your goals and desired outcomes.

Establishing a Budget

Your dispensary's SEO budget should support your goals, acknowledge the existing state of the business, and account for the reality of your local competitive landscape.

While we typically recommend 1-2% of the topline for more established dispensaries, newer, less established businesses can and should expect to invest more to build and maintain traction in states with more mature programs (e.g. California or Washington), or dense, competitive local markets that have gone through excessive local issuance (e.g., Los Angeles, CA or Seattle, WA).

Now that you understand how to build a budget, I've provided a simplified breakdown for understanding what you'll get for your budget:

• Minimum Viable Budget: $1,000/month covers basic local SEO, on-page optimization, and monthly reporting.
• Growth-Focused Budget: $1,000 - $2,500/month includes comprehensive local SEO, content creation, citation building, and technical optimization.
• Market Leader Budget: $2,500 - $5,000+/month gets you full-service SEO for multiple locations, a high-volume content strategy, PR outreach, and dedicated account management.

SEO is a long-term investment in an ever-changing search landscape. While quick, outsized wins happen, as a best practice, we advise clients to budget for at least 6-12 months to see meaningful results.

Finding and Comparing Cannabis SEO Agencies

Once you've established your goals and budget, it's time to start the search. Finding the right cannabis SEO company to partner with requires knowing where and what to look for.

Where to Find Cannabis SEO Specialists

There are several places you can search for a Cannabis SEO Agency:

• Google or LLM Search: Start with targeted searches like "cannabis SEO agency," "dispensary SEO services," or "[your state] marijuana marketing agency." Look beyond the first page of results—many excellent boutique agencies don't have the massive SEO budgets of larger firms but deliver superior cannabis-specific results.
• Word-of-Mouth: Reach out to non-competing dispensaries in other markets. The most successful dispensary owners are happy to share vendor recommendations with fellow operators who aren't direct competitors (and these are our favorite type of clients).
• Trade Publications: Cannabis trade publications like Cannabis Business Insights often feature agency spotlights, but buyer beware, most of these are paid placements.
• Third Party Platforms: You can use third-party directories like ahrefs Agency Directory or breef to find agencies.
• Industry Conferences: MJBizCon and region-specific cannabis events like NECANN provide opportunities to meet agencies in person.

Comparing Your Dispensary's Agency Options

Once you've identified your shortlist of potential partners, it's time to evaluate each in greater detail. This is a specific criterion for rigorously assessing your list of finalists.

1. Industry Certifications and Credentials

The agencies you're considering should have demonstrable expertise in SEO and cannabis marketing.

Look for teams with Google Analytics certification, technical SEO credentials, and active memberships in cannabis trade organizations.If an agency claims expertise, it should readily share its certifications, platform partnerships (Dutchie, Jane, Weedmaps), and professional affiliations.

2. You Retain All Assets and Intellectual Property

Some SEO agencies retain ownership of content and strategies they create (crazy, I know), which hurts dispensaries long-term. You should (and need to) own every piece of content, every backlink earned, and every technical improvement made.

Before signing, confirm that your contract explicitly states that all work products become your property upon payment.

Protect your investment if you ever switch agencies or bring SEO in-house.

3. Complete Transparency

The good cannabis SEO agencies provide full access to real-time reporting dashboards, including Google Analytics, Search Console, and ranking software, like BrightLocal.

You should receive detailed monthly reports showing the agency's activities, results, and focus for the upcoming month, given the previous period's results.

If an agency won't provide platform access or is secretive about its methods, that's a major red flag. Move on.

4. Flexible Contract Terms

While SEO requires patience, long-term contracts (12-24 months) often benefit agencies more than dispensaries.

Look for agencies offering a reasonable 3-6 month initial period followed by month-to-month terms.

You should be free to leave with appropriate notice if the agency fails to meet agreed-upon benchmarks or communication standards.

5. Documented Success

Your agency must provide concrete evidence of cannabis SEO success—generic case studies can't cut.

Ask for detailed examples showing baseline metrics, strategies implemented, and results achieved for real dispensaries.

The best agencies share anonymized data demonstrating consistent ranking improvements and revenue growth across multiple cannabis clients.

Your goal here is to validate that they have achieved the results you hope to achieve in your industry.

6. Defined Processes and Methodologies

Your agency should clearly explain its approach to keyword research, content creation, technical optimization, and link building specific to cannabis.

They need established onboarding processes, monthly roadmaps, defined KPIs, and regular optimization cycles.

Avoid agencies that rely on "secret sauce" or cannot articulate their methods clearly. Again, this is a major red flag. Move on.

7. Revenue-Focused Optimization

Many agencies get distracted by vanity metrics like rankings and traffic instead of revenue impact. Your cannabis SEO agency should optimize for metrics that matter: first-time dispensary visits, average order value, online revenue from Organic Search, etc.

Every strategy and piece of content should directly connect to driving more customers and revenue to your dispensary.

Given that our average dispensary runs between a 40% - 50% gross profit margin, every Cannabis Marketing Agency SEO specialist knows that within 6 months, our Local SEO effort should produce a minimum of a 2.5x ROI month over month.

Hire Right. Selecting the Right Cannabis SEO Firm

The cannabis SEO agency you choose will shape your dispensary's online presence for years.

A great partner becomes an extension of your team, understanding your market, customers, and growth goals while navigating the unique challenges of cannabis marketing.

At The Cannabis Marketing Agency, we've dedicated exclusively to helping dispensaries succeed online. If you're ready to explore how cannabis SEO can transform your dispensary's online footprint, we'd love to share how our cannabis-specific expertise can help you achieve sustainable organic growth.

Your dispensary's future customers are searching for you right now—let's ensure they find you.

FAQs

How much does it cost to hire a Dispensary SEO Agency?

Dispensary SEO agency costs typically range from $1,000 to $10,000+ per month, depending on your market competition, number of locations, and service scope.

Most single-location dispensaries invest $2,000-$5,000 monthly for comprehensive SEO services.

Multi-state operators or those in highly competitive markets like Los Angeles or Denver may need to budget $5,000-$15,000 monthly to achieve dominant rankings.

Is it worth hiring an SEO Agency?

Yes, hiring a specialized cannabis SEO agency is typically worth the investment for dispensaries that are serious about growth.

A quality agency can deliver 5-10x ROI through increased foot traffic and online orders. DIY SEO often fails because dispensary owners lack the time and expertise to navigate Google's complex algorithms and cannabis-specific compliance requirements.

Agencies bring specialized tools, proven strategies, and dedicated resources that would cost far more to develop in-house.

How do I pick an Agency?

Choose a cannabis SEO agency by evaluating their industry-specific experience, proven results with similar dispensaries, and compliance knowledge.

Start by requesting case studies and references from current cannabis clients. Look for agencies that understand your state's regulations, have experience with your POS/menu systems, and provide transparent reporting.

Avoid agencies that make unrealistic promises or offer suspiciously cheap services. The best agencies will provide custom strategies, not one-size-fits-all packages.

How to hire an SEO specialist?

To hire an SEO specialist for your dispensary, define your needs and budget. Then, create a job description outlining the required cannabis industry experience, technical SEO skills, and compliance knowledge.

Screen candidates by reviewing their portfolio of cannabis clients and testing their knowledge of local SEO and industry regulations.

Conduct practical interviews where candidates analyze your current SEO and propose improvements. Check references thoroughly, focusing on measurable results they've achieved for other dispensaries. Consider starting with a trial project before committing to a long-term contract.