Medical marijuana dispensaries have legally sold medical marijuana products in Los Angeles, California, since 1996 and recreational products since 2018. Even though cannabis is legal in California medically and recreationally, this does not mean advertising companies see it this way. Google, Facebook, Tiktok, and Instagram all ban cannabis advertisements.

Even more, the state of California, The Federal Trade Commission, and the Food and Drug Administration have steep regulations for promoting Cannabis products on the web and in real life. Cannabis SEO is one of the only marketing channels available for your cannabis business that is not banned or restricted on the web and in real life. This article will cover exactly how your marijuana dispensary benefits from cannabis dispensary SEO and how to take advantage of SEO for your dispensary site and store. 

Obviously, medical marijuana businesses need search engine optimization because most marketing channels are banned for medical marijuana websites.

Even if cannabis is allowed to be advertised anywhere online or offline, SEO is still hugely valuable for promoting marijuana. SEO decreases your marijuana costs while increasing your marijuana profit margins and growing your marijuana revenue by adding new marijuana customers every month. The cost of social media marketing advertisements is only going up every year.

• Facebook ads increase 61% yearly on average.

• TikTok ads increase 185% year over year. 

• Instagram ads increase by 23% each year.

Even search engine advertising is increasing each year from Google Search. 91% of business industries that spend on Google Search ads saw an increase of 19% in their cost per lead. Let us be clear we are not deterring you from spending money on paid advertising. In the short term, paid advertising can drive much-needed revenue to grow your business and store visitors. Over the long term, paid advertising cuts your business profits and growth due to the ever-increasing costs of ads on social media and Google Search.

 When you invest in search engine optimization marketing, your costs only decrease over time while your profits increase and your business grow to the next level. Unlike paid advertising, search engine optimization marketing can only be earned, not bought. Once you earn revenue from Google Search, that revenue continues for your business even after you stop investing in search engine optimization marketing. SEO is a marketing channel with a near-infinite ROI because revenue and traffic continue for your business even after you stop investing in your SEO strategy.

Examples of How SEO is Beneficial for a Cannabis Dispensary

Cannabis dispensaries traditionally use SEO marketing to drive consistent new customers to their business in CA. Two thousand one hundred people search monthly for “best dispensary in la,” and 67% of those clicks go to the SEO results. 

88% of people who do a local search, like “best dispensary in la” on Google, visit the store the same day, and 78% purchase cannabis that same day. Showing up number 1 when someone searches “best dispensary in la” could result in 1,097 new customers for your store every month in Los Angeles, which is only one keyword. There are thousands of keywords your business could be ranking for online. 

Every time a new cannabis product goes viral on social media or your store launches a new product; you can capitalize on the online search demand from Google. Four hundred fifty people search each month for “blue dream near me” and “blue dream strain near me.” 

Nearly every cannabis product you stock has search demand on Google. You can capitalize on this demand and sell more cannabis products by appearing at the top of the search results.

For those unfamiliar with SEO, it is a marketing channel that delivers a near-infinite ROI for dispensaries. SEO is one of the only marketing channels not banned or restricted for dispensaries. Search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo have paid search results and organic search results.

Paid Search Results

The paid search results do not allow advertising of cannabis, CBD, or hemp. Except for topical CBD products and FDA-approved pharmaceutical CBD products like Epidiolex.

Only 6% of clicks go to the paid search results, and the costs of accessing that 6% of clicks on Google Search are increasing yearly. When dispensaries spend money on paid advertising, their costs increase yearly. Suppose dispensaries stop spending money on paid advertising. In that case, their revenue, new customer acquisition, and in-store traffic stop permanently.

Organic Search Results

The organic search results allow the direct sale of cannabis without any restrictions. Over 50% of all website traffic comes from organic search results on Google. 94% of all clicks come from organic search results on Google. Unlike paid advertising, the only way to gain exposure from the organic search results on Google is through a marketing process called SEO. Exposure to organic search results is earned, not bought. What you earn continues for your business even after you stop investing in SEO.

Unlike Other SEO Companies…

We Generate SEO Cannabis Traffic That Actually Converts for Cannabis Companies

If Our SEO Google Content Services are Unsuccessful, We Will Return Your Money.

Our agency invests hours learning about your company, ideal cannabis customer, and products or services before creating content for your web design. Doing so ensures the seo traffic becomes new revenue for your cannabis company using our seo strategy.

Creating the customer journey marketing strategy enables our agency to reach your ideal cannabis customers with Search from when they have a problem to when they purchase your solution.

Creating SEO-optimized marketing content that shows up for the relevant keyword research phrases your ideal customers are searching on the search engine at each step of their journey. Focusing on when they are ready to buy from your brand.

Speeding up your website and improving the user experience and interface increases conversion rate, organic traffic, and revenue.

Earning more high-quality votes or links is crucial for your cannabis company’s SEO website visibility. Using our proprietary link-building marketing process, we earn votes or links from websites where your ideal cannabis customer spends their attention. Search engine crawlers find these links and count them as votes for your website. The more high-quality votes your website has, the more traffic and revenue search engines award your website.

Lastly, our proven cannabis and CBD marketing process uses the cannabis sales funnel and the cannabis follow-up to ensure your leads convert to sales. We use email marketing to capture leads and nurture those leads until they are ready to buy from you today.

Other SEO Companies Process

Another agency typically skips the first step of business research and goes straight into CBD oil websites SEO tactics and creating host CBD websites content. The issue with skipping this first step and going straight into SEO tactics and content creation is that your marketing content generates traffic that does not convert into new seo revenue for your brand. Suppose a seo firm does not understand your business, customer, product, or service. In that case, the seo firm will not generate marketing content traffic that converts into new revenue for your cannabis company.

Other services and seo companies skip step #2, creating the customer journey and going straight into SEO tactics focused on generating traffic. Services that skip creating the customer journey do not find the terms your customer is searching for on Google. They find terms that they think will work. What ends up happening is that your traffic increases, and your revenue stays the same.

Other seo companies create SEO-optimized content that is loosely related to your business. Without the initial steps, keyword research is based solely on guesswork.

Another seo agency performs technical optimizations which are solely focused on SEO. This is typical for the average SEO agency which does not understand how to improve your cannabis company website’s conversion rate.

90% of SEO agencies “pay for links or votes,” which could permanently ban your website from Google and erase all organic revenue for your business.

Lastly, they do not understand how SEO as a marketing channel fits into your sales funnel and how to follow up with leads using email marketing to ensure they become sales over time.

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Dispensary in California?

Opening a business of any kind is a challenging feat in California. However, this rings more true for dispensaries subjected to high startup costs between $80,000 to $250,000 and ongoing operating expenses between $30,000 to $70,000 a month on average.

How Do I Get a California Dispensary License?

The Department of Cannabis Control regulates and oversees the licensing process for dispensaries to obtain licensing. Here is how the process works:

1. Complete Local Permitting Processes 
2. Learn the State Regulations for Cannabis Businesses
3. Gather Your Application Information and Documents
4. Create a Licensing System Account
5. Complete Your Application
6. Pay Your Application Fee and Submit Your Application
7. Answer any emails from the licensing team
8. Pay your license fee
9. Post your license

How Can I Make My Dispensary More Profitable?

One of the best ways to make a dispensary more profitable is to lower operating costs, increase average order value, and increase lifetime revenue per customer. SEO is one of the best marketing channels which helps lower operating costs, increase average order value, and increase lifetime revenue per customer, especially when you pair SEO marketing with SMS marketing and email marketing.