Leafly vs. WeedMaps vs. Google Which is Best For Your Dispensary Marketing Strategy

If you’re a dispensary looking to land new customers from your online presence, WeedMaps, Leafly and Google are really the Big 3. There are however some interesting up and comers that we will cover in upcoming posts. With the new pricing models rolled out by Leafly and Weedmaps, it’s high time you did a little analysis of the kind of ROI you are getting from them. It will definitely vary from market to market and there is likely a role for all three platforms and more in your dispensary marketing strategy.
We’re going to take a look at all three platforms and get a sense of where the strengths and weaknesses lie.

Pricing

While there are a number of ways of looking at this, I’m going to say that Google wins here hands down. You won’t get much traffic from Leafly or WeedMaps without spending some fairly serious money. However, depending on your market you will likely get some decent traffic from Google without spending much, if anything. The first step is to sign up for Google My Business and optimize your listing. We’ve written a two part guide on the, you can read it here.
If your market is at all competitive, you will need to spend some money optimizing your website and creating and implementing a search engine optimization strategy (SEO). Unless you know how to do this yourself you are likely going to have to hire someone.
It’s very tough to make an apples to apples comparison between SEO and Weedmaps and Leafly here, but I’ll try.

This dispensary paid 20K per month to Weedmaps

As our base case we will take the 420 Central dispensary, located in Santa Ana, California. According to Wired the owner paid $20 000 a month to Weedmaps for a premium listing. After taking a look at their surrounding area I would say this is fairly competitive market with dozens of dispensaries in a fairly small area. Without doing any further research I would say that  a high end SEO campaign would not be more than 3K per month to get real measurable results and a decent ROI in this area. It certainly wouldn't be 20K! Contact us and we can talk pricing 420 Central ;).
Leafly has a similar pricing model to Weedmaps – they charge by impressions and base the rates on the local market size and competition. I would love to see 420’s numbers on how much traffic and business they got for their 20K a month! For it to equal what we have acheived for some of our clients in the past it would have to be very large indeed. We have acheived 50:1 ROI and in some cases more from SEO campaigns. I doubt Weedmaps is sending that kind of traffic or 420 Central wouldn’t have stopped paying their fees.
However, it should be noted that I would recommend being listed on both Weedmaps and Leafly as part of an SEO campaign for 420 – just not paying the top dollar for premium listing. In my experience they just don’t send the traffic. Although California does seem to have a pretty die hard Weedmaps user base and Weedmaps is more important there than in other areas.

Features

When it comes to features – Google is definitely in the back seat here. Google doesn’t offer the menu and product features that the other two do. Google is not all that friendly to the cannabis space. They don’t off product listings and menus for cannabis stores the way they do for restaurants or other shops. In fact you can’t even use posts from your GMB listing if your primary category is set to “cannabis store”.
There are definitely reasons why consumers look to Weedmaps to find dispensaries and Leafly for product information. They’ve got the most to offer here.

The Customer Perspective

For some great insights into the customer’s perspective on these two platforms and dispensaries in general, check out this Reddit thread

...I like to do my own research prior to making any purchases whether that’s for medicinal marijuana or not. That gives me a frame of reference of what I want, so updated menus on weedmaps and strain info on Leafly is fantastic. It’s definitely nice to also have a knowledgeable and friendly budtender as well. Having tax included is a definitely plus too. Making the experience as painless and enjoyable for the patron will always encourage repeat business.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OKmarijuana/comments/bf0djx/weedmaps_leafly_neither/

Amen.

Traffic

This is where Google wins hands down again. Weedmaps has 1M downloads on Google Play while Google Maps is installed on every Android phone by default and a number of iPhones as well . It has 1.5 Billion installs! I’ll bet that virtually every Weedmaps user also has Google Maps on their phone. In fact WeedMaps uses the Google Maps API. So you need to be on Google! This is part of why it’s important to be listed on all three platforms in some way or another. It’s also important because Weedmaps and Leafly are pretty high authority sites in the cannabis niche and being listed there will likely help you get search traffic from Google. There are also a lot of other pretty decent directories out there that you should be in both for the traffic they will send as well as the positive SEO effects of a properly executed citation campaign.
As I said earlier I think that you should be on all of them – but Google is king when it comes to traffic.
Just look at this screenshot from Google Analytics for one of our clients. They had multiple locations listed on Weedmaps and Leafly and yet neither Weedmaps nor Leafly appear in the top ten traffic sources. While I didn’t put the revenue section of the data in the table – I can assure you that there was ZERO revenue attributed to either of them for online orders. They probably sent some foot traffic, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to Google. To be fair it is likely that Weedmaps did contribute some customer actions inside Google My Business (GMB) due to their use of the Google Maps API.

Dispensary Website Traffic as Measured by Google Analytics Note How WeedMaps and Leafly are not even in the top ten. Weedmaps was 16th

Duck Duck Go sends more traffic than Weedmaps. One surprise here is the high conversion rate from the oft neglected Bing. You can’t see it in the screenshot – but Bing produced nearly 10K in online sales. It can be worth spending a little time on Bing optimization. Naturally Google should get the lion’s share of your time but, the lesson here is that you shouldn’t neglect some of the smaller channels.

SEO is A Long Game

One thing worth noting here is that with SEO it will take some time to get some results. I tell clients that it will take 90 days to get results from SEO. There are usually some low hanging fruit that can generate some quick wins, but generally, real lasting results will take longer. While worthwhile results take 90 days – the real money gets made after 6-12 months. You should also combine it with email marketing and a loyalty program to keep those hard earned customers coming back.

Leafly and WeedMaps for the Quick Hit

Leafly and Weedmaps will generate results right after you pay them. The inverse of that is that results end as soon as you stop paying. Ending an SEO campaign will lead to decreased visibility and traffic but it won’t be like turning off a tap the way it will be with the other two. You also will likely settle to a point that is still better than when you started as there are some parts of a good SEO strategy that produce lasting value.

Where should you spend your limited budget?

If you aren’t open yet – then start with SEO because you can lay the groundwork before you open while you aren’t clamouring for customers. If you are already open and you need more customers right away – you might consider a premium Weedmaps or Leafly listing. There is no cut and dried answer here. However, in the long term SEO will provide a far better ROI than Weedmaps or Leafly. I consider them to be Tier 1 Citations for a good SEO campaign, although there are customers to be gained from paying for premium listings.

The question is, where are your scarce marketing dollars best invested. A great way to track where your customers are coming from is to ask them. You will need some sort of survey for them in store and you can also ask customers on your email list. You are building an email list aren’t you? However, an in store survey will likely give you the most accurate results because you’re asking them at a time when they are closer to their discovery point of your store and you are not asking only the most engaged customers – ie. The ones that joined your email list.

The Entourage Effect

The customer journey from “...hmm where can I get some weed?” to walking into your store can be a complex one that may include all 3 platforms covered here. They may look for a strain on Leafly and then try and find a retailer on Weedmaps and then use Google to navigate to your store. This is why we consider dispensary marketing to be a holistic process that needs to take this into account. SEO is not enough on it’s own and neither is a premium listing on a platform like Weedmaps or Leafly. There is an entourage effect much like there is with everyone’s favourite flower.

Tags

Cannabis Shop, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO, Web Presence

Leafly vs. WeedMaps vs. Google Which is Best For Your Dispensary Marketing Strategy is courtesy of: THC.IM

Leafly vs. WeedMaps vs. Google Which is Best For Your Dispensary Marketing Strategy posted first on https://thc.im

Citations and Cannabis Directory Sites To Power Up Your Dispensary SEO

Here we've compiled what we believe to be the most complete and up to date list of citation sources for dispensaries published on the internet.

What Are Citations and Why Are They Important?

Local Citations are mentions of your business on the internet. They fall into two main categories. Structured and unstructured. Structured citations are usually mentions of your business that appear in directories and include your complete name, address and phone number (NAP). An example of a structured citation would be Google My Business​, Yellow Pages or Yelp. Unstructured citations are simply mentions of your business, these might appear in a news article or blog post on someone else's website and may or may not include a link back to your website.

Citation Sources - Quality Over Quantity

Quality is More Important Than Quantity When it Comes to Directory Listings

Not all citations are created equal. When it comes to building citations for dispensaries as well as other local businesses, quality is far more important than quality. It used to be that you could just build out as many citations as possible and you would likely outrank your competitors. Those days are over. It is now far more important to get citations with geo relevance and topical relevance from quality sites. This means that it's best to build citations with only the most important top Tier 1 data aggregators and directories. Then build citations to the most important industry specific directories and hyper local directories. If you can find decent quality hyper local industry specific directories, you've hit the daily double! Citations are an important part of any dispensary seo link building strategy.

Tier 1

These are the best known data aggregators and citation cites.

US Data Aggregators

​These companies pull data from other known publicly available sources such as Government, Telcos, Utilities and Credit Bureaus etc. ​They then distribute this data to hundreds of other sites. In Canada , Yellow Pages pretty much takes care of this function, at least as far as Google is concerned.

• Acxiom (Closing at the end of 2019)
• ​InfoGroup
• ​Factual
• ​Localeze / Neustar​​​
• Foursquare? - Yep they are positioning themselves as a major data aggregator now.

Tier 1 Generic

• Yellow Pages
•  BBB
• ​Facebook
• Yelp
• Etc

Tier 1 Local And Niche

• WeedMaps
• Leafly
• City of LA biz directory
• Neighbourhood biz directory

Citation Consistency

Inconsistent Citation Send Mixed Signals To Google

It is imperative that your NAP data match as consistently as possible across all your citations. The more important the citation, the more important it is that it match. Start with Google My Business and then go down your list in order of importance from there. Inaccurate citations send mixed signals to Google and the other search engines. It's sort of like watching TV with Rabbit ears. Your citation accuracy is like signal strength. The stronger the signal the more clear the picture will be.

It is worth noting that you don't have to use the same abbreviations on all your listings. For example, it's ok if some say Ave. instead of Avenue. Your phone number can be formatted differently as well - Eg. (555) 555-5555 vs 555-555-5555 or 555 555 5555. The algorithms are smart enough to make these kinds of distinctions.

Submit Cannabis Links to the Following Cannabis Citation Sources

Click on a column heading to sort.

Do you own a directory that's not in the list? Leave a comment and we'll check it out. Did you find a dead link? let us know. We try and update the Domain Authority every month.

The following article Citations and Cannabis Directory Sites To Power Up Your Dispensary SEO is courtesy of: www.thc.im

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Dispensary Marketing Agency Shares Expertise On Google My Business Optimization

THC Internet Marketing, a boutique dispensary marketing agency, is pleased to announce that they are taking steps to share their industry knowledge and expertise regarding Google My Business (GMB) Optimization with cannabis dispensaries. These steps come in the form of an ongoing series of comprehensive posts and articles on the topic, which the company aims to regularly publish. Interested parties may note that two such posts are already available online.

“As a dispensary, one of the most important things you can do to increase your visibility and attract more customers is to optimize your Google My Business listing,” says company representative Davis Winn through their website. “This is a crucial part of any dispensary marketing strategy. It is likely that you have already done a lot of what I will detail below, but I will go through the complete process to ensure that you have all the steps.”

Steps like these are necessary, says Winn, because dispensaries face certain difficulties when they try to market online, given that they often face a larger share of legal issues coupled with difficulty adapting traditional marketing methods that have otherwise proven lucrative in the past. Winn notes that, “It can be difficult for dispensaries to get the kind of marketing that they need for success. Because these are typically brick and mortar businesses, knowing how to track an in store visit that originated online is crucial in determining the effectiveness of your online marketing campaigns.” Learn more here: Optimize Google My Business for dispensaries.

First and foremost, Winn advises, dispensaries should claim and verify their online Google Maps listing. This is the most crucial step, since it immediately opens up other avenues for marketing as well as a host of more subtle improvements to a dispensary’s visibility, such as increasing the likelihood of their business appearing in related search results. Winn adds, “You will also be more likely to show in the Knowledge Panel if your GMB listing is verified.”

The Knowledge Panel is a miniature sidebar that is created next to the displayed search results if the Google search engine believes it knows exactly which company (or other information) the user is looking for. It will usually include a more user friendly interface that makes interacting with the business a more attractive option. It does this by providing easy access to commonly used resources, such as a direct link to the company’s website, direct access to directions to find the business’ premises, their opening hours, the ability to ask the company a question, a list of available reviews, and more.

Gaining a verified listing is especially vital given the competitive nature of the cannabis industry. Winn says, “Without a verified listing, it is unlikely that you will ever appear in the coveted 3 Pack when someone performs a relevant search. This may be possible in some industries but I have yet to see an unverified listing appear there in the highly competitive cannabis industry. A properly optimized listing is a crucial part of a local SEO strategy.” Once a business is claimed, the business owner will be prompted to add their address, alongside other relevant questions such as whether the business offers its product and/or services outside the stated address. Whatever the answer, Winn strongly advises that the information provided be both accurate and consistent with other sources, such as on the company website and promotional materials. This will reduce any chances of confusion, and repeated exposure to this information will encourage users to engage with the business.

Retaining a verified GMB listing allows a company to manage their reviews, curate photos of the business taken by their customers, respond to inquiries (such as those that appear in the Knowledge Panel), view valuable insights regarding how customers find the business, and much more. The company notes that, “Having an optimized listing has become even more important over the last few years. In fact it has increased from 14.7% of a businesses ranking factor to over 25% in the last year, according to a survey of SEO professionals.”

Those who wish to learn more about dispensary advertising may contact David Winn of THC Internet Marketing. The company can also be reached through their website, and interested parties may follow them via their social media platforms to receive notifications when the company publishes new articles on the subject.

SOURCE: Press Advantage [Link]

Dispensary Marketing Agency Shares Expertise On Google My Business Optimization is courtesy of: https://www.thc.im/

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Cannabis Dispensary Marketing Agency Announces New Website

THC Internet Marketing is a boutique digital marketing agency that specializes in traffic for cannabis dispensaries. The Vancouver, British Columbia based company recently announced their official business launch, as well as the launch of their new website.

The company’s new website can be seen at https://thc.im. Davis Winn, a representative for the company says, “It can be difficult for dispensaries to get the kind of marketing that they need for success. Because these are typically brick and mortar businesses, knowing how to market them is essential for anyone who wants to see a lot of traffic.”

Winn says that the company has worked to develop online and offline marketing strategies that have proven to be very successful for dispensaries in the past. He adds that dispensaries face a lot of issues regarding legalities, as well as hostility of some traditional marketing methods that other businesses find lucrative. Because of these challenges, he adds that there are certain marketing strategies that must be used in order for dispensaries to enjoy successful marketing.

“We started with a very limited toolset,” says Winn. “And we worked with what we had until we developed a marketing strategy that will help these dispensaries to get the kind of business that they need to stay open.”

Winn says that an outline of the services that they provide can be seen at https://g.page/dispensary-seo/. He adds that the company uses visibility, customer communication and reputation to provide businesses with a clear and concise marketing plan that will help them to meet and exceed their business goals.

Winn says that Google Maps has become a vital tool in helping to market these businesses, and so the company has developed systems for maps that enable customers to more easily find the dispensaries in their local areas. He adds that business reputation is important no matter what the type of business in question, and that the company offers a number of strategies for improving the reputation of dispensaries and getting them the business that they want.

The company’s new website offers detailed information about how they help dispensaries to be found. Winn adds that dispensaries can contact them to receive a free web presence audit and marketing plan that will help the business to know what they need to do in order to increase their business presence. He states that while most SEO companies will audit websites and offer to optimize a set number of pages for a set number of keywords, his company offers a results based approach that looks beyond simple keyword ranking, helping dispensaries to complete their online presence, including their social media accounts and other actions that will help them to better be found. They also look for ways to help dispensaries retain those customers once their business has been earned.

Studies show that online presence is important for any business, even those that do not offer their goods or services online. Winn states that social media accounts on sites like Facebook and Instagram can go a long way in helping businesses to garner local customers. He adds that without an online presence, many businesses will fail to meet their customer goals.

Most consumers today use smartphones and other online devices to find brick and mortar businesses. These consumers will read through reviews left by other customers online and even use maps to locate the business that is closest to them. Online reputation has become one of the best ways to garner new business and Winn states that any dispensary needs a solid online reputation in order to compete with other similar businesses, particularly in an industry that is often shrouded with negativity in the first place.

THC Internet Marketing is now open and providing much needed SEO and other services for dispensaries. Those who are interested can visit the company on their own new website to learn more about what they do and how they do it. Interested dispensaries can also visit the company on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thcim to learn more or to interact with other dispensaries that the company has assisted through various means of SEO. Contact information for those who wish to schedule a business audit can be found on the new website.

SOURCE: Press Advantage [Link]

Semantic Tags

Cannabis Shop, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, Web Presence

The following post Cannabis Dispensary Marketing Agency Announces New Website is available on: https://www.thc.im

Cannabis Dispensary Marketing Agency Announces New Website posted first on https://thc.im

Google My Business Optimization Part 2

In part 1 of our Google My Business series, I showed you how to set up a listing and optimize it while you were waiting for it to be verified. In this post I will go into some of the steps you can take to optimize your listing after verification. Hopefully at this point you’ve become somewhat familiar with the interface and will be familiar with each section in the back end of your listing. At this point should have already filled out the basics such as your hours etc. It would be in your interest to read over Google’s guidelines  for representing your business that you can find at : https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177

Keep in mind that I am writing this from the perspective of a newly set up or claimed listing. Just like most dispensary SEO strategies, GMB optimization is an ongoing process. This guide will give you a good foundation.

The GMB Interface

The Info TAB

Name

First Up is your name which you obviously filled in when you set up the listing. If you claimed your listing from Google and the name they had was incorrect – now is the time to fix it. It should be the name that you are registered under or at least your DBA name. The name that you would list in the phone book – you will be adding yourself to the Yellow Pages once this is all done. Here is what Google Has to Say

Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. Accurately representing your business name helps customers find your business online.

Google

You are only supposed to include the name – no other info. As an example some multi location businesses will include the city or neighbourhood in their GMB listing name; Eg. Starbucks Beverly Hills. Technically this is not allowed, but I see it all the time and no one ever seems to have a problem. Sometimes it can be a good way to differentiate separate locations that are close together. If two businesses with the same name are too close together sometimes Google will only show one on the map. Just remember, technically this is a violation of Google’s TOS.

Category

We went over this in the first part of the guide. Generally this will be “cannabis shop”, which will display on Google as “Cannabis Store”. Google can’t seem to get this one straight.

Address

This will be filled out, but double check it is exactly how it should be. You need to remember that major changes here may result in re-verification, this is why it’s important to get this right the first time.

Service Area

This only applies if you do deliveries. If so I would advise to set it up by ZIP or postal code for better accuracy.

Hours

You should have done this already. Make sure they are accurate and then fill out the Holiday Hours section directly below it as much as possible. Having holiday hours added will likely get you better visibility on holidays because your competition is unlikely to have taken the time. This means their hours on holidays are suspect in Google’s eyes while yours are not. Holidays can big very busy days for dispensaries, they extra little push from accurate holiday hours can translate into significant sales.

Short Name “@”

Google My Business Short Name Field

You may see the “@” symbol on your listing, if so you should claim your “short name”. This is a g.page URL that directs to your GMB listing on google maps. You can name it whatever you want. Try and make it either very easy to remember – or get a keyword in there.

Website

Enter your website URL here. If you are a single location dispensary enter your homepage; eg. http://yourdispensary.com. If you are a multi location dispensary then you should enter the URL for the location’s page; Eg. http://yourdispensary.com/locationpage .

Attributes

These are pretty self explanatory. I did notice what I think is a new attribute if you scroll down to the bottom. Under the heading of “Planning” there is an option of “LGBTQ Friendly”. I’m not really sure what this means exactly. However, unless you are a bigot and really don’t want to add it – I would add it. I have no proof, but I’m sure Google will reward your virtue signalling somehow. From their site:

There’s little that compares to the feeling of walking into a place and being immediately comfortable—your shoulders loosen, your breathing slows, you physically relax, knowing you can be yourself. Finding those spaces has often been hard for the LGBTQ+ community. We want to help celebrate those spaces of belonging and make them easier to find.

Arjan Dijk, VP of Marketing at Google – Google Blog

That should be the vibe for everyone that walks into a dispensary, shouldn’t it?

Description

This is Where Your Description Will Display

This is where you get to pitch your business. Google gives you 750 characters but it will be truncated at 250 characters in the Knowledge Panel and it will be on the “About” Tab on Mobile. I could, and probably will write an entire post about how to write the description. I went over this in Part 1, but to reiterate, consider this your chance to pitch your business, don’t keyword stuff, and keep the most important parts at the top as anything after 250 characters will require the user to click to see it.

Opening Date

This is really only important if you haven’t opened yet. Google will show the opening date for up to 90 days prior to the date you specify.

The Insights TAB

This is where Google gives you information about how much traffic your listing is getting and where it’s coming from. There is nothing to optimize here. I will be writing an entire post on how to interpret the data here and how to act on it to help you gain more traffic.

The Reviews TAB

There is nothing to optimize here but this is a very important part of your online presence. I will also be writing posts about the importance of review solicitation and management. For now, it’s enough to know that you should respond to reviews in a timely fashion, especially the negative ones. Negative reviews are an opportunity to show potential customers how you handle yourself when things go wrong. This says a lot about you and can do mmore to increase sales than a bunch of flowery responses to the positive reviews.

How to Respond To Negative Reviews

• Don’t fly off the handle, take a deep breath and maybe a few minutes or even 24 hours if you need it to calm down.
• Start by thanking them for taking the time to provide feedback.
• Try and take it offline – or at least out of public view. Ask them to provide specifics and contact you through your website or by phone.
• Try and make it right – If the complaint is legitimate, this is your chance to improve your business. Thank them for providing you with an opportunity for improvement.

Everybody knows there are people that will complain about anything and just like the attention. One of our clients had someone complain on Google that they wouldn’t let him do a dab in the store of shatter that he bought somewhere else. While it may be hard not to lose your patience when faced with that sort of idiocy, it gives you a chance to showcase your professionalism for all to see.

The Messaging TAB

This gives you the opportunity to respond to messages directly from Google. You used to be able to connect a cellphone number or What’s App, now it simply offers you the chance to download the GMB app. Unless you are sure that you will be able to answer promptly, I wouldn’t do this now. While it sends a strong signal to Google that you’re serious, you need to be sure that someone will be available to take this on. The last thing you want is a bunch of unanswered messages. People that use this feature to ask questions about your business will expect a prompt answer.

The Photos TAB

Photos are one of the most important parts of optimizing your GMB listing. More is better, but start with the basics. The tabs show below are pretty self explanatory. They are suggestions of the types of photos you should have. Google just shows them all in a big bucket on the front end, with the exception of videos and 360’s often getting their own tabs. If possible, take these pictures on a device that has geo-tagging enabled. Google strips out the geo-data, but don’t think they don’t read it .

360

These are interactive photos that generally require a special camera. They can be done through the Google Streetview app, but it can be a little tricky with uncertain results. If you can get one of these of the inside of your store then I suggest it. They help from an SEO perspective by sending a signal to Google about your location, fake businesses generally don’t do this and it is great for prospective customers to get a feel for the vibe of your store. This likely leads to higher customer actions which is in itself a ranking signal.

An example of professionally done 360 photos.

You can walk right in!

Video

If you can make a video about your store featuring a manager or owner explaining what the store or clinic is all about , I highly suggest it. If no one wants to be in the video then you can simply make a slideshow video of the inside of the store. Get in touch with us if you need some help here. We can make you something inexpensive to upload here. The fact that your listing  has videos is a signal to Google. If they are actually engaging as well, then all the better.

Interior

This is pretty self explanatory. Lighting can be an issue in some dispensaries and make sure the store is empty. Let the customers fill up your listings with pics of a busy store. If someone doesn’t want their picture taken, you don’t want to be the one that uploaded it.

Exterior

Try and wait for good light and get a nice shot of the outside. Take a few and give yourself some choice. You will likely want some at night as well and throughout the year.

Product

This is where you may want to be careful. As the owner of the listing you may not want to be the one that uploads some product shots. The laws in your jurisdiction may vary. I’ve never seen any problems arise from posting product shots but it might be wise to not upload shots of flower as the owner. Google does have policies against promoting drug use even though I’ve never seen any problems arise, you never know. Leave the flower shots to customers or staff with accounts that aren’t managers or owners of the listing.

Team

If your staff are OK with it, get some shots of them. Welcoming faces draw customers.

Identity

This is an important section. The Cover photo will usually stay at the top of the photos bucket on your listing and the logo is what will display as a profile photo on photos that you upload as the owner. The cover an also be the main photo of your listing – but Google will often choose a different one.

Website Tab

This is different from the website field on the info tab. Here you can use Google’s website builder to create a site really quickly. It’s not a bad option if you don’t have a website yet. Even if you do have a website already, it’s very easy to create one here. It will pull pictures and reviews from your listing and you can add a link to your site from the “About” section and BAM you just got a backlink from a Google owned domain!

Conclusion

That just about covers the first part of Google My Business Optimization. You’ve now got a listing that is probably better optimized than 75% or more of your competitors. In future posts we’ll dive deeper into some areas of this guide such as image optimization and review solicitation that will help you to further increase your visibility. If you just optimized an older listing, it will likely take a few weeks before you start seeing results, but sometimes faster. Good luck out there!

Google My Business Optimization Part 2 posted first on https://thc.im

Google My Business Optimization For Dispensaries

As a dispensary, one of the most important things you can do to increase your visibility and attract more customers is to optimize your Google My Business listing. This is a crucial part of any dispensary marketing strategy.  It is likely that you have already done a lot of what I will detail below, but I will go through the complete process to ensure that you have all the steps.

Step by Step GMB Optimization

Claim and Verify Your Listing

Claim the Listing

This is the most important step and the one you have most likely done already. Not only will you increase you’re likelihood of showing for important search terms. You will also be more likely to show in the Knowledge Panel if your GMB listing is verified.  If you already exist on Google and you didn’t add the listing, then when you search your name and address on Google Maps you will encounter something like the following:

Click on the link and then confirm the name is correct. If your business is brand new and doesn’t appear on the map you’ll need to set up the listing from scratch by going to https://www.google.com/business/ and signing up. From that point on the steps will be the same.

Why This is So Important

Without a verified listing it is unlikely that you will ever appear in the coveted 3 Pack when someone performs a relevant search. This may be possible in some industries but I have yet to see an unverified listing appear there in the highly competitive cannabis industry. A properly optimized listing is a crucial part of a local SEO strategy.

Having a verified GMB listing allows you to :

• Manage reviews – which are in themselves an important factor in your visibility
• Curate Photos from your customers
• Respond to inquiries and answer questions about your business (you can do it directly from within GMB – more on that later)
• Gain valuable insights into how customers are finding you and from where they request directions to your store.

Having an optimized listing has become even more important over the last few years. In fact it has increased from 14.7% of a businesses ranking factor to over 25% in the last year according to a survey of SEO professionals.

GMB is now the most important factor Source: Moz

So add your name and then you will be asked if you want to add a physical location. Since dispensaries are retail stores the answer will be “Yes”. Then it will ask you to add your address. This should be exactly as it appears on your website. It is very important that it be accurate and consistent everywhere it appears. It will then ask you to position the pin on a map to mark your location – be as accurate as possible.

Place the Pin on the Map

 

Choose a service area in Google My Business set up.

Next they will ask you if you serve customers outside your location. If you deliver then the answer will be “yes” and they will ask you to define your service area. You can do so with cities and postal codes. . For dispensaries that service an immediate area I would define your area by zip or postal code for better accuracy. If you are an online dispensary that delivers nationwide, then you may want to define a wider area. Now we come to the all important category.

 

The Importance of Categories in Google My Business

For dispensaries the choice of category can be a difficult one. Technically dispensaries fall under the relatively recently added category of “Cannabis shop”, which will display as “Cannabis Store” on the front end.. Prior to the creation of this category by Google everybody chose categories such as “Alternative Medicine Practitioner” or “Herb Shop”. It was really up to you. In many areas prominent dispensaries still have these categories as their primary category in GMB, while in other areas you  will rarely find a dispensary with a category other than “Cannabis Shop”.

Tip: Search for “cannabis dispensary yourcity” on Google and then click “More Places” on the 3 Pack. If none of top ten have a category other than “cannabis shop”, it’s a pretty safe bet that you will never get to the top three without “cannabis shop” as your primary category.

“What’s so difficult?” you may ask. Well the issue is that the choice of category will determine what features Google will make available to your listing. As an example, with cannabis shop, there are very few features available, you can’t add “Products” or use Posts. Both of these features can be very powerful signals and can be used to increase your exposure. Some categories will also allow the use of an Appointment URL which can be used in various ways to pass more juice to your site.

As a business owner you are likely very busy and might not have the time or wherewithal to make full use of such features and how to do it is beyond the scope of this post, so I will recommend that you stick with “cannabis shop” for now. I will also recommend that you add “vaporizer shop” as a secondary category, provided you sell such products. I’ve seen dispensaries pick up some nice traffic from people searching for cannabis vape products simply by adding this as a secondary category. It is worth noting that you can add a number of categories but only the primary category will show on the listing.

Next Up : More Contact Details

Don’t Choose “I Don’t Need a website”

Now Google will ask you if you want to provide more contact information, namely a phone number and website. Of course the answer is “Yes”. Add you phone number and website URL. If you don’t have a website then select “Get a free website based on your info.” Google will create a website for you based on your details. In fact I recommend creating this website later even if you have your own website. It will not hurt you to have a website on a high authority Google domain.

Verify!

Now they will ask you how you would like to verify. It is almost certain that they will ask for a Postcard By Mail. This means they will send a postcard to the address you gave them with a verification code for you to enter in the Dashboard. This may take a while to arrive, which is why I recommend setting up your GMB listing as soon as possible.

Conclusion

As you can see it is not that difficult to set up a GMB listing and that it is possibly the single most important thing you can do to gain visibility and new customers as well as make sure existing customers can find you if they have a question.

In Part 2 I will go through the features inside the GMB dashboard and show you further optimization tips you can undertake once you are verified.

Google My Business Optimization For Dispensaries posted first on https://thc.im