Cannabis SEO, AEO and GEO

Cannabis is the vertical we have measured most. We make cannabis businesses the name Google shows and the name AI gives.

These are one job here, not three. Search engines and AI engines read the same pages. Google states its AI features are rooted in its core Search systems, so we run it as a single program. We measure it across Google, the Map Pack, and ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.

Why cannabis is different

Most industries can buy their way back into the conversation. Cannabis cannot.

Google Ads prohibits advertising substances that induce highs. You cannot buy the Map Pack or the space beside it. You rank there, or you are not there. Organic search is not one channel among many in this category. It is the channel you are allowed to win.

The work is also more technical than standard local SEO. Menu platforms, state compliance rules and sites that render their content in JavaScript where crawlers cannot read it. All of that makes being findable harder here than almost anywhere else.

Two kinds of cannabis business, two different jobs

What we actually do

Make the content readable where AI reads

AI engines do not run JavaScript. Anything that only renders client-side is invisible to them, however well it ranks in Google. We make your facts extractable in plain markup.

For the search a customer actually makes nearby, the map is the whole result. We measured what Google returns for it in five US cities: no AI answer, three map pins, and Yelp underneath. If you want the full ordered list of what to do about it, that is the cannabis marketing ideas we ranked.

Own the Map Pack

For a dispensary, the three results Google shows on a local map are the best customers you will ever have, and you cannot pay for them. Profile work, local pages, service areas and review flow.

Build the pages engines quote from

Comparison pages are the format AI engines cite most, because the facts sit side by side in a form they can lift. We build those pages and give each one inbound authority.

Correct what the engines get wrong

When one engine states a wrong fact about you, the others repeat it. Wrong facts compound. We fix the source page and re-verify, and every engine corrects at once.

Reach B2B buyers directly

If you sell to dispensaries, brands or shops, the Lead Engine finds the buyers showing real signals, reaches the decision-maker with a reason specific to them, and handles the replies.

Proof: our own business, measured

GMI Custom Grinders is our own brand, an ancillary supplier to the cannabis industry. It ranked #1 on Google and was cited zero times by AI engines. After this work it is named by all four, and #1 on the highest-intent questions.

“GMI is the factory: they cut every grinder from raw aircraft-grade aluminium on their own CNC machines, whereas almost every other supplier buys finished grinders from overseas and prints a logo on top.”

Claude, head-to-head comparison

Read the full case study, including the six buyer questions, the four engines and the verbatim answers.

Questions

Is cannabis SEO different from normal SEO?

The fundamentals are the same. The constraints are not. Google Ads prohibits advertising substances that induce highs, so you cannot buy the Map Pack or the space beside it. You rank there, or you are not there. The work is also more technical than most local SEO: menu platforms, state compliance, and sites that render their content in JavaScript where crawlers cannot read it.

We are a dispensary. Do you sell us outreach?

No. Your customer walks in the door, and you cannot cold email a consumer. Shops get the visibility program. Outreach is for businesses that sell to other businesses, like cultivators, processors, brands and suppliers.

Why does my dispensary not show up on Google Maps?

Almost always one of three things: the Google Business Profile is unverified or incomplete, the name, address and phone number differ between your site and your profile, or the business sits outside the area Google treats as one market. Google ranks the three map results on proximity, prominence and relevance, and proximity you cannot change. The other two you can.

Does AI recommend dispensaries?

Yes, and it names shops by name. Asked for the best dispensary in Los Angeles, an AI engine named The Artist Tree and Sweet Flower; asked in Chicago, it named Ivy Hall, Dispensary 33 and Sunnyside. Google is the odd one out: for “cannabis dispensaries near me” in five US cities it returned no AI answer at all, only a map of three pins with Yelp, Leafly and Reddit underneath. Two different shortlists, and the same question for a store in both: it is naming somebody, so is it naming you?

Can Google read your menu and hours?

Frequently not. Menu platforms, appointment widgets and compliance banners are often rendered in JavaScript, so the text exists for a visitor and not for a crawler. Load your page and view the raw source: if your menu, your hours or your neighbourhood are not in that source, Google is not reading them either.

What is the fastest thing you can fix yourself?

Claim and verify the Google Business Profile, then make the name, address and phone number on your site match it character for character. That is free, takes under an hour, and inconsistency there is the single most common cause of a missing map result.

Does your Google Business Profile need reviews?

Yes, and they feed prominence, which is one of the three inputs to the map result alongside proximity and relevance. Ask at the counter while the customer is still in the shop, and reply to every review you get. A steady recent flow does more than a large stale total.

The answers that are the same for every business, whatever the industry, including what AEO and GEO mean here, how long it takes and what it costs, are kept in one place on the AI SEO page rather than repeated here.

Cannabis is one of several verticals we work in. See what YourCite does in general, or ask about yours.