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 by proximity, prominence and relevance, and proximity you cannot change. The other two you can.

Do I need SEO if I run a dispensary?

You need it more than most businesses do. Google Ads prohibits advertising substances that induce highs, so paid search is closed to you. Organic search and the Map Pack are the channels you are allowed to win, which makes them the whole acquisition channel rather than one option among several.

How long does it take to rank a dispensary on Google?

A profile fix can move the Map Pack in days to weeks. A new page usually takes two to four months before it holds a position, and the pages we watched on a 27-day-old domain had not been crawled at all. Treat profile and content as separate timelines instead of one.

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, but the same question for your store either way: it is naming somebody, so is it naming you?

What is the fastest thing I can fix myself?

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.

How much does SEO cost per month in 2026?

Local SEO averages $1,557 a month across 439 providers, with agencies at $1,819 and freelancers at $1,150 (Ahrefs, October 2026). Most SEO companies charge between $1,500 and $5,000 a month (GoodFirms, 2026).

Is $500 a month enough for SEO?

It can buy monitoring and on-page fixes for a small local business with limited competition. It cannot buy content production and link earning, which is what moves competitive terms.

Why do cheap SEO retainers not work?

Not because cheap is wicked, but because link and mention earning costs real hours. At $500 a month there is no room for it, so the retainer drifts into reporting.

How much does SEO cost?

YourCite · Pricing, in the open · updated 31 October 2026 · sourced surveys, not guesswork

As of October 2026: a poll of 439 SEO providers puts local SEO at $1,557 a month on average, agencies at $1,819 and freelancers at $1,150, and 79.1% of providers in the US and Canada charge at least $1,001 a month (Ahrefs, 2026, a poll of 439 providers read on 18 October 2026). When someone quotes you $200, they are selling something different from what you think you are buying.

What do the published surveys say?

Three sources, all with a stated sample, all read this month:

Ahrefs, 439 providers: local SEO $1,557 a month; agencies $1,819; freelancers $1,150; the most common hourly rate is $75 to $100.
GoodFirms surveyed 300+ agencies (GoodFirms, 2026): most SEO companies charge $1,500 to $5,000 a month; local business SEO sits at $500 to $1,500; an AI optimisation (GEO/AEO) add-on averages about $900 a month. Their own line is blunt: under $1,500 a month only makes sense for a local business with limited competition.
One specialist agency in the med spa market publishes its rates: $149 for a one-time AI visibility audit, $750 a month for tracking, profile and review work, $1,500 a month with content.

Why is the range so wide?

Because "SEO" is four different jobs sold under one word. Monitoring and reporting is one job. Fixing technical problems is a second. Producing content is a third. Earning links and mentions is a fourth, and it isn't the cheap one, because it's the only one you can't do alone in a room.

If you've paid a retainer before and watched the reports arrive while nothing moved, you already know the feeling. It isn't anger. It's the quiet suspicion that the invoice is the product, and that nobody will say so out loud.

A $500-a-month retainer buys you the first job, and part of the second if the site is small. It can't buy the fourth. That isn't a moral failing on the part of the cheap provider. It's arithmetic.

What does a cheap retainer actually hide?

Usually one of three things: a dashboard you could have got free, a contract that renews while nothing changes, or a promise about rankings that nobody can keep. We know what the end of that looks like, because the industry measures it: SEO retainers churn at about 3.2% a month, roughly 38% a year, with an average tenure of six to twelve months (Focus Digital, 2026), from a survey of agency churn published this year.

At $500 a month, a client who leaves in eight months is worth $4,000. That is less than the work of winning them. Which is why the honest cheap offers are one-time pieces of work, not monthly ones.

What should you actually pay?

It depends what you're buying, so buy the thing, not the word:

Under $500, one time: an audit that tells you what is broken. Fine value if the fix list is specific to your site.
$500 to $1,500 a month: monitoring, on-page fixes, profile and review work. Reasonable for a small local business with limited competition.
$1,500 to $2,500+ a month: the same plus content production, and eventually links. This is where movement on competitive terms actually comes from.

Honestly, paying more does not buy you a position. It buys hours and judgment, and the judgment is the part that improves. Anyone who promises a ranking is guessing, and the guessing gets more expensive the longer you pay for it.

How do you tell a good quote from a cheap one?

Ask for three things. What exactly happens in month one, in hours. What the same measurement will show in month three, and what happens if it doesn't. And whether you own the pages, the profiles and the data afterwards. A provider who answers all three plainly is worth more than one who answers the first and distracts on the second.

Start with the free one

We run your buyers' real questions across the AI engines and show you whether you are named, and who is named instead. Then you will know whether you need a retainer at all.

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Next: what an AEO agency does, and what it should cost.