Which is better for dispensaries, doing SEO in-house or outsourcing to an SEO service?
The answer depends on factors like budget, having the right people and resources, and your goals for growth.
In this article, we’ll cover the pros and cons of each option, as well as questions and trade-offs to consider.
In-house dispensary SEO
A lot of cannabis dispensaries start here. Maybe your marketing person is wearing multiple hats, with SEO being one of them.
Taking SEO in-house often feels like the natural first move. It gives you control since you’re calling the shots, setting priorities, and tweaking your strategy based on what’s flying off the shelves. If you already have a team that knows all the ins and outs of the brand and what makes your audience tick, those internal insights can be an advantage.
And if your team knows their way around content writing, Google Business Profiles, and using SEO tools, you might not need to outsource.
Here are some of the pros and cons of keeping SEO for your dispensary in-house:
Pros
- You know your neighborhood. Since your team spends time in the same town that your store serves, you’ve got an advantage: built-in knowledge that’ll inform your local SEO You already know what strains customers are asking for and what types of people are coming through your door. Even what their plans are after leaving with their goodies. That kind of firsthand insight is gold.
- You can easily shift gears. Maybe a competitor across town starts offering BOGO deals on pre-rolls. Or you have to pause online orders because of a POS change. An in-house SEO setup means you can make quick decisions without waiting for someone outside your walls to catch up.
- Total control without guesswork. When SEO lives in-house, you’re not chasing down reports or waiting for someone to optimize meta tags. You know what’s happening and when. It’s your strategy and at your pace.
- Your team gets your brand like no one else. Tone matters in cannabis. Whether you’re going for a medical vibe or something more playful, your internal team already lives and breathes your brand. They’re not guessing how to talk to your audience.
- No back-and-forths. Need to get people on the same page for an SEO project for a new product offering? You can just huddle up with your marketing team, loop in your budtenders for insights, and get the ball rolling right away. When SEO sits under the same roof as operations and marketing, communication is easy.
Cons
- Finding the right people is a challenge. There aren’t a lot of SEO pros out there who also have experience in cannabis. Compliance adds a layer of complexity, of course. And most marketers just don’t have that experience.
- One person can’t do it all. Dispensary SEO involves technical aspects (site speed, indexability), local optimization (Google Business Profile, directories), link building, and ongoing content creation. It’s a lot to juggle, which means you either have to hire more than one person, work with an SEO agency, or accept that you won’t cover everything in great depth.
- Tools can be costly. If you’re managing SEO internally, you’ll need tools like keyword research and tracking, competitive analysis, site crawling, and reporting to measure your efforts. The subscriptions add up. And without them, you’re flying blind in a game where data is important.
- Recruiting and ramping up takes time. Even when you do find the right SEO person, it can take months to get them onboarded and aligned with your brand. It might take time to get up to speed with the cannabis industry’s regulations too. And that’s assuming they stick around long enough to get results.
- Staying current feels like chasing the carrot. Google rolls out an algorithm update every couple months. In-house teams may not have the bandwidth to stay on top of every update. Miss one and fail to adjust your SEO strategy, and your rankings could fall.
- Scaling is a grind. Need 10 new product pages? Or want to publish more blog content to target new keywords? If your SEO or marketing team is just one or two people, they might be maxed out already. It’s tough to scale without extra hands or outsourcing to an SEO service.
Outsourced dispensary SEO
If doing SEO in-house isn’t an option because your team doesn’t have the bandwidth, turning to an SEO service is a scalable alternative.
Hiring an agency that specializes in cannabis means you have experts on your side who knows what works in cannabis marketing. It’s an extension to your team, minus the recruiting and overhead costs.
Here are some of the pros and cons of outsourcing SEO for your dispensary:
Pros
- Agencies have a bigger picture of the cannabis industry. Since they’ve worked with plenty of dispensaries already, they know what works for SEO and what doesn’t. They can also spot trends early, like new features in your Google Business Profile or how to tweak your local SEO strategy when the next algorithm update hits.
- Agencies are search marketing experts. From on-page optimization and content strategy to technical fixes, outsourced cannabis teams bring special expertise you might not get with a single in-house employee.
- Agencies come with a full toolkit. Need a keyword strategy, a writer who understands cannabinoids, and someone to audit your site’s user experience? That’s all included with a dispensary SEO service. You get a team that can move in sync, and you don’t need to juggle interviews or onboarding.
- You save money by not stacking salaries. Instead of hiring a content specialist, a local SEO expert, and a person that can handle technical site stuff, you pay for one streamlined service. Plus, you don’t have to pay for any SEO tools.
- You avoid burning out. Your marketing manager probably didn’t expect to write meta tags or handle site crawling issues. Outsourcing relieves your internal team of that burden so they can instead focus on brand strategy and customer experience.
- You can scale when you need to. Does business pick up in the summer? Opening a new store? Outsourced SEO agencies can ramp up or down without skipping a beat.
“As a lean team operating with a modest budget, working with CCG has been incredibly valuable for our SEO effort,” says Paige Seavey of The Pass, a dispensary in Sheffield, MA. “Their expertise across keyword strategy, rankings, on-page optimizations, and content creation has allowed us to elevate our digital presence without the overhead of building a full in-house team.”
Cons
- Agencies aren’t inside your walls. A good SEO service provider can get you online visibility, but they won’t know the details about your vertical integration process or customer preferences until you tell them. Agencies need time to understand your products and what matters most to both your business and your customers.
- Time zones can be a challenge. If you’re a multi-state operator or working with an SEO agency that’s not in your time zone, making updates to your site may take longer than you’d like. Cannabis retail sometimes needs faster responses.
- You have less day-to-day control. Unlike an in-house team, outsourced partners aren’t sitting in your staff meetings or talking to budtenders. That means you’ll need to stay updated with check-ins so everyone’s on the same page.
- It takes time to get fully synced. Even the best dispensary SEO agencies need time to ramp up. They’ll want to learn about the audience you’re targeting and what makes your brand different. This onboarding period may be slow at first, but it’s important for long-term success.
Considerations to help you decide
Some dispensaries benefit from the control and brand knowledge that an in-house team has. Others tap into the scalability and expertise of an outsourced cannabis SEO service.
Here are some questions and trade-offs to think about:
- How competitive is the local market around your dispensary?
- Are you looking for fast growth or long-term organic visibility?
- How soon do you need to start seeing results for SEO?
- What’s your budget for in-house SEO staff compared to an external service?
- Do you already have technical and content creation resources in-house to support SEO?
- Do you have the necessary tools and technology to execute a strong dispensary SEO strategy?
- Does your team have the bandwidth to stay up to date with SEO trends?
- Are there compliance risks you’re concerned about when it comes to marketing your dispensary?
- How important is local expertise to your dispensary’s marketing success?
- How much collaboration and oversight do you want to have over SEO?
Notable trade-offs:
- Cost vs. control: Outsourcing to a dispensary SEO service can be more affordable. An in-house team gives you more day-to-day oversight, but it comes with higher staffing and operational costs.
- Expertise vs. brand familiarity: Cannabis marketing agencies have experience in different markets. An internal team will be more familiar with your brand identity and customers.
- Flexibility vs. stability: Outsourcing is flexible, allowing you to scale up or down as needed. There’s long-term stability with an in-house team, but they may be slow to adapt.
- Scalability vs. focus: SEO agencies can easily scale up as your business grows. An in-house team may give more focused attention to your goals.
- Resource control vs. overhead management: Managing in-house SEO comes with salary, benefits, and infrastructure costs. Outsourcing reduces overhead but gives you less control over individual resources.
- Consistency vs. innovation: In-house teams often deliver work that consistently aligns with the brand. External partners might share new cannabis SEO strategies you haven’t considered.
When in-house SEO makes sense
For some dispensaries, keeping SEO in-house is the way to go if you already have a skilled marketing team that can handle it.
If you don’t have much local competition, in-house efforts may be enough to rank without needing a full-blown SEO strategy. For example, if you’re the only dispensary in town, doing the basics like local listings and on-page optimization can get you pretty far.
An in-house model also gives you full creative and strategic control. You can decide exactly how your dispensary’s story is told online. Your team can customize local SEO efforts to tie in community events, neighborhood news, or menu specials.
And if you’re not in a rush for fast results, in-house SEO can be a smart long-term play. SEO takes time, and this works to your advantage if your goals allow for slower growth.
Why most dispensaries lean toward outsourcing SEO
Many dispensaries partner with an agency that can handle most aspects of marketing – SEO, paid ads, social media, etc. The cannabis industry requires an understanding of advertising restrictions and state-by-state compliance rules. A basic SEO strategy won’t cut it.
SEO service providers that specialize in cannabis have already worked with dispensaries in a variety of markets. They’ve seen what it takes to rank in competitive cities and how to create educational content while staying compliant. They can apply proven strategies faster than an in-house team that’s still learning.
Many dispensaries don’t have the time or SEO expertise. Your team is busy managing inventory and the daily operations, so SEO probably isn’t a priority.
“Outsourcing SEO has been crucial to the success of our company,” says Mashayla Simpson of Full Harvest Moonz, a dispensary in Haverhill, MA. “Having a team like CCG to keep up with the changing SEO needs, in such a new and widespread industry, has allowed me to focus my time on internal marketing campaigns and community outreach.”
By hiring an agency, dispensaries get access to better tools, more advanced reporting, and fresh marketing ideas. And since outsourced teams are dedicated to SEO full-time, they can often deliver quicker wins, like improving your Google Maps ranking for an important keyword.
To recap, here’s a handy breakdown of the pros and cons for in-house vs. outsourced dispensary SEO:
Frequently asked questions
What are the main challenges dispensaries face when outsourcing SEO?
One of the biggest challenges with outsourcing dispensary SEO is the discovery phase of the partnership. Even the best agency needs time to learn about your products and audience preferences. Clear expectations will help your SEO service provider deliver a strategy that’s authentic and gets results.
How can dispensaries ensure effective communication with an outsourced SEO team?
Set up regular check-ins and use shared project management tools. Be proactive about providing updates on your products, promotions, and goals. A good SEO agency will encourage collaboration. They’ll keep you informed about the progress of your campaign.
How does the cost of in-house SEO compare to outsourcing for dispensaries?
An in-house SEO team usually costs more in the long run. You’re paying for salaries, benefits, and the like. Outsourcing to an SEO service, on the other hand, can be more affordable. And especially so for dispensaries that need support but don’t have the budget to hire internally.
What are the potential risks of relying on an in-house SEO team for a dispensary?
The main risk is falling behind. An in-house team might not be able to keep up with things like algorithm updates and what your competitors are doing for SEO. This could hurt your long-term visibility.