disclaimer

What this site is, and what it is not

DispensaryRank publishes search marketing guidance for licensed cannabis businesses, along with free diagnostic tools. Everything here is general information written from professional experience. It is not legal advice, not compliance advice, and not a substitute for either.

Cannabis rules change, and they differ by state

Cannabis advertising is governed by state regulators whose rules differ from one another and change without much notice, and by platform policies that change faster still. Guidance that is accurate for Michigan may be wrong for California, and guidance that was accurate last quarter may be wrong today.

Everything published here, including the compliance checker, is written to reflect the rules that apply almost everywhere. That covers the large majority of real mistakes, but it cannot replace checking your own state regulator and your own counsel before you publish. Where a question falls outside what can responsibly be answered here, you will be told that rather than given a guess.

What the free tools can and cannot tell you

The tools are diagnostic aids. They check for patterns that commonly cause problems, using the information available to them at the moment they run. They are offered as they are, without warranty of any kind.

A clean result does not mean a site is compliant, safe from penalties, or certain to rank. It means the specific patterns checked were not found. A flagged result is a prompt to investigate rather than proof of a violation, and a small number of flags will be false positives that a human should overrule. Both outcomes are a starting point for judgement, not a replacement for it.

Only scan sites you own or have permission to check. Automated or excessive use is rate limited and may be blocked.

No guaranteed search results

Search rankings depend on competitor behaviour, algorithm changes, and platform decisions that nobody controls. No outcome is promised or implied anywhere on this site, and any claim of guaranteed rankings from anyone in this industry should be treated as a warning sign.

About the results shown here

Case study figures describe what happened for one specific business, over a specific period, under conditions that will not repeat exactly. They are reported from Search Console and Business Profile data, with the measurement window stated so you can judge them yourself. Partial months are labelled as partial rather than presented as a trend.

They are shown as evidence of work done, not as a forecast of what your business would achieve.

Client names and third party marks

Brands are named where work was genuinely carried out on their behalf. Naming a brand does not imply that brand endorses this site or its services.

Platform and product names such as Google, Dutchie, Jane, Weedmaps, and Leafly belong to their respective owners. They are referred to descriptively so that the guidance is specific enough to act on. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement in either direction is implied.

No affiliate arrangements

Nothing on this site earns a commission. Tools and platforms are recommended or criticised on merit, and there is no financial arrangement behind any mention. If that ever changes it will be disclosed on the page where it applies, not buried here.

External links

Links to other sites are provided because they are useful. Their content is outside anyone's control here, and linking to a page is not an endorsement of everything else on that site.

Age and audience

This site is intended for licensed cannabis businesses, their marketing teams, and adults aged 21 and over. Nothing here sells, offers, or facilitates the sale of cannabis products.

Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, no liability is accepted for loss or damage arising from use of this site, its tools, or its published guidance. Paid engagements are governed by their own written agreement, which takes precedence over anything on this page.

Corrections

If something published here is wrong or has gone out of date, say so at the contact page. Corrections are made openly and the updated date on the page changes with them.

Federal and state law do not agree

In the United States cannabis remains a controlled substance at federal level while being lawful under many state programmes. Everything published here is written for businesses licensed under a state programme, and nothing on this site encourages, assists, or facilitates activity that is unlawful where you operate.

That conflict has practical consequences a marketing page cannot resolve for you: banking, payment processing, advertising platforms, and interstate activity all sit in it. Where guidance here touches those areas it describes what is commonly done rather than what is certainly permitted, and your own counsel is the only reliable answer.

What the compliance checker is actually reading

It matches your text against patterns drawn from rules that appear in nearly every state programme: potency claims, therapeutic or medical claims, inducements, and language that could appeal to under twenty ones. It does not know your state, your licence class, your medical or adult use status, or the specific conditions attached to your permit.

So it will miss a rule unique to your jurisdiction, and it will occasionally flag wording that is permitted where you are. Treat every finding as a question for your compliance officer rather than as a verdict.

State information moves

The state rules page names regulators and links to their own material. Those bodies rename themselves, reorganise their sites, and amend their rules, so a link that worked when written may not work when you follow it. The regulator's own current publication is authoritative and this summary is not.

Named businesses in the case studies

Where a business is named, the work described was carried out for that business and the figures come from its own Search Console and Business Profile data. Naming a client is not a claim that they endorse this site or its services, and no ongoing relationship should be inferred from a case study.

Trade marks and business names belong to their owners and appear here descriptively, to say who the work was for. Platform names such as Google, Dutchie, Jane, Weedmaps, and Leafly are used the same way, and none of those companies is affiliated with this site.

Acting on anything published here

Changes recommended in these guides touch live commercial websites. Technical work in particular, such as altering an age gate, changing canonicals, or removing pages, can affect visibility and in some states compliance. Back up first, change one thing at a time, and have someone qualified review the change before it ships.

No responsibility is accepted for loss arising from acting on general guidance without that review. This is not a disclaimer written to avoid accountability, it is the honest limit of what a published article can know about your specific site.

Third party links

Links to other sites are provided because they are useful. Their content is outside anyone's control here, and linking to a page is not an endorsement of everything else on that site.