Disclaimer

01General Information Only

Dispensary Rank publishes search marketing guidance and free diagnostic tools for licensed cannabis businesses. Everything here is general information written from professional experience in search. It is not tailored to your business, and reading it does not create a client relationship.

02Not Legal, Compliance Or Financial Advice

The operator of this site is not a lawyer, and nothing here is legal, regulatory, compliance, tax or financial advice. Content is written to help you avoid common mistakes, but the final sign off on anything you publish belongs with your own counsel or compliance officer.

Where a question falls outside what can responsibly be answered here, the answer will say so rather than guess.

03Cannabis Rules Differ By State And Country, And Change Often

Cannabis advertising is regulated state by state, and the rules differ from one market to the next and change with little notice. Platform policies from Google, Meta and others change faster still. Guidance that is right for one state can be wrong for its neighbour, and guidance that was right last quarter can be wrong today.

The state rules page names regulators and links to their own material. Those bodies reorganise their sites and amend their rules, so their current publication is authoritative and the summary here is not.

04Federal And State Law Do Not Agree

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

That conflict affects banking, payments, advertising platforms and anything that crosses state lines. Where guidance here touches those areas it describes what is commonly done, not what is certainly permitted.

Outside the United States, cannabis is regulated country by country, and sometimes province by province. In many countries it is not lawful at all, and in some that allow medical use it may not be advertised. The same principle applies everywhere: this site is written for businesses operating lawfully under their own local rules, and you are responsible for checking what those rules allow before acting on anything here.

05What The Free Tools Can And Cannot Tell You

The tools are diagnostic aids. They look for patterns that commonly cause problems, using only what is available to them at the moment they run, and they are provided as they are, without warranty of any kind.

• a clean result means the specific patterns checked were not found, not that a site is compliant, safe from penalties or certain to rank
• a flag is a prompt to investigate, not proof of a problem, and some flags will be false positives a person should overrule
• a scanner sees what the site sent to this server at that moment, which can differ from what Google or a customer receives

06What The Compliance Checker Is Reading

The Compliance Checker matches your text against patterns drawn from rules that appear in most state programs: potency claims, medical or therapeutic claims, inducements and wording that could appeal to people under 21. It does not know your state or country, your license type, whether you are medical or adult use, or the conditions attached to your license.

It will therefore miss rules unique to your market and will sometimes flag wording that is allowed where you are. Treat every finding as a question for your compliance officer rather than a verdict.

07No Guaranteed Rankings Or Results

Search rankings depend on competitors, algorithm updates and platform decisions that nobody controls. No ranking, traffic figure or business outcome is promised or implied anywhere on this site, and a guarantee of rankings from anyone in this industry is a warning sign.

08Case Studies And Figures

The figures in the case studies describe what happened for one business, over one stated period, under conditions that will not repeat exactly. They come from that business's own Search Console and Business Profile data, with the measurement window stated and partial months labeled as partial.

They are evidence of work done, not a forecast of what your business will achieve.

09Before You Act On Anything Here

The guides recommend changes to live commercial websites. Technical work in particular, such as changing an age gate, canonicals or redirects, 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.

10Named Businesses And Trade Marks

Where a business is named, the work described was carried out for that business. Naming a client does not mean that client endorses this site, and no ongoing relationship should be read into a case study.

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

11No Affiliate Or Sponsored Content

Nothing on this site earns a commission, and no platform or vendor has paid to be mentioned, recommended or criticised. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on the page where it applies.

12Links To Other Websites

Links to other sites are included because they are useful. Their content is outside this site's control, and linking to a page does not endorse everything else on that site.

13Age 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.

14Limitation Of Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, and subject to the exceptions set out in the Terms Of Use, no liability is accepted for any loss arising from using this site, its tools or its published guidance, or from acting on general guidance without qualified review. This disclaimer forms part of those terms. Paid engagements are governed by their own written agreement.

15Corrections

If something published here is wrong or has gone out of date, write to hello@dispensaryrank.com. Corrections are made openly, and the updated date on the page changes with them.