7 Reasons to Start Planning Your Dispensary Website Immediately
If you are thinking about launching a new dispensary website, you might be wondering when and/ or how to start. It’s simple: the sooner, the better! There is no time like the present. In this article, we discuss seven reasons why you might not realize that it’s important to start planning your dispensary website immediately, and the actions you can take to achieve optimal results.
1. You Might Not Realize How Long it Takes
When we meet with potential new clients in every industry, one of the most common things we hear is that they often don’t know how long it truly takes to build a website. Building an effective website for your dispensary is a process that could take a couple of weeks, or it could take months. It all depends on what you want your website to achieve. At the very least, you are looking at two weeks to launch a basic turnkey dispensary website.
2. A Custom Dispensary Websites Might Take Months to Build
A custom website may take a couple of months to build. If you are looking to build one, starting that process immediately is highly recommended. Building a relationship with a web design company like Clutch removes the guesswork and headaches of going it alone.
As just one example, custom code writing is a highly specialized field for a reason. Experienced, quality web developers and designers can often “speak code” and will not just use a generic template for your dispensary website.
A good web presence business will help you offer guidance and recommendations to optimize your chances for success with your website. This in-depth, thorough process of building your dispensary website takes a significant amount of time.
3. You Will Spend Time on the Development of Your Target Audience
Developing your target audience can take some time, especially if you haven’t given it any thought yet. One of the biggest mistakes that brands in all industries make when building their website is that they are directionless when it comes to their target audience — meaning the ideal customer they’d like to attract to their website.
Realizing your target audience is one of the most important things you can do for your dispensary. Your entire online strategy should align with the goals and personality of your brand, and always keep in mind the specific group of consumers who will want your product or service. These people are, of course, your target audience.
This is another underrated aspect of website-building that directly affects the time it takes and the overall success of your website. A laser-focused target audience, not just an arbitrary one, is important because the purchasing decision is ultimately the choice of the customer. You want to ensure that your dispensary provides them with a personable, enjoyable, and predictable shopping experience. An experience that will leave them wanting to return to your store and tell others about it.
4. Optimizing Your Dispensary Website for Mobile Takes Time As Well
By now, you’re likely aware that a good majority of your dispensary customers will be finding you on their mobile devices. Where is the closest dispensary near me? For this reason, you must optimize your website for mobile. Your customers will more than likely be looking at their phones, finding what is close to them. As such, you will want to make sure that you grab their attention and know what to do with it, and this goes hand-in-hand with working with a quality web developer. The right developer will ensure that users can easily access your website on desktop, mobile, and tablets and that their experience will be a great one.
5. State to State Reciprocity and Compliance Laws Can Be Confusing
As a cannabis business owner, you understand that maintaining compliance can be a challenge. One of these challenges revolves around state-to-state reciprocity when it comes to medical cannabis laws; which are often different from recreational laws as well — if your state has a rec. program.
State-to-state reciprocity refers to whether you can use your medical marijuana card the same way in your home state as you can in other states. Meaning, if a state honors medical cannabis reciprocity, “Your state’s medical marijuana program and laws are equal to our own,” as Leafwell so eloquently puts it.
Some states will allow you to contact an out-of-state dispensary to use your medical marijuana card there. However, as a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to let your customers know that this is usually not the case.
State-to-state reciprocity is just one example of the confusing nature of state compliance laws. There’s a good reason why cannabis licensing lawyers are in such high demand. However, with the right planning, processes, and mindset in place, your dispensary can be successful — but again, it takes time, a time-tested fact that some otherwise would-be successful cannabis businesses overlook.
6. It Will Take Weeks, at least, for Google to Index Your Dispensary Website
Deciding upon and claiming the name of your domain can take a while in and of itself. This is especially true if someone else owns the .com name that you want for your brand. Once you secure your domain name, the process of getting Google to index your dispensary website is a relatively simple process. This process is as follows:
Create a Google Search Console account for your website.
- Navigate to the Google Search Console aka the URL inspection tool
- Into the search bar, paste your URL that you want Google to index.
- Hit Submit and Google should tell you that it has added your website to the crawl queue.
- Check back in a few days and you should see that Google has successfully found your sitemap, has crawled all available URLs and will index your website in Google results.
This process will take weeks to get your site in the queue, crawl, and index your dispensary website.
7. The Importance of Good Website Copy and Content
Another underrated aspect of website building is that good copy and content do not grow on trees. Well-branded and consistent copy that relays your brand identity and focuses on your target audience can take weeks as well, depending on how much you need to be written.
Great copywriting is a highly specialized field for a reason because the best companies take the time and spend the money to invest in their brands, and this includes providing the customer with great copy. The other thing that’s important when it comes to copy and content is to be consistent. When you post regular blog posts or make routine updates, Google tends to trust your website over ones that do not do this, and in turn, this can help you rank higher on search engine results.
Clutch Has You Covered
There is something to be said about building a relationship with a web design business. At Clutch, we view our client relationships as being of the utmost importance. We will learn about your goals for your dispensary website, then provide laser-focused steps to get you there.
If you’d like to schedule an intake call to discuss your dispensary website, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Clutch and schedule an intake call today!
In the upcoming months, we are publishing an entire article on why solid, consistent website copy and content might be just as important as design and development. Stay tuned for that one. If you haven’t already, you’ll want to sign up for our newsletter so you never miss a post!
