How to Create a Dispensary Website

The legal marijuana industry in the USA is constantly growing, and the number of new businesses is increasing day by day. Having a well-developed dispensary website is necessary if you plan to build your own business in this sphere. This will help you attract more customers and have effectively arranged communication with your potential buyers.

There are many ready-to-use dispensary website templates and other helpful tools for making a good marijuana website. However, without knowing some rules and algorithms, you may face specific difficulties. Find some valuable tips for creating a successful weed dispensary website below.           

Cannabis business overview

A cannabis business is a rapidly developing industry with lots of market players occupying their niches every day. In 2021, the legal marijuana business was estimated at more than $23 billion, and by 2025, it is to reach $50 billion (source). 

People prefer to do shopping online today, and buying medical marijuana is not an exception. The only issue with any medical marijuana dispensary website is the payment processing system. When you sell cannabis-related products, traditional payment systems do not work. You need to look for a company specializing in processing payments for the sales of marijuana. Only then will you be able to build the medical cannabis dispensary website properly.  

Why do you need a website for your cannabis business? 

People mistakenly think they can successfully grow their business without creating a cannabis website. And that’s the gravest misconception.

You won’t be able to survive among thousands of competitors on the market without a properly developed cannabis company website. You need to have a platform for communication with your potential customers, a place where you can tell the world about your strong points, your advantages in comparison to other similar businesses. Your website is the face of your brand. It is the most efficient tool for the implementation of your marketing strategy. That’s why dispensary website design plays a crucial role in business development.   

Choosing a good name

Before getting down to cannabis website design, you should make up your mind about the name of your medical marijuana website. Logically, the domain name should somehow include or contain the name of your brand or dispensary itself in short or full. This will help the potential buyer to associate the website with your business, and it will be easier to find you. 

Choosing the right name for a marijuana dispensary website isn’t an easy task. You will need some brainstorming and a creative approach. Write down all your ideas, then check with the domain registrar to see what variants are available. You can also take advantage of free online domain name generators. Sometimes they offer rather good options. As soon as you come across something worthy, go ahead and register your dispensary website domain.       

Strong brand identity

Your marijuana dispensary website should evoke associations related to your brand. Only in this case will it work for your profit. Use this tool to raise your brand identity awareness and make it as consistent as possible. 

Use the same visual components-colors, fonts, symbols, and logo to create a strong connection between your brand and your weed dispensary website. The verbal component is no less critical in your dispensary website design. Therefore, use well-written texts that reflect your brand identity and emphasize the significant points of your personalized business. 

Bear in mind that your medical marijuana dispensary website should work to promote your brand identity.  

Cannabis web design and development  

Secure your website domain

Your cannabis website domain should be related to the name of your business or dispensary itself. This will help the buyer build associations with your brand. Try to use ready-to-use eCommerce solutions like Sweede. You can use it as an online menu to attract new customers, accept orders outside working hours, and integrate them with any modern POS. By the way, updating online menus can sometimes be challenging, but if you sync with your POS system, it will constantly be updated automatically. If you study Google results, you will find out that third-party listings are usually the first in the query.  

Find a suitable payment processor for your cannabis website

Since there may occur some conflicts between the state and federal law on the issues of cannabis-related business, it’s essential to choose the suitable payment processing systems for the cannabis dispensary website you are going to create. PayPal or Authorize.net are not applicable in this case. 

Check the website accessibility for ADA restrictions

When working on your marijuana dispensary website template, make sure that it fully corresponds to the Americans with Disabilities Act. No discrimination based on disability, race, religion, and sex is acceptable, so your cannabis website design should be as user-friendly and accessible as possible, regardless of the users’ abilities/disabilities.    

Keep your site simple

The simplicity of your cannabis company website is one of the significant points. Try to use unsophisticated cannabis website templates. Don’t overuse numerous add-ons, widgets, and other tempting options, as they may distract the user from your brand identity. Keep it as consistent and straightforward as possible.   

Choose your font wisely

It’s not a secret that fonts attract people and those that repel potential buyers. You aim to find fonts that please the eye and don’t evoke negative emotions. Classics like Garamond, Helvetica, and some others are always a good choice. Bear in mind that your cannabis website template should be readable. 

Pay attention to your website design

Two main principles for marijuana website design are easy navigation and functionality. As for the attractiveness, medical marijuana website templates with the overwhelming emblematic cannabis leaf are no longer popular. Clickable icons should be visible and not hidden. The most important information should be pointed out and placed in the priority areas and your contact and location data.

Use call to action

Add buttons for actionable items. If you place a call button at the top or bottom of your marijuana website template, a person is more likely to call you. Adding a Google Maps button is a good idea as well.

What your dispensary website should include 

When choosing among numerous marijuana website templates, remember to emphasize your strong points and tell the target audience what makes you stand out and what is so special about your product and service compared to the competitors’.

Navigation

Develop a dispensary website template with simple navigation. It’s crucial to organize the information correctly to find it just in one click.

Must-have pages

The simpler your marijuana dispensary website template is, the better. Try to include only the information that matters to the user: 

• Create an easy-to-navigate homepage with attractive photos. 
• List your products and services in a logical order.  
• Don’t forget to make an About Us page, tell the target audience the story of your business and its advantages.
• Place your contact information in an easily accessible location. Don’t miss the locations of your dispensaries. It’s a good idea to add Google Maps.

You can also add some information about discounts and promotions and some exciting and valuable articles for the blog. 

Online dispensary menus

Nowadays, several online marketplaces like Sweede, Weedmaps or Leafly are beneficial when it comes to cannabis dispensaries. Here are some benefits of using online menus:

• You can accept orders outside working hours;
• You can sync any online menu with all modern POS systems. The menu will be updated automatically;
• Sweede, Leafly, and Weedmaps usually have high rankings in Google. It is for sure that you will have new clients via online menus. 

However, it’s essential to show your presence on the market by having your marijuana website. Therefore, try both to add your listings to the well-known resources where people search for cannabis products and make an online menu available at your medical marijuana website. The person who is browsing your website for a specific product could immediately place an order. 

Age or medical marijuana card verification

Whatever marijuana dispensary website you visit, you are most likely to confirm your age, as you should be at least 21 to browse such websites. Cannabis-related products are only for adults, so they cannot be sold to people under 21. Please, add an age pop-up or medical marijuana card verification to your cannabis website template. This will protect you from possible troubles. 

Opt-in for a mailing list

Add an opt-in option to your marijuana website template to keep in touch with your customers and update them on current promotions. 

Content Strategy 

Having a well-thought content strategy for your dispensary website is less important than finding the best medical marijuana website templates. 

Any user comes to the Internet for information. The task of content marketing is to engage the user and keep him on the site. Content marketing makes a person stop, read, think, choose and buy. Share your experience with the audience, provide valuable advice, educate – and users will see you as an expert. You need to clearly understand your potential customers, what problems they care about, and what channels they use to get the information they need. It is essential to realize that your audience is divided into segments by interest. Segment your leads and post for each one separately.

A well-structured content can promote your brand identity and make people share it. This is a perfect way to establish closer connections with potential buyers and even make them purchase a specific product.    

Use SEO to increase online presence

SEO (Search engine optimization) is when you include commonly-searched keywords in your verbal content, so it’s easier for potential buyers to find you on Google. If you want to make your weed dispensary website appear more frequently in search queries, think about the words that your potential customer may type in the search line. 

Install Google Analytics – a system for analyzing visitors on the site. Google Search Console is also an indispensable tool. Google Analytics allows you to determine the number of unique visitors to the site and the number of visits. Also, helpful information can be which pages of the site are most popular, how much time users spend on average on each page of the site, etc. And Google Search Console, in turn, allows you to find out what queries users entered into the Google search bar before getting to the site.

SEO is another reason to use content marketing in your promotion. Good content allows you to get more search traffic. This is only possible with good basic SEO optimization. It includes working with meta tags (title, description, H1, H2, etc.) and forming a semantic core.

You can write a whole book about SEO optimization. But within the framework of this article, it is crucial to understand: SEO is something that you need to pay attention to when developing and launching a website.

Top CMS to build cannabis websites

CMS (content management system) is a special tool you will need to build your cannabis website and manage and modify its content. The main advantage of CMS is that you don’t need to possess special knowledge in web development to work with it. The most urgent question is what CMS to choose. There are plenty of options, and each has something worthy to offer. Let’s have a look at the most popular ones. 

WordPress

WordPress has become one of the most demanded CMS in the USA and the world. It has a good selection of features and plugins, and the pricing policy is relatively reasonable. You can even build the medical cannabis dispensary website for free. The system is easy to use, and there are many marijuana website templates for any taste and budget.  

Wix

Wix is the best option for people who want to create a cannabis company website without spending much time on it. The drag-and-drop feature will help you build several cannabis website templates to choose from. The only minus is that when you have made up your mind with a specific marijuana website template. What is more, Wix won’t suit you if you need to make a detailed dispensary website design.    

Joomla!

Joomla! is a system that can be used almost intuitively. You won’t find many cannabis website templates here, as Joomla! wants you to turn on your creativity. You can run several websites at a time, but you will have to download the system.  

Squarespace

Squarespace is the designers’ favorite system, as it offers creative marijuana website templates with a lot of decorative elements. Squarespace knows how to add more style and taste to your dispensary website. The system has a built-in shipping calculator for your convenience.  

Magento

Magento is preferable for large businesses with a wide selection of products and services. The system perfectly handles SEO and allows you to add several language versions, but it isn’t elementary in terms of usage. There are many extensions and themes available with a great diversity of medical marijuana website templates, but they all cost money.

Conclusion

Launching your marijuana dispensary website can be the best investment in your dispensary business, which will help you grow and go beyond the local boundaries. All you need to do is spend a little time researching the topic and finding answers to each question that bothers you. Please pay attention to your cannabis website design, choose the suitable marijuana dispensary website template, explore the tools you can take advantage of, and don’t forget to do it all following law and cannabis market regulations.