Dispensary web shop, SEO
+96%
More online revenue within two months at a dispensary
Google Analytics, 60 days
Open the web shop case studyFounder, ColaDigital
Meet Vee Popat & About ColaDigital
I’m Vee Popat. I got into SEO in 2004, and since 2017 much of my work has been for cannabis businesses: dispensaries, delivery services, brands and medical clinics in the US and Canada. ColaDigital is the agency I built for that work, and I’m still the person you’ll talk to.
14+Major news outlets that covered my 2015 campaignIncluding CNN, Time and Fast Company
100+Cannabis clients I’ve worked withAcross the US and Canada
39US cities in our 2026 researchWho Owns Dispensary Search?
Trusted by Cannabis Brands, Retail Operators, and Growth-Focused Teams
Every logo represents a business that trusted ColaDigital with an important part of its growth. Some engagements focused on SEO, others on advertising, consulting, technical strategy, or long-term marketing support, but every relationship started the same way: understanding the business first before recommending a solution.
Who Is Vee Popat?
- 2004SEOStarts in search and digital marketing
- 2015Viral campaignCovered by CNN, Time and more
- 2017CannabisDispensaries, brands and clinics
- 2026ResearchWho ranks for dispensaries in Google and AI answers
Vee Popat founded ColaDigital, an agency that markets dispensaries, delivery services, cannabis brands and medical clinics in the US and Canada. His SEO career started in 2004, cannabis became his focus in 2017, and he’s worked with 100+ cannabis clients so far.
That’s the résumé version. The plain version is that I help cannabis owners figure out what’s actually holding them back before they spend more money trying to fix it.
- Role: founder, and the person who reviews your site and runs your strategy
- Search: technical fixes, local search, content and recovery work
- Cannabis: retail, delivery, brands, medical, CBD and Delta-8
- Education: Business Management, Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University)
Why I Started ColaDigital
When a cannabis business comes to me because its marketing isn’t working, I want to know where the problem actually starts. Sometimes it’s an ad sending shoppers to the wrong page. Sometimes a dispensary is losing ground on Google Maps, but nobody has checked its listing, reviews and location pages together. Or the report looks good, yet the business isn’t seeing more calls or orders.
I built ColaDigital to have that conversation earlier, before the next campaign or the next batch of blog posts.
A ranking increase can look great in a report and still leave a dispensary with the same number of calls and orders. That’s why I look closely at what happens after someone finds the business. Can they reach the right location, find the products they’re looking for and take the next step? Those are the questions that shape what I recommend.
How I Work with Cannabis Businesses
- 1UnderstandHow you make money and who buys
- 2DiagnoseFind what’s really holding you back
- 3PrioritizePick the fix that pays off first
- 4Do the workOnly what supports the goal
- 5MeasureLearn and adjust the next move
I don’t assume the first problem we discuss is the one we need to fix. When someone tells me they need SEO or their ads have stopped working, I want to understand what changed and why before recommending anything.
So I ask a lot of questions first. What changed? Where are customers dropping off? Which pages or campaigns actually bring in sales? If you could fix only one thing this month, what would it be?
Once the real problem is clear, picking the right service is the easy part. The step-by-step version is on our cannabis marketing methodology page.
What I Ask First
- What changed recently
- Where you’re losing customers
- Which pages or ads actually bring in sales
- Where you want the business to be in a year
What I Don’t Assume
- That you need more pages
- That rankings are the main problem
- That ads can make up for a weak website
- That the first answer is the right one
A Few Results We’re Proud Of
Since 2017 we’ve worked with 100+ cannabis clients. Three published results: a 96% jump in web-shop revenue over 60 days for one dispensary, Texas 420 Doctors getting 1,580 qualified leads over four months, and more search clicks at each location of a five-location dispensary group.
In October 2026 we also published our own research, Who Owns Dispensary Search?, on who ranks and who gets linked in Google’s AI answers across 39 US cities.
Texas 420 Doctors: paid search and social
1,580
Leads for a Texas medical clinic across four months, without a single reported disapproval
Google and Meta, four months
Open the Texas 420 Doctors case study
Dispensary group: five locations, local search
5 of 5
All five locations gained search clicks within roughly six months, from +22.7% to +46.9%
Search Console, about six months
Open the five-location case studyEvery market and starting point is different, so your results will be too. Where a client prefers privacy, we leave their name out. See all our case studies or read client reviews.
Visibility review
Want My Honest Take on Your Marketing?
Send me your website and tell me what’s bothering you about it. I’ll reply with the first fix I’d make.
Cannabis Businesses I Work With
A neighborhood dispensary, a five-location group and a medical clinic can all use SEO or ads and still need very different plans. Here’s what usually matters most for each.
Dispensaries
Local search decides a lot. Your Google listing, reviews, menu, pickup and delivery details all affect whether a nearby shopper picks you.
Multi-Location Groups
Give every location a Google listing and a page of its own, so your locations don’t end up fighting each other on Google.
Delivery Services
Shoppers want to know fast if you deliver to their area, how long it takes and what it costs.
Cannabis Brands
Being found isn’t enough if buyers can’t tell what makes your products different.
Medical Clinics
Trust is part of the product. Patients need clear answers and a next step that feels safe.
CBD and Delta-8 Businesses
Platform rules are different and often stricter, so every ad and page needs careful wording.
I also take on some local businesses outside cannabis and larger organizations, but cannabis is the focus.
What Working with Me Is Like
I don’t expect you to know SEO the way I do, and I won’t know your business the way you do on day one. The best projects happen when we both push back on the obvious answer.
Some of my best client relationships started with me recommending something smaller than they expected. I’ve told owners to hold off on ads until the website was ready, and to merge pages instead of publishing more. Those aren’t always easy conversations, but they’re why clients trust what I tell them.
What I Bring
- 20+ years of search and marketing experience
- Patterns from 100+ cannabis clients
- An outside view with no internal politics
- A straight answer, even when it’s “that isn’t the real issue”
What You Bring
- What your customers actually ask for
- How your business runs day to day
- What your budtenders and sales team are hearing
- Priorities no report can show
Client Testimonials
What Working With ColaDigital Feels Like
Results matter, but so does the experience of working together. Long-term partnerships are built on communication, practical advice, transparency, and delivering work that consistently moves the business forward. Here’s what some of our clients have shared about working with ColaDigital.
Do Yourself a Favour and Hire Cola Digital!
“Do yourself a favour and hire Cola Digital. They are amazing to deal with and get results for your business.”
Dhwanit Modi Owner | The6ixCannabis.ca | Ajax, ON
Best SEO Services for the Cannabis Industry!
Vee is awesome, super honest and a nice guy. He goes above and beyond. Best SEO services for the cannabis industry.
Daniel Lynes Co-Owner | TheBakeryCannabis.ca | Toronto, ON
Price + personality + expertise all line up very well for us!
Price + personality + expertise all line up very well for us.
Daniel Stoops Founder & COO | Danodan.com | Portland, OR, USA.
We highly recommend ColaDigital to anyone looking for a reputable and trusted marketing company who knows what they are doing!
We highly recommend ColaDigital to anyone looking for a reputable and trusted marketing company that knows what they are doing.”
Don Henke Sales Manager | MMI Agriculture | Ellenville, NY
Before Cannabis: Music, Media and a Campaign That Went Viral
The 2015 campaign was covered by
- CNN
- ABC News
- CBS News
- NBC News
- MSNBC
- CTV
- Time
- Fast Company
- New York Post
- Daily Mail
- HuffPost
- BuzzFeed
Before cannabis, I spent more than a decade in the music industry, working in artist marketing, radio promotion and media relations. I studied Business Management, with a marketing major and a minor in international marketing, at Ryerson University, now Toronto Metropolitan University.
In 2015, a social media campaign I ran for a family-owned attraction in Niagara Falls took off. CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, MSNBC, CTV, Time, Fast Company, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, HuffPost, BuzzFeed, SFGATE and MSN all covered it, and Scott Stratten included it in the Hall of Fame “Awesome” section of The Book of Business Awesome / UnAwesome.
The lesson stuck with me: attention is easy to celebrate and much harder to turn into sales. That’s still how I judge rankings, traffic and reach today.
More recently, I’ve talked about cannabis marketing and SEO on the TOAST Podcast, now The Bakery, with Riel Roussopoulos. My full career history is on LinkedIn.
Where to Go Next
If you already know what you need, jump straight to it below. If you don’t, send me your site and I’ll give you a straight read on it, even if the answer isn’t one of our services.
Cannabis SEOSearch for brands, ecommerce sites and clinicsDispensary SEOGoogle Maps, reviews and location pagesDispensary MarketingEvery channel planned togetherCannabis AdvertisingCompliant ads on the platforms that allow themCase StudiesResults with dates and numbersPricingWhat each service costs, in USD
FAQs About Vee Popat and ColaDigital
Who is Vee Popat?
The founder of ColaDigital. He got into SEO in 2004 and has focused on cannabis since 2017, working with 100+ cannabis businesses across the US and Canada so far.
What is ColaDigital?
A cannabis marketing agency. We help dispensaries, delivery services, cannabis brands and medical clinics with SEO, Google Maps, compliant ads, content, websites, email and reporting, planned around what’s really slowing the business down.
Will I work with Vee directly?
Yes. Vee reviews every request himself and stays involved in the strategy. If you hire us for SEO, you’ll hear from him every month with a written report and a call. Email him whenever you need to.
Which cannabis businesses does ColaDigital work with?
Dispensaries, multi-location groups, delivery services, cannabis brands, medical clinics, and CBD and Delta-8 businesses, mostly in the US and Canada.
Does ColaDigital only do SEO?
No. SEO is a large share of the work, but we also run Google, Meta and programmatic ad campaigns, write content, build websites and handle email and SMS. You’ll find our prices, in US dollars, on the pricing page, with a CAD quote for Canadian clients.
Has Vee been featured in the media?
Yes. His 2015 social media campaign for a family-owned Niagara Falls attraction was covered by CNN, Time, Fast Company and many other outlets. He’s also talked about cannabis marketing on the TOAST Podcast, now The Bakery.
What did Vee study?
Business Management, with a marketing major and a minor in international marketing, at Ryerson University, now Toronto Metropolitan University.
Ask Me What I’d Fix First
Every request lands with me, not a sales team. I’ll go through your website, your Maps listing and any ads you’re running, then tell you plainly where I’d start.
- Tell me about your business. Your website, your locations and whatever’s been frustrating you
- I look at it myself. Your pages, your listings and your ads, side by side
- You get my honest answer. Even when that answer is a different agency, or no agency at all
Rather just talk?