Local independent dispensaries held the largest share of Google's page one in October 2026, and at least one was linked in most of the AI answers Google gave to shoppers' questions. We compared page one in 35 US cities in October 2024 and October 2026, then ran 156 live Google searches across 39 cities to see when an AI Overview appears and which sites it links to.
By Vee Popat, founder of ColaDigital · Published October 27, 2026 · Last updated October 27, 2026 · Data from October 15, 2024 and October 20, 2026 (Semrush, Google US page one) and October 21, 2026 (live Google searches)The Short Answer (October 2026): Google rarely put an AI Overview on a "dispensary [city]" search (2 of 39 US cities) and always did for "can you get weed delivered in [city]" (39 of 39). An independent ranked #1 for "dispensary [city]" in 21 of 35 cities, and Weedmaps had lost all six of the #1 spots it held in 2024.
Google showed an AI Overview for nearly every question about buying or delivery, and for almost none of the "dispensary [city]" searches. On October 21, 2026, we ran four searches for each of 39 US cities and recorded each AI Overview, where it sat on the page, which sites it linked, along with any map of nearby stores Google showed.
![Bar chart: Google AI Overviews by search wording in 39 US cities on October 21, 2026: 2 of 39 for "dispensary [city]", 15 for delivery or deals, 30 for "where can I buy weed in [city]", 39 for "can you get weed delivered in [city]"](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-chart1-ai-overviews-by-search.png)
| Search (39 cities each) | AI Overview shown | AI Overview first on the page | Map shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| "dispensary [city]" | 2 | 2 | 37 |
| "weed delivery [city]" or "[city] dispensary deals" | 15 | 10 | 27 |
| "where can I buy weed in [city]" | 30 | 30 | 38 |
| "can you get weed delivered in [city]" | 39 | 39 | 25 |
For "dispensary [city]", Google showed a map in 37 of 39 cities and an AI Overview in two. New York and St. Paul were the only cities with an AI Overview, and neither showed a map in our recorded result. On the two question searches, every AI Overview we saw was the first thing on the page, above the map wherever Google showed one.
Searches for deals and delivery landed in the middle. All 7 "[city] dispensary deals" searches, which we used in Illinois, Ohio and Delaware because adult-use delivery isn't allowed there, showed an AI Overview listing stores and the discounts they advertised. Only 8 of 32 "weed delivery [city]" searches did, and in 5 of those 15 results the AI Overview sat below one to four regular results.
Across cities, the pattern held almost everywhere. In 37 of the 39 cities the "dispensary [city]" search showed no AI Overview while at least one question search did, and in 30 cities both question searches did.
A single check is a snapshot, and Semrush's record shows why: on the 65 searches Semrush also recorded on October 20, 2026, its record and our live check a day later disagreed about an AI Overview on 16. Semrush showed one we didn't see on 10, and missed one we saw on 6.
Local independent dispensaries got the largest share of the links in Google's AI Overviews, ahead of multi-state chains and listing sites. We sorted every link in the 69 AI Overviews from the two question searches by who owns the site, using the same ownership checks as the rest of the study.
The 350 links count each site once per answer and point to 188 different sites. Most answers mix several kinds of site: 54 of the 69 (78%) link at least one local independent, 46 (67%) link a multi-state chain and 55 (80%) link a listing site. Weedmaps alone is linked in 51 (74%), far more than any other single site, with Leafly next at 14.
Delivery-only services, hemp shops and online sellers account for 40 of the 350 links (11%), and 37 of those 40 come from the delivery question. In the opening lines we saved, many answers name specific stores, and 10 of the 69 give a street address within their first 200 characters.
These shares describe AI Overview links on question searches. They come from different searches than the page-one figures below, so the two sets of numbers can't be compared directly.
In October 2026, local independents held 148 of the 350 page-one results (42%) for "dispensary [city]" across 35 cities and ranked #1 in 21 of them. Multi-state chains held 102 results (29%) and the #1 spot in 12 cities. Listing sites such as Weedmaps, Yelp and Dutchie held 81 results (23%) and the top spot in one city.
![Bar chart: page one for "dispensary [city]" in 35 cities, October 20, 2026: local independents 42% of results and #1 in 21 cities; multi-state chains 29% and 12 cities; listing sites 23% and 1 city; media and information 4% and 1 city](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-chart3-who-owns-page-one.png)
"Local independent" covers three kinds of operator. We checked each single store against state license records where we could read them online.
| Independent type | Page-one results (n=350) | Top three (n=105) | #1 spot (n=35 cities) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-state chain (two or more stores, one state) | 110 | 40 | 17 |
| Single store, confirmed on state records | 27 | 10 | 2 |
| Independent, store count not confirmed | 11 | 3 | 2 |
| All local independents | 148 (42%) | 53 (50%) | 21 |
The one information site at #1 is New York's cannabis regulator, and the one listing site at #1 is Weedmaps in Boston.
The split varies a lot by city. Local independents hold 6 or more of the 10 page-one results in Colorado Springs, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Portland, Reno, Rochester NY and San Jose. Multi-state chains hold 5 or more in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Las Cruces, Peoria and Springfield IL, all in Illinois, Ohio and New Mexico. For stores in Los Angeles, where independents hold 7 of the 10, see our Los Angeles dispensary SEO page.
| City | #1 for "dispensary [city]" | Independents | Multi-state chains | Listing sites | Results | 2024 sites still there |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque NM | Local independent | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 5 of 10 |
| Baltimore MD | Local independent | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 6 of 10 |
| Boston MA | Listing site | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 3 of 9 |
| Brockton MA | Local independent | 5 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 5 of 9 |
| Chicago IL | Multi-state chain | 2 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 4 of 9 |
| Cincinnati OH | Local independent | 2 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 2 of 10 |
| Cleveland OH | Multi-state chain | 4 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 4 of 9 |
| Colorado Springs CO | Multi-state chain | 6 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 3 of 10 |
| Columbia MO | Multi-state chain | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 4 of 7 |
| Columbus OH | Multi-state chain | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 3 of 9 |
| Denver CO | Local independent | 5 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 3 of 10 |
| Detroit MI | Local independent | 5 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 2 of 10 |
| Fresno CA | Local independent | 5 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 4 of 9 |
| Henderson NV | Local independent | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 6 of 9 |
| Jersey City NJ | Multi-state chain | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 3 of 10 |
| Kansas City MO | Local independent | 4 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 3 of 9 |
| Las Cruces NM | Multi-state chain | 3 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 3 of 9 |
| Las Vegas NV | Multi-state chain | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 4 of 10 |
| Los Angeles CA | Local independent | 7 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 4 of 10 |
| New York NY | Information site | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 3 of 8 |
| North Las Vegas NV | Local independent | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 5 of 10 |
| Peoria IL | Local independent | 3 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 4 of 7 |
| Phoenix AZ | Multi-state chain | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 5 of 10 |
| Portland OR | Local independent | 6 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 7 of 10 |
| Reno NV | Local independent | 6 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 5 of 10 |
| Rochester NY | Local independent | 6 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 4 of 8 |
| San Diego CA | Local independent | 5 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 3 of 10 |
| San Jose CA | Local independent | 7 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 6 of 10 |
| Scottsdale AZ | Multi-state chain | 2 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 7 of 9 |
| Springfield IL | Multi-state chain | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 6 of 8 |
| Springfield MA | Multi-state chain | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 7 of 9 |
| Springfield MO | Local independent | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 6 of 8 |
| St. Louis MO | Local independent | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 5 of 9 |
| Tucson AZ | Local independent | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 5 of 8 |
| Worcester MA | Local independent | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 6 of 10 |
"2024 sites still there" counts the sites on that city's October 2024 page one that were still on it in October 2026. Media, delivery-only and unknown results make up the rest of each row's 10.
Weedmaps ranked #1 in six cities in October 2024 (Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, Colorado Springs and Rochester NY) and had lost the top spot in all six by October 2026. Its only #1 now is Boston, a city it didn't lead two years earlier. Over the same period Yelp spread across page one and Leafly nearly disappeared from it.
![Slope chart: page-one results for "dispensary [city]" in 35 cities, October 2024 to October 2026: Yelp 13 to 33, Weedmaps 32 to 25, Dutchie 3 to 15, Leafly 9 to 1](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-chart4-listing-sites-2024-2026.png)
About half of page one turned over between October 2024 and October 2026. We counted each site once in every city where it ranked, which gives 322 city-by-site placements in October 2024. In 155 of them (48%) the site was still on that city's page one in October 2026, and in 167 (52%) it had dropped off. Cincinnati and Detroit changed the most, with 2 of 10 sites staying, while Scottsdale and Springfield MA kept 7 of 9.
Stores' own websites still make up most of page one. In October 2026 they held 252 of 350 results, platform pages held 82 (23.4%) and media or information pages 14. Page type looks at the page itself, so a store menu hosted on a platform counts as a platform page even when a store owns it, which is why this count differs slightly from the 81 listing-site results above. For October 2024, platform pages held at least 58 of 350 results (16.6%), but 65 results have no dated record of their 2024 page type, so we don't claim a confirmed change in that mix.
The same pattern holds on two more searches we pulled for October 2026, with one exception: listing sites and delivery-only services take a bigger share when shoppers search for delivery.
| Search (October 2026) | Cities with data | Results | Local independents | Multi-state chains | Listing sites | Delivery-only and other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "recreational dispensary [city]" | 19 of 35 | 190 | 89 | 47 | 41 | 0 |
| "weed delivery [city]" ("[city] dispensary deals" in Illinois and Ohio) | 24 of 35 | 240 | 84 | 41 | 68 | 34 |
Cities with no data for a search are left out of that row. Media sites and unknowns make up the rest of each row.
In Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester MN and Wilmington DE, where adult-use sales are newer, page one is more mixed. Of the 40 results for "dispensary [city]", local independents hold 11, multi-state chains 9, listing sites 8 and media or information sites 8. What dispensaries in these markets are allowed to advertise is in our state cannabis ad rules guide.
The points below are our reading of the data.
"A lot of dispensary owners I talk to assume AI answers belong to Weedmaps and the big chains, but that's not what we found. When shoppers asked Google where to buy weed or about delivery, nearly 8 in 10 AI answers linked at least one local independent store."
Our dispensary SEO service works on the Business Profile, location pages and directory listings that these results pull from.
Want to see who shows up when shoppers search near your stores? We'll check page one, the map and the AI answers for your city for free and send you what we find.
Every search figure on this page is a count from recorded Google results: Semrush's page-one records for 2024 and 2026, and the 156 live searches we saved ourselves. Two separate scripts computed each figure and matched on every one.
| Part of the study | How we did it |
|---|---|
| Cities | We started with 175 candidate cities in the 21 states with legal adult-use sales by October 2024 and kept 35 in 14 states: 5 pilot cities plus the 30 with the most US searches for "dispensary [city]", with no more than 4 per state. The four newer markets in Minnesota and Delaware were added for 2026 only. |
| Page one | Google US results 1 to 10 from Semrush for October 15, 2024 and October 20, 2026, giving 350 results per year for "dispensary [city]". |
| Ownership | We read each site's own locations or about page wherever it could be opened, and looked up every single-store result in the state regulator's license records wherever those records could be read online. A second reviewer, who didn't see the first answers, rechecked 158 sites and disagreed on 11 (7%); each was settled under written rules and logged. |
| AI Overviews | On October 21, 2026, we ran 156 live Google searches on desktop, four per city in 39 cities, with the wording fixed before any data came in. We counted an AI Overview only when it was visible above "People also ask", and sorted the 49 linked sites that were new to the study the same way, with a full second review. |
They seldom appear when someone searches "dispensary" and a city name. On October 21, 2026, only New York and St. Paul showed one for "dispensary [city]" out of 39 cities checked, while the two question searches showed one in 30 and 39 cities.
Yes, in most answers we saw. On October 21, 2026, a third of the links in AI answers to our two question searches went to local independents (116 of 350), the most of any group, and 54 answers out of 69 included at least one. Listing sites showed up in slightly more answers, 55.
Weedmaps leads by a wide margin. It was linked in 51 of the 69 AI Overviews on our two question searches (74%), and Leafly came next at 14.
In most cities it isn't. Weedmaps held the #1 spot for "dispensary [city]" in 6 of 35 cities in October 2024 and in just one, Boston, in October 2026. It still has 25 page-one results, down from 32.
They lead in some cities and trail local independents overall. Multi-state chains held 29% of page-one results and the #1 spot in 12 of 35 cities, and they hold half or more of page one in six cities, all in Illinois, Ohio and New Mexico.
They're all counts of recorded results. Page one comes from Semrush's records of Google's results, and the AI figures come from the 156 searches we ran and saved ourselves.
You're welcome to use them with credit. Link to this page and cite "ColaDigital, Who Owns Dispensary Search? (October 2026)".
All charts and highlight images on this page are free to use with a credit link to this page. Press questions go to sayhello@coladigital.ca.
![Highlight card: 2 of 39 cities showed an AI Overview for "dispensary [city]" and 39 of 39 for "can you get weed delivered in [city]", live Google searches, October 21, 2026](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-card1-ai-overviews-by-wording.png)
![Highlight card: 21 of 35 cities where a local independent ranks #1 on Google for "dispensary [city]", October 2026](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-card2-independents-rank-first.png){kind=icon}
![Highlight card: 6 to 1. Weedmaps ranked #1 for "dispensary [city]" in six of the 35 cities in October 2024 and one in October 2026. None of its original six #1 positions remained; Boston was the new #1.](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-card3-weedmaps-six-to-one.png)
![Highlight card: 52% of 2024 page-one placements for "dispensary [city]" were gone from that city's page one by 2026, 167 of 322, a site counted once per city](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-card5-page-one-turnover.png)
![42% of page one for "dispensary [city]" went to local independent dispensaries, the largest share of any group (148 of 350 results, October 20, 2026)](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/who-owns-dispensary-search-card6-independents-page-one-share.png)
How to cite: ColaDigital, "Who Owns Dispensary Search? Local Stores, Weedmaps and AI in 39 Cities," October 2026, coladigital.ca.
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