Work · Case study

Eastern Long Island

An eastern Long Island dispensary.
From zero to top 3.

They opened in January 2026 with a new website and no Google Business Profile. The profile had been lost under a previous agency, so as far as Google Maps was concerned, the store didn’t exist. By August they were in the top three on Google Maps for the searches that bring in customers, and ChatGPT was naming them first.

0 → 20Top-3 map spots: none with no profile, 20 of 24 by August
3.9×Google search clicks, Feb to Aug
4×Calls, site visits & directions from Google, Apr to Aug
580kTimes shown in Google search, six months to August

Where they started

A new dispensary out east has a narrow window. Summer is when the visitors are here, and most of them find a store the same way: they open Google Maps or ask their phone. This one opened in January with a website but no Google Business Profile at all. It had been lost under a previous agency.

No profile means no map listing, no reviews, no directions button and no phone number in the results. Every “dispensary near me” search went to the competitors down the road.

What we did

  1. Got the Google profile back. Recovering it took about a month of working through Google’s process. It was back in March.
  2. Built the site around how people search. Pages for the searches that actually lead to a visit or a delivery order, written so both Google and AI assistants can read the facts straight off them.
  3. Built up the profile. The right categories, accurate hours, photos, posts, and a steady flow of real reviews.
  4. Made the business easy for AI to recommend. Consistent facts everywhere the engines look, and answer-first content. How that works.
  5. Tracked it every week. Map rankings across a 15-mile grid, plus ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, so we could see what moved and fix what didn’t.

We’re keeping the finer details to ourselves. The client’s competitors read websites too.

01 /Google search

Clicks from Google search, by month.

From 764 in February to 2,959 in August. In the six months to August the site was shown in Google search about 580,000 times.

0 1k 2k 3k Jan 2026: 257 clicks (partial month, from Jan 7) Jan Feb 2026: 764 clicks 764 Feb Mar 2026: 914 clicks Mar Apr 2026: 833 clicks Apr May 2026: 1,413 clicks May Jun 2026: 2,243 clicks Jun Jul 2026: 2,832 clicks Jul Aug 2026: 2,959 clicks 2,959 Aug
Source: Google Search Console. The hatched bar is a partial month. January is mostly people searching the store’s name.
View the numbers
MonthGoogle Search clicksNote
Jan 2026257partial month, from Jan 7
Feb 2026764
Mar 2026914
Apr 2026833
May 20261,413
Jun 20262,243
Jul 20262,832
Aug 20262,959

02 /Google Business Profile

Calls, website visits and directions, by month.

Zero in January and February, because there was no profile. 3,391 in August alone.

0 1k 2k 3k 4k Jan 2026: 0 actions Jan Feb 2026: 0 actions Feb Mar 2026: 437 actions (partial month, from Mar 9) Mar Apr 2026: 839 actions 839 Apr May 2026: 1,524 actions May Jun 2026: 2,201 actions Jun Jul 2026: 3,230 actions Jul Aug 2026: 3,391 actions 3,391 Aug
Source: Google Business Profile performance data. The hatched bar is a partial month: the profile was back from March 9.
View the numbers
MonthCalls, website clicks and directionsNote
Jan 20260
Feb 20260
Mar 2026437partial month, from Mar 9
Apr 2026839
May 20261,524
Jun 20262,201
Jul 20263,230
Aug 20263,391

03 /Google Maps

Top three,
almost everywhere.

Each dot is a spot on a 15-mile grid where we searched Google Maps. The number is where the dispensary ranked. Map removed to keep the client anonymous.

“dispensary near me”

Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 22 Rank 44 Rank 11 Rank 33 Rank 33 Rank 33 Rank 33 Rank 33 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 33 Rank 33 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 22 Rank 11 Rank 1212 Rank 66 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 1414
Top 3 at 20 of 24 points, #1 at 11. Next-best competitor: top 3 at 10 points. Before the profile came back: nowhere. Scan of August 18, 2026.

“dispensary hamptons”

Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 66 Rank 22 Rank 11 Rank 11 Rank 66
Top 3 at 22 of 24 points, #1 at 21. Scan of August 18, 2026.

04 /AI answers

When people ask AI,
they hear this name first.

We ask ChatGPT and Google’s AI the same questions every week, from 24 spots across the trade area.

Where people asked Result As of
ChatGPT Named first for all 6 searches we track, ahead of every other dispensary in the area. July 2026, when tracking began
Google AI Overviews Not listed in July. Listed first for “dispensary near me” and “dispensary hamptons” wherever the Overview shows local stores. Aug 18, 2026
Google AI Mode #1 for 4 of 6 searches, #2 for the other two. Aug 18, 2026

The honest part

Nobody is #1 everywhere, and anyone who promises it is selling something. Rankings move week to week, AI answers shuffle, and a few slang searches still go to competitors. The goal we work to is the top three on the searches that bring in customers, and holding it. That’s what this client has.

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