Cannabis SEO in Seattle
The state has issued 142 cannabis retail licenses to Seattle addresses. Fifty-two are open and 90 are closed for good. That 63 percent figure hides the real story: four ZIP codes hold 58 percent of the closures, and three others lost one store or none. A Seattle dispensary's address says more about its market than the citywide number does.
The Seattle market, in numbers
Sourced, dated, and re-checkable
Counts come from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board's cannabis retailer list dated 1 September 2026, read on 8 September 2026: the sheet Retailers 9-1-2026, filtered to rows described as CANNABIS RETAILER with a Seattle mailing city. That City field is the postal city rather than the municipal boundary, so ZIP codes 98168 and 98178, which reach into unincorporated King County, are counted here as Seattle-addressed and never described as inside city limits. The file carries no closure dates and no neighborhood names; every neighborhood on this page is our reading of the ZIP code's boundaries, not a figure from the state.
Where in Seattle did the dispensaries close?
Mostly in four places. Seattle's 90 permanent closures are not spread evenly across the city. Seventeen of them sit in 98103, the ZIP that covers Fremont, Wallingford and Green Lake. Fifteen are in 98134, the industrial district south of downtown. Ten are in 98106, the Delridge side of West Seattle, and ten more in 98125 around Lake City. Those four ZIP codes hold 52 of the 90 closures, 58 percent of the total, and between them they keep 12 stores open today.
At the other end of the city the same file reads like a different market. All five licenses ever issued in 98178, where the south end of Rainier Valley runs into unincorporated King County, are still open. Belltown's 98121 has five open and one closed. South Lake Union and lower Queen Anne, 98109, four open and one closed. Ballard's 98107 kept three of five. Counting only ZIPs that ever held at least five licenses, the closure share runs from 91 percent in 98106 down to zero in 98178.
That spread is why the citywide figure misleads. Seattle's 63 percent closure rate is an average of a 98103 that lost 17 of 20 and a 98121 that lost one of six. The state file does not say why any store closed, and this page will not guess. What it does show is that the odds a Seattle dispensary faced came with a ZIP code attached, and that the twelve survivors in the four hardest-hit ZIPs now trade on ground where 52 licenses did not last.
In short: Seattle's 90 permanent dispensary closures concentrate in four ZIP codes, 98103 with 17, 98134 with 15, 98106 with 10 and 98125 with 10, which hold 58 percent of the total and keep 12 open stores between them. At the other extreme, 98178 has lost none of its five licenses, 98121 one of six and 98109 one of five. The state publishes the status of each license, not the reason it closed.
Where are Seattle's open dispensaries now?
In 20 ZIP codes, and thinly in most of them. The 52 open stores spread across 20 of the 22 ZIP codes that ever held a Seattle retail license. Three ZIPs hold five each: 98134 in the industrial district, 98121 in Belltown and 98178 at the city's southern edge. Capitol Hill's 98122 and South Lake Union's 98109 hold four apiece. Five more ZIPs hold three, four hold two, and six hold a single store. No ZIP holds more than five.
Read the tiles together and a shape appears: a band of open stores from Ballard and Fremont in the north, through Belltown, South Lake Union and Capitol Hill, down to the industrial district and out to Rainier Valley. The tiles also show where the map has gone dark. 98115, a broad stretch of northeast Seattle, held three licenses and every one has closed. 98126 in West Seattle held one, also closed. Anyone searching from either ZIP is served by a store in the next one over, and which store that is depends on the work it has done to be found beyond its own block.
Twenty ZIP codes, none above five. Seattle's 52 open dispensaries sit in 20 ZIP codes. 98134, 98121 and 98178 hold five each, 98122 and 98109 four, and six ZIPs hold exactly one. Two ZIPs that once had stores, 98115 with three licenses and 98126 with one, now have none open.
Seattle, for context
Seattle is governed by the City of Seattle and sits inside King County, whose 96 open retailers make it the largest county market in Washington; Seattle-addressed stores are 52 of those 96. The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce speaks for its businesses and the Seattle Public Library anchors its neighborhoods, while visitors gather at Pike Place Market, Seattle Center and the Museum of History and Industry on South Lake Union. People here give directions by neighborhood, Ballard, Capitol Hill, Columbia City, and their searches follow the same habit. The retailer list behind every number on this page is published by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.
What does a Seattle dispensary search return when the nearest store is gone?
Whichever nearby store Google judges most relevant and prominent. Google's own guidance says local results are based primarily on relevance, distance and prominence, and describes distance as how far each result is from the location term in the search or, when there is none, from what Google knows about the searcher's location. Distance is measured from the person, not from the store. Our reading of the Map Pack sets out what Google says about each factor and what it leaves unsaid.
Apply that to the map above. A searcher in 98115 has no store in their ZIP. Google's distance calculation runs from where they stand, so the stores in 98125 to the north, 98105 to the south and 98103 to the west are all in contention, and none of them is the closest by default. Relevance and prominence decide it. Prominence, in Google's words, draws on information from across the web such as links, articles and directories, and Google review count and review score factor into it. Three stores in 98103 survived 17 closures; whether one of them is the store 98115 sees depends on that work.
That is the mechanism this page exists to make visible. When someone in an emptied ZIP searches, the result is decided on the two factors a store can work on. Review count and score are named by Google. Review recency and velocity are not, whatever a sales deck says, and our guide to dispensary reviews goes through what the policy permits and what it forbids.
Two of Google's three factors are yours to work on. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and measures distance from the searcher. In a ZIP with no open store, no dispensary is closest by default, so relevance and prominence, which Google ties to links, directories, review count and review score, decide which of the surrounding stores appears for a dispensary near me search.
Six moves that decide Seattle rankings
Map your ZIP before your city
Seattle's 63 percent is an average of 98106 at 91 and 98178 at zero. Your competitive set is the stores your searchers can reach, not the citywide count.
Claim the emptied ZIPs
98115 held three stores and has none. No store is closest by default there, so the rankings go to whoever earns relevance and prominence on that ground.
Build the review record Google names
Google ties prominence to review count and score and publishes no velocity rule. A steady weekly system is the asset a new neighbor cannot arrive with.
Write for Ballard, not for Seattle
Almost nobody types 98107 into a search. They type Ballard. Neighborhood pages built from real local context are how a store shows up beyond its own block.
Keep your menu on your own domain
When 52 stores share a city, product availability drives the visit. A menu on your domain earns that authority; one on a third-party host gives it away.
Be the named answer
Ask an assistant for a dispensary near Ballard and it names two or three of Seattle's 52. Getting onto that list is the whole game.
How Nearfront works with a Seattle dispensary
We start with a free data audit that maps your Map Pack position across the ZIPs you can realistically serve, and in Seattle that begins by reading the closure map above against your own address. A store in 98121 and a store in 98103 both call themselves Seattle dispensaries, and the audit usually shows they are in different contests: one holding a dense, stable block, the other one of three left standing where seventeen did not last.
The work after that is steady rather than clever: a Google Business Profile that is complete within the rules Google publishes for cannabis retailers, citations that agree on your name, address and phone across the directories Google reads, a review system that runs every week, a site and menu that credit your own domain, and neighborhood content written the way people here actually give directions. Each change is reported against the direction requests, calls and menu clicks it produced, not a ranking screenshot.
We do not promise positions. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a ranking, and in a city that has closed 90 stores we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we commit to is sourced, dated work and a visible line from each tactic to the revenue it moved.
Common questions about cannabis SEO in Seattle
How many dispensaries are open in Seattle?
Fifty-two cannabis retailers with a Seattle mailing address are listed as active in the Liquor and Cannabis Board's retailer list dated 1 September 2026. A further 90 Seattle licenses are permanently closed, so 142 have been issued in total and 63 percent of them are gone. Seattle's 52 are 54 percent of King County's 96 active retailers.
Which Seattle ZIP codes lost the most dispensaries?
98103, with 17 permanent closures against 3 open stores; 98134, with 15 closed and 5 open; and 98106 and 98125, with 10 closed each against 1 and 3 open. Those four ZIP codes hold 52 of Seattle's 90 closures, 58 percent. Among ZIPs that ever held at least five licenses, the closure share runs from 91 percent in 98106 to zero in 98178.
Where are most of Seattle's dispensaries located?
Across 20 ZIP codes, with no ZIP holding more than five. 98134 south of downtown, 98121 in Belltown and 98178 at the southern city edge have five open stores each; 98122 and 98109 have four. Six ZIP codes hold a single store, and two that once had stores, 98115 and 98126, now have none.
Do these Seattle counts mean inside the city limits?
No. The state file records the mailing city, so every count here is for licenses with a Seattle postal address. ZIP codes 98168 and 98178 reach into unincorporated King County, and some stores counted here may sit outside the municipal boundary. The file also carries no closure dates and no neighborhood names, so this page publishes no closure timeline, and the neighborhoods it mentions are our reading of ZIP boundaries.
How should a Seattle dispensary approach local SEO?
Start from your ZIP rather than the city. Establish which stores your searchers can actually reach, then measure Map Pack position across the neighborhoods between you and them, including ZIPs where no store is left. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence and names review count and links as prominence inputs, so a weekly review system, consistent citations and neighborhood content on your own domain are the work. Size the competition from the 52 open stores, never from the 142 licenses issued.
See which Seattle ZIP codes you already own.
Begin with a free data audit that maps your Map Pack position ZIP by ZIP, names the stores your searchers can actually reach, and marks the emptied ground nobody has claimed.
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