Rankings are an input.
We report the result.
A position on a screenshot is not a customer. Here is what a Nearfront report actually contains for a dispensary, why each line is in it, and the things we will not put in a deck.
If it cannot be traced to a customer action, it does not go in the report.
Most dispensary reporting is a ranking screenshot and a chart of impressions. Both can move without a single extra person walking through the door, which is why owners stop reading them by month three.
We report against what customers did. Google's own local ranking documentation names relevance, distance and prominence as the three factors, and there is no way to pay for a better local position, so a report made only of positions is describing an input rather than an outcome. The four lines below are what we send instead.
The four lines, every month.
| What we report | Why it is in the report |
|---|---|
| Profile actions Calls, direction requests, website clicks, menu clicks | The closest thing to intent that Google reports back to you. Worth knowing what the words mean: a call in Google's data is a tap on the call button, not a conversation, and we label it that way rather than inflating it. |
| Map position across your trade area Sampled from the neighborhoods your customers come from | Google measures distance from the person searching, not from your store, so a single check at your own address answers a question nobody asks. We sample a grid and show where your visibility stops. |
| Revenue from your point of sale Split by new and returning | The line that makes the rest of the report an argument instead of a slide. If it is not there, the report is not finished. |
| Search demand by query family Defined before we look at the data | Families are agreed in advance so the numbers cannot be sorted into a flattering story afterwards. |
The grid number is our measurement of Google's output, not a figure Google publishes. We say so on every report, because Google publishes no grid metric and no share-of-voice metric, and states that third-party tools have no access to its ranking data.
Four things you will not find in it.
| Not in the report | Why |
|---|---|
| A guaranteed position | Google states plainly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Anyone promising one is describing something other than organic search. |
| A vendor score presented as Google's | Google says no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking data and that none is approved by it. Our numbers are labeled as ours. |
| Impressions with nothing attached | An impression is a listing shown on a results page whether or not anyone scrolled to it. On its own it is not evidence of anything. |
| A number we cannot source | If a figure cannot be traced to Google's own reporting, your point of sale, or a named agency file, it does not appear. That rule is why some sections of our market guides say a number is not available. |
You can check the method before you hire us.
Every statistic on our market guides comes from a state agency's own machine-readable file and carries three dates: the period the file covers, the date the agency published it, and the date we read it. Where a state does not publish something, the page says so rather than estimating. That is the same sourcing standard we apply to your market before we touch anything.
Our playbook works the same way: thirteen guides on how dispensary local search actually functions, with every rule quoted from Google's own documentation and linked, including the places where Google publishes nothing and we say so.
And our agency comparisons name four competitors, date every claim, link each competitor's own material, and invite corrections. If reporting standards matter to you, those three things will tell you more than any case study.
Because our clients can't buy Google ads.
Dispensaries come to us because the biggest paid channels are closed to them. Google and Meta both prohibit THC advertising, so there is no search or social budget to raise when a month goes badly, and no way to buy the result back. That makes honest measurement the whole job rather than a reporting formality.
It also means the work compounds slowly and unevenly. Google's own guidance says some changes take effect in hours, others take several months, and not every change produces a noticeable result at all. A report that hides that is setting you up to fire the wrong person in month four.
Common questions
What is actually in a monthly report?
Four lines. Profile actions, meaning calls, direction requests, website clicks and menu clicks. Map position sampled across your trade area rather than at your own address. Revenue from your point of sale, split by new and returning. Search demand by query family. In that order, every month.
Why are rankings not the headline?
Because a ranking is an input, not a result. Google states on its local ranking page that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, so a deck built on positions describes something you cannot buy and never measures the thing you actually wanted.
What will you not put in a report?
A guaranteed position, because Google says plainly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking. A vendor score presented as Google's. An impression count with nothing attached to it. And any number we cannot trace back to Google's own reporting, your point of sale, or a named agency file.
Do you use a rank tracker?
We use tools, and we label what they are. Google states that third-party tools have no access to its internal ranking data and that none of them is approved by Google, so a tracker output is our measurement rather than Google's. Presenting it as Google's is the thing we refuse to do.
How do you measure map position across a trade area?
By sampling a grid of points across the neighborhoods your customers come from, because Google measures distance from the person searching rather than from your store. Google publishes no grid metric of its own, so this number is ours and it is labeled that way.
Want to see your baseline?
The free data audit is the first version of this report: where you stand across your trade area today, which stores actually compete with you, and which gaps are cheapest to close.
Get Ranked Free