The document discusses the rankings of the biggest cannabis websites according to Alexa before it shuts down. Weedmaps and Leafly are the largest with the most traffic. The next biggest are MJ Biz Daily, Marijuana Moment, and Cannabis.net. High Times, Leafwire, Herb and AllBud make up the next tier. Emerging sites include Cannabis Business Times, New Cannabis Ventures, and The Fresh Toast. Traffic and conversions will be key for the future as cannabis commerce expands.

1. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-weed-websites-alexa-gives-us-a-finally-ranking-before-going-offline 2/13
TRAFFIC RANK FOR CANNABIS WEBSITES
What are the Biggest Weed Websites? -
Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before
Going Offline
Big cannabis websites with traffic can be a great investment for future IP and sales!
Posted by:
Thom Baccus, today at 12:00am
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2. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
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Alexa web-tracking run by Amazon is getting retired by the ecommerce giant in May, but not before giving us
one last look at who has internet traffic and visitors in the cannabis space. Which sites have the most traffic in
the cannabis industry? Well, while Alexa web-ranking has its supports and detractors, we have to acknowledge
that no system is perfect and can see an entire website’s user base. Without looking at the Google Analytics or
server logs, there is no real tried-and-true way of knowing a website’s true reach and traffic. A good example is
us, Cannabis.net, we have a mapping and social network app for cannabis fans in the Google Play store and
Apple iTunes store, so all our members using the app to access our social network, map, and stories don’t show
up on our website analytics. Other sites have similar stories, to the Alexa numbers are just a “50,000-foot level”
view of traffic and users in the cannabis websites.
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-cannabis-
websites-online-that-you-can-advertise-on)
If you remember the first article we did 2.5 years ago on marijuana sites with traffic
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-cannabis-websites-online-that-you-can-advertise-on),
we set up some ground rules. Let’s go over them, again. One, this review is just for cannabis websites, not big
sites that have cannabis reporters and sections. For example, Forbes and Benzinga have excellent cannabis
writers and sections devoted solely to cannabis news, but they are not cannabis websites. You can go pull up
Forbes.com and Benzinga.com and see they are financial news and stock market sites first and foremost, with
great cannabis sections and reporters. Same goes for the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, and even CNN. This review
is of cannabis-based websites, not big sites with cannabis sections on them.
Second, Alexa has been in the process of shutting down for 8 weeks and everyone’s traffic numbers are
dropping as they turn of contracts for router information, server logs, etc. Generally speaking, everyone’s
numbers are “worst” right now than they have been for years, but since it applies to all industries and sites in
Alexa ranking, we will keep it as the same effect on all.

3. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-weed-websites-alexa-gives-us-a-finally-ranking-before-going-offline 4/13
With the NFL draft this weekend, I thought of doing a “draft review” type article on cannabis websites. The
biggest winners, the biggest losers, and the surprises since we checked these numbers 2.5 years ago. Let’s get
to weed website talk and opinion!
The Elephants in the Room
Weedmaps and Leafly are by far the two most trafficked cannabis websites in the world. Both are now publicly
traded on Wall Street and at one point both had over a $1 billion valuation. Leafly was part of the Peter Thiel
cannabis empire early on and had over $50 million in funding, with which they built out the internet’s best strain
guide and strain review pages. Weedmaps has been a pioneer on the internet side for the cannabis industry for
over 30 years now, making the first and most successful mapping system for finding dispensaries and MMJ
doctors on the internet. In the cannabis space, there is Weedmaps and Leafly, and then the rest of the list
starts. Just like in pro sports draft some years, there are two top picks competing for the #1 rank, then picks 3 to
10 is where the real draft starts for everyone else.
Both are leading the charge for online ordering and in-app ordering by fighting Apple
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/apple-just-ended-the-marijuana-industry-as-you-know-it-tech-and-traffic-are-
now-more-valuable-t), Google, and the even the State of Florida (https://cannabis.net/blog/news/the-race-for-
twoclick-cannabis-buying-heats-up-leafly-sues-florida-over-states-ban-on-thirdpart) to allow online ordering
through 3rd party platforms.
The Next Group to Make up the Top 5
The newspapers of the cannabis industry, and the Swiss-army knife of the industry come in the next grouping as
MJ BIZ Daily, Marijuana Moment, and Cannabis.net round out the top 5 for most traffic. MJ BIZ Daily is the Wall
Street Journal of the cannabis industry, and also runs the largest trade show for the industry in Las Vegas each

4. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-weed-websites-alexa-gives-us-a-finally-ranking-before-going-offline 5/13
year. Chris Walsh has done a great job building the digital and physical footprint of MJ BIZ for 10 years now. So
good of a job, MJ BIZ was just bought by Emerald X for $120 million.
Marijuana Moment is the Washington, DC insider for the cannabis industry. Tom Angell and his staff provide
breaking news and reviews of all legislative discussion and movement related to the marijuana industry in DC.
The site is non-profit and relies on ads and reader donations to keep the Washington, DC side of the marijuana
industry covered.
Cannabis.net rounds out the top 5, sporting over 4 new articles every day, a full social network for cannabis
users, full dispensary and cannabusiness mapping, a job board, a cannabis strain guide
(https://cannabis.net/strains), a CBD store for now, and an events calendar of cannabis activities coming up in
your area. Their strain guide has been moving up in ranking this year, as well as the “dispensary near me”
keywords.
After the Top 5 – Some Risers and Some Dropping
High Times, Leafwire, Herb and AllBud are bunched up in the next part of the draft based on internet traffic
numbers according to Alexa. High Times has had a tough stretch (https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/weed-
websites-fight-for-survival-someone-smart-is-about-to-make-a-billion-dollars-online) with their never-ending IPO
journey, and their website traffic has taken a hit as Adam Levin manages a tighter budget and trying to figure
out how to get public based on his current number and market conditions. High Times recently branched into
the dispensary-branding niche, with a few locations in California now sporting the High Times logos and colors. A
move a dispensary might try in order to distinguish themselves from an over-crowded field in California.
Leafwire is the LinkedIn of Weed, founded by Peter Vogel, and after a crowdfunding campaign and a private
investor raise, has seen his site’s traffic rise over the past 12 to 18 months. A great feat considering they are a
social network that has user postings and not as much content created as the other sites on this list.
Herb is a Canadian-based site founded by Matt Gray and had a nice $5 million investment from a boutique
Canadian investment firm to start the process back in 2016. While many have debated his strategy of building
up a big Facebook and Instagram following instead of focusing on building up his own URL, the move has not
bitten him back, yet. Moving users from non-friendly cannabis social media sites to his own website property
will be a priority for longer term growth, but Herb does have a large variety of hemp and CBD advertisers.
Allbud is a high riser that keeps the site simple. Dispensaries, news, culture, strain guide, but the hook is that
AllBud will actually show you who is selling the product or strain near you if you agree to the cookies on the
browser. While some of sellers may not quite have “correct licensing”, if that doesn’t bother you, it is a good
hook up to find and buy cannabis, whether on the illicit or legal market.

5. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-weed-websites-alexa-gives-us-a-finally-ranking-before-going-offline 6/13
Just Outside a Top 10 Pick – Who Surprised?
Norml is the cannabis industries legal eagles, the lawyers of the marijuana industry have a trade association and
work together to fight for legalization at the state and Federal level.
Ganjapreneur has been a strong website for cannabis news for years and recently added some new advertising
features. While the site may look outdated, the content and backend is top notch.
CannabisBusinessTimes – A Fast riser in this draft, not on anyone’s draft boards just a few years ago but thanks
to lots of content and a great link strategy, CBT has moved up in the online rankings, at the same time as
producing a printed magazine that you can check out at cannabis industry shows and order a copy of from their
site.
Rounding Out the Top 15
New Cannabis Ventures is a top financial reporting site lead by Alan Brochstein. While the industry was shocked
and saddened by Alan’s recent bicycle accident, thoughts and prayers go out to Alan and his family. The site
focuses SEC filings, public companies in the cannabis space, and FTC issues for companies in the weed industry.
The Fresh Toast is run by media legend, JJ McKay. The site has tremendous syndications deals with Wrigley
Publishing and medical outlets online. One of the largest consumer-facing websites, JJ may pick up your article
and you may see it in Apple News or Flipboard soon after.
GreenEntrepreneur is technically a cannabis website and made the list, even though they are owned and
operated by Entrepreneur Magazine and the Entrepreneur websites. Sporting a great management team, Green
Entrepreneur has really done a great job of mixing cannabis content with small cap cannabis stock news and
information.
WikiLeaf is a product and dispensary review site, with a large variety of strain information and product reviews.
All The Other Metrics

6. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-weed-websites-alexa-gives-us-a-finally-ranking-before-going-offline 7/13
Alexa’s data includes secondary information that Google uses in their secret sauce to determine rankings. Time
on site, page views per visit, and bounce rate are all part of Googe’s analytics for determining the quality of a
website.
Time on Site – Not surprisingly the two marijuana social networks have the highest time on site. Leafwire and
Cannabis.net’s WeedFeed allow users to post, ask questions, engage with private messaging with other
members, and that creates high time on site numbers. Social networks are sticky and create many areas for
users to poke around on and hence, create long-time on-site numbers.
Page Views per Visit – Cannabis.net and Weedmaps dominate here as both feature dispensary menus and
product listings create tons of pages for users to scroll through and read about. Menus and product pages give
users time to review and compare, the compare part creates lots of clicks and page view per visit.
Bounce Rate – This number is important to Google, and the lower the better. Bounce rate is defined as “the
percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.”
Google sees this as a click someone does, get to the page, and then bounces away back to another site or
Google.
If you have a spamming looking homepage or lots of pop-up ads, this could affect your bounce rate as user click
on your link and say, “no thanks” and leave quickly.
Leafly, Leafwire, and Cannabis.net have the lowest bounce rates in the group, creating stickiness and
engagement right off the bat with their social network signs, mapping, and pictures from recent articles. Some
sites try a search bar as their “above the fold” segment of their homepage to lower bounce rate and increase
page views. AllBud is one such site you can check out. The theory being that with a search bar as your
homepage the user has to take time typing in their query or question, hence decreasing bounce rate, increasing
time on site, and once the results of the search come up, clicking on a variety of search result pages to increase
page views.
The Future of Cannabis Websites
Monetizing users is the key to cannabis website traffic, and with the failure of full Federal legalization, most
marijuana-themed websites have had to create revenue through advertising, sponsored posts, social media
blasts, and email campaigns. Most traffic on cannabis websites wants to buy actual cannabis, but since most
sites can’t sell cannabis directly to consumers, and certainly can’t ship orders through the mail or FedEx yet, they
have to build up eyeballs and traffic until they day they can sell cannabis to those visitors or get acquired by
someone that can do that. The main goal would be to convert those high domain and highly ranked sites’ traffic
into thousands of cannabis orders a day, orders being shipped around the country and arriving in 2 days or
less. Sounds like an Amazon of Weed to me.

7. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-weed-websites-alexa-gives-us-a-finally-ranking-before-going-offline 8/13
Canadian giant Fire and Flower sees this vision and has been active in buying cannabis websites
(https://investors.fireandflower.com/news/news-details/2021/Fire--Flower-and-Hifyre-Complete-Acquisitions-of-
PotGuide-and-Wikileaf/default.aspx), analyzing the data, and converting those eyeballs to orders, at least in
Canada. The future of cannabis sales will be done with a click or a swipe, and in the end, as always, traffic is
king. Pot Guide was their latest purchase for over $8 million.
Weedmaps and Leafly are already public companies, MJ BIZ sold for $120 million, High Times is pre-IPO, these
websites have tremendous future value as they can convert organic traffic to cannabis orders, but their time has
not come yet as the US waits on full Federal legalization. MSOs have to ask the question now, is it better to buy
traffic at good value now, or compete against these same sites when full Legalization and interstate commerce
kicks in? The MSO winner might be the one who builds the best wall against Amazon, Uber, and DoorDash,
build up a moat of cannabis traffic and sites, put all your customers into your rewards program on day #1, and
get ready for the future Amazon/Shopify cannabis traffic war that will happen in our lifetime.
WEED WEBSITES, READ MORE...
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-
cannabis-websites-online-that-you-can-advertise-on)
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CANANBIS WEBSITES YOU CAN ADVERTISE ON?
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-are-the-biggest-cannabis-websites-online-that-you-can-advertise-on)
OR..
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/apple-just-ended-the-
marijuana-industry-as-you-know-it-tech-and-traffic-are-now-more-valuable-t)
APPLE JUST CHANGED THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY FOREVER! (https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/apple-just-
ended-the-marijuana-industry-as-you-know-it-tech-and-traffic-are-now-more-valuable-t)
What did you think?

8. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
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10. 4/30/22, 6:00 PM What are the Biggest Weed Websites? - Alexa Gives Us a Finally Ranking Before Going Offline
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(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/what-the-jeffrey-epstein-case-can-teach-us-about-drug-law-policy-reform)
OPINION
What the Jeffrey Epstein Case Can Teach Us about Drug Law Policy Reform
It then starts making sense why “Drug Laws” are our number one concern in society, because as long as we’re arresting people getting high, the ultra-
rich elitists can keep on raping children. For the past 45+ years, we have brought down the full force of the law on trying to stop people from smoking
weed, yet our efforts in the human trafficking side of things were far more docile.