Eleven years in search. Four-plus working the Michigan dispensary counter.
dispensaryAEO is a one-person practice. The person who reads your submission is the person who runs the queries, writes the report, builds the schema, and answers the next email. Below is what that looks like — and why it's different from the agency alternative.
The short bio
Randi Bagley — practitioner, not agency.
I'm Randi. Eleven years deep in SEO, the last four-plus working directly with Michigan dispensary operators on the channel that is shifting under their feet — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
The AEO practice grew out of two facts that won't go away: paid acquisition is restricted for Michigan cannabis, and the AI assistants answer a growing share of “where can I find …” queries before the shopper ever sees a Google Business Profile. So the work is to make sure your dispensary is the one the assistant names.
I run the work myself. There is no junior team, no offshore link-building desk, no account manager rotating you through QBR slides. When you submit the audit form, I am the one who reads it, and I am the one who replies.
Credibility timeline
From a tow-truck radio to a $500 audit written by the same person.
The headline numbers — eleven years, four-plus with Michigan dispensaries — anchor the timeline below. Read it once. If the path makes sense, the audit form is one click away.
- 01The dispatch years
Tow-truck dispatcher. Where the work ethic was forged.
Before any of this, I was the person on a two-way radio coordinating a fleet of tow trucks at 2 a.m. — collecting payment, talking a panicked driver through a claim, calming a customer whose night had just gone sideways. That job taught one thing that has stayed with me: a customer in distress does not want a script, they want a person who will actually pick up the next call and own the outcome.
- 022014 onward
Eleven years in SEO.
I moved into search around the time Google's local pack reshaped small-business visibility. Eleven years of query logs, citation audits, entity hygiene, and the slow accrual of pattern recognition that lets you look at a SERP and know what is happening before the tool tells you. Most of that work is invisible — and most clients never ask what is invisible, but they notice the moment it stops working.
- 032022 — first client
A Michigan dispensary asked for help. I said yes.
The first Michigan dispensary client came to me because the agency they were paying had stopped returning calls. That engagement turned into a second, then a third, then a referral pipeline that is still the backbone of the work four-plus years later. The category chose me, in a way — cannabis operators will tell you what is actually broken far faster than a generic client will.
- 04Today
Practitioner-led. Retainer-and-audit. No agency layer.
Today the work is small, deliberate, and entirely mine. I do the audits, write the reports, hold the queries, build the schema, and answer the email when a dispensary owner pings me at 6 p.m. with a question. The two-week $500 audit is the only door in — every retainer engagement starts there, and every report stays yours regardless of what you decide next.
Practitioner-led vs. agency generalists
The difference isn't a tagline — it's what lands in your inbox.
Both sides of the table are honest. Most dispensary owners who contact me have already been through the right column. This is what changes when you move.
Practitioner-led
You email the practitioner doing the work — not an account manager.
A written report and a prioritized fix list you keep regardless.
Queries scoped to the Michigan cities where your dispensary competes.
Findings are not gated behind a retainer.
A schema.org/Product menu, not a PDF the assistant ignores.
Agency generalist
Three layers between you and the person touching your account.
A 40-slide strategy deck with two findings buried on slide 27.
A generic ecommerce playbook copied between e-com and dispensary.
Reports you cannot share off-platform, tied to a 12-month contract.
A flat-rate retainer that ignores whether the work moved the needle.
“The work is small on purpose. Fewer clients, deeper engagement, a report in two weeks — and an email back to the person who read your submission by end of next business day.”
If this is the practitioner you want doing the work, the audit is the door in.
Two weeks. A written report you keep regardless. Submit the form — Randi reads every submission and replies within one business day.
Same practitioner. Same email. Same person doing the work.