Question 1

How long does it take to see SEO results in Canada?

Accepted Answer

In a competitive market like Toronto, you can generally expect initial traction in 3-4 months, with significant ROI scaling between months 6 and 12. SEO is a compounding growth channel, meaning the longer you invest, the higher the returns. Local SEO can show movement faster (often within 60-90 days for Map Pack visibility); national content programs take longer to compound.

Question 2

What happens in the first month of a Canadian SEO engagement?

Accepted Answer

Month one is foundational. We conduct a comprehensive technical audit, map out your keyword universe, analyze competitors, and build a 6-month roadmap. We also execute quick-win technical fixes and optimize your Google Business Profile. By the end of month one you have an audited baseline, a documented strategy, a 90-day content roadmap, and the first round of technical fixes shipped.

Question 3

Do you guarantee #1 rankings in Google?

Accepted Answer

No reputable Canadian SEO agency guarantees specific rankings because Google's algorithm is entirely outside our control. We guarantee transparent reporting, technical excellence, data-driven content, and a track record of driving organic revenue for our clients. Any agency promising guaranteed #1 rankings is either misleading you or planning to use tactics that will get the site penalised.

Question 4

What does a typical month-by-month SEO cadence look like?

Accepted Answer

Months 1-2: technical foundation + audit + GBP optimization + initial content roadmap. Months 3-4: comparison content + service-page rebuilds + initial link-earning + first content-refresh sprint. Months 5-6: AEO infrastructure + topical-authority pillar pages + monthly AI engine citation tracking. Months 7-12: cadence content + quarterly refresh sprints + scaling what's working. Most programs see meaningful organic growth from month 4 onward.

Question 5

How fast can local SEO results show up in Toronto and the GTA?

Accepted Answer

Faster than national SEO. Map Pack visibility movements typically show within 60-90 days when GBP optimization, citation cleanup, and review velocity work happen in parallel. The full local-SEO compounding (consistent #1-3 Map Pack across competitive queries) usually takes 6-9 months. Speed depends heavily on the competitive set; quiet local categories move faster than saturated ones.

Question 6

What's a quarterly content-refresh sprint and why do you run them?

Accepted Answer

A quarterly content-refresh sprint reviews and updates your top-traffic and top-converting pages every 3 months. Updates: refresh dates and statistics, fix outdated information, add new sections covering related queries that have emerged, improve internal linking, update schema. Refreshed pages typically regain or improve their rankings within 30 days. Refresh sprints are one of the highest-ROI activities in mature SEO programs.

Question 7

What's in a 90-day SEO roadmap?

Accepted Answer

A 90-day SEO roadmap maps every planned activity to a week and an owner: planned content (target keyword, page type, length, ship date, owner), technical projects (issue, scope, ship date), GBP work (posts, reviews, services), link-earning (outreach campaigns, PR opportunities), and reporting cadence. Rolling 90-day planning balances commitment (the next month is locked) with adaptability (the third month can flex based on month one's data).

Question 8

How do you onboard a new SEO client?

Accepted Answer

Week 1: kickoff call, access provisioning (GA4, GSC, GBP, CMS, hosting), brand voice + ICP discovery. Week 2-3: full technical audit, competitive landscape mapping, keyword universe definition. Week 4: 6-month roadmap presentation and approval. Week 5+: execution begins. Most clients are out of onboarding and into execution by week 4-5.

Question 9

Do you require long-term SEO contracts?

Accepted Answer

We require an initial 6-month commitment. SEO strategies need time to take effect, and anything less than 6 months does not allow for a realistic assessment of ROI. After 6 months, we shift to a month-to-month agreement. The 6-month minimum reflects the reality of how SEO compounds — 90-day windows are insufficient to evaluate whether the program is working.

Question 10

Are there setup fees for SEO?

Accepted Answer

No. Your first month's retainer covers all initial onboarding, auditing, and strategy development. Some agencies charge separate audit / strategy fees on top of monthly retainers; we don't. The work all happens; it's just billed transparently inside the retainer.

Question 11

What is your SEO pricing structure?

Accepted Answer

We operate on flat-rate monthly retainers starting at C$1,500/mo. Pricing scales based on the complexity of your site, the competitiveness of your industry, and the speed at which you want to grow. Common Canadian retainer ranges: local SEO (1 location) C$1,500-C$2,800/mo; multi-location local C$2,500-C$5,500/mo; national content programs C$3,500-C$8,000/mo; enterprise programs C$8,000-C$15,000+/mo. See our Pricing page for full details.

Question 12

What is the typical cost of SEO services in Canada in 2026?

Accepted Answer

Canadian SEO retainers in 2026 typically range from C$1,500-C$15,000+/month depending on scope. The breakdown: solo consultants C$80-C$180/hr, mid-market agencies C$2,500-C$8,000/mo flat retainer, premium / specialist agencies C$5,000-C$15,000+/mo, enterprise C$15,000-C$50,000+/mo. Project work (audits, migrations) is typically C$5,000-C$50,000 fixed-scope. Hourly billing is uncommon at the agency tier; flat retainers dominate.

Question 13

What is not included in a typical SEO retainer?

Accepted Answer

Most SEO retainers do not include: paid media spend (ads), large website rebuilds, legal review of content (relevant for healthcare, legal, financial verticals), translation services for bilingual sites (typically billed separately), or third-party tool licenses for client-side use (Ahrefs, Surfer, etc. are agency-side). These are all available, billed transparently, and clearly itemised in the SOW.

Question 14

How do payment terms work for Canadian SEO retainers?

Accepted Answer

Standard terms: monthly invoicing, due net-15 or net-30 from invoice date. We accept e-transfer, cheque, credit card (with 2.9% processing surcharge), and ACH for US-based clients (USD billing available on request). Pre-payment discounts: 5% for quarterly pre-payment, 10% for annual. Late-payment terms apply per signed SOW.

Question 15

Do you offer performance-based or pay-for-rankings SEO pricing?

Accepted Answer

No. Performance-based SEO pricing models (pay-per-ranking, revenue-share) consistently misalign incentives — agencies optimize for the metric they're paid on rather than the business outcome. We charge a flat monthly retainer that aligns us to long-term partnership rather than to chasing whatever metric is easiest to move. The market reality: every major Canadian SEO success story we've seen runs on flat retainer pricing.

Question 16

How much does a one-time SEO audit cost in Canada?

Accepted Answer

Canadian SEO audits typically cost C$3,500-C$15,000 depending on site size and audit depth. Solo-consultant audits start around C$2,000-C$4,000; mid-market agency audits C$5,000-C$10,000; enterprise audits with implementation specs C$10,000-C$30,000. The output is a written audit document with prioritised findings, implementation specs, and a recommended roadmap. Audit-only engagements work; pair with implementation help for fastest results.

Question 17

Does monthly SEO budget materially affect results?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but with diminishing returns. A C$3,000/mo retainer typically delivers 2-4 articles published, regular technical hygiene, GBP management, and monthly reporting. A C$8,000/mo retainer adds substantive link-earning, deeper content investment, more aggressive technical projects, and faster content cadence. Above C$15,000/mo, returns scale with team capacity and topical breadth — useful for enterprise programs covering multiple verticals or geos.

Question 18

What do you report monthly to clients?

Accepted Answer

Monthly reports include: organic sessions and engaged sessions trend (GA4); top 50 keywords by impression and click (GSC); new conversions / leads / revenue attributable to organic; AI engine citation share trend on tracked queries; technical health (indexation, Core Web Vitals); GBP performance (impressions, calls, directions, reviews); content shipped and refreshed; next month's roadmap. The report is sent within the first week of the following month, with a 30-minute live review on request.

Question 19

What's the North Star metric you report against?

Accepted Answer

Whatever your business actually measures — qualified leads, demo bookings, online sales, phone calls, signed contracts. Pure SEO metrics (sessions, rankings) matter as leading indicators but cannot be the North Star. Every Toronto SEO engagement starts with a conversation about which downstream business metric we're optimising for, and that becomes the headline metric in every monthly report.

Question 20

How do you measure AEO (AI engine optimization) results?

Accepted Answer

AEO measurement: monthly probe of a defined query set (typically 30-50 queries representing your category) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. We record citation share (% of probes where your domain appears in cited sources), citation position within the source list, and the citation snippet (the paraphrased text the engine surfaced). Trend over time is the meaningful signal — not single-snapshot numbers.

Question 21

What happens if my SEO rankings drop?

Accepted Answer

Diagnosis first: was it a Google core update (check date against announced updates), a technical regression on your site (recent deploys, indexation changes), a competitive movement (someone shipped substantially better content), or a query-intent shift (Google reinterpreted what users want)? Each requires a different response. We document the diagnosis, propose a corrective plan within 1-2 weeks, and execute. Rankings drops are normal in SEO; sustained recovery work is what matters.

Question 22

Do you track AI search traffic (ChatGPT, Perplexity) separately from classical organic?

Accepted Answer

Yes. AI search traffic shows up in GA4 by referrer (chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com) and is reported as a separate channel in our reports. The traffic profile differs from classical organic — typically lower volume per query but higher conversion rate per session. We treat AI search as its own channel and benchmark month-over-month growth alongside classical organic.

Question 23

Are keyword rankings still the right SEO KPI in 2026?

Accepted Answer

Rankings are a leading indicator, not a North Star. The right KPI hierarchy: 1) Business outcomes (leads, revenue) — the only metric that justifies SEO investment. 2) Engaged sessions from organic — proxy for quality traffic. 3) AI engine citation share + classical rankings — leading indicators of organic discoverability. 4) Impressions, CTR, indexation — operational health. Rankings alone are not enough; rankings without conversion mean the wrong query set is being targeted.

Question 24

Can you help us rank in multiple GTA cities?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Multi-location and service-area SEO is a core specialty. We build dedicated location architectures and localized content clusters to help you rank in Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Oakville, Burlington, and across the GTA without cannibalizing your primary Toronto rankings. The architecture matters most — done correctly, multi-location SEO compounds; done with thin location pages, it triggers helpful-content demotions.

Question 25

How important is a Google Business Profile for local SEO?

Accepted Answer

Critical. For local searches (e.g., 'plumber near me' or 'toronto corporate lawyer'), the Google Map Pack captures up to 40% of all clicks. Optimizing your GBP is step one of any local campaign we run. A complete, well-maintained GBP includes: accurate NAP, primary + secondary categories, complete services menu with descriptions, weekly posts, regular photo uploads, and active review-response practice.

Question 26

How many physical locations can you handle in a multi-location SEO program?

Accepted Answer

We've run multi-location programs from 2 to 200+ locations. Up to ~10 locations: per-location landing pages with substantive content, individual GBP management for each. 10-50 locations: programmatic location templates with strict quality gating, centralized GBP management with local input. 50+: full programmatic + automation with per-region leadership. The scaling pattern shifts as location count grows.

Question 27

What's a service-area business (SAB) on Google Business Profile?

Accepted Answer

A service-area business is a business that serves customers at their location rather than at a fixed storefront — plumbers, electricians, mobile cleaners, home tutors. SABs hide their address from public GBP view and define a service area instead (cities, postal codes, or radius). The local SEO playbook differs slightly: more weight on service-area-specific content, more emphasis on review velocity (compensating for the lack of a public address signal), and careful avoidance of sharing the address inadvertently in citations.

Question 28

How much do Google reviews affect local SEO rankings?

Accepted Answer

Significantly. Review count, average rating, review velocity (rate of new reviews), review recency, and review response rate all contribute to the Prominence component of Google's local ranking. Practical targets: 4.5+ average rating, 50+ total reviews for competitive metro categories, 2-4 new reviews per month minimum, 100% response rate within 48 hours. A structured review-request workflow tied to job completion is one of the highest-leverage local SEO investments.

Question 29

What's the Local Pack (or Map Pack)?

Accepted Answer

The Local Pack — also called the Map Pack or Local 3-Pack — is the boxed group of three local business listings Google shows above organic results for queries with local intent. It captures roughly 40-50% of total click volume for local-intent queries. Ranking factors are the standard local trio: Relevance (categories, services, content match to query), Distance (proximity to searcher), Prominence (review count and quality, citations, brand authority).

Question 30

Do we need a French-language site for SEO in Quebec?

Accepted Answer

If you serve Quebec customers in any meaningful volume, yes — both for SEO and for Bill 96 regulatory compliance. Quebec consumers expect French-first commerce, French content ranks higher for fr-CA queries, and Bill 96 (in force) requires French-first commercial communications for businesses operating in Quebec. The right architecture: bilingual site with proper hreflang clusters (en-CA / fr-CA), culturally-adapted content (not machine translation), and French-language GBP content where you have a Quebec location.

Question 31

Will you make changes directly to my website?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if you permit us. We are comfortable working in WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and modern headless stacks (Next.js / Astro / Sanity / Contentful). Alternatively, we can provide detailed, developer-ready specs for your in-house team to implement. Most clients prefer we ship directly for speed; some prefer we hand off specs for engineering control.

Question 32

Who writes the content on Toronto SEO clients' websites?

Accepted Answer

All editorial content is written by our in-house team based in Toronto. We do not outsource to overseas content farms or use AI-only content generation. For highly technical niches (law, healthcare, financial services), we work with subject-matter experts (often from your team or external SMEs we coordinate) to ensure accuracy and proper E-E-A-T signal. AI tools assist with research and outlining but never replace human authorship.

Question 33

Do you build links?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We use white-hat, outreach-based link building and digital PR to secure placements on high-authority, relevant Canadian websites. We never use PBNs, link farms, or any spammy link networks that put your site at risk of a penalty. Typical sources: industry publications, Canadian news outlets for newsworthy content, partnerships with non-competing complementary businesses, sponsorships of local events, and HARO-style journalist responses.

Question 34

What are Core Web Vitals and how much do they affect SEO?

Accepted Answer

Core Web Vitals are Google's measurement of real-user experience: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint, loading speed), INP (Interaction to Next Paint, responsiveness), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift, visual stability). They're a real but moderate ranking factor — most useful as a tiebreaker between similar-quality content. Targets: LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1 (all measured at 75th percentile in CrUX field data).

Question 35

What's schema markup and do I need it for SEO?

Accepted Answer

Schema markup is structured data (typically JSON-LD) that tells search engines and AI engines what your content is — Article, Product, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Person, Organization, etc. It's not a direct ranking factor but it's increasingly important for AI engine citation eligibility, rich-result eligibility in Google SERPs, and entity recognition. Every modern site should have at minimum Organization, LocalBusiness (if applicable), Article (on editorial content), and BreadcrumbList schema.

Question 36

What's llms.txt and do I need one?

Accepted Answer

llms.txt is an emerging convention (2024-2026) for declaring a site's preferred LLM-friendly content map at /llms.txt — analogous to sitemap.xml but for AI agents. Adoption by major AI engines is partial in 2026 but trending positive. Cost is low (a few hours to generate one), benefit is non-zero (some AI engines do use it), so we typically include it for clients on AEO-focused programs. We have a free generator at /tools/llms-txt-generator/.

Question 37

Should I block AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) in robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

Almost never. Blocking AI crawlers means your content cannot be cited in AI engine answers — you remove yourself from the discovery surface. The only legitimate reasons to block: your business model depends on protecting copyrighted content from ingestion, or you have specific contractual obligations restricting AI training. For most Canadian businesses doing SEO, blocking AI crawlers is self-defeating. Use our /tools/ai-crawler-robots-txt/ tool to make per-bot decisions with rationale.

Question 38

What's AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?

Accepted Answer

AEO is the practice of optimizing content to be cited in answers from AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. It overlaps significantly with classical SEO (the same structured, authoritative, well-schema'd content tends to win both surfaces) but adds emphasis on direct-answer formatting, FAQ schema, semantic chunking for retrieval, and entity establishment. Modern SEO programs include AEO as an integrated discipline, not a separate workstream.

Question 39

Do you handle SEO for site migrations and replatforms?

Accepted Answer

Yes — site migrations are one of the highest-risk events in SEO, and proper migration planning is essential. Our migration scope: pre-migration audit (URL inventory, ranking baseline, schema audit), URL mapping (every old URL mapped to new, with 301 redirect plan), staging-site QA (technical checks, schema validation, internal-link verification), launch monitoring (real-time GSC + log monitoring), and post-launch recovery work. Most well-planned migrations preserve 90%+ of pre-migration organic traffic.

Question 40

What's an orphan page in SEO?

Accepted Answer

An orphan page is a page on your site that has no internal links pointing to it — it can only be reached if a user knows the direct URL. Orphan pages typically rank poorly because they receive no internal link equity and are crawled less often. Diagnosis: a Screaming Frog or Sitebulb crawl compared against your sitemap surfaces orphans. Resolution: add contextual internal links from related content, or remove the page if it's no longer needed.

Question 41

Is classical SEO dead now that AI engines exist?

Accepted Answer

No. Classical Google search (with AI Overviews integrated) still drives roughly 80-90% of organic discovery for most Canadian commercial queries in 2026. AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) are growing fast but remain a smaller share of total organic discovery. The right strategy: run a full SEO program with explicit AEO measurement and reporting, not AEO-only or classical-only.

Question 42

How do I get my site cited by ChatGPT?

Accepted Answer

ChatGPT Search retrieves and cites live web content based on relevance and authority signals. To increase citation probability: write declarative, self-contained answer paragraphs at the top of every relevant page; use FAQ schema for question-shaped content; ensure all content is server-rendered or static (ChatGPT-User crawler does not execute JavaScript); allow ChatGPT-User and OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt; build topical authority through comprehensive coverage of your category; earn brand mentions across reputable sources.

Question 43

How do I get my site cited by Perplexity?

Accepted Answer

Perplexity sources are typically drawn from Bing's index (with some additional retrieval). Optimize for Bing rankings (submit to Bing Webmaster Tools, ensure clean technical SEO), allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt, write answer-first content with clear declarative sentences, and use schema markup (Article, FAQPage, Organization). Perplexity favours sources with clear authorship and date metadata — strong author Person schema helps.

Question 44

How do I get my site cited by Google AI Overviews?

Accepted Answer

Google AI Overviews draw heavily from sources already ranking top-10 organically for related queries — so classical SEO ranking is the foundation. Additional optimisation: structured-data depth (Article + FAQPage + BreadcrumbList + Person), explicit answer paragraphs early on the page, comprehensive coverage of the topic across the page (not just the query), and topical authority across your domain. Pages cited in AI Overviews are typically high-quality, well-schema'd, well-authored editorial content.

Question 45

Should I track AI citation share or classical rankings?

Accepted Answer

Both. Classical rankings remain the primary ranking surface for the majority of organic discovery; AI citation share is the growing secondary surface. Track them in parallel monthly. We typically report a 'top 50 keywords' classical-ranking view alongside a 30-50 query AI citation share view across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.

Question 46

What does llms.txt do that sitemap.xml doesn't?

Accepted Answer

sitemap.xml lists all crawlable URLs for search engines. llms.txt is structured for LLM agents: it surfaces the most important pages with brief descriptions, links to documentation and policies, and provides a curated 'this is what matters' map rather than a complete URL inventory. Adoption by AI engines is partial in 2026 but cost-to-implement is low. We include it on AEO-focused programs as a supplementary signal.

Question 47

Do I need a separate AEO content strategy from my SEO content strategy?

Accepted Answer

No — you need an integrated content strategy with AEO requirements baked in. Most AEO best practices are simply better SEO practices: declarative answer paragraphs, comprehensive topic coverage, schema markup, named author E-E-A-T signals. Running AEO as a separate workstream typically means duplicating effort. Run one editorial program with AEO measurement and reporting.

Question 48

Who leads Toronto SEO engagements?

Accepted Answer

Martin Vassilev is the founder and lead practitioner on every Toronto SEO engagement. Martin has over a decade of Canadian SEO experience covering local SEO across the GTA, national content programs, AEO infrastructure for AI engine citation, and technical SEO for migrations and rebuilds. Every monthly retainer includes Martin's direct strategic input, not handoff to junior account managers.

Question 49

What's the size of the Toronto SEO team?

Accepted Answer

Toronto SEO operates as a senior-led specialist practice with a small core team and trusted contractor network for execution depth. The deliberate choice: senior practitioners on every engagement instead of pyramid agency staffing where junior teams do most of the work. The trade-off is engagement capacity — we maintain a waitlist when at capacity rather than scaling staffing past quality.

Question 50

Do you work alongside our existing marketing team or other agencies?

Accepted Answer

Yes — most of our engagements include coordination with in-house marketing, paid-media agencies, PR agencies, web designers, and engineering teams. Clear handoffs and documented decision rights prevent territorial confusion. Toronto SEO owns SEO scope (technical, content, AEO, link earning, GBP); your other partners own their scopes; we share monthly working sessions and a single source-of-truth roadmap.

Question 51

Are you Google Partners or hold any SEO certifications?

Accepted Answer

Google Partner status is for paid-media agencies (Google Ads), not SEO. There is no Google-issued SEO certification — anyone claiming a 'Google SEO certified' credential is misrepresenting. Toronto SEO publishes its work openly (case studies, playbooks, tools, glossary) so prospective clients can evaluate the actual quality of thinking and execution rather than relying on third-party badges.

Question 52

Which industries do you serve in Canada?

Accepted Answer

Our active book covers: B2B SaaS (Series A-C), Canadian D2C ecommerce, professional services (legal, accounting, dental, medical specialty), home services (contractors, HVAC, plumbing, electrical), financial services (fee-only advisors, mortgage brokers), hospitality (boutique hotels, restaurants), and education (online courses, vocational training). We're vertical-flexible but pattern-matched — what compounds across verticals is editorial discipline plus technical rigor.

Question 53

Are there industries you decline to work with?

Accepted Answer

We decline scoped work in: gambling and online casino (regulatory + reputation risk), payday lending (predatory model risk), adult content (workflow conflicts with mainstream client base), cryptocurrency speculation projects (not investment-advisory crypto firms), and any business whose core proposition appears designed to mislead consumers. We're explicit about declines upfront — wasted discovery time helps no one.

Question 54

Do you work with early-stage startups?

Accepted Answer

Selectively. Pre-seed startups typically don't have the runway for an SEO program with a 6-12-month payoff curve and are better served by paid acquisition + content sprint. Series A onward, SEO becomes a viable channel investment. We work with Series A+ Canadian startups regularly; pre-seed engagements need a specific reason (e.g., founders building a content moat as part of the product strategy).

Question 55

Do you work with enterprise (C$50M+ revenue) Canadian businesses?

Accepted Answer

Yes — enterprise SEO is one of our specialties. Enterprise work differs from SMB work: longer onboarding (~8-12 weeks), stakeholder coordination across marketing / engineering / legal / brand, enterprise-tier reporting cadences, and typically C$15,000-C$50,000+ monthly retainers reflecting the scope. We have capacity for a small number of enterprise engagements; reach out to discuss scope.

Question 56

How should I evaluate a Canadian SEO agency?

Accepted Answer

Evaluation criteria: 1) Senior-practitioner involvement (will the strategist who pitches you also work on your account?). 2) Published examples of their thinking (case studies, playbooks, written work). 3) Editorial honesty (do they discuss what doesn't work, not just success stories?). 4) Pricing transparency (flat-rate retainer over performance-based or vague 'custom' pricing). 5) References from current clients in similar verticals. 6) AODA / accessibility awareness for Canadian regulatory compliance.

Question 57

What are red flags when evaluating an SEO agency?

Accepted Answer

Red flags: guaranteed rankings, performance-based / pay-per-ranking pricing, no published case studies or evidence of work, junior account managers running engagements (with senior practitioners only on the sales call), opaque link-building practices, claims of 'secret' Google relationships, requests for excessive scope creep without scope-change billing, refusal to discuss what didn't work in past engagements.

Question 58

Should I hire a Toronto-local SEO agency or any agency in Canada?

Accepted Answer

For local SEO (Map Pack, GBP, Toronto-specific intent), local Toronto presence helps — local agencies understand neighbourhood-level competitive dynamics and Canadian regulatory context (AODA, Bill 96, CASL). For national / international SEO programs, geographic location matters less than practitioner quality. Most modern Canadian SEO engagements run remotely; in-person visits are occasional rather than weekly. Choose for skill match, not geography.

Question 59

How many SEO agencies should I shortlist before deciding?

Accepted Answer

3-5 is usually right. More than 5 dilutes evaluation depth; fewer than 3 risks not having a meaningful comparison set. The shortlist should span price tiers (one solo / boutique, two mid-market specialists, one premium) to surface what each tier actually delivers for the price. Use the same scoping document across all shortlisted vendors so proposals are comparable.

Question 60

What questions should I ask in an SEO vendor sales call?

Accepted Answer

Ask for: 1) A specific case-study walk-through in your vertical with metrics. 2) Who specifically will run your account day-to-day (and can you meet them?). 3) Their last 3 client losses or churn — and why. 4) How they measure AEO / AI engine citations. 5) Their approach to a recent Google core update. 6) Their position on AI-generated content. 7) Their typical 90-day deliverable list. Vague answers to these questions reveal weaker practices.

Canadian SEO FAQ Hub

Process & Timelines

Pricing & Contracts

Results & Reporting

Local SEO (Toronto, GTA & Canada)

Technical SEO

AI Search & AEO

Team & Credentials

Industries & Verticals

Comparing SEO Vendors

Keep going further down the rabbit hole

505 SEO + AEO terms, defined

Long-form engagement write-ups

Open-access checklists & templates

Question not answered here?