Frequently Asked Questions

This is probably one of my all-time favourites.

And all I can really say is that free advice from people who don’t actually do this for a living is usually worth what you paid for it.

If you have any questions relating to websites, SEO, costs or anything else, please schedule a free consult with me and we can talk about it all.

That’s fine.

A lot of people who come to me already have websites they are happy with and just want to improve their SEO.

That being said, check out the next question for clarification on that one.

This question comes up a lot.

Liking your website doesn’t mean that it is performing the way you would like it to and change is sometimes necessary.

That aside, and If you like the structural layout and colours of your website, they should be able to remain in place as I typically make changes to content, images, video, etc.

Schedule a 30 minute telephone consult and let’s discuss it.

I used to, but I don’t any longer.

The “free” types of audits you tend to get aren’t very useful and only cover the routine, more technical aspects of SEO, like page headings and ALT text for images.

In order to perform an effective and insightful audit, I need to know certain things about your business and it takes a few hours to properly complete.

There are tons of free online resources available that will scan your website and make basic recommendations, however they won’t tell you how competitive your specific industry is and what you’re up against.

Consider it as an investment in your business.

Another popular question with a not-so-popular answer: It depends on the website.

Not the answer you’re looking for, I know, but it really is true.

If you’re trying to rank for a vague search term with next to no competition, I can get that ranked in a couple of months for a small investment.

If you’re in the Trades, on the other hand – like HVAC or Home Contracting – it can take a lot longer and cost considerably more.

The real answer to time and cost depends on how competitive your industry is, and, more importantly, how far along you are in your own SEO journey.

If it isn’t very competitive, ranking is easier.

If your industry is very competitive, ranking is more difficult and takes more work and time.

Schedule a free telephone consult with me where I’ll be able to tell you more.

You can get a car for $1,000.00, too, but we all know what it will look like and how well it will perform.

I completely understand people being confused about the discrepancy in pricing for what seems like an equal product.

The problem is, they are not equal products.

The cheap websites almost always consist of stock themes with thin, spammy content, inappropriate visuals and little valid SEO (if any at all).

When a person comes to me with such a website, I usually have to strip it down and start from scratch, anyway.

When compared to my competitors, I offer website design that includes the initial on-page SEO for very reasonable prices.

No one does, and depending on what you mean by “a lot”, you might not need to.

But, even if you will need to commit, the real question to ask yourself is what an indefinite, steady stream of clients is worth to your business.

Every situation is different and some businesses – depending on how competitive their industry or ‘niche’ is – don’t require a huge investment to see some results.

I can, and have in the past, but I don’t any longer, unfortunately.

Those systems do offer simple functionality for users, and some of the websites do look pretty good.

The potential challenge for me is that the ‘DIY’ systems are very proprietary and do not allow me all of the designing and/or structural freedom I need to do my best work.

Something to keep in mind about those platforms is that you’ll be paying an ongoing monthly fee for a website that you’ll never truly own and can never move to a different platform should your needs expand over time.

A platform such as WordPress, on the other hand, is completely scalable and you can host it (virtually) wherever you want.

The difference in cost is negligible but you get way more functionality out of a WordPress environment.

I can rebuild your existing website easily enough – and have for many clients in the past – so schedule a call with me and I’ll explain everything involved in greater detail.

I run into this all the time and I really do feel for the website owners.

The problem is that a lot of websites are designed with zero (or bad) SEO in mind when it should have been the other way around.

The ideal approach is to plan what will be needed in order to rank and then to build it into a website.

Because of this, you’ll need to hire someone competent who does both SEO and website design.

And that would be me.

Schedule a free, 30 minute telephone consult with me and I’ll be happy to go through all of this in greater detail for you.

I’m both, although I began primarily as an SEO company and added my website design services not too long after.

I was finding that too many people were coming to me with websites that were under-developed and I would spend quite a bit of time revamping them.

I decided to promote my web design services so that people could save time and money by getting it done right the first time.

When it comes to SEO & website design, the terms “cheap” and “more affordable” really aren’t interchangeable.

I am successful with my work because I have the required knowledge, skills and ability to apply to your project.

My rates are also often less than half of what the larger agencies charge.

The truly “cheap” SEO and web design companies tend to use a seriously outdated and one-size-fits-all approach and good results are rarely achieved.

We all know that ‘you get what you pay for’ and this industry is no different.

Getting a website in a fairly competitive industry to rank for just a few hundred dollars just isn’t going to happen (no matter who you hire).

You can, but I’d definitely recommend (at least) having a one-page website as well.

A lot of smaller and more local businesses do the majority of their promoting and marketing through Social Media.

If it works, it works.

The reason I recommend having a small website as well is for scaling in the future.

Newer domain names and websites take time to index (and gain trust) in the search engines, so the sooner you have something up, the better.

It also looks more professional if you have an actual website.

But, and with that being said, I have actually told a few prospective clients to just keep promoting themselves via YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

One person baked gourmet cookies in her kitchen and they were a big hit locally, but she wasn’t looking to scale.

So, a website for her probably would have been too much.

A good rule of thumb to follow here would be if your ability to produce exceeds your demand, think about getting a good website going.

If you’re basically running a side-gig or a cottage-industry sort of thing, maybe hold off and just keep doing what you’re doing.

Fair enough.

And I would have loved to have become a brain surgeon without spending all of those years in medical school.

Sorry, but without an appropriate budget you won’t be able to hire anyone that is competent.

If your budget is low, I would also strongly suggest that you stay away from the cheap overseas companies that make a ton of promises.

I’ve had far too many people who went that route contact me because they had spent their budgets and received zero results.

Almost every website needs backlinks, however the quality and amount of backlinks will depend on how strong the backlinking profiles of your competitors are.

The good news is that a properly structured website with strong on-page SEO can make-up for a weaker backlink profile.

The not-so-good news is that website structure and on-page SEO can only take you so far and we would need to take a look at your situation to really know what you’ll need.

The cost for acquiring backlinks is determined by the number of backlinks you need and the quality of the websites we would be using to backlink from.

Schedule a free, 30 minute telephone consultation with me today and we can talk about it.

That’s a really fair question.

With a lot of local agencies calling themselves the “#1 Best SEO In Toronto”, who are you supposed to believe? They can’t ALL be “#1”, right?

I can put you in touch with any number of my past clients and you can speak with them directly about what it’s like working with me and the results they achieved as a result.

I’ve had a lot of strong success and I stand behind my work.

I don’t, or at least I don’t in the traditional sense.

“SEO Packages” became a popular industry term and seems to have stuck. The problem is, on its own it doesn’t really mean much.

I offer various SEO services and put together a monthly plan based on what you need most at any given time.

Sometimes those services come with a “Starting At” or bundled price.

And sometimes they go by hours that are subject to my hourly rate and the amount of monthly hours I spend on it will depend on your budget.

Please see my pricing page to get a better idea about the costs involved.

Another great question.

The goal of your SEO is to get you enough rankings and visibility so that enough people – as defined by your needs – will visit your website.

If we can achieve those results after 4 months with #5 results, that’s great, and you can probably stop paying at that point for as long as those rankings – and results – hold.

One way to look at it is to think that there are only so many spots in the search results, so if one website moves up, another website has to move down. Think of SEO as a sort of “Zero-Sum” game: For someone to win, someone else has to lose.

If your competitors are also idle – or can’t figure out how to beat you – in theory your rankings can hold for quite a while.

However…

You may want to expand on your overall reach by exploring new search terms, or cementing your trust and authority levels in your industry with Google, which would obviously require more work.

All things being equal, I should be able to get you some working results within a few months.

I can definitely help with your local visibility, no problem.

Check out my Local SEO Services or contact me to discuss your options.

Yep, I can definitely help with that.

I work closely with trusted, third-party agencies in the Toronto area that specialize in project development and I can connect you with one that meets your requirements easily enough.

This includes e-Commerce, database development, photography, videography, graphic design & more.

Reach out to me and we can talk about it.

I do.

For an annual payment of $300.00 (CAN) + HST, I take care of all updates, backups and deal with tech support if need be.

I also include an hour per month of editing time should you request it.

For peace of mind alone, it’s a pretty good deal and it gets even better if you use me for the monthly editing.

I’m also happy to show you how to do it yourself, although the majority of my clients can’t be bothered and just want it taken care of in the background for them.