Serving Canada remotely
SEO and digital marketing for businesses across Canada
SEO and digital marketing built for Canada, so your customers find you before US sites do. Planned for a few big cities, two languages and CASL.
The market
A huge country with customers in a few cities
Canada is huge, but its customers are packed together. About two-thirds of Canadians live in a narrow band near the US border, and a handful of cities make up most of the searches that lead to sales. A national campaign here works more like a set of city campaigns.
Search volumes are much lower than in the US for the same term. A keyword worth a full content plan in the US often isn't worth one here, so US benchmarks give you targets you can't hit.
The good news? Competition is often thinner. Categories packed in US cities still have open ground in Canadian ones, especially outside Toronto and Vancouver.
Local businesses
From local trades to national brands
Most of the chances are with small and mid-sized businesses: trades, home services, professional firms, clinics, brokerages and regional shops. For them, one well-run local search plan can change the revenue line.
National brands and multi-location operators, such as dealership groups, clinic networks and restaurant groups, face a different problem. Their locations compete with each other, their profiles don't match, and the website can't show each service area properly.
Canada also has a big B2B and tech sector in Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. Many of these companies sell abroad from day one, so the plan is international from the start.
How people search
Google, spelling and French search
How do people in Canada look for a business like yours? The answer changes what we fix first.
- Google handles almost all Canadian search, an even bigger share than in the US. Bing matters mainly for enterprise and government buyers on managed Windows computers.
- American sites with bigger, older domains often fill Canadian results. Showing you're Canadian helps you rank and sell: Canadian dollars, Canadian spelling, the provinces you cover, local examples and a .ca domain where it fits.
- Spelling matters. Canadian English follows British rules for some words and American rules for others. Get it wrong and your page feels foreign to the customer you want.
- French-language search is its own market, not a translation job. In Quebec it's the main market. Outside Quebec the volume is usually too small to justify a full bilingual site for a regional business.
- In busy cities, people often search by postal code or neighbourhood. An accurate service area beats a broad claim to cover the whole city.
Good fit
Industries with the most to gain
Industries we help
- HVAC marketingWin the emergency searches in your area. Then use the quiet months to line up the installs that carry your margin.
- Roofing marketingBe one of the three roofers quoting. Then be the one that looks safest when the homeowner decides.
- Plumbing marketingWin the emergency call. Then turn one-off callouts into the repipes, water heaters and bathrooms that carry your margin.
- Personal Injury Law marketingLower your cost per signed case. We screen claims earlier and help you get from enquiry to retainer faster.
- Family & Divorce Law marketingBe the firm they’ve already been reading for a month by the time they’re ready to call.
Where to start
Where we’d start
SEO services
Phone not ringing while competitors show up above you? Our SEO services fix your site, write the pages buyers search for and show you every call and form it brings in.
Local SEO
Our local SEO services get you onto Google Maps and into "near me" searches. We fix your Business Profile, area pages and reviews, for one location or forty.
Web design & development
Our web design agency builds fast, accessible websites you own, planned for Google and for enquiries before design starts.
Entity optimisation
Entity optimisation helps Google and AI tools recognise your business as one clear company, not three weak versions described three different ways.
The rules
Marketing rules to know here
- Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is stricter than the US rules. You need express consent, or implied consent you can prove, before you send commercial emails or texts. Every message must name the sender and offer an unsubscribe. The penalties are serious.
- The federal privacy law is PIPEDA. Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia have their own provincial laws. Quebec's Law 25 tightened consent and transparency rules, and it applies to any business handling Quebec residents' personal information, wherever that business is based.
- Quebec's French-language law covers commercial messages, signs and, in practice, marketing aimed at Quebec consumers. Marketing into Quebec? Get advice on what applies to you rather than assuming an English site is enough.
- Each province regulates professions like law, medicine, dentistry and finance, and the advertising rules for the same profession can change between provinces. We flag where this affects a page. The professional duty stays with your practice.
Sources
Read the rules yourself
These are the laws and regulators behind the rules above. Check the source before you act. This page isn’t legal advice.
- Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation: consent, sender identification and unsubscribe rules for commercial messages
- CASL
- Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
- The federal private-sector privacy law that applies where no provincial statute takes its place
- PIPEDA
- Source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Working with us
How we work with you
Calls, workshops and reports run over video. Your search, website and brand work happens in your own accounts.
Need someone on site for photos, a site visit or a workshop? We book it locally and quote it separately, never hidden in a monthly fee.
We work across Eastern and Pacific time. Reports, invoices and contracts are in Canadian dollars.
Online and on site
What we do online and what we book locally
Done online
- Search, website and brand work
- Calls, workshops and reports over video
- Eastern and Pacific hours both covered
- Contracts and invoices in Canadian dollars
Booked and quoted separately
- Photography and site visits
- In-person workshops
- Anything that needs someone on site
Questions
Common questions from Canadian businesses
Do we need a French version of our website?
It depends on where your customers are. If you market to Quebec consumers, get advice: the language rules there are legal duties.
Outside Quebec, the case is usually smaller than agencies suggest. Find which pages buyers in your category read in French. For most regional businesses it's a short list, and doing those well beats machine-translating the whole site.
American sites outrank us for our own market. Can that be fixed?
Often, yes. Those US sites have bigger domains, but they can't serve your customer, don't show Canadian prices and have no local proof.
Make it obvious you're Canadian. Name the provinces and cities you cover, use Canadian prices and spelling, add local examples and answer the Canadian version of each question. You control all of that. You can't control domain size.
Does CASL make email marketing not worth doing?
No. CASL needs consent before you send commercial emails, plus clear sender details and an unsubscribe. The penalties are serious, so set it up properly.
Lists built on consent are smaller, but people open and click far more. We build the consent steps in from the start. We're not lawyers, so anything close to the line goes to yours.
Our market is a mid-sized city. Is there enough search demand to bother?
Usually, yes. There are fewer searches, but less competition too, so winning a mid-sized market costs a fraction of Toronto or Vancouver.
We measure the demand in your category before we suggest anything. If the numbers don't support the spend, you'll hear that early.
Do you have an office in Canada?
BOOSTD is based in Ontario, but we don't have a public office. We work with Canadian businesses over video calls and email.
Your search, website and brand work happens in your own accounts. If a project needs someone on the ground, we book and quote it separately.
Working somewhere else too?
BOOSTD works with businesses worldwide. A few countries have their own market notes like this one, because search and the rules there change the advice.
Countries with their own notes
Where customers check you
The sites people in Canada look at before they call.
Your name, address, phone and hours need to match on each of them. A mismatch costs trust with customers and with Google’s map.
Search engines and maps
- Google Search and Maps
- Where most local searches start, and your Business Profile.
- Apple Maps
- The default map on iPhones, fed by Apple Business Connect.
- Bing and Bing Places
- Also feeds answers in Microsoft Copilot.
Directories and review sites in Canada
- Yellow Pages (yp.ca)
- Still checked for trades and local services.
- Yelp
- Restaurants, salons and city services.
- HomeStars
- Home services and renovation.
- RateMDs
- Doctors, dentists and clinics.
- Better Business Bureau
- Checked before bigger purchases.
BOOSTD keeps your details consistent on the listings it can reach and checks them every week. Which ones apply to you depends on your trade, and your checkup lists them. How local SEO works on BOOSTD
Regions and cities
Where we work in Canada
- Region
Ontario
SEO and digital marketing for Ontario businesses, planned for the province's separate markets. Toronto, the southwest and the north each need their own plan. - Region
Quebec
SEO and digital marketing for Quebec businesses that starts in French. Keyword research, pages and ads are planned around the language law and Law 25. - Region
British Columbia
SEO and digital marketing for British Columbia, planned region by region, because mountains, water and ferry times decide who can reach you. - Region
Alberta
SEO and digital marketing for Alberta businesses whose work rises and falls with the oil price, built to keep customers coming through the cycle.
Want to know what to fix first?
Start with the free checkup. It shows what to fix first on your website, with no sign-up. Want to know who wins the searches that matter in Canada? Book a call with our specialists.
Prefer to talk it over? Book a free call
Your BOOSTD score improves within 90 days, or your next month is free. After 6 months, more traffic or leads, or we keep working free (up to 6 free months in any 12 months). Read our guarantee
References
Sources for SEO and digital marketing Canada
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
Related
More on marketing in Canada
Markets beyond Canada
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor