SEO guides for BC business owners

Guide 1: Keyword research for BC towns

Keyword research for BC towns teaches you to find what your customers actually type, town by town. It covers how town names change searches, how to judge demand when tools show tiny numbers for small towns, how to use Google's own suggestions and your call log as research, and how to turn the results into a simple page plan.

Read it if: you're planning new pages, wondering whether to target a nearby town, or unsure why your site attracts the wrong enquiries.

Guide 2: Google Search Console for owners

Google Search Console for owners explains the free tool that shows how Google sees your website. You'll learn what clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position mean, a ten-minute monthly check you can do yourself, and how to spot the problems worth calling someone about.

Read it if: you've never opened Search Console, or you have but didn't know what to look at. It's also the fairest way to check an agency's reports against Google's own numbers.

Guide 3: Hiring an SEO provider in BC

Hiring an SEO provider is a buyer's checklist. It covers the questions to ask on the first call, the warning signs in proposals, what a fair contract looks like, who should own your accounts, and how to judge progress in the first six months.

Read it if: you're comparing agencies or freelancers, or you've been burned before and want to avoid a repeat.

How the guides connect to our services

Each guide stands alone, but they line up with the work we do. Keyword research underpins our location pages and content SEO services. Search Console is the main measuring tool in our technical SEO work. The hiring guide reflects how we try to run our own engagements; you can hold us to it.

Which guide to read first

If you only have time for one, pick by your situation:

Most owners get the most from reading them in order: research tells you what to target, Search Console tells you whether it's working, and the hiring guide helps you decide who should do the work.

Using the guides with your team

The guides are written so an office manager or family member who looks after the website can follow them without a marketing background. A practical way to use them: print the ten-minute Search Console check, put it on the office wall, and assign it to one person on the first Monday of each month. Keep the keyword spreadsheet from the research guide in a shared folder, so whoever answers the phone can add the exact words customers use. Over a few months, that habit alone gives you better data than most small businesses have.

A note on what the guides don't cover

The guides focus on search. They don't cover paid ads, branding or social media; for a wider BC marketing mix, our sister service BCAgency.ca is a better starting point. They also don't give compliance advice. Where regulations come up, we link to the official bodies, such as Technical Safety BC, and leave the rules to them.

If something in a guide doesn't fit your situation, call, text or email. Questions from owners are how these guides get better. You can also browse our FAQ for quick answers.