Collingwood, Georgian Bay
An independent SEO consultant, not an agency with your account in a queue
I work with owners of small and mid-sized businesses on one question: why does the search result that should be yours belong to somebody else, and what is it worth to change that. You talk to me, every time. The person on the call is the person doing the work.
Based on the bay, working across Canada. If the surf is good I will tell you I am going out, and then I will send the report anyway.
What I am good at, and what I am not
I am good at local search: the map results, Google Business Profiles, the reviews that decide which of three plumbers gets the call. I am good at diagnosis on sites that used to rank and stopped. I am good at the newer problem, which is getting a business named by ChatGPT and by Google's AI answers when somebody asks for a recommendation.
I am not the right person for an enterprise migration with six stakeholders, a publisher chasing a million sessions, or anyone who wants a link package. I will tell you that on the first call rather than three invoices in.
Measured work, not opinions
Most SEO advice is repeated rather than tested. I would rather count something. This year I counted the Google reviews of every service business competing in local search in my own town, because I wanted to know what a normal review count actually is before advising anybody to chase one.
348
service businesses counted in one town
Collingwood Review Index 2026
18,396
Google reviews across 22 categories
Published July 2026, restated August 2026
15
reviews held by the median business
The top 10 percent hold 55 percent of all reviews
Figures from the Collingwood Review Index 2026, published in full with its method and a correction note.
The useful finding for an owner is the last one. The median business in a competitive town has fifteen reviews, not hundreds, so the bar for looking credible is far lower than most people assume - and the handful of businesses that cleared it years ago absorb most of the attention. You can read the whole study, including the method and the part we got wrong first time, at the Collingwood Review Index.
How the work usually starts
Almost every engagement starts with an audit, because I will not recommend spending money on a site I have not measured. The audit is a fixed price and it stands on its own: you get the findings whether or not you hire me afterwards, and plenty of people take it to their own developer. That is a fine outcome.
After that, the two common shapes are a monthly retainer where I run the search side of the business, or a smaller advisory arrangement where somebody in-house does the work and I check it. The second is cheaper and it works well when you already have a capable person who has never been taught search.
Where to go next
- SEO consulting - what the engagements are, what they cost, and what I need from you.
- Local SEO - map rankings, Google Business Profiles and the proximity problem nobody wants to admit to.
- Industries - the trades and professions where I already know the pattern.
- Cities - what the search landscape looks like in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal, measured rather than guessed.
- Results - what changed, with the numbers and the dates.
- Writing - the studies and the things I have learned the expensive way.
Questions people ask before hiring me
- What does an SEO consultant actually do?
- Three things, in this order. Work out why a site is not getting found, which is diagnosis. Decide which of the possible fixes are worth the money, which is judgment. Then either do the work or hand a buildable brief to whoever will. Most of the value is in the second step, because almost every site has more possible improvements than it has budget.
- Do you work outside the Georgian Bay area?
- Yes. Local work happens near me because proximity is a ranking factor and I can visit a place of business. Everything else - technical fixes, content, ecommerce, software - is done wherever the client is. I have clients in Ontario and I have worked with businesses in the United States.
- What does it cost?
- A one-off audit is $499. Ongoing consulting starts at $750 a month, and a full local programme with Google Ads runs to $2,500. Prices are on the consulting page with what each one includes. I do not quote before a call, because a number without a scope is just a number.
- Are you an agency or a person?
- A person. The work is contracted and invoiced by Georgian Bay SEO, which is my business, and I do the work myself. If a job needs a developer or a photographer I say so and you hire them directly, rather than paying me to mark up someone else.
- How long before anything happens?
- Google Business Profile changes can move a map ranking in days. Organic rankings on an established site usually move in two to four months. A new site takes longer, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling. I report what moved and what did not every month, including the months where the answer is not much.
Start with a 15 minute call
No deck and no discovery phase. Tell me the site and the problem, and I will tell you whether I can help and what it would cost. If I am the wrong person, I will say so on the call.