How much does SEO cost in Ottawa?
$299 CAD a month.
Hosting is inside that number, not billed on top of it. Month-to-month, and it works on a site we build or the one you already have.
That is the whole answer, and it is on the page instead of behind a quote form. The rest of this guide is what the money buys, what would change it, how to read a cheaper quote - and the things no SEO budget buys at any price.
One line on the invoice, not three.
$299 a month covers the SEO work and the hosting your site runs on - managed hosting, SSL, backups, security monitoring, updates and priority support, in one flat monthly figure.
The way to check that is our own hosting-only plan. Hosting & Care is $59/mo on its own, so the SEO itself is $240 a month on top of hosting you would be paying for anyway. We bill it as one line because it is one team - when something technical is in the way of ranking, there is nobody to hand the ticket to.
The SEO portion is month-to-month. Every project starts with a free scoping call and a written, fixed quote before anything begins.
Year one, added up
- Custom website buildOne-time, and only if you need one
- from $499
- Hosting + SEO12 months at $299
- $3,588
- Year one, all-in
- $4,087
CAD. The build is a starting rate - the fixed quote depends on the size and complexity of the site. Already have a site you are happy with? Drop the first line; the $299/mo stands on its own.
Every line, written down.
This is the whole list, not a highlight reel. If something is not on it, we are not charging you for it - and if you are comparing us with a quote that has no list at all, that is the first thing to ask for.
The hosting, the edits and the support are the lines people are surprised to see on an SEO invoice. They are there because hosting sits inside this plan rather than beside it.
- On-page and technical SEO - the parts of ranking we actually control
- Local search and Google Maps 3-Pack optimization
- Google Business Profile management - categories, services, photos, posts
- Local citations and authority building, with consistent name and phone
- Monthly ranking reports, whether the news is good or bad
- Managed hosting with SSL, backups, security monitoring and updates
- Content edits and small changes, 2 requests a month
- Priority support
- A listed profile on the Ottawa Service Directory, our own homeowner directory
Three things move it. Nothing else does.
A quote-only agency can price you on how badly you seem to need it. A published plan cannot, which is most of the reason we publish one.
Whether you need the site built
A custom hand-coded build is from $499 CAD one-time, and the written quote depends on the size and complexity of the site. If the site you have can carry the work, this line is zero.
Whether you want the AI front desk as well
Hosting + SEO + AI Agents is $388/mo - the same SEO work plus AI chatbot and smart-form lead capture, automatic booking, missed-call text-back and review follow-up. It is a different plan, not a surcharge on this one.
Whether you want the phone answered too
The AI voice Receptionist is a +$199/mo add-on on the AI plan, with 200 voice minutes a month included. More minutes only by written agreement, never a surprise charge.
And what does not move it
- How competitive your trade is. The plan is flat; it does not get re-quoted because your market is hard
- How many keywords you want to rank for, or how many pages we touch to do it
- Setup. There is no separate SEO setup fee - the only one-time line we publish is the website build
Cheap SEO is usually something else.
If you are looking at a monthly figure far below this one, it is not automatically a scam - but it is buying fewer hours than the work takes, so the only useful question is where those hours go.
The common answers are automated directory submissions, a rank-tracking dashboard nobody reads, one AI-written blog post a month, or a monthly report with no work behind it. Every one of those is a real thing being sold under the word SEO. None of them is a Google Business Profile being worked, and on an Ottawa service search the Business Profile is usually what decides whether the phone rings.
Ask the six questions on the right of whoever you are considering. Ask them of us too - a page that only survives its own checklist is not a checklist, it is an advertisement.
Ask any SEO provider
- 01Who does the work, and is it the same person every month?
- 02What happens in month one, specifically, and what will I be able to see?
- 03Is my Google Business Profile part of this, or only my website?
- 04Do I get a report in a bad month as well as a good one?
- 05Am I locked in, and what do I keep if I leave?
- 06Is hosting inside the price, or is it a second invoice?
No budget buys a ranking.
The uncomfortable part of an SEO price is that some of what decides the outcome is not for sale at any figure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is charging you for a guess.
The reviews one is the trap most often paid for twice. Reviews weigh heavily in the map pack, and the pack usually sits above everything else on a local service search - so a business with none can spend a year on content and still not get in. It is also the cheapest thing in this whole guide to check: count the reviews on the businesses sitting in the pack for your search. It takes minutes, it costs nothing, and we do it with you on the scoping call before anyone signs anything. The method is written out in why your business is not showing on Google Maps, which is the self-check version of this paragraph.
We are not exempt from any of this. Velogics has no Google reviews yet either, which is why this site shows you sites we actually built rather than a star rating - and why we would rather tell you where the bar is than sell you around it.
Not included at any price
- A ranking. Nobody outside Google sells positions, and anyone quoting you one is guessing
- Reviews. If the businesses already in the map pack for your search carry dozens and you carry none, content does not close that gap - your customers do
- Time. Local visibility can move in weeks; competitive organic terms take months, and a new domain starts further back than an established one
- Demand that is not there. If nobody in Ottawa searches for what you sell, SEO is the wrong spend and we will say so on the call
- Capacity. SEO that works produces calls, and money leaks at the phone far faster than it leaks at Google
None of this is a reason not to do SEO. It is the reason to judge the spend on the work that ships and the numbers reported back, rather than on the position somebody promised before they had seen your market.
The rest of the money questions.
Why do SEO prices in Ottawa vary so much?
Because almost all of it is sold quote-only, so the figure depends on how many hours the seller intends to spend and what they think you will pay. Ours is flat and published: $299 CAD a month on the Hosting + SEO plan, hosting inside that number, month-to-month. If you are comparing quotes, compare what happens in month one and who does the work, not the headline figure - two quotes at the same price can mean completely different amounts of work.
Is there a setup fee or a contract?
No SEO setup fee, and no long contract. The SEO portion is month-to-month from day one, so it has to earn the next month. The only one-time line we publish is the website build, from $499 CAD, and that applies only if you need a site built. When we do build one, the plan runs alongside it for its first year - that pairing is what makes that build rate possible - and after that it is cancel-anytime.
Does the price change if you did not build my website?
No. It is the same $299 a month, and hosting is inside it either way - we move the site onto our hosting as part of the work rather than billing you twice. Bring the site you have to the free scoping call and we will tell you honestly whether it can carry the work as it stands. Sometimes the honest answer is that the site is not what is holding you back, and we would rather say so than sell you a rebuild you do not need.
Is SEO worth it for a small Ottawa business?
Run the arithmetic yourself, because it is the only honest version of this calculation. At $299 a month the SEO costs $3,588 a year. Work out what one job is worth to you and how many extra jobs a year would cover that. If the answer is a number you would find plausible in your trade, it is worth a scoping call; if it is not, we will tell you so rather than take the retainer. What nobody can honestly tell you in advance is how many of those jobs you will get.
What is the difference between paying for SEO and paying for Google Ads?
Ads buy you a position for exactly as long as you keep paying, and the phone stops the day the budget does. SEO buys work on assets you keep - your website, your Google Business Profile, your listings - and it shows up slowly rather than the same afternoon. Neither replaces the other. If you need calls this week, ads are the honest answer and we will say so instead of selling you a retainer that cannot move that fast.
What happens if I stop paying?
The work already done stays yours: the site is hand-coded and yours to own, and the page structure, the Business Profile and the citations do not get taken back. What stops is the ongoing work - new content, monitoring, the profile upkeep and the monthly report - and because hosting is inside this plan rather than beside it, the hosting stops too, so the site needs somewhere to go. Rankings do not vanish overnight, but competitors keep working while you have stopped, so drift is the usual outcome.
Find out what it would take, for free.
Tell us what you do and where you serve. On the scoping call we look at the pack for your search, tell you what it would realistically take to get into it, and say plainly if SEO is not the thing standing in your way.
Want the work described rather than the price? SEO in Ottawa covers what actually happens each month. The other plans are on pricing, and the rest of the plain-English write-ups are in the guides.