Practical thinking on search, AI discovery and content — for teams that want to be found, understood and chosen.
23 articles
Most Toronto small businesses should expect GEO quotes somewhere between $1,500 and $5,000 CAD a month, with multi-location and highly competitive businesses going past $5,000. Treat those as typical market ranges, not a price list. We haven’t seen an independent, published survey of GEO pricing in Canada, so the figures in this guide are estimates…
An awkward admission for an agency to make: there is no secret trick to getting your business named by ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews. Google says so itself. Its guidance for site owners states that “there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary” (Google Search…
The story in this guide is hypothetical. The clinic is invented, and so is everything that happens to it. Every step it takes, though, is a real part of AEO for small business in Toronto, and one you can start this month. Picture a two-location physiotherapy clinic, one on Queen Street East in Leslieville and…
“Deciding to hire a company or person to do search engine optimization (SEO) for your website in Google Search is a big decision that can potentially improve your site’s visibility and save you time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation.” That line comes from Google itself, on its Search Central…
If you’re redoing the kitchen in a Leslieville semi, hire the best independent contractor you can find. One skilled person who measures, builds, and installs everything is faster, cheaper, and more accountable than a firm. If you’re putting up a 30-storey tower on King West, that same person, however talented, can’t pour the concrete, wire…
Not sure where your visibility is leaking?
A 30-minute call and a map of the searches, questions and comparisons your buyers already make.
Build Your Story
Dana runs an independent bike repair shop in Liberty Village. (She’s an illustrative composite, not a Gowishy client.) For seven years, her Google Maps listing did the heavy lifting: top three in the map pack for “bike repair Liberty Village,” a steady line of walk-ins, and no reason to ever call a local SEO agency…
Eight percent. That’s how often Google users clicked a regular search result when an AI summary sat on top of the page, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 68,879 real searches from March 2025. Without a summary, the same people clicked 15% of the time. And the links cited inside the summary itself?…
How many people have to touch your website before one SEO fix goes live? Count honestly. Your SEO consultant notices that competitors own the “alternatives to” searches your buyers run, and you don’t have a page for them. That observation becomes a slide. Someone in marketing turns the slide into a ticket. The web agency…
An operations director at a 60-person logistics firm in Mississauga opens ChatGPT, not Google, and types: “Which managed IT providers near Toronto support a 60-person Microsoft 365 office, offer French-language help desk support, and can get a technician to Mississauga the same day?” She’s hypothetical. Her question is exactly the kind buyers now type. Three…
Google’s search results look a lot different than they did a few years ago. The first result isn’t a blue link that provides you with the most relevant result anymore. It’s an AI-generated summary of what you searched about. For Canadian businesses that have grown accustomed to the old strategies, this shift is a major…
