Updated August 31, 2026
Finding the best search engine optimization agency can be surprisingly difficult because SEO is an industry where it's easy to make impressive claims and considerably harder to demonstrate impressive results.
You'll encounter agencies promising sophisticated keyword strategies, technical audits, content optimization, artificial intelligence, backlinks, competitor research and proprietary SEO methodologies.
Some of those services can be valuable.
But before getting distracted by the terminology, ask a much simpler question:
What have you actually ranked?
SEO Should Be Results vs. Rhetoric
If someone claims to understand search engine optimization professionally, there should be evidence somewhere that they understand how to attract search-engine traffic.
Ask the agency to show you examples.
Not screenshots of an SEO dashboard showing a score of 97.
Not a chart showing that somebody's impressions increased.
Not a testimonial saying, "These guys are amazing."
Ask for actual search results.
What competitive searches have they successfully targeted? How long have those rankings existed? Were the results achieved for websites they control, clients they can discuss, or both?
An agency doesn't need to rank #1 for every keyword it targets. Nobody does. But if an SEO company can't demonstrate meaningful organic-search results of its own, you should question why you're hiring it to produce those results for you.
Ranking for Easy Keywords Doesn't Prove Much
This distinction is extremely important.
Almost anyone can create a bizarre five-word phrase with virtually no competition and eventually rank for it.
That's very different from ranking for a phrase businesses are actively competing to own.
If an agency tells you it has hundreds of first-page rankings, ask about the keywords.
Do those searches have commercial value?
Are established businesses competing for them?
Do people actually search for them?
Would ranking for those terms potentially generate customers?
Competitive keywords are competitive for a reason. Businesses believe those searchers have value.
Yes, Great SEO Can Cost More
Business owners naturally want affordable marketing, but choosing an SEO agency exclusively by price can be a mistake.
If one company charges substantially more but can demonstrate that it consistently competes for difficult commercial searches, that expertise may be worth considerably more than inexpensive monthly SEO that produces reports without meaningful visibility.
You're not paying someone to change title tags and install an SEO plugin.
You're paying for judgment.
A capable SEO professional needs to understand technical website architecture, content, search intent, competition, internal linking, indexing, performance and how all of those pieces interact.
More importantly, they need to know which work is actually worth doing.
Be Extremely Careful With Guaranteed Rankings
No responsible SEO agency controls Google.
Search engines change algorithms. Competitors improve their websites. Search behavior changes. New competitors appear. Google decides what belongs in its index and where pages appear.
That's why promises such as "Guaranteed #1 Google Ranking" should make you cautious rather than excited.
A good SEO company can improve your website's chances of competing. It can identify technical problems, create better structure, improve content and develop a strategy.
It cannot legitimately promise that Google will award you a particular position.
Look at the Agency's Own Website
This is one of the simplest tests available.
If an SEO agency claims to specialize in organic search, search for the company and the services it sells.
Then go further.
Search competitive terms within its market.
Does the company actually appear?
Does its website contain useful content?
Is the website technically sound?
Does Google appear to understand what the business does?
Does the company receive visibility beyond searches for its own brand name?
An SEO agency's website is effectively its own laboratory. If the company can't demonstrate its methodology on an asset it completely controls, that's worth considering before handing over your website.
What WebmasterSolutions.ca Did for RichInWriters
Here's a practical example.
WebmasterSolutions.ca isn't positioned primarily as a dedicated SEO agency. Its broader work includes website development, application development, troubleshooting, bug fixes and ongoing website maintenance.
But technical website development and SEO increasingly overlap.
For RichInWriters, the objective wasn't to purchase some magical "rank #1" package.
The work was much more fundamental: make sure the blog itself was designed in a way that search engines could properly discover, understand and navigate.
That includes the kinds of things many website owners overlook while concentrating exclusively on keywords:
- Clean website architecture
- Crawlable pages
- Logical URLs
- Internal linking
- Metadata support
- Mobile-friendly pages
- Technical troubleshooting
- Sitemaps and search-engine discovery
- Performance and maintainability
- A publishing structure capable of supporting large amounts of content
They don't guarantee rankings—and we'd be suspicious if they did.
They help make sure the underlying website isn't working against the content you're publishing.
If You Found This Article Through a Competitive Search, That's Part of the Evidence
There's also a simple test you can perform yourself.
If you're reading this article because it appeared prominently when you searched a competitive phrase such as "search engine optimization agency" or something closely related, then the website architecture, content strategy and SEO work behind RichInWriters clearly accomplished something measurable.
You found the page through the search engine.
That's more meaningful than us simply telling you that the SEO works.
It doesn't mean every article we publish ranks. It doesn't mean WebmasterSolutions.ca can guarantee the same result for every website. And it certainly doesn't mean Google rankings are permanent.
It means there's evidence you can evaluate for yourself.
What Should You Ask an SEO Agency?
Before signing a long-term contract, ask questions that force the conversation away from rhetoric and toward evidence:
- What competitive keywords have you ranked for?
- Can you show examples I can independently verify?
- What does your own organic search visibility look like?
- What exactly will you change on my website?
- Who creates the content?
- Do I own the content and work you produce?
- How do you approach technical SEO?
- How will results be measured?
- What happens if rankings decline?
- Do you guarantee rankings? If so, how could you possibly control that?
You should leave the conversation understanding what you're actually purchasing.
SEO Isn't the Only Way to Get Discovered
There's another mistake businesses make: treating SEO as though it's the only source of website traffic that matters.
It isn't.
Organic search can be extraordinarily valuable, but it takes time. That's particularly true when you're competing against established websites for commercially valuable searches.
Advertising can complement SEO by creating exposure while organic visibility develops.
That's why we're also watching APlusWebTraffic.
Why APlusWebTraffic Has Our Attention
APlusWebTraffic is a newer advertising and business-discovery platform currently operating in beta.
Advertising starts at just $10 per year, while larger advertising packages introduce additional features for qualifying advertisers, including referral opportunities.
The platform is developing search, directory and feed-based discovery rather than charging advertisers every time somebody clicks.
But the feature we're particularly interested in hasn't fully arrived yet.
The company is developing its consumer-facing Dealz application.
Based on the presentation we've reviewed, Dealz is intended to give consumers another reason to actively discover businesses, offers and advertiser content through the broader APlusWebTraffic ecosystem.
If the application ultimately performs the way it's being presented, we believe it could become one of the more interesting new advertising concepts we've seen in recent memory.
But the word "if" matters.
APlusWebTraffic is new. Dealz hasn't yet demonstrated large-scale consumer adoption. Future features should therefore be evaluated as potential rather than guaranteed outcomes.
SEO and APlusWebTraffic Solve Different Problems
You don't necessarily need to choose between them.
SEO attempts to make your website discoverable when people search through established search engines.
APlusWebTraffic is attempting to build another environment where businesses and consumers can discover each other.
One depends on earning visibility inside somebody else's search algorithm.
The other is an early-stage advertising ecosystem attempting to grow its own audience.
A business can reasonably experiment with both.
Final Thoughts: Finding the Best Search Engine Optimization Agency
Don't hire an SEO agency because its salesperson understands SEO terminology.
Hire based on evidence.
Look at what the company has ranked. Examine its own website. Ask about competitive keywords. Understand exactly what you're paying for. Be skeptical of guarantees, and recognize that genuine expertise may cost more than generic SEO services.
If you need technical website development, maintenance and SEO-conscious website architecture, WebmasterSolutions.ca is worth investigating. SEO isn't its only specialty, which is actually part of the appeal: sometimes your ranking problem isn't a keyword problem at all—it's a website problem.
And don't make organic search your only strategy. If you already have something worth promoting, take a look at APlusWebTraffic. It's still early, so expectations should remain realistic, but its low-cost advertising model and planned Dealz application make it a platform worth watching.
Results beat rhetoric. Whether you're evaluating an SEO agency, a developer or a new advertising platform, that's the standard we'd use.
