Honest fact-based comparison of Ottawa SEO Inc. and SmartSites for Canadian businesses evaluating SEO partners.
SmartSites is a Paramus, New Jersey (US-based, serves Canada)-based SEO firm founded in 2011 (~200 staff). They are an established player in the Canadian SEO market. Ottawa SEO Inc. is an Ottawa-headquartered SEO-specialist firm founded in 2014, founder-led by Martin Vassilev, and operates a 500+ domain portfolio across Canada and the US. This page is a fact-based comparison written to help you evaluate which firm is the right fit for your specific situation — not a competitive attack on SmartSites.
SmartSites's genuine strengths include: large agency capacity, multi-discipline (SEO, PPC, web design, social), 24-hour responsiveness. If your situation aligns with these strengths — particularly the dimensions that map to your buyer journey, budget, and engagement preference — they are a credible choice and worth evaluating.
Ottawa SEO Inc. is Canadian-headquartered, Canadian-led, and built for Canadian regulator complexity (CRPO, OCSWSSW, CCO, FSRA, IIROC, MFDA, RECO, OACIQ, RIBO, AIC, CAM, and provincial law society rules). US agencies routinely produce content that violates Canadian advertising standards. Ottawa SEO Inc. has operated continuously since 2014 — twelve years of compounding ranking wins across a 500+ domain portfolio managed by founder Martin Vassilev. Our practice is month-to-month with no long-term contracts, founder-led across sales, strategy, and delivery, and SEO-specialist (not multi-discipline). Every engagement starts with a free 15-point live audit before any commercial conversation.
Buyers comparing SmartSites to other agencies typically surface these considerations during evaluation: US-based agency serving Canadian clients can lack on-the-ground knowledge of provincial regulator rules, Canadian search behaviour, and local competitive context. None of these are disqualifying — they are dimensions to weigh against your specific requirements. The most rigorous evaluation processes ask both firms for: published case studies with measured before-and-after data, references to two current clients in your vertical, contract terms (month-to-month vs. annual minimums), and clear scope of who does the actual implementation work versus who pitched the engagement.
The fastest way to evaluate any SEO partner — including us — is to ask for a free live audit of your current site before any commercial conversation. Run our free 15-point live SEO audit to see what we surface in 90 seconds, with no email required. Compare what we find to what SmartSites surfaces in their initial audit. The depth, specificity, and actionability of the audit is itself the best signal of how the eventual engagement will run.
Pricing varies by scope on both sides. Ottawa SEO Inc. engagements start at $1,200/month for solo practitioners and scale to $25,000/month for enterprise. We don't have an agency-overhead premium because we're a founder-led specialist firm rather than a multi-tier agency. Use our SEO cost calculator for an instant range, or book a strategy call for a fixed-fee proposal.
Month-to-month with no long-term lock-in. We earn the next month every month. Most established agencies require 6 or 12-month minimums; we don't.
Ask both firms for a free live audit of your current site. Compare the depth, specificity, and actionability of what each surfaces. Ask both for two references in your vertical. Compare published case studies for measured before-and-after data. Compare contract terms. The firm whose audit is sharper and whose case studies are more substantive is usually the firm that will produce better outcomes in the actual engagement.