For most of the past two decades, getting found online meant ranking on the first page of Google. That assumption is now being rewritten in real time, because a growing share of customers no longer scroll through links – they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, or other AI engines a question and act on the answer they’re given.
For local businesses, the stakes are clear: If those AI engines don’t know you exist, you’re invisible to a fast-growing slice of your market. And being found is only half the battle – when a customer does land on your site, it has to earn their business.
Helping Ottawa businesses on both fronts is the focus of Ottawa SEO Inc., a search and web-design agency founded in the capital in 2014.
Pairing SEO and web design for more than a decade
The firm pairs two disciplines that are too often treated separately: getting found through search engine optimization (SEO) and AI-search optimization, and converting that attention through custom website design and social media. “SEO and web design go hand in hand,” says founder and lead strategist Martin Vassilev. “Ranking a business at the top only pays off if the website it sends people to is built to turn visitors into customers.”
What sets the agency apart is that it doesn’t just advise on search – it builds and operates in it daily. Its work spans a broad cross-section of the local economy, including moving and logistics, hospitality, home comfort and trades, cannabis retail, and construction. Its client list includes Ottawa businesses such as Prestige Moving, ByExpress, Pho By Night, Kaloozie Comfort, Bluebird Cannabis, and GLV Paving. For each company, strong rankings and a well-built, conversion-focused website are designed to work together rather than as separate projects.
Beyond client work, Ottawa SEO has also built and actively ranks its own network of more than 70 Ottawa websites across 18 service industries – a live laboratory where every tactic, from search to site design, is tested in the same market in which its clients compete.
“The fundamentals of being found have changed,” says Vassilev, who brings more than 15 years of experience to the business. “Ranking on Google still matters, but now you also have to be the source an AI engine chooses to cite – and the website that earns the click has to deliver. Those are related but different disciplines, and most businesses haven’t caught up yet.”
Better business decisions through ‘education over mystique’
The agency’s approach leans on transparency through senior-led work, flat-tier pricing, and no long-term contracts. It has also recently opened a new chapter by launching private, one-on-one training sessions for local owners who would rather understand the mechanics of modern search and web design than outsource them.
These focused, two-hour working sessions cover SEO, AI-search visibility, web design, and social media, tailored to each attendee’s business.
The throughline, Vassilev says, is education over mystique. “An informed owner makes better decisions, whether they hire us or not. The most successful businesses will be those that understood the shift early.”
For Ottawa’s business community, that may be the most useful takeaway of all: search and the websites behind it are changing together, the rules are being rewritten, and the time to adapt is now.
