What our SEO services cover
SEO is eight disciplines that have to run together to produce real rankings. Most agencies sell one or two and call it SEO. We run all eight because anything less leaves rankings unclaimed.
Technical SEO
Site speed, Core Web Vitals, crawlability, indexation, URL structure, redirects, sitemaps, schema markup, mobile rendering, and the technical foundation Google needs to rank a site at all.
On-page SEO
Title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, internal linking, keyword targeting, content depth, and the structural work that makes individual pages competitive for the queries that matter.
Content strategy
Keyword research, topic clusters, content velocity, and editorial planning. SEO that doesn’t tie to a content strategy stalls at low-volume keywords. We plan content around buyer intent and topical authority, not just search volume.
Algorithm management
Tracking Google’s algorithm updates, diagnosing ranking shifts, and recovering from algorithmic penalties. We follow every core update, helpful content update, and link spam update so your rankings hold steady instead of dropping the next time Google ships a change.
Local SEO (when relevant)
Google Business Profile optimization, local citations, NAP consistency, review management, and geo-qualified content work that wins local pack rankings.
Reporting and analytics
GA4, Search Console, ranking tracking, and the monthly report that ties rankings to revenue. If you can’t see what the work is doing, the work isn’t working.
AI search optimization (GEO)
Structuring content so AI engines like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity cite your brand. Schema, original research, topical authority, and the depth that AI summarizers actually draw from, rather than skip.
Link building
Outreach, digital PR, content that gets cited, and the work of building authority through real backlinks from real sites. We don’t buy links. We don’t trade in link networks. Both eventually get sites penalized.

SEO in the age of AI search
Google’s AI Overviews and the rise of AI search engines change how organic visibility works. Some clicks that used to go to a top-ranked result now get answered in the AI summary at the top of the SERP. That’s real, and any SEO agency that pretends it isn’t is the wrong agency.
What it doesn’t mean is that SEO is over. Here’s what changed.
Brand searches matter more than ever. When AI summarizes generic queries, the brand someone already trusts is the one they click through to verify. SEO that builds brand authority compounds with AI search.
Depth and original perspective beat thin keyword-targeted content. AI can summarize the obvious answer. It can’t replicate a senior strategist’s actual point of view. Pages with original analysis, frameworks, and real arguments still win.
Topical authority decides who ranks now. A site that answers every angle, question, and related concept on a topic is the one AI summarizes from and links to. Thin pages targeting individual keywords lose. Deep content clusters win.
We build SEO for where search is going. The technical work still matters. Content work matters more than ever, and it has to come from a real point of view rather than a keyword tool.

SEO built on brand strategy
Most agencies sell keyword research as an SEO strategy. The Let’s Canoe Framework is the brand strategy work we run first, before any SEO engagement starts. Five phases: position, ideal customer, message, and value. Without that work, the content could rank for the wrong queries, the audience could be the wrong one, and the resulting rankings wouldn’t translate into customers.
We exist this way on purpose. SEO built on brand strategy means the content makes a real point, the keywords match real buyer intent, and the traffic that comes converts into actual customers. If you’re already running SEO without a real brand argument behind it, you’re the most common starter conversation for us.
Why most SEO underperforms
Most SEO programs fail for the same reasons. We see them on almost every audit.
- Buyer intent: The agency selects keywords based on search volume rather than buyer intent. The content that follows ranks for queries that don’t convert. Traffic grows, revenue doesn’t. By month nine, the client wonders why the SEO investment isn’t showing up on the books.
- Technical SEO: The site has slow page load times, broken redirects, indexing issues, duplicate content, or missing schema. The content team writes more pages on top of the broken foundation. Google never quite trusts the site, and rankings cap out at page two.
- Weak content: The agency publishes 600-word posts targeting queries that need 2,000-word resources to win. The pages get crawled and indexed, but never rank because they’re not the best answer for the query. Volume goes up, rankings don’t.
We start every engagement by auditing all three before we touch your campaigns.

Our SEO process
Every engagement runs through four phases. The first three are intensive; the fourth is the ongoing work that compounds over months and years.
Phase 1 (weeks 1 to 3)
Discovery and audit
A full technical audit. A content audit. A backlink profile review. A keyword opportunity analysis. A competitive analysis. By week three, you have a clear picture of where the site stands, where the gaps are, and what the path to rankings looks like.
Phase 2 (weeks 4 to 8)
Foundation work
Technical fixes. On-page optimization for existing high-priority pages. Schema deployment. Internal linking restructure. The foundation work that makes everything that comes after compound, rather than fighting against the site’s own structure.
Phase 3 (weeks 6 to 12)
Content and link strategy
Editorial planning. Topic cluster mapping. Content brief development. Link earning strategy. The first round of content goes into production. By week 12, the content pipeline is established, and the first rankings start to move.
Phase 4 (ongoing)
Execution and optimization
Monthly content velocity. Ongoing technical maintenance. Link earning outreach. Monthly reporting. Quarterly strategy reviews. The compounding phase, where rankings, traffic, and revenue grow month over month.
The technical SEO that changes rankings
Technical SEO is where most agencies wave their hands, and most rankings get stuck. Real technical work is unglamorous, expensive, and the highest-leverage thing on most sites.
What we actually do in technical SEO:
- Crawl the site as Google does. Identify every page that’s returning the wrong status code, every redirect chain that’s eating crawl budget, every duplicate URL that’s splitting authority, every page that’s blocked from indexing when it shouldn’t be.
- Audit Core Web Vitals across every key page. Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift. These are ranking factors. They’re also user experience factors. Sites that fail Core Web Vitals don’t just lose rankings; they lose conversions.
- Deploy schema markup across the site. Service, Article, Product, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Organization. Schema is one of the few things that demonstrably improve how Google understands and displays a site. Most sites have none.
- Restructure internal linking so authority flows to the pages that need to rank. Sites usually have authority concentrated on the homepage and dispersed elsewhere at random. Strategic internal linking moves authority to commercial pages.
- Fix the crawlability and indexation issues that limit how much of the site Google sees. Big sites usually have huge sections that aren’t indexed because of robots directives, canonicalization, or noindex tags applied incorrectly.
Link earning done right
We don’t buy links. We don’t trade links. We don’t use private blog networks. All three eventually get sites penalized, and even when they don’t, the link equity is worth less than real backlinks from real sites.
What we do: digital PR campaigns that earn coverage on industry publications. Original research and data that gets cited. Content that’s good enough that other sites link to it on their own. Outreach to genuinely relevant sites with something worth linking to.
Link earning is slower than link buying. It’s also the only kind of SEO authority that compounds over the years instead of evaporating after the next Google update.
Content strategy that ranks and converts
Content is what makes SEO compound, but only if the content is built on a strategy. We build content around topic clusters, buyer intent, and the brand argument. Each piece works on its own and reinforces the cluster around it.
Topic clusters are hub pages for major topics, surrounded by spoke articles that go deep into related subtopics. Internal links connect them. Google sees the structure as a topical authority signal. Buyers see it as a complete resource.
Buyer intent means matching content to where the reader is in their decision. Informational content for early-stage searches. Commercial content for evaluation searches. Transactional content for decision-stage searches. Each layer serves a different buyer state.
Brand argument means the content states the brand’s actual point of view. Not generic SEO blog posts. Articles that take a position a competitor won’t and offer a perspective the reader can’t get anywhere else. This is what AI search can’t replace.
How we run a retainer
Onboarding starts with the audit and a strategy session with Brian. From there, we set quarterly goals, run monthly execution sprints, and send a monthly report you can actually read. You own the site, the data, the content, and any assets we produce. We just run and optimize them.
A typical retainer cadence: weekly check-ins for active work, monthly reporting calls, quarterly strategy reviews. Our senior team, located in Billings, Montana, is working on your account; no juniors are handling it.
Reporting and transparency
Monthly reports cover three things: what we did, what changed, and what’s next. No vanity metrics. No screenshots of a rank tracker without context.
Specifically:
- Rankings: tracked queries, position changes, share-of-voice movement, the queries you actually care about, plus the long-tail capture you didn’t know to ask for.
- Traffic and conversions: GA4 data on organic sessions, conversions, conversion rate, and revenue attribution. Traffic without conversions is a metric we explicitly call out.
- Technical health: Core Web Vitals trend, crawl errors, indexation status, anything that needs the dev team’s attention.
- The work: what content shipped, what links landed, and what technical work got done. Proof you can check.
We also conduct a quarterly strategy review that steps back from the monthly noise to assess what’s working, what isn’t, and what the next quarter will focus on.
Common SEO questions
Answers from a brand agency that does SEO differently. If yours isn’t here, the fastest way to get one is to book a free fit call.
Cost and timeline
How long does SEO take to work?
How much does SEO cost?
What’s the ROI of SEO?
How long should an SEO contract be?
What happens if I stop SEO?
Process and methodology
What’s your SEO process?
How often do you report on SEO progress?
What metrics matter for SEO?
What tools does your SEO team use?
SEO fundamentals
What’s the difference between SEO and PPC?
What’s the difference between local SEO and national SEO?
What is technical SEO?
What is on-page SEO?
What is off-page SEO?
What is E-E-A-T?
What is schema markup and does it help SEO?
What is a content cluster?
What is topical authority?
What are Core Web Vitals?
What is keyword cannibalization?
What is search intent?
How often should I publish new content?
Should I update old content or write new?
Modern SEO and AI search
How does AI search affect SEO?
What is Google AI Overviews and how does it impact rankings?
Should I block AI crawlers from my site?
How is SEO different in 2026 than it was three years ago?
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
How do I get cited in AI search answers?
What is zero-click search?
Will AI replace SEO?
SEO and paid ads together
How do SEO and paid ads work together?
Should I invest in SEO or paid ads first?
Does landing page SEO affect Google Ads performance?
Can SEO eventually replace my paid ad spend?
How does SEO support Google Shopping Ads?
What are Google’s free product listings and how do I rank for them?
Trust and quality
Can you guarantee top rankings?
What’s a toxic backlink and how do you avoid them?
Why is SEO so expensive?
Why hire an SEO agency instead of doing it in-house?
Does SEO work for small businesses?
Does SEO work for eCommerce?
How is your SEO different from other agencies?
What should I look for in an SEO agency?

406-998-7901
team@letscanoe.com
119 N 29th St
Billings, MT 59101
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Let’s Canoe is a brand-led marketing agency in Billings, Montana. We start with brand strategy and build the marketing around it. The Let’s Canoe Framework™ guides every engagement we run.








