Technical SEO is the part of search optimisation that happens under the bonnet. It is about whether search engines can find, crawl, render and understand your pages, and whether those pages load quickly and work well on phones. When something is wrong at this level, great content can sit unseen. A technical SEO consultant diagnoses those problems and helps your developers fix them. Here is how to hire one well in Canada.
Know when you need a technical specialist
Not every site needs a dedicated technical consultant. You probably do if you notice any of these:
- organic traffic dropped after a redesign, platform migration or domain change;
- important pages are missing from Google's index;
- Search Console reports lots of errors you do not understand;
- your site has thousands of pages, filters or user-generated content;
- the site is built on a JavaScript framework and visibility seems weak.
For a small brochure site, a general SEO provider may cover the technical basics adequately.
What a solid audit covers
A technical audit should go beyond an automated tool export. Expect the consultant to examine crawling and indexation, site architecture and internal linking, canonical tags and duplicate content, redirects and broken links, structured data, rendering of JavaScript content, mobile usability, page speed and Core Web Vitals, and XML sitemaps and robots directives. For bilingual Canadian sites, hreflang implementation between English and French pages deserves specific attention.
The best audits explain why each issue matters, estimate its impact and rank fixes by effort and value. A list of hundreds of warnings without priorities is not much help to your development team.
Engagement models and pricing
Consultants in Canada usually work in one of three ways: a fixed-scope audit, an audit followed by implementation support, or an ongoing monthly advisory arrangement. Price depends on the size and complexity of the site, the platform, how many languages and regions are involved, and whether the consultant writes code or only advises. Confirm the currency and how GST or HST is handled on the invoice.
Working with your developers
A technical SEO consultant is only as effective as the changes that get shipped. Ask how they collaborate with developers. Good consultants write tickets with clear acceptance criteria, review changes in a staging environment before release and check results afterwards. If your own team is stretched, find out whether the consultant can implement fixes directly or partner with developers who can, such as a web development team familiar with your stack.
Privacy and tracking considerations
Analytics and tag setup often falls within technical SEO. In Canada, PIPEDA and provincial laws such as Quebec's shape how you collect data through cookies and tracking scripts. A consultant should be able to keep measurement accurate while respecting consent choices.
Questions to put to candidates
- Can you show an anonymised audit you have delivered?
- How do you decide which issues to fix first?
- How do you verify that a fix actually worked?
- What experience do you have with our platform or framework?
- How do you report progress to non-technical managers?
Frequently asked questions
How often should we run a technical audit?
A full audit is worth doing before and after major changes such as a redesign or migration, with lighter regular checks in between.
Can technical SEO alone improve rankings?
It removes barriers, which can unlock rankings that content and links have earned. It works best alongside good content and a sound overall strategy.
Does the consultant need to be based in Canada?
Location matters less than understanding Canadian search behaviour, bilingual setups and privacy rules. Remote consultants can work very effectively.
Next step
Export Apps offers technical SEO as part of its digital marketing services, working remotely with Canadian businesses and teams elsewhere. If your site has stubborn search problems, contact us for an honest assessment.