Awkward Media Review: Best SEO Company In Canada?

Awkward Media is a Canadian SEO agency that claims it can rank local businesses up to 3x faster than other SEO agencies using its Search Engine Mastery method. This digital marketing agency sells a variety of search engine optimization services, including Google Business profile setup, on-page website optimization, and link building. It leverages a diverse team of approximately 20 SEO professionals to carry out local search engine marketing initiatives for its clients in industries like dental, construction, and Ecommerce. 

Awkward Media reviews are mostly positive. Reviews on Trustpilot praise Awkward Media for delivering positive results. However, there are some negative reviews saying the company wasn’t able to deliver on its service guarantees. 

I’ve been running my SEO lead generation agency for over a decade, so I know the key factors you should consider before paying for search engine optimization services. In this Awkward Media review, I break down exactly what this company does, what kind of clients they typically serve, and what their customers are actually saying about them. 

What are the pros and cons of hiring Awkward Media?

Pros:

• Awkward Media offers service guarantees for fast and successful results
• Featured in leading publications like USA Today, International Business Times, and Outbrain
• Boasts successful SEO cases studies across multiple industries

Cons:

• Awkward Media focuses heavily on vanity metrics like Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR) rather than actual leads and revenue
• Negative reviews on Trustpilot complain about falling short of service guarantees
• Awkward Media’s website lacks transparent pricing and requires you to book a call

What does Awkward Media do?

Awkward Media does search engine optimization for local and Ecommerce businesses. The digital agency mostly focuses on clients in Canada, but also works internationally with clients from other countries like the United States and Dubai. Awkward Media specializes in local SEO, offering a range of SEO services that primarily support its local SEO initiatives.  

What SEO services does awkward media offer?

• Local SEO – Primarily consists of setting up and optimizing the Google Business Profile. They also do website optimizations like adding business schema markup and adjusting meta titles and descriptions. 
• Ecommerce SEO – Emphasis on Shopify SEO and Amazon SEO to help online storefronts leverage organic traffic. 
• Technical SEO – Starts with a technical SEO audit of the website to target and fix issues like slow page speed, crawl errors, poor mobile performance, and improper site architecture. 
• Link Building – Leverages competitor analysis to create a link building strategy and perform white hat link building by reaching out to relevant sites for guest post opportunities. 
• AI Overview Optimization – Undisclosed strategies to get businesses to appear in Google AI Overviews. 

Is Awkward Media good at SEO?

Yes, Awkward Media is good at SEO as proven by successful client case studies and mostly positive reviews across online directories and review platforms. A 2024 article on the marketing platform Mayple even lists Awkward Media as a top 5% SEO agency. However, marketing companies often pay for these types of placements, so it’s impossible to verify the accuracy of this claim.

Who are Awkward Media’s clients?

Awkward Media’s clients primarily include dental offices, construction contractors, E-Commerce stores, and automotive shops. They mostly target clients in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Mississauga in Canada. They also target New York, California, Colorado, Florida, and Texas in the United States. 

Grand Oaks Orthodontics of Oakville, Ontario is an example of one of their dental office clients. They claim to have helped this business increase its traffic by 200% in less than 30 days. 

R.A. Woodall Roofing of Williamsburg, Virginia is an example of one of their construction clients. They claim to have ranked this business in the top 3 on Google Maps within 60 days. 

Awkward Media reviews: What do real customers say about this SEO agency?

Real customers say mostly positive things about this SEO agency, with Awkward Media reviews averaging a 4.4 star rating on Trustpilot. 

One reviewer calls working with Awkward Media “comfy”, highlighting their fast results for SEO and GMB. 

Another positive Awkward media review notes that working with the SEO company is a smooth experience and simple. 

However, there are a number of negative Awkward Media reviews on Trustpilot. One review mentions that they couldn’t deliver on their promise and even changed the wording on their website to make their guarantees more achievable. 

Another review complained about expensive service for minimal results and slow customer service responses. 

What does Awkward Media claim?

Awkward Media claims they can get you on the first page of Google within 60 days. They also claim they will improve your rankings within 20 days or they’ll pay you $200.

Who is Zarrar Rasool?

Zarrar Rasool is the founder and director of Awkward Media. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is also the co-founder of Scale My Law Practice and previously operated a real estate training platform called Zarrr Rasool. He attended Carleton University in Ontario, Canada and appears to have held no positions outside of his own marketing companies. 

Awkward Media vs Ippei Leads

Why should you choose Ippei Leads over other SEO agencies?

You should choose Ippei Leads over other SEO agencies because I focus on increasing your business’s bottom line, not just getting you more traffic or increasing your website’s rating on tools like Ahrefs. Many SEO agencies focus on metrics that don’t necessarily impact your bottom line, including Awkward Media. In a Trustpilot complaint response, the Awkward Media team discloses that they guarantee “Domain Rating” increases. 

Domain Rating is just a metric created by the Ahrefs SEO tool that calculates a website’s perceived strength based primarily on their backlink profile. You can technically increase the Ahrefs Domain Rating score with backlinks that are unrelated to the niche or location. This produces minimal impact for ranking on Google for target keywords and getting traffic that actually converts into customers. That’s why I measure the performance of my agency based on actual leads and revenue, because these are metrics that actually matter to your profit. 

I’ve been doing SEO for over 11 years with proven success ranking for both local and global keywords. As such, I offer higher level SEO expertise than most other agencies that just have local success. Unlike other agencies, I don’t outsource my client’s SEO work to low-quality freelancers from platforms like Fiverr. All my SEO work is performed in-house with my own team that I’ve trained personally over the years. That’s why I’m able to command consistently successful results by not only ranking my clients’ higher, but also ranking for the right keywords that attract customers ready to buy. 

Learn about my SEO services and how they can enable you to dominate your market long-term and actually generate you more revenue.