These three guides are written for Alberta trades owners who serve, or want to serve, more than one city. Each one is built around a single decision and gives you something to do with it: a page structure, a calculation or a log you can start using this week. They don't require you to hire anyone.
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City pages without fake offices: getting found across Alberta honestly
You can be found in Alberta cities where you have no office, but not through fake addresses. The route is honest service areas, a small number of city pages built on real jobs, and reviews from each community.
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The out-of-area referral log: running referrals on paper, not memory
A referral relationship with a firm in another Alberta city works when every referral is logged, every customer is told how it works, and both businesses review the record every quarter.
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The second-city maths: does another Alberta market pay?
A new Alberta city is worth serving only if its jobs, after travel and marketing costs, leave a margin close to your home market's. This guide shows the sum and three worked examples.
City pages without fake offices
The guide to city pages without fake offices explains how to be found in an Alberta city where you work but don't have a base. It covers why the map results favour local businesses, what a city page needs to earn its place, the structure we use, and the mistakes that turn a set of city pages into a doorway pattern Google penalises.
You'll come away with: a page outline you can fill in for each city, and a checklist for deciding whether a city deserves a page at all.
The second-city maths
The second-city maths walks through the calculation every multi-city owner should run before spending money in a new market. It adds travel time, crew cost and marketing cost to the usual margin sum, and works through three illustrative Alberta examples: a metro service call to a satellite city, a regional firm reaching for a metro, and a long-distance high-value project.
You'll come away with: a one-line formula for margin after travel, a simple stop rule and a way to decide which jobs to advertise in each city.
The out-of-area referral log
The out-of-area referral log shows how to run referral relationships with firms in other Alberta cities on paper rather than on memory. It covers what to write down for every referral, how to disclose the relationship to customers, how to review a partnership every quarter and when to end one.
You'll come away with: a list of log fields, sample disclosure wording with placeholders and a quarterly review checklist.
How these guides fit our services
Each guide matches one of our services, for owners who'd rather have the work done than do it themselves.
| Guide | Related service |
|---|---|
| City pages without fake offices | Local search across Alberta cities |
| The second-city maths | Second-city expansion planning |
| The out-of-area referral log | Out-of-area referral relationships |
All three rely on knowing which city each call and job came from, which is why call and job tracking by city sits underneath everything.
Who the guides are written for
They're written for owners and managers of Alberta trades firms, not for marketers. You don't need to know how ad auctions work to use them. You do need a rough idea of your own job values, margins and travel times, because every guide asks you to plug those in.
They're most useful if you're in one of these situations:
- You're based in Calgary or Edmonton and work the surrounding cities, but your website and ads treat it all as one place.
- You're based in a regional city such as Red Deer, Lethbridge or Grande Prairie and keep getting calls from further away.
- You're weighing a crew or a base in a second city and want to test it before you commit.
If none of these fits, the guides may still help, but our sister brands for single-market trades will probably suit you better.
A note on sources and dates
Where the guides mention Alberta rules or programs, they link to official sources we loaded in October 2026, and they summarise rather than interpret. Rules and programs change, so confirm anything that matters with the authority before relying on it. The numbers in the worked examples are illustrative, not industry averages; replace them with your own.
We're a marketing and consulting service, not a contractor. If a guide raises a question about your own markets, contact us; the areas page has regional detail.
Frequently asked questions
Are these guides free to use?
Yes. Read them, use the templates and adapt the calculations to your own business. You don't need to hire us to get value from them.
Do the guides give legal or compliance advice?
No. Where Alberta rules come up, we link to the official source and summarise. For your situation, check with the relevant authority or your lawyer.
Which guide should I read first?
If you're already getting calls from several cities, start with the second-city maths. If you're invisible outside your home city, start with city pages.