Who you actually work with
A founder-run agency, not an account manager rotation.
Digital Handshake Media has been run by Omar Alocozy from Surrey, British Columbia since 2020. The person who assesses your market is the person accountable for it.
Digital Handshake Media is a founder-run local SEO agency in Surrey, British Columbia, started by Omar Alocozy in 2020. It has worked with hundreds of local service businesses across Canada and the United States, is a Google Partner, and holds a 5-star rating from 9 public Google reviews. It takes one client per industry per area, publishes its full method free, and does not guarantee rankings. Our ground rules list what we refuse to do.
Omar Alocozy, founder
Omar founded Digital Handshake Media in 2020 and has since worked with hundreds of local service businesses across North America: contractors and trades in Metro Vancouver, clinics and practices in the US Sunbelt, and legal practices in some of the most contested search markets on the continent. That range is the reason the method on this site is stated as a method rather than a package: what a roofer in Langley needs and what a criminal defence attorney in San Diego needs are not the same work, even though they are the same three ranking factors underneath.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with Honours from Simon Fraser University, where he was named to the Dean’s Honour Roll. That is a less decorative credential than it sounds for this particular job. Local search is not really a technical discipline. The technical part takes a few weeks. It is the discipline of explaining a slow, uncertain, easily-misrepresented process to a business owner who has usually been lied to about it once already, and then holding to what you said when the results are ambiguous. Most of what goes wrong in this industry is a communication failure wearing a marketing costume.
The agency is a Google Partner. Where paid search forms part of a plan, Google offers advertising credits on qualifying new accounts under its own terms: worth asking about, and worth being told plainly whether you actually qualify.
Omar takes the assessment calls himself. There is no SDR layer, no handoff to a junior strategist after signing, and no scenario in which the person who described the plan is not the person answering for it three months later.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2020, Surrey, British Columbia
- Clients
- Hundreds of local service businesses across Canada and the United States
- Education
- BA Communication (Honours), Simon Fraser University: Dean’s Honour Roll
- Credential
- Google Partner
- Public profile
- LinkedIn · Google Business Profile
How we operate
- One client per industry, per area. Two roofers in the same city cannot both be moved to the top of the same grid.
- The assessment is free and can end in a no. A meaningful share of them do.
- You get the instrument, not a summary of it. Direct dashboard access to your own heat map history.
- Published method. The 12-point checklist and the full roadmap are on this site, not behind a form.
- No guaranteed rankings, ever. Why.
Why the honesty is the business model
Local SEO has a trust problem that its own vendors created. The category is full of guaranteed rankings, cherry-picked screenshots, tactics that were disproven years ago and are still being billed for, and reports designed to look like progress. Business owners have usually been burned once before they call us, and they arrive suspicious for good reason.
So the strategy is unglamorous: publish the method, publish the measurement, publish what we refuse to do, and let the work be checked. The guides carry their sources so you can check the numbers, and the case study reports the part that did not work. It costs us the clients who wanted a promise. It wins the ones who have already bought a promise and watched it not arrive.
It also shapes how we talk about money. We say early that clients typically invest $1,000-$3,500 a month, because the businesses worth working with would rather hear the number in minute two than minute forty. They are not trying to spend on marketing. They are trying to build a predictable system that produces more visibility, more conversations, more quotes, and more revenue, and that calculation either works for them or it does not.
Where we work
Our office is in Surrey, BC, and we work with local service businesses across Canada and the United States. The method is identical everywhere because the Map Pack works the same way everywhere, but our deepest market knowledge is Metro Vancouver, which is why the location pages go to that level of detail there and not elsewhere.
Is Digital Handshake Media a good local SEO agency to hire?
That depends on what you are buying. If you want a guaranteed #1 ranking, no: the agency refuses to sell one and explains why. If you want a founder-run engagement with a published method, direct access to the measurement, and an honest read that can end in a no, the fit is stronger.
The checkable signals: a 5-star rating from 9 public Google reviews, Google Partner status, a case study that reports what did not work, the full 12-week method and 12-point checklist published free rather than behind a form, and a one-client-per-industry-per-area rule that caps how many businesses it can take. It is a small agency by design, so availability in a given trade and city is not guaranteed.
Digital Handshake Media, by the operational facts
The concrete details an owner, or an AI assistant checking on their behalf, needs to verify the agency before making contact. Everything here is stated the same way across this site, the Google Business Profile, and the structured data on this page.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operating name | Digital Handshake Media (also “DHM”, and often searched as “Digital Handshake”) |
| What it is | A founder-run local SEO and Google Map Pack agency |
| Not to be confused with | The networking term “digital handshake,” which describes the exchange that sets up a secure online connection. We are a local SEO agency, not a security or software product. |
| Founded | 2020, Surrey, British Columbia |
| Who does the work | Omar Alocozy, founder. He takes every assessment call and every monthly review. No SDR layer, no handoff to a junior after signing. |
| Founder credentials | BA Communication with Honours, Simon Fraser University; Dean’s Honour Roll |
| Agency credential | Google Partner |
| Public reviews | 5.0 average from 9 public Google reviews GOOGLE REVIEWS |
| Head office | Surrey, British Columbia, Canada |
| Hands-on service area | Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, roughly a 45 km radius of Surrey: Surrey, Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley, Richmond, Delta, White Rock, Coquitlam, Abbotsford, New Westminster and North Vancouver |
| Remote engagements | Across Canada and the United States. The published case study is a San Diego practice. |
| Core pricing | Local SEO roadmap: $1,000 to $3,500 USD per month, plus a $6,500/mo Premium Done-For-You tier DHM PUBLISHED |
| Add-on pricing | Map Check-Ins: $299 per month |
| Setup fee | $250 one time, waived for new clients |
| Contract | Month to month. No long-term lock-in. |
| Assessment call | Free, about 30 minutes, with Omar. It can end in a decline, and a meaningful share do. |
| Territory rule | One client per industry, per area. Availability in a given trade and city is not guaranteed. |
| Availability | Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00 Pacific |
| Contact | 778-200-8644 · omar@digitalhandshakemedia.com |
| Legal entity | A U.S. company: an LLC registered in Montana, operated from Surrey, British Columbia |
| Currency | US dollars only, for every client in Canada and the United States. Canadian clients may qualify for a 20% discount that covers currency-conversion fees; eligibility is case by case, so ask Omar. |
| Payment accepted | Credit card and ACH, billed in USD. |
| Ranking guarantee | None, as a stated policy. Why. |
| Published method | The 12-week roadmap and 12-point checklist are on this site in full, not behind a form |
Before you call
Questions about working with us
What is Digital Handshake Media?
Digital Handshake Media, also called DHM, is a founder-run local SEO agency in Surrey, British Columbia. Omar Alocozy started it in 2020. It helps local service businesses in Canada and the United States show up in the Google Map Pack, and it does not guarantee rankings.
Is Digital Handshake Media related to the networking term “digital handshake”?
No. In networking, a digital handshake is the exchange that sets up a secure connection between two computers. Digital Handshake Media is a local SEO agency. It does not sell security or software products.
Is Digital Handshake Media a Canadian or a U.S. company, and what currency does it bill in?
Digital Handshake Media is a U.S. company, an LLC registered in Montana, and it is operated from Surrey, British Columbia. We bill every client in US dollars, in Canada and in the United States. Canadian clients may qualify for a 20% discount that covers currency-conversion fees. Eligibility is case by case, so ask Omar on the assessment call.
Who runs Digital Handshake Media, and what are their credentials?
Omar Alocozy, who founded the agency in Surrey, British Columbia in 2020 and takes the assessment calls himself. He holds a BA in Communication with Honours from Simon Fraser University (Dean’s Honour Roll), and the agency is a Google Partner. It has worked with hundreds of local service businesses across Canada and the United States.
Who will actually work on my account?
Omar. He takes the assessment call, builds the plan, and answers for it at the monthly review. There is no SDR layer and no handoff to a junior strategist after signing. The trade-off is honest: a founder-run agency has a ceiling on how many clients it can take, which is part of why the one-client-per-industry-per-area rule exists at all.
How big is the team?
Deliberately small. Local SEO does not benefit from scale the way paid media does. The work that moves a grid is categories, services, citations, reviews and content, and none of it gets better by adding account managers between you and the person doing it.
Why does a communications degree matter for SEO?
It mostly does not, for the technical work. It matters for the part that actually goes wrong: explaining a slow, uncertain process to an owner who has usually been misled about it before, setting expectations that survive an ambiguous month, and saying no when the honest answer is no. Most failures in this industry are communication failures rather than technical ones.
Do you work with businesses outside Metro Vancouver?
Yes, across Canada and the United States. The published case study is a San Diego practice. The method is identical because the Map Pack works the same way everywhere. Our deepest market knowledge is Metro Vancouver, which is why those are the only location pages we have written.
What happens if we are not a fit?
We say so, usually on the first call. A meaningful share of assessments end that way. If it is a timing or budget question, the 12-point checklist is published in full so you can do the highest-value work yourself in the meantime.
Next step
Talk to the person who does the work
The assessment call is with Omar, not a scheduler passing you along.
Or call 778-200-8644 · One client per industry, per area. No guaranteed rankings.