Stellavate works with businesses across Metro Vancouver, including Richmond, Burnaby, East Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and the Tri-Cities (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody). This is the biggest and most competitive market we serve. It’s also the most fragmented. Richmond isn’t selling to the same customer as East Van, and West Vancouver looks nothing like Port Coquitlam. A generic “Vancouver” strategy misses almost all of it.
Why Metro Vancouver takes a different approach
Vancouver is Canada’s largest port city and a major hub for tech, film and TV production, and professional services. That scale cuts both ways. There’s a massive customer base actively searching for what you offer, but there’s also more competition than almost anywhere else in the province. Winning here usually isn’t about outspending competitors. It’s about picking the specific neighbourhood, language, or audience where you can actually rank, instead of trying to compete for every generic “Vancouver” search at once.
Richmond
Richmond is built around Vancouver International Airport, aviation, logistics, agri-food, and a growing tech sector. It’s also one of the most culturally distinct markets we work in. About three-quarters of residents are of Asian descent, and over half identify as Chinese. For a lot of businesses here, that means marketing isn’t just about English-language SEO. It’s about whether your website and Google presence actually reach the audience you’re trying to serve, including bilingual content and the platforms that audience actually uses.
Burnaby
Burnaby sits between Vancouver and the rest of Metro Vancouver, built around SFU, BCIT, and a strong base in tech, biotech, and film production. Metrotown and the city’s other town centres give it real retail density too. A Burnaby business is often competing with both downtown Vancouver and its own local town centre for the same customer, so local intent (searches tied to
a specific neighbourhood, not just “Vancouver”) matters more here than the city-wide keyword.
East Van
East Van runs on independent businesses. Commercial Drive alone has around 300 shops and restaurants packed into 20 walkable blocks, and that spirit carries through Main Street, Fraser Street, and the rest of the east side. Customers here actively seek out independent and local businesses over chains, which is an advantage if your marketing leans into that identity instead
of copying a corporate playbook.
North Van
North Van’s economy runs on marine industries and shipbuilding, tourism (Grouse Mountain and the Capilano Suspension Bridge are two of the province’s top attractions), film production, and a growing professional and tech sector. It draws both local customers and a steady stream of visitors, so a North Van business often needs to rank for two different kinds of searches at once: “near me” from residents, and “things to do” or “best of” searches from tourists.
West Van
West Vancouver is a different market from North Van, even though they’re often grouped together as “the North Shore.” It’s one of the wealthiest and oldest-skewing communities in the province, with a median age over a decade older than the regional average. The business mix leans toward professional services, health care, retail, and a push toward tech, film, and tourism as the district works to diversify beyond its “bedroom community” reputation. A West Van business is usually selling to a smaller, more affluent audience, and the marketing needs to match that: less about volume, more about trust and polish.
Tri-Cities: Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody
The Tri-Cities are three distinct markets that get lumped together, and each behaves differently. Coquitlam is the largest and fastest-growing, with SkyTrain-driven density turning Coquitlam Centre and the Burquitlam corridor into real commercial hubs. Port Coquitlam has an older industrial and rail base, with a business community that leans more small and long-established. Port Moody is smaller still, known for its waterfront and craft brewery scene, and is actively working to grow its own local job base rather than stay a pass-through suburb. Treating all three as “Coquitlam” undersells the other two.
Six areas, six different customer bases. We don’t run the same playbook for a Richmond aviation supplier and a Port Moody brewery, and neither should you.
If you’re ready to see where you stand, let’s talk.
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