Gaining more online visibility is especially important for businesses in a competitive market like Toronto’s. By increasing a business’ online visibility, a company will have a greater chance of attracting more prospects to the company website and turning them into clients.

Increasing a website’s visibility in Google search results is critical for local businesses that rely on local foot traffic. For example, if you’re a Toronto Thai restaurant, you’ll want your website to appear in the Google Map Pack and in organic results for local searches such as “Thai restaurant Toronto” or “Thai restaurants”.

Here are our top seven SEO tips for improving your website’s search rankings. 

1. Include NAP in the Footer

   NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. By including your company’s NAP, you’ll help Google understand where your business is located. Google scans NAP when searching for information about your business. The data is stored and used when determining local search rankings. For example, if your NAP states that you’re located in Toronto, your website will be more likely to appear on search results for Toronto-focused search queries.

2. Implement local citation

   A local citation is any online mention of the name, address, and phone number of a local business. Citations can occur on local business directories, on websites and apps, and on social platforms. Citations help Internet users to discover local businesses and can also impact local search engine rankings.Having the right basic citations (right information such as name, address, and phone number, about your business on online directories, can help you rank accurately on Google Maps.

3. Implement structured data

   Structured data is a way of describing your site to make it easier for search engines to understand. This type of language that major search engines use is called Schema.org, which changes your content into code. Search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a specific and much richer way. You can easily put this piece of code on your website and include information such as your business address and phone number. Presenting this information helps major search engines to better understand your business and to display your information in the search results accordingly.

   For example, when a customer searches for “best Toronto sushi”, Toronto sushi restaurants that use structured data have an advantage on Google search results compared to other businesses. If a customer performs the same query in Google Maps, businesses that use structured data to share their address information with Google and are closest in proximity to the searcher, are again more likely to appear higher in search results.

4. Include Targeted Keywords in the Title Tags, Headings, and Body Content

   Including keywords of geographic location that your business serves in your website title, headings, and body content help your website rank for location-based search terms. For example, if you’re a Vancouver auto body, make sure you have the keyword phrase “Vancouver auto body” in the page title and website content.

5. Get Featured in a Local Publication

   If your website is featured in and gains a backlink from a local publication, and the local publication’s content contains local keywords such as “Toronto magazine” or “Toronto blog”, your website will improve its search ranking for the local keywords. This is because Google takes the content and geographic location of backlinks under consideration when ranking a website. If you’re a Toronto-based company and you earn quality backlinks from Toronto-based publications, you’ll increase your chance of improving your site’s search ranking for Toronto-based search terms.

6. Report competitors’ Google Business Profiles If They’re Keyword Stuffing

   Google takes keywords in companies’ Google Business Profiles (GBP) page titles under consideration when ranking websites in Google Maps. For example, if a company’s GBP name includes the keyword phrase “Toronto phone repair”, the company will likely appear on search results for search queries related to “Toronto phone repair”.

   

   Do an audit and make sure that competing websites aren’t keyword stuffing their GPB page titles to try to improve their search rankings. Businesses are allowed only to include their actual business names in their GPB profile. If a company includes targeted keywords in their GPB profile names because the company wants to improve its search ranking for these targeted keywords, the company is violating GPB policy and you can report them and have the targeted keywords removed.

7. Ask customers to write reviews that include specific keyword phrases

   Google takes keywords in Google Reviews under consideration when ranking a website on organic search results. For example, when your customers include keywords such as “Toronto auto body”, “Toronto car parts”, or “Toronto car repair”, Google reads these keywords and uses these keywords to gain textual understanding of your GPB. It will then display your GPB accordingly. Hence, it’s vital that your customers include keywords related to your products or services in their Google Reviews!

If you’re planning to launch your SEO Toronto campaign or if you want an assessment of your current SEO performance, contact us for an SEO audit to help you optimize your results.