We included the term “for Canadian Market” in the title of this post because we understand the effect location has on web traffic, SEO, and SERP results.
In this post, we’re not only going to be looking at SEO strategies that exponentially boost web traffic but rather SEO strategies that boost web traffic for Canadian sites.
So, if you run a Canada-based business or your website audience is Canada-centric, you’ve come to the right place.
How Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) behave
If you search for the query “How to make money from home” in Canada, this is what you’ll find.
Perform the same search in the US, and the results transform to this:
You know why the SERP results are different? Because Google always delivers the most relevant answers to users. For someone in Canada, Google believes the results that would best answer their query are those from .ca sites (e.g., Shopify.ca) or from sites that are more Canada-based (Savvynewcanadians.com).
So they streamline the SERP for that query to feature more Canada sites.
For a Canadian site targeting Canadian markets, this should tell you something.
That in order to exponentially boost web traffic to your site through SEO, you need Google to first recognize you as a Canadian-focused site.
So, how would you do that?
Firstly, you’ll need to find the best SEO company in Canada.
Why would you need a professional SEO Service in Canada?
Because tailoring an SEO campaign to fit a particular location takes some doing.
Many SEO services in Canada still follow the old-fashioned approach of treating every site the same way. But this doesn’t work anymore. You can’t execute generic SEO strategies for a site and expect to rank above sites that are implementing location-enabled strategies.
With the best SEO Company in Canada, however, your site will be optimized in a way that appeals to the Canadian Market and Google.
A HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIO
Say you run a locksmith website in Canada, and you regularly publish educative content on your blog. If a random Canadian searcher comes to search for a locksmith-related question on Google, chances are Google will show them global results from U.S., India, Europe, etc.
However, if you or some other Canadian locksmith websites have optimized your platforms with location-enabled SEO strategies, chances are you guys will show up on the SERP, too. We saw the ‘how to make money from home’ example above.
You see the relevance of location-enabled SEO strategies now?
Why Google … Google … Google?
You must have noticed Google is the only search engine we’ve referenced so far. That’s because Google is the most used search platform in Canada.
I bet you never thought location mattered when it comes to Google searches. But now you know.
Now, we’ve established the significance of location-enabled SEO strategies and the importance of hiring the best SEO Company in Canada.
Let’s now take a look at what these strategies are. What are the strategies to grow website traffic exponentially using SEO for Canadian Market?
1. Offer strictly quality and valuable content
If you’re looking to grow your site traffic exponentially through SEO, you need to prioritize content quality above anything else.
Content quality and SEO: Looking from the angle of Google
Google has advanced beyond the days of keyword stuffing. Padding your pages with loads of target keywords will not get you anywhere on the SERPs. And without SERP rankings, you cannot possibly expect to boost site traffic.
Instead, you need good quality content to get on the SERP . If your site content are awesome, there will be less bounce rate, more click-through rate, more share, and above all, more dwell time on the site. All these put together will alert the Google algorithm of the quality of your site.
Additionally, the Google Panda Filter also plays a part.
Google’s Panda filter is an algorithm that skims through the Google-Index and looks for low-quality content using a number of signals, including thin pages, keyword stuffing, blank pages, duplicate content, etc.
Content quality and SEO: Looking from the angle of users
Like the rest of the world, content is key for Canadian web users. Canadians are happy to visit and spend some time if a site offers valuable content. This is exemplified by the average number of minutes Canadians spend on their favorite sites.
Of course, you may not get a visitor to spend as much time as they would on Yahoo on your site. But even a dwell time of between two and three minutes is a good signal.
It’s all dependent on the value and quality your site offers. Again, this is an area an SEO service in Canada can help with. Find one today to help sort out your site’s content quality.
2. Utilize keyword research tools
Let’s assume you run a house cleaning business in Canada; the kinds of “keywords” you will need to target will differ from those of someone running a similar business in Italy.
This is because the pain points of Canadian house owners differ from those of homeowners in Italy. So, how do you figure out the right keywords to target for a Canadian market?
Well, the process is simple. You simply have to get your hands on a keyword research tool. Luckily, you can find a lot of those on the internet today, from free to paid ones.
Of course, you’ll need tools that can provide niche-relevant, Canada-centric keywords. Most people use free tools like UberSuggest and Google Keyword Planner. For extensive collections of useful keywords, you can use paid tools like SemRush, Ahrefs, amongst others.
In case you’re having trouble finding the perfect keywords to target for your Canadian market niche, you should contact the best SEO Company in Canada. These SEO services Canada agencies often have access to more advanced tools.
Besides the tools, SEO services Canada agencies have experience researching keywords for different niches. As such, the agency you find may have worked with a site similar to yours before.
3. Use social media aggressively
Canadians are some of the biggest users of social media. As described by Statista, “the number of social network users in Canada now stands at a record 31.8 million, with a social network penetration rate of 83 percent …”
Sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram are among Canada’s most used websites.
This huge social media penetration represents a great traffic advantage for site owners.
Reports have shown a correlation between social signals (likes, shares, clicks, views, etc.) and SEO ranking. According to these reports, the higher a site’s social signals, the greater it ranks on the SERPs.
For perspective, here are the ways social signals can help with SEO:
1) Direct Google ranking: Google views hyperlinks from social media channels in the same light as those from traditional sites. That is, if someone clicks on a link to your site from Pinterest, it counts the same as someone clicking from a regular authority site in your industry.
In the words of Big Commerce, “Social signals contribute to a page’s organic search ranking and are seen as another form of citation, similar to backlinks.
2) Greater exposure and reach: sharing site links on social media generally increases traffic to the site. More eyes mean more exposure, remember?
Based on all these, it’s clear the engagements a site gets on major social channels help with higher SERP rankings. Luckily, Canadians’ heavy consumption of social media means that engagements won’t be hard to come by when targeting the Canadian Market. You just need to be aggressive with your social media marketing campaigns.
Again, an expert SEO service in Canada can help with that. When you hire SEO services Canada, they will employ relevant tools to draw signals from social media to your site. This may include sharing your site links on social channels to garner visits, likes, shares, etc.
4. Embrace mobile responsiveness
Like the rest of the world, Canadian internet users are big on mobile web usage. If you want to boost traffic through SEO, you need to optimize your site for mobile.
Coming to a new site, an average Canadian user expects to find a responsive web design that’s easy to read, navigate, and loads fast.
If they don’t find this, they bump out of the site in a twinkle of an eye. Unfortunately, that would mean a high bounce rate and low dwell time for the site – two important factors that contribute to Google rankings.
In case you’re wondering just how mobile-focused Canadians are, take a look at the distribution of web traffic in Canada as of March 2021, by the device.
As you can see, as of March 2021, almost 36% of internet users in Canada expect to find a mobile responsive site anytime they come online.
5. Optimize your on-page SEO
On-page SEO is a key part of any SEO campaign. It entails all the happenings within the main site structure.
You cannot skip on-page SEO if you want to grow site traffic exponentially through SEO. Also, since we’re focused on the Canadian Market, we have to consider on-page SEO techniques that support this location.
So, what are the important on-page techniques for bringing web traffic to a Canadian-based site?
- Content keywords: Your web page content and blog posts need to carry relevant Canada-centric keywords. For instance, say you write a blog post about a generic subject, you should reference Canadian cities, subjects, personalities, sites, media outlets, etc.
- URL: Strive to get a .ca domain
- Google Webmaster: In Google webmaster tool, set your geographic target to Canada. This will inform Google of the Market you’re targeting
- Get Canada everywhere on the site: Find a way to make Canada reflect in your title tags, product descriptions, page description, and even main pages
- Page footers: Use the site’s footer sections to showcase office address (which will automatically reflect Canada)
- Contact page and About Us: Let both pages carry a sufficient mention of Canada
Please note that on-page SEO is quite technical. You may need to hire an SEO service in Canada to help you with it.
6. Link building strategy: Prioritize backlinks from .ca sites
There are several high-quality, high-authority sites in Canada. And Google knows this.
If you’re targeting Canadian audiences through SEO, a good way to go is to build links from within Canada.
When a site builds links from several .ca platforms, it sends a clear message to Google regarding its primary focus – to target Canadian audiences.
Building links in Canada is the best way to bring Canadian-centric traffic to a site. You would be making a terrible mistake building links only from US, India, or European websites. You must prioritize .ca websites above all else. Although it wouldn’t hurt to get a couple of .edu, .gov, .com, or .org links here and there, too.
Finally, site owners should know that link building is not something a random person can venture into. Usually, you’ll need to have existing relationships with other websites before you can link to them. Or, other times, you may need to offer something in return.
The best way to acquire quality backlinks is to hire the best SEO Company in Canada. Being an SEO service in Canada, such a company would have built valuable relationships with other webmasters and site owners over the years.
Also, SEO services Canada agencies know a lot of link-building strategies that are alien to regular people. If a strategy isn’t working, they know a lot of other ones to use to get instant results.
7. Guest blogging is golden in Canada
Everybody knows guest blogging is one of the best ways to grow web traffic in the world.
Firstly, it brings direct traffic to a site through backlink injection in posts. Then secondly, it helps to boost a site’s overall backlink profile, thus improving the site’s ranking on the SERPs.
Now, the beautiful thing about Canada is that the residents read blogs a lot. According to a report published on Social Media Today, 58.2% of online Canadians visit blogs, making for an estimated 16,024,168 users.
Since Canadians consume blogs so much, it simply means website owners can target Canadian audiences using guest blogs.
What is guest blogging?
Guest blogging is when a website owner creates a blog post and then publishes it on another website for greater exposure and reach.
How does guest blogging impact SEO?
Guest blogging brings automatic backlinks. Now, the higher the quantity of quality backlinks a site gets, the higher the site ranks on the SERPs.
How is guest blogging achieved?
As with link building, guest blogging mostly entails reaching out to site owners and pitching your interests to them.
To make guest blogging work, most people rely on expert service providers. For example, say you want to guest blog on popular Canadian sites, you can hire an SEO service in Canada to help you pitch your interests to the site.
Alternatively, you can get SEO Services Canada to help you find good sites for guest blogging. And the company will also do the pitching.
8. Embrace multiple language options
The Canadian Market is mostly bilingual, with English and French the two most common languages.
Usually, what many SEO services Canada agencies do is that they help their clients build/optimize English-only websites. While this is not so bad, it actually limits the number of web traffic a brand can garner on the Canadian digital space.
Granted, most people speak English in Canada, but there are still those whose preferred language is French. Not optimizing your site for French is like you saying you don’t want traffic from these people.
You can address this by hiring the best SEO Company in Canada. Such a company can either help you transform your site into a bilingual space, where users can switch between English and French.
See examples:
| The French version of a Canadian website | English version of a Canadian website |
| https://thegreattrail.ca/fr/ | https://thegreattrail.ca/ |
| https://swimming.ca/fr/ | https://swimming.ca/en/ |
| https://www.canadiantire.ca/fr.html | https://www.canadiantire.ca/en.html |
| https://www.als.ca/fr/ | https://www.als.ca/ |
It makes sense to have a multilingual site on the SEO front as it helps you gain traffic from different audience groups. You get French website visitors. And you also get English visitors.
Think about it; if you’re competing with hundred websites for the first page of the English SERP, you may only need to compete with ten on the French SERP since not many Canadian websites cater to French SEO.
Finally, running a multilingual website will require hiring an experienced SEO service in Canada. Because then you’ll need to optimize both the main language page and the translation page. Also, you’ll need the services of the best SEO Company in Canada for content and keyword optimization in French. Because keywords that work in English may not work for French searches.
Implementation of the eight strategies discussed
So far, we’ve discussed eight effective SEO strategies for attracting Canada-centric web traffic. You should know that the execution of these strategies may be far beyond your technical abilities. As a rule, it’s always best to just leave a site’s SEO effort in the hands of the best SEO Company in Canada.
With so many SEO services Canada companies out there, finding the best ones shouldn’t be too hard.