Toronto Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a tricky business. There are no guarantees and no one knows all of the answers. But we have been a successful Toronto SEO company since 1999 and our experts have a pretty good idea what the rules of the game are.

All you can realistically hope to do is strengthen your online ranking. Anyone who promises you page one on Google is a liar, because there are no magic beans that can make that a reality.

All we offer are tried and true strategies. SEO involves doing dozens of little things that all add up. We always have optimization in the forefront of our minds when building a website.

What No One Wants To Tell You

It can take 6 months to a year for your search engine optimization initiatives to take effect. If you are launching a brand new site on a brand new url, it can take even longer to gain any real credibility. It is a slow and laborious process but, once attained, it lasts years.

Keywords Are Key to successful search engine optimization

It's no secret that the road to search engines is paved with keywords. Keywords are the words that users put into the search area when looking for a product or service. The first thing we do with you is sit down and put together a list of keywords. These are the words that we then try to strengthen for you so it is more likely that you show up when users search on them. The selection of keywords can be a highly strategic act, so it pays off to consult the experts.

For more information about using keywords in your content, read our blog article: To Rank or To Sell? Writing Website Content for Search Engine and Conversions

Backlinks: If You Build Them, They Will Come

The Internet is one big popularity contest. The more relevant websites that have a link to your site, the better. Note the word "relevant" in there. Getting thousands of backlinks from random sites is like having cardboard cutouts of people at your party. Nobody buys it. We use our Amalgam Webtools system to find potential backlinks and then we review them, one by one, in person, to determine if it is right for you. Then we get you listed on those that make the cut.

Simultaneously, we work with our online marketing team to create pages and links in social networking sites like Facebook and Flickr, to get your business and links out there.

Our social media support packages include "link networking" which consists of us responding to and/or alerting you to articles in the blogosphere that relate to your industry so that you can build your backlinks velocity through all avenues of social media. If appropriate, we will write and submit articles to article directories that link back to your site and submit momentum press releases to supercharge your organic search results.

Certified gShift Labs Search Engine Optimization Expert

Amalgam Design is the first marketing agency to become a Certified gShift Labs SEO Expert. gShift Labs has developed and patented a new way to automate the SEO process that dramatically improves the optimization effort and organic search results in one easy-to-use interface.

Not only does gShift Labs monitor keyword rankings but it also includes social media analytics reporting. Amalgam Design is an industry leader in Toronto for social media marketing strategy and execution. Today, an organization's social media significantly influences its overall web presence, and therefore impacts its organic ranking. We refer to it as the perfect storm of web connectivity, where 8 critical elements of digital marketing work together to drive your online goals. Social media marketing is a huge part of that.

In the past, much of our time has been spent monitoring and reporting on organic search results for our clients. gShift Labs Web Presence Optimizer instantly does all of that for us so we can focus our time on SEO strategy. The SEO software also provides strategic tools that highlight optimization opportunities for us to capitalize on.

Amalgam Design prides itself on not simply making SEO recommendations, but on actually executing them. We are not just a search engine optimization company, we are a full service digital marketing agency. What that means is our job doesn't start and end with page 1 Google ranking. Our goal is increased revenue for our clients and we don't stop until that goal is met.

Engagement: Getting Them to Say "I Do"

Google updated its algorithms in November of 2008. The big difference: it began increasing page rank based on high engagement elements. In other words, Google started looking for Flash, videos and blogs and making sites that had them rank better. It decided that sites with those elements were better than sites without them. They showed a superior commitment to quality from the publisher and was less likely to be a spam site. Sites that invest only in backlinks and not in high engagement elements may be judged as suspiciously out of balance.

Videos and blogs are big commitments but you need them for your social media strategy anyway, so dig in and rank big!

The Moment You Don't Respect It, It Destroys You

Google hires some of the greatest mathematicians in the world. You and I are not going to outsmart it. Trying to exploit search engine loopholes will only get you blacklisted. And even if they work right now, they may not next year, which means you'll have to start from scratch and rebuild. Natural results based on good rich content is the best way to go. Honest.

It's a cruel, hard, search engine optimized world out there. Businesses are cluing in and getting better and better at it. Search engines are your door to hundreds of thousands of potential customers. Don't let the door hit you in the heinie.