Serving Ontario remotely
SEO and digital marketing for Ontario businesses
SEO and digital marketing for Ontario businesses, planned for the province's separate markets. Toronto, the southwest and the north each need their own plan.
Local businesses
Finance, factories, tech and local trades
Toronto and the towns around it hold most of the province's banks, insurers, brokerages, law firms and accountants, plus the agencies that serve them. Competition in these categories is national, and the buyers know what they're doing.
The southwest corridor from Windsor through London and Kitchener to Hamilton runs on manufacturing, auto parts, food processing and logistics. Many of these firms have decades of engineering credibility and almost no online presence. That's a clear, cheap opening.
Waterloo Region and Ottawa carry most of the province's tech sector. Waterloo grew around its university and engineering graduates, Ottawa around federal buying, telecoms and defence software. Both sell far beyond Ontario.
Under all that sit trades, clinics, brokerages, restaurants and regional shops, as in the rest of Canada. Ontario has more of each, plus franchise and multi-location groups with big marketing budgets.
The market
One province, several very different markets
About two in five Canadians live in Ontario, and it has the biggest provincial economy. Most "national" search volume for a commercial term is Ontario volume in disguise.
The province is several markets. The Greater Toronto Area acts like a global city, the Golden Horseshoe is busy suburban commerce, the southwest is industry and farming, the east leans on government, and the north is spread thin. Treat it as one market and you overspend in one place and underspend everywhere else.
Ad prices vary more inside Ontario than between most provinces. The same search can cost several times more in Mississauga than in Sudbury, so a campaign here rarely works without bids set by area.
Ontario borders Michigan, Ohio and New York, so its results carry more American competition than the rest of Canada. Buffalo and Detroit businesses show up in southern Ontario searches, and the reverse.
Reading a national number
Most Canadian keyword volume is Ontario volume
A Canada-wide forecast for a commercial term usually describes one province. Break it down and the number changes. Then the region, the ad price and the competitors change it again.
- 1A Canada-wide volume figure — About two in five Canadians live in Ontario, so most national totals for a commercial term are mostly Ontario searches.The national figure was never your market
- 2The Ontario share of it — Ontario is the biggest provincial economy, so its share holds up far better than any other province once you break the number down.
- 3The region you serve — The GTA acts like a global city, the Golden Horseshoe is suburban commerce, the southwest is industrial and the north is spread thin.One province, five demand curves
- 4The ad price you pay there — The same search can cost several times more in Mississauga than in Sudbury, so set bids by area from day one.
- 5What is left after the border — Southern Ontario results include Buffalo and Detroit businesses that treat the province as part of their home market.American competitors nobody counted
Good fit
Who we can help most
Industries we help
- IT Services & Managed Service Providers marketingA steady flow of contract enquiries from your own service area, built around the events that make businesses start looking.
- Mortgage Brokers marketingMore funded deals from the demand your market has this quarter, with purchase and refinance handled separately and results measured to funding.
- Medical Clinics marketingMake your clinic accurate and easy to use everywhere patients look. Move routine questions off the phone. Market to whoever is scarce, which is often a clinician.
- Roofing marketingBe one of the three roofers quoting. Then be the one that looks safest when the homeowner decides.
How people search
Crowded results and regional names
How do people in Ontario look for a business like yours? The answer changes what we fix first.
- Ontario has the most crowded search results in Canada. National brands, franchises, directories and big American sites all chase the same terms, so the gap between the keyword you want and the one you can win is widest here.
- Regional names are strong and stable. People search "Kitchener-Waterloo" as one place, treat "GTA" as a region, and use highways like the 401, the 400 and the QEW as rough geography.
- French-language search in Ontario is very local. It clusters in the east around Ottawa and in some northeastern towns. It's worth targeting for some services, not province-wide.
- Ottawa searches differently. Many people there work on managed federal computers, so Bing gets a bigger share of B2B and government searches than the Canadian norm.
- Seasonal swings are sharp in weather-driven trades. Heating, roofing, landscaping and vehicle services all have demand curves a flat yearly budget gets wrong.
The rules
What the law says about your ads
- Ontario has no private-sector privacy law of its own, so federal PIPEDA covers how businesses here handle personal information. Health information falls under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), overseen by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
- Ontario consumer-protection law bans unfair practices and misleading claims, and sets rules on some contract and cancellation terms. It has changed in recent years, so check the current rules for any specific claim, offer or subscription.
- Professional regulators usually set the tighter limits. The Law Society of Ontario, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario and the financial regulators each publish advertising standards on testimonials, comparisons, specialist titles and results.
- We flag where a rule seems to touch a campaign and write to stay inside it. We're not lawyers. Regulated businesses should check the current rules with their own lawyer or regulator before anything goes live.
Sources
Where these rules come from
These are the laws and regulators behind the rules above. Check the source before you act. This page isn’t legal advice.
- Ontario's rules on unfair practices, misrepresentation and consumer contracts
- Consumer Protection ON
- Source: Government of Ontario
- Law Society of Ontario Rules of Professional Conduct, including the rules on marketing legal services
- LSO Rules
- Source: Law Society of Ontario
Where to start
Services to start with
SEO services
Phone not ringing while competitors show up above you? Our SEO services fix your site, write the pages buyers search for and show you every call and form it brings in.
B2B SEO
B2B SEO for low-volume, high-value markets. We build pages for everyone on the buying committee, from the champion to finance, security and procurement.
Local SEO
Our local SEO services get you onto Google Maps and into "near me" searches. We fix your Business Profile, area pages and reviews, for one location or forty.
Multi-location SEO
Multi-location SEO services for chains and franchises. Head office sets the structure, each branch supplies local facts, and every location page and profile gets found.
Working with us
Working with us online
We work on Eastern Time, so calls, workshops and reviews happen inside your working day.
Need product photos at a plant in Cambridge, a brand workshop or a video shoot? We scope and quote it as its own line.
Everything else happens in your own accounts: website, Google Business Profile, ad accounts and analytics. You keep full access and ownership.
Questions
Common questions from Ontario businesses
Can a business outside the GTA compete in Ontario search?
Yes, and often for much less money. Outside the Greater Toronto Area there are fewer serious competitors, cheaper ads and thinner content.
What doesn't work is trying to rank across the whole province from one location page. Build strong pages for the places you can serve first, then grow as results come in.
How should we split budget between Toronto and the rest of Ontario?
Start from your margin, not the search volume. Toronto has the most demand and the highest cost per customer, so it only earns its share if your customer value can carry that cost.
For many Ontario businesses the better split is a small Toronto presence that pays for itself, with most of the spend in other markets where the same money buys several times the reach.
Our profession has advertising rules. Will that limit what you can do?
It shapes what we write more than it limits it. Ontario's professional regulators restrict testimonials, comparisons, superlatives and how outcomes may be described, whoever writes the marketing.
Explain your process, credentials, scope and costs clearly and skip the big claims. That usually converts better anyway. Anything near the line goes to your regulator or lawyer first.
Do we need French content for Ontario?
For most Ontario businesses, no. French-language demand in the province is concentrated in the east around Ottawa and in some northeastern towns.
If you serve those areas, or sell into Quebec, do French properly rather than machine-translating the site. We'd measure the French demand in your category first.
Do you have an office in Ontario?
BOOSTD is based in Ontario, but we don't have a public office. We work with Ontario businesses over video calls, in Eastern Time.
Everything happens in your own accounts. If a project needs someone on the ground, we book and quote that separately.
Cities
Where we work in Ontario
See where your website stands
Start with the free checkup. It shows what to fix first on your website, with no sign-up. Want to know who wins the searches that matter in Ontario? Book a call with our specialists.
Prefer to talk it over? Book a free call
Your BOOSTD score improves within 90 days, or your next month is free. After 6 months, more traffic or leads, or we keep working free (up to 6 free months in any 12 months). Read our guarantee
References
Sources for ontario SEO
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
Related
More on marketing in Ontario
- the Toronto market in detail
- technology and software companies
- financial services marketing
- building a B2B pipeline
- when paid search beats SEO for a local firm
Elsewhere in Canada
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor