Canadian SEM Help???

[wguttrid]

Hi everyone, hoping to get some feedback on a question. I am looking to start an online business in Canada (where I reside) and have selected a niche market that I believe should see very well. The customers I hope to target are both Canadian and US shoppers.

Being an online shopper myself when I am looking to buys something I tend to favor initially searching for any Canadian companies that sell what I am looking for e.g) If I was looking to buy a special Phillips BrandX Yellow Screwdriver, I would search for "Phillips BrandX Scewdriver Canada". With my logic being that I should be able to save some money on shipping by shopping within my own geographical location and in general do some research on this item to see if there is another model within this product line that I might want instead.

Keeping with this example, if I was selling this Phillips Brandx Yellow Screwdriver personally, and wanted to get into either SEO or PPC. Questions I have:

1.) Should I make sure that I throw either Canada or Canadian, e.g) "Phillips BrandX Screwdriver Canada" etc. into my keyword phrase for marketing. As the customers I believe I will convert the most will be fellow Canadians. Though at the same time don't want to loose any international (US) sales.

2.) If I was to use a Canada or Canadian keyword with my keyword phrase, do I need to treat Google.com and Google.ca seperatly. Or are they one in the same when it comes to searching??? Is Google adwords treated globally no matter which google country site the customer may be using using???

3.) If I was going to do a specific PPC campaign with a very specific term that might not bring me as much traffic as say "Scewdriver" would but should convert better even with lower traffic. Would I chose "Phillips BrandX Screwdriver" (for US customers) on google.com. And "Phillips Brandx Screwdriver Canada" for Candian customers on both google.ca and google.com.

Look forward to peoples insight, and belive my #3 question is a duplicate of 1 and 2, lol...thanks for the help!!!

[beu]

1.) Should I make sure that I throw either Canada or Canadian, e.g) "Phillips BrandX Screwdriver Canada" etc. into my keyword phrase for marketing. As the customers I believe I will convert the most will be fellow Canadians. Though at the same time don't want to loose any international (US) sales.
If you feel that using Canada related terms would increase Canadian conversions, give it a shot. Maybe you could also create a French version of your product pages.

2.) If I was to use a Canada or Canadian keyword with my keyword phrase, do I need to treat Google.com and Google.ca seperatly. Or are they one in the same when it comes to searching???
Last I checked, Google.com returns the same results as Google.ca by default (the web) but .ca also includes pages in French.

If the site is hosted in Canada and on a Canadian IP the search engines will most likely figure out where you are located.

Do you ship to other countries? What currency do you accept?

Either way here are some free actions to help make it clear that you are located in Canada:

- Set a geo preference in Google Webmaster Tools
- Submit your location to "Local Business Center"
- Mark your location in Google Earth and link to it from your site.

My advice may be more from an organic perspective but, I hope helps you.

[wguttrid]

Thanks for the info!!!

To answer your questions, going to be setting up shop with Yahoo Small Business, so it will not be hosted by a Canadian IP, will not have a .ca to my store.

At this time my plan is only to target Canada and US, though open to other countries (globally) but have not dived deep into this yet.

IF I was to do the steps you mention above, would this impact sales to the USA? OR impact people in the US searching for the product I hope to sell.

Trying to get my mind around this subject as there seems to be so many different ideas to go about. Ultimatly my goal is that when someone is searching from Canada they find my store and convert as well as someone searching from the US finds my store/converts.