What the heck? We're currently the #2 SEO company in Regina according to Google.

Recently we noticed Squareflo now holds the #2 (and #3) spot on Google for the search term "Regina SEO". We were a bit shocked, and here's why. 

When we started Squareflo in 2005 we never had aspirations of becoming the best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company in Regina. Jaco, one of the two brothers who founded Squareflo was a strong graphic designer with a love for front-end web design. He certainly was not an SEO expert during our early days. Today, Squareflo is not only in the top search results for "Regina SEO", but our average web design client's websites can typically be found at the top of search engine results.

Up to last year, we have not promoted ourselves as a Search Engine Optimization company in Regina. Sure we have done lots of SEO over the years to get our own sites for Squareflo and FloPrint (our sister company) to the top of Google's search results. We had some early success targeted phrases like "Printing Regina" and "T-shirt Printing Regina", at a time when competition for these phrases was quite weak, compared to now. In fact, the birth and initial success of FloPrint was directly related to our SEO efforts starting in 2006. We managed to go from not existing, to being a very busy little print shop in Regina, amongst many well-established print shops. This despite the fact that we could only afford a small office in a crumby old building on the corner of 13th Avenue and Broad Street (a former "Massage Parlour" that "offered way better customer service than FloPrint", according to some clients). We literally did not have a sign on the building, which was on a busy downtown corner in Regina. An oversite on our part, which we corrected when we moved to the corner of 11th Avenue and Albert a few years later. We were at the top of Google's search results. That's where nearly all our print business came from. (Side note: The rest of our business probably came from The Distrikt Nightclub.)

Back then, most printing companies in Regina had really bad websites, with content that showed no SEO consideration. So getting to the top of page 1 of Google's search results, was not a huge achievement according to an SEO expert we did printing for at the time. According to him, the competition for keywords related to website design in Regina was way stronger. The fact that he was even on page one for searches like "Regina Web Design" was a testament to his SEO skills, because as he put it "all of the companies on page one, have good websites that are properly optimized". His logic made sense at the time and still does today. Web designers are naturally more aware of SEO best practices. Heck, we have bragged in the past about being #1 in Regina for searches related to Web Design, because it is not easy to claim the top spot amongst Regina's best web designers. Can you imagine how proud we are, just being on page 1 of Google's search results for "Regina SEO"? We're freaking pumped!

We actually do list Search Engine Optimization on our website as a service, but the focus of this page's text, up to very recently, has been on the fact that we actually show our clients how they can take care of their own Search Engine Optimization needs, without having to hire us, or any other SEO company. We offer all our web design clients unlimited technical support, which includes Search Engine Guidance. Our SEO guidance helped Jamie at Yoga Mala in Regina to get their site to the #1 spot on Google for searches related to Regina Yoga, after struggling with their previous website to just get on page one, let alone the top spot. Our SEO guidance allows Darcy at Rhinos Lighting & Sound to claim a spot in the top 3 for searches related to Regina DJs & Wedding DJs in Regina. These clients don't pay us to do SEO. They just have a website powered by our CMS, and they follow our SEO guidelines. 

Over the years, in order to keep our own two sites at the top of search results, we have learned a few "SEO tricks", and we have stayed ahead of major changes in the SEO field. Whatever we have learned, and whatever works for us, we're happy to share with our clients.

The point I'm trying to make is that despite having success when it came to our own, and some of our clients' SEO efforts, we have never claimed to be Search Engine Optimization "gurus".

Our clients are free to hire any SEO company to help them with their Search Engine Optimization needs. Our CMS allows any SEO expert to do everything they need to do in terms of On-page SEO. Over the years some of our clients have hired SEO companies to get the job done. If our CMS lacked a feature these outside SEO companies needed, we've simply developed and added whatever features they requested. All of these improvements are now standard features. This means all of our clients get access to a powerful platform, proven to perform at the highest level.

Another important point I'm trying to make is this. Not only have we improved our CMS to allow top SEO companies to do their thing, but we have also learned from these companies. One thing that we realized, in comparing notes and overall performance is this. As far as Squareflo's SEO strategies and performance go, we're good. We can confidently say, we know what we're doing. And, in the same breath, we know that the SEO landscape will not stop changing, and we need to stay on our toes (keep improving our CMS, Website Templates, etc.) Ultimately what I'm trying to say is that we good enough to call ourselves SEO experts in Regina. 

For us, the knowledge that we are in fact SEO experts has us pondering where to go next. On the one hand, knowing that SEO companies in Regina charge upwards of $500/month for their services ads a lot of value to our standard website package which includes unlimited technical support & SEO guidance for a fraction of the cost. On the other hand, we have the potential to really push our SEO service to businesses in Regina with confidence in the fact that we are as good or better than the other SEO companies currently operating in Regina. For now, we'll keep testing the water. We've updated our Search Engine Optimization page's text to include the fact that we can take care of your business' search engine optimization needs if needed. However, if you want us to show you how to do your own SEO, we're still more than happy to guide you, as long as your website is powered by our CMS. Technically we can show anyone, with a website powered by any CMS, how to improve their SEO. However, our ultimate focus is on growing the number of websites powered by our CMS, and offering SEO guidance is just one way we add value to those who use our CMS.