The panic was real. Even before the World Health Organization issued its now rescinded advisory against unnecessary travel to Toronto, the media had hyped fears of SARS into plague like proportions leading to significant declines in tourism and travel to Toronto. Conventions were cancelled, hotel rooms left vacant and empty seats at Jays games told the story of millions of dollars suddenly withdrawn from the downtown economy. Businesses based on providing services to tourists and business travel experienced an immediate loss of revenue.

StepForth has two clients from the Toronto region that depend on tourism and travel to Toronto. Both Escape Tours and Parris Concierge are small businesses, employing a total of six full time staff and less than ten part time staff. Neither company can afford a large advertising budget. Neither company could afford to sit still while the economic foundation of their businesses fell from beneath their feet.

Fortunately, these clients know each other and have done business together on several occasions in the past. When Katherine Parris called StepForth early into the crisis, we immediately recommended a solution that would potentially benefit both businesses while distancing them from keyword phrases that mentioned the word “Toronto”.

The first part of our solution was to suggest that the two businesses start working closer together by sharing client lists, helping each other generate leads, and increasing the number cross-referrals between the companies. For us, this was the easy part. The more difficult part would be to position the two companies high on search engines for keyword phrases that had no reference to the city of Toronto.

Escape Tours is a small but busy company offering personalized tours of Toronto and the surrounding areas. As each tour is designed to meet the needs of specific clients, Escape Tours offers trips to several other areas around Ontario and Quebec. Having benefited for almost a year from Top10 listings under the keyword phrase “Toronto Tours”, Escape Tours owner Aurelija was starting to worry that people would not be interested in taking tours of a city that had been (wrongly) fingered as a world leader in SARS exports. Realizing that one of Toronto’s attractions, Yonge Street is also the world’s longest continuous road, we recommended the business begin to promote tourism destinations outside of the Toronto area. A quick reoptimization effort on a Friday evening resulted in a number of rapid gains at Google under keyword phrases relating to other tourism destinations Escape Tours could serve. While it is still too early to determine if this effort has helped the core business, we are happy to report that our client is now in the Top20 under keyword phrases that do not relate directly to Toronto, while retaining her already strong placements under keyword phrases that do relate to Toronto.

Parris Concierge was a more difficult challenge. Run by Katherine Parris, Parris Concierge offers a wide array of services to the business community and their guests. Having strong listings at Overture and Google under a wide variety of Toronto related keyword phrases had proven to be extremely beneficial to the company as Toronto is the hub of business and communications in Canada. After hearing of two major professional conventions withdrawing their plans to hold their meetings in Toronto, Katherine also began to worry about the economic underpinnings of her business. To redefine the focus of Katherine’s search engine promotion, we had to examine other facets of her business and try to determine what other services she might offer and where the client base would come from. After studying different client needs with Katherine, we decided to focus on services in Toronto but to find a number of keyword phrases that could be used that did not reflect Toronto. With a 5-Million person potential market, the thinking is that by offering services people need on a daily basis or for special occasions, Katherine should be able to bridge the gap until such time as prosperity returns to the Toronto tourism scene.

Summer at a Ski Resort? Aside from being rated the #1 ski resort destination in North America for several years running, Whistler-Blackcomb offers a wide variety of summertime activities for tourists and residents alike. StepForth clients, Kent and Cori Wildern have the perfect accommodations in Whistler for travelers. Choose between one of two luxury condominiums to stay in while you enjoy some of the greatest alpine scenery on the planet. With the wilderness minutes from your door, hiking, canoeing, mountain biking and camping excursions are easy. This year, visitors to Whistler will be among the first to try the newest attraction, the Mountain Zip-Line ride. Come for a visit and see the warmest side of Canada's bid-city for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Internet is a remarkable archive of information. Larger than the Library of Congress and bigger than Britain's entire library system, the Internet contains a copy of almost everything ever written by humans.

That fact is great but, as an archive, the Internet is hardly dependable. The 'net changes daily with new sites added and website addresses (URLs) subject to change. How does one know where to look for information from the past? By visiting the Way Back Machine of course.

The present is generally a bit easier to see than the past buy visiting almost any major search engine. What if, however, you want the widest possible view of the present? We would recommend using a Meta-Search engine such as Dogpile or the new and improved HotBot.

The future is always more difficult to perceive than the past or present but, in limited quantities, it can be seen if you know where to look! In the past, many of our clients have marveled at our ability to see the future. It is said that a good magician never reveals his or her tricks, but, we are geeks not magi so we don't mind sharing. Google offers a glimpse into the future of its search engine listings by giving access to two of its "development" servers, Google's 2 and 3. For a rough idea of what is coming next, visit www2.google.com and www3.google.com. These servers show where Google will most likely rank sites in the coming weeks and months. Knowing where your site is in relation to your competition can be most helpful.