Thanks for the great post.

@Houston SEO – I wish I could offer SEO guarantees the same way you do! Greetings from Canada.

I feel using the .ca domain goes beyond just nationalistic pride. I think web users seeing the .ca domain in results have an instant recognition that it is indeed a Canadian site. Adds to quality and a strong first impression. And as the web matures, and .com domains get harder to find, this will come more into play.

I tell my Canadian clients to grab both the .com and the .ca, when both are available. Run the site on the .ca and redirect the .com over to it.

Canadians don’t search using Postal Codes because the Postal Codes are too fine grained in terms of the amount of area each one encompasses where as Zip Codes cover larger regions, so Americans think in terms of Zip Codes. As well with counties, we just don’t see that in Canada.

Curious how in the large metros, like Toronto, you don’t see as much searching for North York, Markham, etc… (except maybe in real estate market). I think it’s a cultural thing and we self- identify with the main encompassing city name, not the old city name before amalgamation. Our cities are more spread out so when we speak to other people and they ask where we are from you would say “I’m from Toronto” when you might actually live in Scarborough. I remember when I used to live in Bedford, Nova Scotia I would tell people I’m from Halifax, and this was long before the city officially amalgamated Bedford, Dartmouth, Sackville and other smaller surrounding areas into the HRM (halifax regional municipality).

Whereas in the US many of the cities merge and blend together across the landscape. Look at the eastern seaboard, its an almost continuous urbanized area from Portland, Maine down to Miami, Florida with city after city, and towns, all bordering on each other. So it becomes more necessary to identify with your actual city, town and neighborhood name.

Some other differences on the Canadian side of the border, for local businesses, is in the Internet Yellow Pages and Local Review space. I wrote about it over here http://stever.ca/local-internet-marketing/state-of-local-search-canada/

I had to laugh at your joke about how Canadians wouldn’t search for “drycleaner M3C1A8″ – what a hoot!