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Canonicalization

Feb 19th, 2012 by Spider Choice

Make your site more Google friendly
Author: Eddie Gulero
World Wide Web maintains a standardized web document format to make the most out of this virtual world. There are several technologies also contribute to this Web Standardization Process. Some of these influential technologies are Browsers, Internet Connectivity and Search Engines. Now-a-days, all available browsers are supporting most of the web document formats. Internet connectivity quality has been substantially improved with the introduction of broadband technology. In comparison to previous two, search engines are a bit slow upgrading their technology. Search engine industry leaders like Google, Yahoo, Live and Ask are investing to cover as much web document formats as they can. This process is an ongoing one and this suits the best to the ever changing web technology sector. One of such recent recommendations has come from Google – Specify your canonical. Let’s learn what a Canonical URL is all about! Though some months back the concept of “Canonical URL” was no where around WWW. But this has really been a great problem for those who largely depend on the search engines to make business. Search engine is all about a tool that provides relevant web documents when a search is made. Everyday millions of web documents on various niches are generated and search engines too regularly indexes them. But things become worst when a web server provides different version of URLs for a single web document. This results into indexing duplicate copies of single information. To avoid such technical shortcoming, Google introduces Canonical Tag. Google spokesman Matt Cutts informs “Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages.” Here goes the Google defined tag: So there is a question that how somebody ensures that Google indexes the URL you prefer? First ensure which URL (i.e. http://yourdomain.com/ or http://www.yourdomain.com/) you want to use widely and consistently throughout your website. Once that has been fixed, use that particular URL in Canonical Tag consistently. Don’t make your half of the site URLs without www and half of the URLs with www. Matt Cutts too suggests some other solutions in his famous article on Canonicalization. Checkout more information on Canonicalization in http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/.Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/canonicalization-make-your-site-more-google-friendly-1046160.html
About the Author

Website Solutions Search Engine Optimisation eCommerce Solutions
If you have questions about the content of this post pls. feel free to contact the author or us directly:
Spider Choice
A Toronto Web Marketing and SEO Company in Canada
info@spiderchoice.com
(416)-450-9595

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google site search

Jan 12th, 2012 by Spider Choice

If you don’t already know how to add a Custom Search Box on your Blog or Website you will probably find this helpful information.
Google makes it easier to get a search box on your site.
Author: Jonathan Celeste
Google have recently made it easier for webmasters to incorporate ‘custom search engines’ into their own websites.
Custom search engines essentially enable you to have a Google search box on your website, from which users can search for the information they want from your site or from across the whole web.
Now Google have made it possible to create and manage a custom search engine for your site from within Google tools. All you need to do is:

  • Log in to Google Webmaster Tools with your Google account. If you don’t already have an account you’ll need to create one.
  • Click on the ‘Labs’ tab, then on ‘Custom Search’
  • Select from the standard edition (with ads) or the premium site search (which costs an annual amount but does not feature ads).
  • If you already use Webmaster Tools with your website, all the necessary details should be filled in automatically. You can choose whether you want to give visitors the ability to search only your site(s) or the entire web.
  • Click ‘save and get code’, then simply paste the resulting code into whatever page or pages of your website you’d like the search box to appear on.
  • That’s it.
  • The benefits of having a custom search engine on your site
    Giving your visitors the ability to search your website has numerous benefits for them and for you. If you’ve got a lot of content and pages on your site, search can enhance its usability and create a better user experience for the visitor.
    People may arrive at your site via a specific search on Google, and it may be that they enjoy your content on the subject they were looking for and find it useful. Once they’ve gleamed as much as they can from that content, they may wish to make a follow up search on a related topic. If you don’t have a means for them to search your site, they will probably hit the back button and perform another search on Google, potentially taking them to any other site on the web.
    But if you have your own search box on your site, there is a good chance that, following their initial favourable impression of your content, they’ll want to see what else you have to say, prompting them to search your site. You may even become their ‘go to’ site for information related to your niche. This time it seems that Google has come up with something that will actually help website owners to retain visitors and engage with them in a much more proactive way.Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/google-makes-it-easier-to-get-a-search-box-on-your-site-5542246.html
    About the Author
    Jonathan Celeste invites you to join the rest of his clients at the top of the Google mountain with a Search Engine Optimization campaign from Onit solutions
    Internet Marketing and Web design – It’s a tangled old web.  Not only tangled but it’s loud out there too. If you want to get above the noise and make a profitable mark on the Internet then use Onit Solutions to guide the way.Don’t take chances with you web presence. Get it right the first time. Use a team that gets results every time.  Call us today on 0845 224 1015 for more information on how we can help your business grow.
    If you have questions about the content of this post pls. feel free to contact the author or us directly:
    Spider Choice
    A web Marketing and SEO Company in Toronto, Canada
    info@spiderchoice.com
    (416)-450-9595

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    What is Google+ and What Does it Mean for Online Marketing?

    Aug 24th, 2011 by Spider Choice

    Author: John k. Taylor
    Most people interested in, or working with, online marketing are well acquainted with the importance of using social media to reach customers and with the buzz that surrounds every new social media platform. The rationale goes along the lines of “the social media giants for online marketing are Facebook and Twitter, and everyone is using them, but what if there’s a new social outlet that will put my online marketing strategy ahead of the competition?”
    Google+ is perhaps the new social media venture to satisfy the internet marketing professional’s curiosity. Google + combines the Google search engine facilities that many of us use daily for work, school and play with a social mindset that makes the experience more engaging, more ‘lifelike’ and essentially, more rewarding. With these elements and organisation, Google+ could very well prove to be a dominating social media influence, and an influential online marketing tool.
    This new venture by Google, which combines regular search with sharing functions, may allow a multitude of internet marketing techniques to be channelled through just one social outlet. This could result in more streamlined online marketing strategies and a wider and more receptive audience.
    So how does Google+ work? It is an online social network, much like Facebook, but with a few fresh twists. One of the most important features are “Circles” which are used to organise contacts into social groups. The emphasis of Google+ is sharing via the web, so often Circles will be made based on the type of information users are likely to share.
    The online marketing advantage with this feature is that your contacts will only access the information you have shared when they choose to, and when they will be most receptive. Google+’s Circles can also be used to share information with a select group of users, giving better opportunities for customer targeting in internet marketing.
    Another important feature of Google+ for online marketing is the “Sparks” search box. This search box uses a much more oblique form of searching than the traditional Google search engine. To use Sparks, members enter an interest or a subject they care about into the search box and the results return media, including WebPages, news, videos or books, from across the web that might appeal to the member’s interests.
    This unique search engine provides new internet marketing opportunities and challenges, particularly in the SEO area. Choosing keywords for SEO may soon feature a new emphasis on using keywords that do not directly target particular products, but are merely related. Google+ is still in its early stages, and there are undoubtedly many more online marketing opportunities to be discovered in this innovative social network.Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/what-is-google-and-what-does-it-mean-for-online-marketing-5155544.html
    About the Author
    In this article we will read about the Google+ what is a new foundation in online marketing world. Infinite IT Solutions – Melbourne based Web Design Company provides you the creative web designs, professional web development solutions and seo services in Melbourne.
    If you have questions about the content of this post pls. feel free to contact the author or us directly:
    Spider Choice
    A web Marketing and SEO Company in Toronto, Canada
    info@spiderchoice.com
    (416)-450-9595

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    SEO changes

    Apr 24th, 2011 by Spider Choice

    Impending Changes in the SEO world
    By: Jeremy Knauff
    The sky isn’t falling chicken little, but your traffic may be in the near future.

    There is no question that Google has been a dominating force. There is also no question that Microsoft has both the financial and the manpower resources to give them some serious competition and probably eventually get the upper hand again. As Google has grown to a size comparable to that of Microsoft, it has lost much of the “little guy trying harder” appeal that once helped to create a great deal of it’s public support.

    Many users don’t really care which search engine they use as long as they are getting the results that they’re looking for. In this area, Google is falling seriously behind. In an attempt to filter out more of the web sites using artificial means to improve their ranking, they have knocked a large number of legitimate web sites out of the SERPs and often prevented newer web sites from appearing to begin with. While I applaud their effort to combat the web sites using spam techniques to climb above legitimate web sites, I can say with out a doubt that unless they find a better way to do this they will begin loosing market share in a big way. There are several reasons, some of which are not so obvious:

    • People want relevant and timely results. If Google continues to delay newer web sites and web pages from ranking for applicable terms, users will go elsewhere to find more up to date results.
    • Many web site owners using Google AdSense will begin switching over to competing services from Yahoo and MSN – which they are likely getting traffic from. Since the ads are a source of revenue for these web site owners, they are going to deal with the search engines that are helping them make more money.
    • Many web site owners will remove the Google site-search from their web sites since they aren’t getting traffic from Google.
    • Web savvy people are often asked for advice from those who are not as proficient with computers. It won’t take too many bitter web site owners telling these people to use a competing search engine before Google starts to see the effects in their bottom line.
    • Microsoft has been developing Windows Vista (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx), in fact, the beta version has already been released. Microsoft will put a serious dent in Google’s business with this because they have built a handy little search box right into the operating system.

    For those of us that are forward thinking enough to prepare for this shift, the next six to eighteen months should be very rewarding. For everyone else (especially those relying entirely on traffic from Google) it will be somewhat like riding off the edge of a cliff in a Mini Cooper. So, what can be done to prepare?

    • Diversify your internet marketing strategy. Search engine optimization (www.wildfiremarketinggroup.com/search-engine-optimization.php) should only be a fragment of your internet marketing. For starters, you could consider advertising on other relevant web sites, utilizing a pay-per-click campaign and publishing articles on other web sites.
    • Plan for the adoption of new technology. Blogs are here to stay and RSS is taking hold. Stay on top of new and innovative ways to use technology to multiply the effectiveness of your search engine optimization campaign. You can get a general idea of what technologies to look at by staying up to date with the advances in operating systems, browsers and related software and hardware.
    • Avoid using spam techniques to improve your ranking, such as hidden text, keyword stuffing, or link spamming. Most of these questionable techniques don’t work and those that do don’t work well – and you risk having your web site banned.
    • Update your web site on a regular basis. A web site that is constantly growing is viewed by the search engines as more important, a side benefit is that by generating useful content other web site owners will have a reason to link to your web site.

    Author Bio
    For more marketing tips, vist Wildfire Marketing Group’s marketing tips blog.

    Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com – Free Website Content

    If you have questions about the content of this post pls. feel free to contact us directly:
    Spider Choice
    A web Marketing Company in Toronto, Port Dover, Canada
    info@spiderchoice.com

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    The Basics about Search Engines

    Jan 24th, 2011 by Spider Choice

    How Search Engines Work
    I think this is a good article if you are just trying to learn the basics, it will certainly start many of you asking more detailed questions I’m sure.

    How Search Engines Work

    By: David Tang
    A search engine operates, in the following order: 1) Crawling; 2) Deep Crawling Depth-first search (DFS); 3) Fresh Crawling Breadth-first search (BFS); 4) Indexing; 5) Searching.

    Web search engines work by storing information about a large number of web pages, which they retrieve from the WWW itself. These pages are retrieved by a web crawler (also known as a spider) – an automated web browser which follows every link it sees, exclusions can be made by the use of robots.txt. The contents of each page are then analyzed to determine how it should be indexed. Data about web pages is stored in an index database for use in later queries. Some search engines, such as Google, store all or part of the source page (referred to as a cache) as well as information about the web pages, whereas some store every word of every page it finds, such as AltaVista. This cached page always holds the actual search text since it is the one that was actually indexed, so it can be very useful when the content of the current page has been updated and the search terms are no longer in it. This problem might be considered to be a mild form of linkrot, and Google’s handling of it increases usability by satisfying user expectations that the search terms will be on the returned web page. This satisfies the principle of least astonishment since the user normally expects the search terms to be on the returned pages. Increased search relevance makes these cached pages very useful, even beyond the fact that they may contain data that may no longer be available elsewhere.

    When a user comes to the search engine and makes a query, typically by giving keywords, the engine looks up the index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria, usually with a short summary containing the document’s title and sometimes parts of the text. Most search engines support the use of the boolean terms AND, OR and NOT to further specify the search query. An advanced feature is proximity search, which allows you to define the distance between keywords.

    The usefulness of a search engine depends on the relevance of the results it gives back. While there may be millions of Web pages that include a particular word or phrase, some pages may be more relevant, popular, or authoritative than others. Most search engines employ methods to rank the results to provide the “best” results first. How a search engine decides which pages are the best matches, and what order the results should be shown in, varies widely from one engine to another. The methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve.

    Most web search engines are commercial ventures supported by advertising revenue and, as a result, some employ the controversial practice of allowing advertisers to pay money to have their listings ranked higher in search results.

    The vast majority of search engines are run by private companies using proprietary algorithms and closed databases, the most popular currently being Google, MSN Search, and Yahoo! Search. However, Open source search engine technology does exist, such as Dig, Nutch, Senas, Egothor, OpenFTS, DataparkSearch and many others.

    Author Bio
    David is the leader of a software development team, who developed many types of automation software. One of them is www.ArticlePostRobot.com, the software which can post articles to hundreds of article sites and mail lists automatically. Demo is available upon request at help(at)articlepostrobot.com

    Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com – Free Website Content

    If you now have some questions to ask you can contact the author David Tang direct or contact us and we will certainly try to help.
    Spiderchoice
    Website Marketing Specialist
    info@spiderchoice.com

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    Pay Per Click (PPC) – Is it good for my website?

    Apr 27th, 2010 by Spider Choice

    I have been asked this so many times I thought it might be a good idea to post this article from the  “Frequently Asked Questions” page on my website.

    Is Pay Per Click a good way to get quality traffic to my website?

    Yes of course it is, although the percentage of people who use search engines to find websites will click on the main organic listings, sponsored links still bring quality traffic to the websites listed. PPC listings are particularly useful for websites that have not been optimized and therefore do not show in the main organic listings and to get exposure for keywords that would not normally get you listed on the major search engines. Just remember that you do have to pay the search engine every time someone clicks on your listing and that the click thru. rate of these listings is significantly lower than that of organic listings.

    For more info. about Google Adwords or other pay per click (PPC) programs feel free to contact us direct.

    Spider Choice Inc.
    Web Marketing Solutions
    SEO – PPC – Internet Marketing
    Toronto & Port Dover – Canada
    info@spiderchoice.com

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    Google Adwords Terminology

    Apr 4th, 2010 by Spider Choice
    Google Adwords Terminology

    If you are just setting up a Google Adwords campaign for the first time or you are trying to figure out how to use all the options available, then understanding the terminology associated with Pay Per Click management might be a good place to start.
    You can get most of this info. by following the FAQ’s provided by Google however I thought if I just went through the basics I might save someone some time.
    These are just the basic terms you will encounter for a view of the full Google Adwords Glossary Click Here.

    Click

    A click (sometimes called a clickthrough) occurs when a user sees your ad and clicks on the title of your ad, leading them to your website.

    Clickthrough rate

    Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). Your ad and keyword each have their own CTRs, unique to your own campaign performance.
    A keyword’s CTR is a strong indicator of its relevance to the user and the overall success of the keyword. For example, a well targeted keyword that shows a similarly targeted ad is more likely to have a higher CTR than a general keyword with non-specific ad text. The more your keywords and ads relate to each other and to your business, the more likely a user is to click on your ad after searching on your keyword phrase.
    A low CTR may point to poor keyword performance, indicating a need for ad or keyword optimization. Therefore, you can use CTR to gauge which ads and keywords aren’t performing as well for you and then optimize them.
    CTR is also used to determine your keyword’s Quality Score. Higher CTR and Quality Score can lead to lower costs and higher ad position.

    Keyword Matching Options

    You can set each search-targeted keyword to have one of four settings: broad match, phrase match, exact match, or negative match. These four keyword matching options can help you control who sees your ads.
    To use a keyword matching option, just add the appropriate punctuation to your keyword (shown below). If you don’t add any of the specified punctuation, your keyword will be broad match by default.
    Here’s a summary of the four options:
    • Broad match: keyword (no punctuation) ?Allows your ad to show for searches on similar phrases and relevant variations
    • Phrase match: “keyword” ?Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase
    • Exact match: ?Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively
    • Negative match: -keyword ?Ensures your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term
    See examples and more details for each option.
    We suggest using a combination of two or more keyword matching options to run an effective ad campaign. By refining how your keywords target users, you’ll be able to spend less money on irrelevant clicks so that you increase your return on investment.

    Impression

    The “Impr” located on your reporting statistics refers to the number of “impressions” for your ad. The number of impressions is the number of times an ad is displayed on Google or on sites or products in the Google Network.

    Average cost-per-click (Avg. CPC)

    The average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Average CPC is determined by totalling the cost of all clicks and dividing it by the number of clicks.
    Here’s an example: if your ad receives two clicks, one costing US$0.20 and one costing US$0.40, your average CPC for those clicks is US$0.30.
    Average CPC is not the same thing as maximum CPC

    Campaigns

    Campaigns are used to give structure to the products or services you want to advertise. The ads in a given campaign share the same daily budget, language and location targeting, end dates, and syndication options.
    Within each campaign, you can create one or more ad groups. While a campaign may represent a broad product class, the ad groups within that campaign can be more focused on the specific product you want to advertise.
    For example, if you sell different types of garden tools, you could have a ‘Garden Tools’ campaign. Within this campaign, you could have one or more ad groups named after different types of garden tools. This type of account structure allows you to create keywords, placements and ads that focus on each specific product or service. ?Learn more about campaigns.

    Ad group

    An ad group contains one or more ads which target a set of keywords, placements, or both. You set a bid, or price, to be used when your ad is triggered by the keywords or placements in the ad group. This is called a cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM) bid. You may also set prices for individual keywords or placements within the ad group.

    For more information about Google Adwords go to Adwords Help or contact us at info@spiderchoice.com

    Spider Choice Inc.
    Web Marketing Solutions
    SEO – PPC – Internet Marketing
    Toronto & Port Dover, Canada

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    Google Page Rank Simplified

    Mar 17th, 2010 by Spider Choice

    PageRank (PR) is a numerical value Google assigns to a site as a measure of “authority.” A marketing coach will emphasize that building PR is one of the most affordable SEO methods. Understanding PR and using it to craft a link-building campaign is a first step toward higher search engine results.

    Marketing Coaching: Understanding the Basics of Page Rank

    Copyright (c) 2010 Paul Marshall

    You’ve just built your website and you want to show up on the search engines. You start reading about SEO and one of the first things that jumps out at you is something called “Google PageRank.” You know about the big dog of the search engines, but what is PageRank and why is it important in what you’re trying to do?

    Any good marketing coach can explain that easily. If your site is placing high in free (organic) search results, you’re getting free advertising. Notice the word “free.” That’s always a good thing. Building a strong PageRank (PR) by getting good quality links coming in to your site takes time, but it isn’t going to eat a hole in your pocketbook.

    You want to work on raising your site’s PR to get “authority” with the search engines. A site with “authority” gets better visibility in search results. Really understanding the algorithm behind your site’s PR will likely have you reaching for a bottle of aspirin. In the beginning, just concentrate on understanding the basics and how they relate to your efforts to promote your site.

    How Is PR Defined?

    Google says PR is all about the “uniquely democratic nature of the web” and “using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value.” Basically, a link from one page to another is a vote for that page. However, not all votes in this democracy are equal. Some votes come from higher-quality pages and are weighed more heavily. (Other factors in determining PR include the relevance of search phrases on a page and actual traffic to the page.)

    How Is PageRank Expressed?

    PR values are expressed on a scale of 0 to 10. Sites from 0 to 2 are probably pretty new to the Web and have few incoming links. Sites that have made it to PR3 to PR5 are fairly well established; PR6 and above are really popular and have a lot of high-quality links. There are very few sites that make it to the PR7 to PR10 range.

    The ones that are ranked that high are usually owned by big corporations or major media outlets like the Wall Street Journal (PR8). Improving your site’s PR by getting relevant, high-quality, incoming links is one of the most affordable SEO methods at your disposal. Rather than trying to get to a specific number, just concentrate on improving your number.

    Is My Site’s Index The Only Page With PR?

    No, each page in your site will be assigned a PR, something that is emphasized in marketing coaching as a valuable tool. You can use relevant interlinking to distribute PR throughout all your pages.

    Huh? Well, just hang on to that thought for a minute. For right now, just understand the concept that some pages in your site may earn a higher PR than others, and that you can use that to your advantage.

    PageRank Passes From One Page To Another

    Here’s how it works. A page with a high PR passes some of its value to a low PR page over a link. You can use this to promote your site in a couple of ways. When your site’s pages are interlinked in a relevant way, PR gets distributed more evenly throughout the site. Also, you can “court” relevant sites that belong to other people through your link-building campaign. This is really how your site starts to gain “authority.”

    Start By Building Your Index Page’s PR

    Generally, marketing coaches will tell you to begin by working on your home page’s PR. This can be time-consuming, and not just because you’ll be building relationships with other site owners. You have to do your time in what’s popularly called the Google “sandbox.” This just means that new sites like yours probably won’t get any PR at all for the first few months you’re on the Web.

    How Do I Check My PR?

    There are a number of free, online tools for checking PR including PRChecker and SearchStatus. At PRChecker you type in a page’s URL to see its PR. SearchStatus is a FireFox extension that show a site’s PR at the bottom of your browser. (It also shows your site’s Alexa rating, another method to measure online “importance.”) You an also install the Google Toolbar for Firefox or Internet Explorer and enable the PageRank function.

    Is Building My PR All I Need To Do?

    A marketing coach will tell you that having a strong PR is only one part of your SEO campaign. For instance, say you’re looking around for a site to link to yours. You find one with a high PR, but it’s a site that sells links. Move on. Their high PR number doesn’t do you any good because a link from that site to yours will have a lower quality and will pass less authority to you.

    Understanding the basics of PageRank is essential in putting together a high-quality link-building campaign for your site, but don’t get fixated on the PR number and ignore other important facts. Just gain a basic understanding of what PR is and how it functions and use that to your advantage in building a reputation of authority for your site.

    About The Author:
    Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a realistic budget. He’s a Marketing Coach offering professional marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). He also offers Paul Marshall

    For more information about Search Engine Optimization and Google services visit us at info@spiderchoice.com

    Spider Choice Inc.
    Web Marketing Solutions
    SEO – PPC – Internet Marketing
    Toronto & Port Dover, Canada

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    Google Adwords

    Jan 16th, 2010 by Spider Choice

    Four Reasons Google Adwords
    is Not Meant for Beginners

    By Trish Thackston (c) 2010
    Google Adwords is an incredibly powerful marketing tool with an instant global reach that can take your business from nowhere to an overnight success. Why wouldn’t a new marketer take advantage of such a powerful tool? I can answer that question with another question. Why wouldn’t you let someone with a new driver’s license behind the wheel of a race car? Because, unless they are extremely lucky, they are going to crash and burn. Google Adwords is the Formula One of marketing online and it is not for beginners.

    As advertising goes, the reasons to avoid Google Adwords early on in your education is overwhelming.
    For more information on Google Adwords visit our Spider Choice Pay Per Click page.

    Spider Choice Inc.
    Web Marketing Solutions
    SEO – PPC – Internet Marketing
    Toronto & Port Dover, Canada

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    559 Comments