gShift Labs raises $1.6 million for upgraded SEO

Not just simple analytics anymore, SEO involves a whole plethora of social signals

gShift Labs, provider of a search engine optimization (SEO) software system, announced Friday that it has received a $1.1 million investment from GrowthWorks, a Canadian venture capital firm. In addition, the startup will also be granted another $500,000 in funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).

Citing a study by Forbes, gShift says SEO is being transformed so much by social media and organic content creation that it now outranks paid search and email marketing in its ability to convert sales.

The company’s software, Web Presence Optimizer, provides daily insight into how your Web properties are performing in organic search rankings. With this data comes analytic reports intended to explain what is the cause of, for example, a lower ranking.

As far as social media goes, it’s well-known now that Google and Bing both take into account social signals to rank search results. That’s why gShift monitors your Web presence across Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube when it studies your SEO results.

gShift is best optimized for agencies and small to mid-sized businesses.

As many hope here in the U.S., the government in Toronto (where gShift is based) believes its investment in the startup will help spur job creation. With unemployment in California rising to 12.1 percent in August, we’re going to need a lot more entrepreneurs creating work to curtail that number’s growth.

“Jobs seems to be all that Washington wants to talk about right now. And for good reason,” wrote Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson in a recent blog post. “A lot of people are out of work. And incumbent Presidents don't often get reelected when 10% of the workforce is out of work. I've said my piece on that whole thing already. I'm not looking for Washington to solve the jobs issue. I'm looking for entrepreneurs to solve it. And they will in time.”

The new funding will be used to fuel gShift’s product development, sales and marketing efforts.