Would appreciate some expertise with Google search.

Hi;

It its not really a must to have your keyword in your domain or your header but it is recommended to have it there for seo. I would myself weight the options of either the word you want or the traffic you want.

Hope that helps

Hi Tony,

I would suggest that it depends on where the business wants to get
traffic or customers from. Yes, I understand it's based in Toronto, so
obviously customers from that city.

It makes sense to me that search numbers would be lower for the
Toronto prefix terms. I only say that because probably most people
do not use Toronto when they search. That's my intuitive conclusion
about that.

You could use the non-Toronto domain name, but be sure to optimize
the page for being located in Toronto. That will help with people who
do use the Toronto prefix search terms.

Also, I don't know what the area is like around Toronto, but I would
imagine there could, or may, be potential customers not exactly in
that city, but near it.

So if you did not use the Toronto domain, you'll be casting a little
bit of a wider net. That's not to say that domain would never appear
in searches not using Toronto and (if) you had that name in the domain.

So, to try to be clear...

Not using that name in the domain, but optimizing the home page for
Toronto may be a way to capture the greatest amount of traffic for
searchers using, and not using, Toronto in their searches.

Hope that made sense. Of course there are some who could give you
a more precise answer based on more experience and knowledge. But
that's my take on it.

The domain need not have 'Toronto' in it. If the site is built correctly then it would have the address of the business on the contact page. This (along with other optimization) will tell google that this website belongs to a business located in toronto.

Apart from the regular optimization, you could also optimize this site for Google local search and possibly get first page rankings even quicker.

Another thing to consider is the competition for each keyword variation. Which one will give you the best chance to rank highly? I'd rather be on page one for a keyword that only gets 5,000 searches a month than on page 5 for a keyword that get 500,000 searches a month.

My experience tells me that it would be easier to rank for the keyword with Toronto in it, but there are always exceptions. Analyzing the competition is the only way to make an informed guess. If you aren't seeking customers outside of Toronto and the immediate surrounding area than that may be your best choice...unless there just aren't any searches for it.