Mount Allison company helps websites get discovered
From the Springboard Content Lab
The Internet is a big, crowded place, but if your website can’t be found, it can be a lonely place too, especially for an e-commerce business selling products and services online.
Metafy, a company founded by Mount Allison University professors Dr. Lauren Beck and Dr. Michael Cormier, is boosting the online presence of websites and improving the experience of users.
Pandemic heightened importance of SEO for business
Beck and Cormier started Metafy in 2020 as the world was confronting the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. They recognized the urgent need for businesses and individuals to connect digitally through Search Engine Optimization (SEO.)
Metafy delivers SEO tools to small- and medium-sized businesses to help them get discovered on the Internet. It targets businesses that may lack the resources or capabilities to manage metadata (e.g., to ensure inclusive metadata, flagging problematic content on websites).
“Our mission is rooted in the belief that, through this human-centered approach to SEO and metadata, we will help our customers grow their businesses, create a better online experience for customers, and make the digital world more accessible, inclusive, and socially-responsible – one website at a time. With Springboard’s support, we were able to take our Beta app to market to get early user feedback.”
Dr. Lauren Beck,
co-founder Metafy,
Professor of Visual & Material Culture Studies
Mount Allison University
MetaCrawl boosts online footprint
Metafy’s flagship product is MetaCrawl, an application that takes a unique “human-centered” approach to SEO. This boosts the online footprint of a website and improves the user experience.
The key to MetaCrawl is how it approaches metatags, which help search engines like Google crawl through websites, index and rank content. Metatags help audiences find the content they are looking for and make the digital world more accessible, inclusive and socially responsible.
Metafy has launched a paid beta of MetaCrawl that is available to the public along with a free trial. R&D is ongoing, and the company has plans to implement several improvements and new functionalities.
Springboard and Mount Allison support
The Mount Allison Industry Engagement Professional connected the researchers with an NBIF program officer.
That initial meeting led to two successful funding applications through the NBIF, one through their Lab-to-Market fund of ($134,580) and a second one through their Early Stage Commercialization Fund (of $25,000) for market research.
The IEP also assisted them in applying successfully for Springboard IM Market Validation funding. After a successful application to NSERC’s Idea-to-Innovation Market Assessment program and project completion, the IEP and Beck and Cormier are now targeting an NSERC Phase 1 grant to further advance their technology in order to attract early stage investment.
Read more about Metafy:
Springboard Atlantic is a network of 19 colleges and universities specializing in research commercialization and industry-led research in Atlantic Canada. It is supported by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency , Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and member institutions.