December 2015 - Saba Digital Marketing

How SEO Can Grow Your Business

Posted on December 30, 2015 by admin@saba4321

By optimizing your business website for search engines, you can expand your readership and potential customers without exhausting your marketing budget. While this is common advice that is offered by SEOs in San Diego, the benefits of SEO are rarely explained in detail. Here is how SEO can grow your business.

1. You’ll Be Able to Utilize Search Engine Trends

Each day, internet users perform approximately three billion searches using Google and other search engines. This drives traffic to a large number of sites in various niches. By optimizing your website for search engines, you’ll be able to attract visitors from various demographic groups. If you create SEO content that includes trending keywords, you can gain new customers and increase your profits.

2. SEO Will Save You Money

In the past, one of the most popular ways to market a company involved hiring an expensive public relations firm that would create advertisements and make connections. While these firms may still have a purpose for large corporations, small businesses can use the internet to improve their relationships with customers and other professionals. By using a top-quality website that’s been optimized in-house or by an SEM company in San Diego, you can deliver your brand’s message without using your entire budget. With SEO, you will be able to reduce your marketing budget and enjoy more profits.

3. Google Will Reward You for Valuable Content

When you first start producing content for your business website, you may be tempted to try to attract customers with advertisements and positive statements about the quality of your product. This would make sense if you were creating content for billboards, but this direct approach to advertising is not very effective on the internet. Google understands that internet users value information that is unique and useful. If you produce content that offers valuable information that cannot be found on other websites, Google will grant you an improved search engine rank. In addition to attracting new customers to your website, the reputation of your brand will improve.

Optimizing your website for search engines is a cost-effective marketing effort that will grow your business. But some companies, especially small businesses, feel optimizing websites and developing an ongoing strategy aren’t feasible. If that sounds familiar, let Saba, Inc. help! In addition to SEO services, we also offer cost-effective social media and PPC management as well as web design and mobile app development in San Diego. Give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and request a complimentary consultation!

Start Using Employee-Generated Video for Content

Posted on December 28, 2015 by admin@saba4321

One of the content marketing trends in 2015 was employee-generated video content, and it will continue to be an important marketing technique. So what sets this particular type of content apart? There are a multitude of reasons why EGC on video is a great strategy for online marking in San Diego.

Why Use Video?

For one, most people find it easy to explain things while talking. Few people think writing is an easy or preferable task. If given the choice between teaching something through conversation or writing, the majority will opt for speaking.

Many employees enjoy being involved in video-related projects as well. It won’t be difficult to find volunteers to produce video content for your business.

Thirdly, your employees provide a perspective that writers outside of the organization can’t. That is because they are the ones actually working for you and involved in the business. As a result, they typically have a good understanding of the message and culture behind your brand.

How to Get Started — It’s not as difficult as it seems!

First, set a realistic goal, such as creating one piece of EGC per month. You can increase the number of videos you post once you get the hang of it.

Then, consider the strengths and expertise of your team. Who is the best at a particular task? Who is good at explaining concepts that are hard to grasp? Who keeps up with trends in your industry? Each employee has his or her own unique expertise and strengths. Tailor the video content to these strengths.

As you can tell, using employee-generated video content is easier than it seems and fun as well. Heading into 2016, make it one of your goals to generate EGC content on video as part of your marketing and brand awareness plan.

If you need help getting started, reach out to Saba, Inc. We help businesses gain visibility in the online world through personalized, high-quality content as well as other SEO strategies, PPC management, and website design and development. Give us a call at (858) 277-1717. We look forward to speaking with you!

Enhance Your Brand with These Social Media Marketing tips

Posted on December 25, 2015 by admin@saba4321

Social media has become the newest trend for getting the word out about events, groups, and networking. No matter how confident you are about your marketing approach on social media, you can always improve on your efforts to build your brand. Here are a few ways how.

1. Determine Your Objective

What is your reason for marketing? Remember without an objective you won’t be able to plan accordingly. Ask questions such as “What will this objective achieve?” and “How will this objective help improve business?”

2. Define Your Audience

Before you can start marketing on social media, you need to know who your audience is. The products or services you’re marketing will determine your target demographic. Narrowing down your audience will help decrease wasteful spending and improve the outcome of your marketing efforts.

3. Choose a Few Social Media Networks

Once you understand your target demographic, you can determine which social media platforms they frequent and focus on those. Spreading yourself too thin across all platforms will not only cost you more in both time and money, you won’t experience greater results if you’re not actually reaching your target audience. Keeping your efforts to a few platforms will also make it easier to monitor traffic, flow, and results.

4. Create a Content Calendar

Creating a content calendar will help you stay on track with your marketing strategy. You will know exactly what went out on what day and can track the response and results of each piece of content. You will also have a game plan for the months ahead and can plan accordingly after tracking current results.

5. Network with Others

Using social media is more than just posting stuff on behalf of your company. Make sure to post comments on blogs and other forums to get your name out. Join groups with common interests and that attract people who might be interested in your product or service.

6. Evaluate Results

Measure your success by the goals that you have set for yourself. Were you able to increase website traffic? Were there conversions? Have you actively built and improved upon relationships with consumers? Were you able to create partnership opportunities?

7. Improve

Answering the above questions will help you continually improve on your social media marketing strategy.

Marketing your business and brand on social media takes a little extra effort, but it’s an achievable goal for businesses of all sizes. For businesses that don’t have the time or resources to manage social media on their own, there are cost-effective options like outsourcing your needs to Saba, Inc. In addition to managing your social media, we also put together SEO packages for small businesses as well as large.

Request more information by calling us at (858) 277-1717 and request a free website analysis and consultation as well.

The Code of Conduct for Online Reviews Every Business Needs

Posted on December 23, 2015 by admin@saba4321

Online reviews can either make or break your business, so it’s definitely in your best interests to pay attention to what people are saying about your brand. If you take the right attitude towards managing and responding to online reviews, you can start making this feedback work for you and actually improve you’re online marketing efforts.

Check In on a Daily Basis

Consumers are paying attention to what online reviewers are saying even if you aren’t. Make a concerted effort to stay abreast of all the most recent posts about your business on popular review platforms. This will give you a clear understanding of just how powerful these platforms can be in terms of driving new business to or away from your company.

Never Respond from a Place of Anger

All companies have the capacity to attract both positive and negative feedback. It is not possible to please all customers all of the time and not everyone is guaranteed to like what you have to offer or what you do. Try not to take negative reviews to heart and never respond to them from a place of anger. If necessary, spend some time offline before writing your response so that you can avoid posting statements that you might regret later on.

Solve Problems in a Visible Fashion

Negative reviews give you the chance to respond to and resolve problems in a transparent way that helps your company garner more trust. This is why it is so important to keep your cool and craft your responses strategically. Showing others that the customer always comes first will make your company stand out while limiting the impact of unflattering feedback.

Be Gracious

Always thank people who’ve taken the time to upload positive comments about your company. This will help you build a friendly, personable brand that people are more likely to comment on in the future. Engaging with people who’ve posted to review platforms also gives you the opportunity to upload links back to your website, blog or social networking pages for increased connectivity, exposure, and improved search engine optimization in San Diego.

With the right mindset, you can use the reviews to help your business grow. If you could use help, give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and learn more about our online marketing services, including SEO, PPC, and social media management in San Diego. Schedule your free consultation today!

How Social Media Profiles Can Actually Boost Website SEO

Posted on December 21, 2015 by admin@saba4321

As businesses develop more dynamic online presences and double down on their social media marketing campaign, it’s worth asking how your website’s SEO is going to be impacted.

To answer this question, it is necessary to first establish that, yes, social media is connected to SEO, and most likely in more meaningful ways than you might think. After all, search engines are designed to follow the behaviors and trends of internet users so it wouldn’t make sense for social’s popularity to remain isolated from query rankings.

Well, one important way that social media impacts SEO is by driving traffic with popular content. When heavy traffic is created, there’s an opportunity to increase indirect links. While social profiles don’t lend much link value, other website managers reference these platforms and often generate editorial links to sites, which boosts search engine rankings. The benefit of valuable content posted to social sites doesn’t stop there. Generating a large amount of relevant content via a social profile influences rankings. This is evidenced by how often social profiles are at the top of query results when brand names are searched.

What’s more, businesses should already be considering how prevalent searches on social platforms have become. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all great examples of platforms that are regularly used to search for information, products, and answers. As a result, website managers need to expand their concept of SEO to include social searches. As social becomes more omnipresent, it is also worth following how SEO algorithms are adapted to incorporate social profile reputation for rankings.

While social’s value may not necessarily be fully reflected by current search engine evaluations, it seems increasingly likely that as social profiles and platforms continue to gain legitimacy, search rankings will evolve to properly account for their popularity and relevance.

Learn more about using social media for your business by reaching out to Saba, Inc. at (858) 277-1717. We help businesses gain visibility in the online world through a combination of social media, PPC, and SEO in San Diego. Call us today and schedule a complimentary consultation.

The Burgeoning Mobile Payments Market

Posted on December 18, 2015 by admin@saba4321

In 2015, mobile payments accounted for more than $8.5 billion in retail point-of-sale transactions, known as POS. Market analysts believe that the market for mobile payments will more than triple in 2016, and by the end of this decade, the value of this market will exceed $210 billion. What does this mean for SEO professionals and owners of online retail businesses?

First of all, it is important to note that the figures above correspond to proximity mobile payment transactions, which are made by means of tapping, scanning or swiping with smartphones. There is another realm to the mobile payments arena that consists of mobile commerce, whereby smartphone and tablet users shop from their mobile devices and use their wallet apps for purchases. One example would be a couple going to the movies and paying for their tickets on the way to the theater using an iPhone.

By 2016, more than two billion smartphones users will be able to enjoy mobile commerce, which is quickly outpacing traditional e-commerce, and tech analysts estimate that there will be a high rate of adoption in this regard. This shift to mobile affects SEO insofar as the need for websites that load quickly on mobile platforms. Another aspect to consider is that mobile users are increasingly using personal assistants such as Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana, which run on natural language processing instead of typed search queries. Also, businesses without corresponding apps might consider mobile app development in the future to retain customers and make the shopping process as easy as possible.

Mobile commerce and cashless transactions are very appealing from a convenience point of view. In the near future, mobile shoppers will focus their online queries on retail sites that are not only optimized for their smartphones but also for their mobile wallets. Just as Google has already updated its mobile search algorithm to give preference to sites that are optimized for the smartphone and tablet experience, it will not be unusual to see a similar update for mobile payments in the future, and this could be an icon of a mobile device with a dollar sign or a wallet displayed next to a search result.

If you’re still having trouble making your current website mobile-friendly, reach out to the trusted San Diego online marketing specialists at Saba, Inc. Along with our PPC and SEO services, we also offer web design and development and can help take your website to the next level. Call (858) 277-1717 and request your complimentary consultation today!

1) Keep an Eye on the Audience

Knowing the interests and desires of your audience is a great way to guide the format and content of your posts. Most interesting topics are developing all the time, so make sure to chime in on all the latest news and trends.

2) Encourage Audience Participation

Lots of bloggers think producing quality content is a one-way street, but there are many different ways to encourage audience participation, including comment sections and weekly forum posts. Getting your audience talking helps rope in new readers, too!

3) Include Polls

Polls are a great and easy way to engage your readers. You can set up polls for fun, to solicit opinions, or to get direct feedback from your audience on what they want to see. Polls are a good alternative to enabling comments in case you don’t have the resources to moderate them.

4) Get More from Links

Posting links that refer back to other pages on your site makes good sense, especially when you want to show up on Google searches, but you can go a step beyond that by linking to sites outside of your blog as well. This enables you to update frequently while also making your voice heard on topics that might not need an entire blog post. Plus, it sets you up as an authoritative resource for your readers.

5) Network with Guest Bloggers

Guest bloggers help expand and share your audience base. Inviting a guest blogger to write a post will entice that blogger’s readers and will give your own readers something unexpected to chew on. It’s a two-way street, and you may be offered to guest blog in return, which strengthens your ties within the blog networks surrounding your topics of interest.

Need help developing and implementing a strong blogging strategy? We can help! Give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and ask about a free website audit. In addition to blogging, we are also experts in PPC management and social media marketing. Reach out today—we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Top SEO Ranking Factors from the Year Gone By

Posted on December 14, 2015 by admin@saba4321

Improving your site’s rankings takes a bit of research and experimentation. Below are a few of the most common website ranking factors for search engine optimization during 2015 that are also sure to play a big role in how successful your site does in 2016.

1. Analyzing Link Metrics

Conducting a link audit is one of the most important factors to strategically develop and enhance your site. By taking a good look at any links that are not adding value to the site, they can be filtered out leaving room for quality links that will perform.

2. Building the Proper Backlinks

Many assume that if you throw a bunch of external links onto a site it will automatically grant you with a higher ranking. In a perfect world, this strategy would work. However, in the real world you must have trusted, authoritative links directing towards your page. These links are from established sources with good content such as well-respected news outlets or influential blogs.

3. Maintaining Proper Site Health and Architecture

Ensuring that visitors coming to your site do not have to dig through mounds of content establishes credibility and provides a good user experience. Sites that keep organization at a maximum and clutter at a minimum is a large factor in ranking higher in search. Google especially takes into account how well a site is structured in addition to mobile-readiness, sitemaps, and load time.

4. Producing Informative Site and Social Content

By creating relevant content, you can tune into what visitors to the site find most important. When you create content with unique titles and meta descriptions, visitors are more prone to become engaged with the page. Taking advantage of social media to push content is one of the top website ranking factors of 2015 to drive traffic.

Building up your ranking within the search engines requires developing a strategy that addresses the needs of the site and also those of your business. To make 2016 the best yet, turn to the San Diego online marketing pros at Saba, Inc. We can help your business climb the rankings and connect with your target audience. Give us a call at (858) 277-1717 to learn more!

5 Easy Strategies to Build White Hat Backlinks for Successful SEO

Posted on December 11, 2015 by admin@saba4321

Any successful SEO strategy relies heavily on building backlinks, which also happens to be one of the hardest SEO tasks. There are a lot of ways to do it, but many can cause the search engines to penalize your site or simply don’t work. The following are five safe and effective ways to build legitimate backlinks for better SEO from a local San Diego SEO firm.

Find Something Great and Improve On It

Find a well-written, popular, and heavily backlinked article then create a more comprehensive, informative, and well-written version of that article. Easier said than done, but this is worth hiring a writer for. Email a link to your new and improved article to all of the sites, which linked to the original. Not everyone will link back to your article, but the success rate with this technique can be as high as 20 percent, which makes it well worth doing. It also gives your site more high-quality content, which Google always likes.

Help Out Journalists

Pitch story ideas relevant to your website to journalists–even a mention in an article can lead to a high-quality backlink. You can use HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to make this easier.

Guest Posting

Writing guest posts on blogs isn’t as much about building back links directly as it is about reaching a new audience. Focus on blogs with a large audience and a good reputation. You’ll be getting your name out there and, ultimately, the backlinks will follow.

Just Ask (But Don’t Beg)

Whenever you post something that mentions another business or blog, send them a short note via email letting them know. Chances are they’ll link to your post without you having to come out and ask.

Get Rounded Up

A lot of websites include “best of” sections featuring links to other websites. If you can target some of these sites with content they’re likely to be interested in and reach out to them via social media, you’ll probably find some of your content linked to before long.

Need help building those backlinks? We’ve got you covered! Give Saba, Inc. a call at (858) 277-1717 and request a free consultation with one of our marketing professionals. We specialize in all facets of online marketing, including SEO, social media, website design in San Diego.

How to Network at Marketing Events

Posted on December 9, 2015 by admin@saba4321

For competitive industries, like marketing, no matter how far business seems to advance or how much reach expands, the necessity of networking is here to stay. Here are 5 tips recommended by a trusted San Diego online marketing company to set yourself up to network like a champ.

1. Do Your Homework

If the event is sponsored by a specific organization or has a keynote speaker, make sure you’re up to speed on all things relevant. Everyone likes talking about themselves, so being knowledgeable about what’s going on in the speaker’s sphere as well as the business’ enables you to steer the conversation toward their newsworthy accomplishments.

2. Have a Plan

It is important that you approach this activity like you would any other–with a solid game plan. Have a goal, like to meet at least three people you did not know prior to the event. Reminding yourself of your goal(s) will ensure that your time spent networking is productive.

3. Go Alone

There are few things that can make us more anxious than entering a crowded room of strangers. So while this tip may seem counterintuitive, it will likely push you outside your comfort zone and force you to develop skills you never thought you could.

4. Pay Attention

Say everything is going well, from your hair to your witty repartee. Nothing can cause you to lose a connection as quickly as forgetting the name or relevant details of someone you’ve been speaking with for 20 minutes.

5. Don’t Over Imbibe

Networking should be fun, but for your sake and the sake of the company you’re associated with, stay classy.

Looking for other ways to get your company’s name out there? Give Saba, Inc. a call at (858) 277-1717. We specialize in SEO, social media marketing, and AdWords management in San Diego. Reach out today. We look forward to hearing from you!