Saba Digital Marketing

How to Select the Best Niche Keywords

How often have you actually researched your keywords? Monthly, yearly, never? Whether you’re building a website from scratch or looking to revamp your SEO strategy, knowing which keywords work and which don’t can make all the difference.

1. Begin with Research

Although the phrase “keyword research” may put you to sleep on the spot, it can be the one element that makes or breaks an online business. Behind every successful business lies the ability to connect with their customers. Keyword research is one of the best methods to learn how your customers think.

If you aren’t taking the time to determine which keywords are best, all of your other hard work will be relatively futile. Use a keyword research tool to help identify less obvious terms that can increase traffic and sales. There are plenty of free keyword research tools online to help you pinpoint possible keywords you may have overlooked.

2. Revamp Your Niche Keyword List

After you’ve compiled a huge list of keywords, you need to brainstorm and decide which topics you really think are important for your business. Then, once you’ve chosen topics, go back to your online tool and try different word combinations related to each topic. For example, if one of your phrases was “inbound marketing”, what other terms are often associated with inbound marketing? For instance, a potential customer might do a search for:

  • Lead generation
  • Landing pages
  • Email automation tools

The objective isn’t to create your final list of new keywords, but simply to think of new phrases that potential customers could search for when looking for content related to your niche.

3. Related Search Terms

You may have already gotten creative and did this while doing your research, but if you haven’t, it’s a fantastic way to complete that list. If you’re having trouble thinking of additional keywords, head over to Google.com and have a look at the related search terms at the bottom of the page. You’ve probably noticed that when you’re doing a specific search, different suggestions appear at the bottom of the page. Use this to your advantage when creating your keyword list.

4. Check Long-Tail and Head Keywords

If you don’t know what long-tail and head keywords are, here’s a quick rundown. Head terms are phrases that are generic and are only one to three words in length. To the contrary, long-tail keywords are longer phrases containing three or more words. It’s important to verify that you have a combination of long-tail keywords and head terms because it will give you a well-balanced keyword strategy.

Find out what else your website needs to move up the search rankings by reaching out to Saba SEO in San Diego. Through a well-executed strategy using a combination of SEO, PPC, and social media, we help businesses of all sizes boost their online presence, grow their audience, and ultimately, increase their bottom line.

Off-Page Strategies You Should Be Using

Off-page SEO refers to techniques used, other than on your actual website, to promote your site and increase your ranking. Search engines use such external factors to determine how useful your site is to visitors. But this doesn’t happen automatically. You’ve got to employ some off-page strategies to build your brand’s reputation.

Blogging

All it takes is a simple blurb or a link at the end of a blog post to effectively promote your website. If generating informative, relevant posts isn’t your thing, digital marketing agencies in San Diego suggest soliciting guest bloggers. You can also promote your blog in directories and blog search engines.

Submitting to Search Engines

Submit your site to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Eventually their crawlers will find your site, but if you submit it yourself, you’ll get noticed faster.

Link Exchange

While this technique is hotly debated, when done smartly (and not just for the sake of link building) it can help your site. Make sure the anchor text and the page you are linking to are relevant to your content—same goes for the inbound link.

Sharing Photos

Make product photos featured on your site public via platforms like Flickr, Picasa, and Photo Bucket. Doing so allows others to discover your products, share comments, and hopefully drive traffic back to your site.

Soliciting Business Reviews

Ask others to post reviews about your business on review sites like Google+ and Yelp. Doing the same for other businesses may get you a return review as well.

Local Listings

Focus on attracting customers in your desired geographic area by going local and listing your website and business on sites like Yellow Pages, Google Local, and Superpages. Make sure your business info is accurate and consistent across all sites.

PPC

One surefire way to drive more traffic to your site is through pay-per-click advertising. While you’ll have to pay to promote your site, you’re only charged when someone clicks your link and you can set your daily budget.

Need help with your off-page marketing strategy? We have you covered! We’re a leading SEO agency in San Diego, and we can help push your website to the top of the results pages. Give us a call today at (858) 277-1717 and ask about a free website audit!

How to Become a Better Content Marketer

If you’re going to be a successful content marketer, start by making some smart investments in yourself. Boost your odds of producing useful content and connecting with the right audience by implementing these simple tips suggested by San Diego SEM experts.

1. Find Your Voice

If there is one thing people don’t like reading, it’s any kind of disingenuous content.Readers can almost always tell when a content marketer is faking it, and finding your voice is key to bringing real passion to whatever you write—even if you aren’t super familiar with the topic.Your audience is more likely to connect with you if they sense your enthusiasm.

2. Make Connections

Reach out to others within your area(s) of expertise. Make connections by contributing to other blogs, seeking out influencers, or reaching out to editors within your niche.

3. Think Like an Editor

Take a look at your finished content from the perspective of an editor. Aside from paying attention to grammar and spelling, consider how your paragraphs flow and emphasize your points. If you find yourself rereading certain areas, consider a rewrite to improve clarity.

4. Listen to Your Audience

Take cues from the feedback you’re getting from your posted content. While not all comments will be constructive, those that are will give you an idea of what resonates with your desired audience–and you may even discover some topic ideas.

5. Research and Gather

Develop good research and fact-gathering habits. Even if you don’t use everything you find in your content, it never hurts to have easy access to additional info for follow-up or related articles.

6. Use Real-Life Experiences

You probably have more pearls of wisdom floating around in your head than you realize. Draw from real-life experiences when appropriate to add some personality to your content.

7. Learn from Your Stats

Take a cue from the stats you get from your website, blog, or social pages. Look at what content is generating the most comments and what’s being shared to get a better idea of where to focus your efforts.

At Saba SEO, we believe in a content-is-king marketing strategy that delivers quantifiable and sustainable results. If you don’t have the time or resources to keep up with your content marketing, let us help! We specialize in San Diego SEO and offer free website audits so you can get a feel for what we are all about. Call our office today at (858) 277-1717.

Effective Ways to Visually Improve Your Marketing Material

Ninety percent of the info transmitted to the brain is visual, so it’s easy to see why content peppered with appealing images, graphics, photos, or videos is more effective. If you’re not seeing much engagement with your existing content, digital marketing companies in San Diego suggest these often-overlooked ways to improve your marketing visuals.

Infographics

Condense important facts and figures using corresponding visuals to present info in a way that’s easily digestible and shareable. Tools like those available from Easelly can be used to create customized infographics without too much effort.

Animated Videos

Go beyond still images and increase engagement with a few carefully placed animated videos and graphics. PowToon has free tools you can use to create animations for teaser trailers, product demos, and other marketing goodies.

Video Slideshows

Go beyond PowerPoint and create video slideshows to introduce new products or services or just to give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your company. A tool like Slidely is especially handy. This is a great way to repurpose existing photos or videos, and you can add background music.

Customized Charts

Especially useful in social posts, customized charts allow you to present stats in a visual form with an assortment of colors and styles. With Datawrapper, you can export your preferred info and customize charts with a few clicks before sharing the results.

Graphic Designs

Personalized graphics on everything from your social profile pages to your pins can instantly attract the right kind of attention. DIY graphic design platform Canva gives you access to thousands of free images, or you can use your own.

Use image-creation and analysis tools like Bannersnack to see how browsers are interacting with your visuals to get a better idea of what needs tweaking and what’s already working. Just remember to keep any visuals you use relevant to the associated content.

Discover other creative ways to improve your online marketing efforts by reaching out to Saba, Inc. As a leading SEO company in San Diego, we help businesses near and far reach their target audience, boost traffic, and drive revenue. Give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and schedule a free website audit today!

The Ultimate Webinar Checklist: Ensuring Your Webinar Goes Off Without a Hitch

Webinars are a favorite among San Diego digital marketing agencies because they are a cost-effective way to attract the attention of potential customers, clients, and investors. Ensuring your event goes off without a hitch involves careful planning and attention to detail.

1. Set the Format

Start by selecting your format. A webinar can include a series of guest speakers introduced by a moderator or host, one person talking the entire time, or even a single or group interview session.

2. Promote It

Post social details of your upcoming webinar. You can even get creative and pique the interest of potential attendees by providing a few details here and there. Further promote your webinar by:

  • Creating a hashtag for the event
  • Mentioning it in your email newsletter
  • Blogging about it

3. Determine Topics

Determine the topics that will be covered, but go beyond the basics with each topic to increase interest and provide truly relevant information. Your topic prep may include:

  • Researching each topic to find new info and angles
  • Interviewing subject matter experts
  • Finding interesting sub-topics

4. Recruit Speakers

If you’re going to have different speakers, talk to them about playing off one another. While they are likely presenting on different topics, engaging with one another can make for a lively, more interesting webinar.

5 & 6. Set Price Structure and Register Attendees

Determine an acceptable fee for your webinar based on what will be included and what your purpose is for having it in the first place. If you offer a free webinar, bear in mind roughly 50 percent of registered participants will be no-shows. You’ll also want to have a system in place to register attendees. There are plenty of free registration tools available, but they are fairly basic and might not be ideal if you plan on hosting webinars regularly.

7. Visual-Heavy Slide Deck

Use a consistent color scheme that’s easy on the eyes and mix in charts, graphs, and infographics to keep your webinar visually interesting. Keep any copy simple and direct.

8. Technical Stuff

Pick your preferred web conference tools based on your anticipated technical needs. Designate someone to handle the technical stuff during the actual webinar. Mute computers, check audio, and do a run-through in advance of the actual webinar.

Send out follow-up emails or questionnaires after your webinar. Doing so gives you a chance to get feedback and determine if there’s anything you can do even better next time.

Saba SEO is a leading digital marketing agency based in San Diego, CA. We specialize in SEO, social media, and San Diego PPC management. To find out how we can help your business increase traffic and drive revenue, give us a call at (858) 277-1717 today.

5 Keys to Building Social Momentum

If your approach to social media is to dive in and hope for the best from every possible platform, you’re probably not getting the most out of your social media marketing strategy. Instead, build your audience one social network at a time by building sustainable social momentum.

1. Gain Insight

Identify the account that’s performing best with a Google Analytics report and concentrate your efforts on that platform. Take a closer look at that channel and ask yourself the following questions:

• How long does it take my content to be viewed or shared?
• Am I including trending topics related to my industry?
• What posts are generating the most comments?

2. Remove Frustrating Obstacles

Make it as easy as possible to get to the promised content. If, for instance, your social post is about a new blog on your website, take the user directly to the blog rather than a blog page with multiple titles they will have to scroll through.

3. Increase Awareness

Explore paid advertising on your chosen social media platform, which is typically affordable even for small businesses, as well as long-form native advertising to increase awareness of your content and brand. Adding paid advertising to your organic efforts will help you establish and grow your audience at a steady pace. As brand awareness increases you can always decrease or cease paid efforts.

4. Go Upstream with Influencers

Go beyond influencers likely to be inundated with requests and see who’s influencing them. See what links they’re including in their posts and focus your efforts on smaller influencers more likely to engage with you.

5. Build Social Proof

Show browsers that your content is relevant and interesting to the masses. As engagement increases, look for PR opportunities to build social proof and boost awareness as your content gets more attention with comments, links, and shares.

When you see engagement leveling off or declining with one channel, increase interest by adding another platform to the mix. While this approach to social interaction may be time-consuming and involve regular monitoring, you’ll appreciate the long-term results.

Learn more about social media marketing from leading San Diego SEO company, Saba SEO. We can determine the best platform(s), create a unique strategy tailored to your business and goals, and ultimately help you increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your site. Give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and speak with one of our friendly marketing experts today!

6 Must-Have Online Marketing Tools—Oh, and They’re Free

From determining the right keywords to use to attract local shoppers to tracking visitors to your site and blog, there’s a lot that goes into creating the right online marketing strategy. Ideally, you want a fairly diverse selection of tools designed to take some of the guesswork out of such efforts. Before investing in any paid marketing tools, however, take a moment to consider what’s available for free.

1. Buffer

Schedule your social media posts with Buffer. Choose the “forever free plan” to connect profiles from your social platforms and schedule up 10 posts in advance for each social network.

2. Pablo by Buffer and Canva

Add some relevant eye-candy to your content with Pablo. Ideal for social media marketing since images fit Twitter’s size specifications, it gives you access to more than 600,000 images you can use to enhance your social profiles. Canva, a similar free tool, comes with convenient built-in templates.

3. Answer the Public

Entirely free, this tool allows you to choose topics and questions related to your primary keywords. You can then build the rest of your content around your selected topics and questions to boost engagement and increase visibility.

4. Open Site Explorer

Track your competitors’ link profiles to find the sites linking to them. This allows you to identify sites that are more attracted to your competitors’ sites and adjust your content accordingly to woo some of them to your site.

5. Portent’s Title Generator

The title suggestions this free tool provides are sure to come in handy when you’re looking for shareable headlines, captions, and sub-heads. Results range from humorous to serious.

6. Google Analytics

You may be surprised at how much info you get for free with the granddaddy of all stat-tracking tools. Not only can you see how much traffic you’re getting, but you can tell how long browsers are staying on each page and what actions they’re taking.

Even with plenty of free marketing tools at your disposal, creating and maintaining the right marketing strategy can be challenging. Let a trusted SEO agency in San Diego help with all your online marketing needs from optimized content to pay-per-click campaigns. Reach out to Saba, Inc. in San Diego by calling (858) 277-1717 and discover how our services can boost your business.

4 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Marketing

There are vast differences between marketing to business clients and marketing to consumers because their characteristics, needs, and buying patterns differ. And as a digital marketing expert, you must recognize these differences to enhance the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising.

Target Audience

The B2C market is much more pervasive than the B2B market because there are simply more consumers than businesses. As a B2C marketer, you must focus on specific consumer demographics, such as gender, age, income, and ethnic background. Your product may also appeal to certain lifestyles, attitudes, or opinions. With B2B marketing, key target audience determinants include company size and industry.

Needs

The needs and wants of consumers are much different than those of business owners and managers. In B2C marketing, you must appeal more to certain emotional triggers, such as desire, pride, and fear. Contrarily, decisions among business owners are more rational and logical. They want to make sure your company can solve their problems better than your competitors—and do it for a fair price.

Information

In B2B marketing, the content is much more detailed. Business customers are used to poring through brochures and catalogs or seeing demos of products before making buying decisions. You may also need to create new products and attend trade shows to reach new business clients. Consumers often rely on short snippets of content to make purchases–whether a small ad, coupon, twitter promotion, or reviews.

Decision-Making Process

The decision-making process is much longer in B2B marketing. CEOs must meet with marketing and finance professionals to make purchasing decisions. In most cases, you must cultivate a relationship with business customers, present your proposal, and then play the waiting game. The buying process for industrial businesses is even longer, as they must factor risk, reliability, flexibility and service into their decisions. With B2C marketing, decisions are often made impulsively or after a brief amount of research.

Saba SEO is a San Diego search engine optimization agency, specializing in SEO, PPC management, social media, and web development. Reach out today by calling (858) 277-1717 and let us help you develop an online marketing strategy that delivers results.

Not Using the Yoast SEO Plugin? You’re Making a Mistake

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not something that can be mastered overnight. Luckily, there are things that can help you on your journey to understand the ever-changing landscape of SEO. Chief among these things is the Yoast SEO plugin, recommended by leading digital marketing agencies in San Diego.

The Yoast SEO plugin for the WordPress publishing platform is one of the most useful SEO tools in the market. In essence, the Yoast plugin allows WordPress users to apply the best on-page SEO practices for each piece of content they publish.

The beauty of the Yoast plugin is that it sits right at the bottom of each post, and it analyzes the content as soon as a draft is automatically saved by the content management system (CMS). The page analysis provided includes all the points that a professional SEO would critique in post.

Yoast starts by providing a visual snippet of how the post will look on the Google search engine results page (SERP). The SEO points are listed below that snippet, and they start with the custom title followed by various taxonomies, which include metatags, categories, links, keyword density, alt tags for images, and even a Flesch Reading Ease Test score.

Content publishers should consider each taxonomy as a checklist. The plugin scores each item using a traffic signal scheme: a red light indicates immediate action required, a yellow light suggests that improvements should be made, and the green light prompts publishers to move to the next item.

The recommendations provided by Yoast are easy to follow. For example, if the focus keyword does not appear in the title, Yoast displays a reminder and recommends placing the keyword close to the beginning.

Although going through the entire Yoast checklist is not required, it is highly recommended for publishers concerned about SEO. When the content is published, Yoast automatically creates an optimized XML sitemap for that particular page. This allows the Google search bot to get a good feel for the content and will help the page achieve optimal SERP placement.

Yoast can be used for more than just Google SEO. There are add-ons available for news websites and for improving social media updates.

Learn more about what your company needs to move up in the search rankings by reaching out to Saba SEO in San Diego. Through a combination of SEO, social media, and San Diego PPC management, we help companies big and small grow their online presence, connect with their target audience, and ultimately increase their bottom line.

Top Tips for Writing the Perfect Press Release

A press release is an important part of any public relations campaign. These documents are generally short and compelling pieces that can explain product releases, announce company events, and explain any other newsworthy information about a company. Because a press release is meant to keep the media and readers informed, they need to be written well enough to pique a journalist’s interest so they might seek to cover the topic in further detail. Press release writing can be a little tricky. Below are some great tips from San Diego digital marketing companies on how to write a perfect press release.

Use an Attention-Grabbing Headline

Just like with any news or magazine article, the headline is the most important part because it is what will draw in the reader. The headline of your press release needs to be accurate, concise, and engaging enough to make the reader want to keep reading.

Get to the Point Quickly

Reporters and journalists are busy people. It is safe to assume that they will read the first sentence or two and then quickly scan the rest of the press release. This is why it’s important to get to the point quickly. All of the important points should be talked about in the first paragraph. Each following paragraph should be additional supporting information about those points.

Add Quotes When Possible

A great way to add a human element to a press release is through adding quotes from reputable sources such as someone working for the company mentioned in the release or someone who works close to the event or product being talked about.

Keep It Short and Grammatically Flawless

The best press releases are generally one to two pages long. As it is with most written pieces, shorter is better. Brevity will force you to deliver the best information in a concise, readable document that will be more favorable to journalists. Additionally, all press releases need to be free from grammar and spelling mistakes. Even the smallest of mistakes can keep a reporter from taking you seriously.

Provide Access to More Information

While it is best to keep your press release to no more than two pages, there are still ways to ensure your readers are able to learn more if they are interested. Always add a relevant link to your company’s website in the final paragraph of the press release so curious readers can learn more.

Press releases also play a role in effective online marketing campaigns and can boost a company’s SEO efforts. To find out how or for more information on creating an SEO strategy unique to your business’s needs, reach out to Saba SEO. In addition to to SEO in San Diego, we also specialize in PPC campaign management, social media marketing, and web design. Give us a call today at (858) 277-1717 and speak with a friendly marketing pro today!

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