September 2016 - Saba Digital Marketing

Interesting Facts and Figures About Blogging

Posted on September 29, 2016 by admin@saba4321

More and more, businesses and SEO services in San Diego use blogs to increase their ROI and website traffic. In addition to more companies using blogs to bring in potential clients, more people in turn are reading blogs each day. Statistics in the following infographic show that pretty much every marketing company be they inbound, outbound, or B2B marketers can benefit from writing and posting blogs to their websites. In fact, the statistics show that blogging on a daily basis increases the changes of acquiring new clients.

Read the following facts and figures about blogging in the infographic below to learn how your company may benefit from incorporating blogs to your website.

Google Algorithm Changes History 2014-2016

Posted on September 28, 2016 by admin@saba4321

In order for companies like San Diego Saba SEO to adhere to Google’s practices and create relevant content, we have to keep track of Google’s algorithm changes. These algorithms are a series of calculations that restrict companies and individuals from spamming website content with links that increase website traffic. In other words, these algorithms level the playing field and regulate website traffic by ranking website content based on relevance.

Over the years, Google has changed its algorithms many times in order to keep computer savvy people from beating the system. The following infographic illustrates and explains the 13 algorithms Google used from between the years of 2014 through 2016.

How the Algorithm RankBrain Works

Posted on September 23, 2016 by admin@saba4321

Did you suddenly notice last year that Google was completing your sentences for you before you were even sure about what you were searching for? If you found that Google was throwing better matches for your queries, breezing through some of your more complicated questions and giving you accurate search results for vague queries and misspelled words, that was RankBrain at work. This new development is set to change the face of organic seo, according to many seo experts.

Since mid-2015 Google has been using a machine learning technology (and some say even Artificial Intelligence) called RankBrain to help deliver its search results. This algorithm handles queries and ranks websites according to a complex mix of factors. An algorithm is a set of steps that a computer program takes to accomplish a series of tasks. We all have ‘algorithms’ that we use every day to get things done. For instance, we have a set of steps and ingredients that we use to bake a cake. Of course algorithms in computer programs are a lot more complicated than baking a cake, but essentially they remain a set of steps that will get you to where you want to go.

Google’s query-interpreting and ranking algorithm uses a mindboggling number of factors to accomplish the task of deciding how to best answer a query, answering it and ranking websites. RankBrain joins other algorithm such as Panda, Pigeon and Top Heavy etc to drive Google’s overall master algorithm Hummingbird.

What sets RankBrain apart is that it is able to ‘understand’ natural ways of talking. It can predict meaning and relevance in order to present the most accurate search results. That means that even if you mistype something or even if you don’t quite know exactly what you are searching for, RankBrain is able to figure it out based on what other people have searched for in the past. This is why you get relevant search results that don’t even contain the words you typed in. This is almost revolutionary when you consider that traditional ranking systems take into account whether they can find your content, whether they think it is important and relevant to you. All of which is rendered useless, if the search engine cannot understand the question in the first place. This is a huge game changer when it comes to SEO. Gone are the days when seo companies would strictly focus on keywords.

RankBrain ‘understands’ the query and is almost intuitive in its ability to do so. By continuously studying what people are searching for, RankBrain learns and refines future searches that it may never have come across before. This is significant if you consider that 15% of the queries that Google receives have never been searched before.

While we still don’t know how RankBrain processes its queries and what it factors in to rank websites and generate results, the algorithm is definitely one of the most striking modifications that Google has introduced. If you are interested in learning more about RankBrain or how it can affect your SEO, please call us and we will be happy to help.

What is Local SEO and which businesses is it important for?

Posted on September 21, 2016 by admin@saba4321

Over the years, search engines have become smarter in figuring out a searcher’s search intent. For instance, when customers search for a business or service on google.com using a geo location in their search query such as “San Diego SEO” or “SEO Company San Diego”, the intention is to find a nearby firm that offers seo services. Local SEO could play a vital role in the success of business. Any business that gets its clients locally, such as a restaurant, doctor, or dentist needs to rank high on search results and so it needs local SEO. Local SEO is particularly important for brick and mortar businesses that have one or more physical locations. In general, the following types of businesses need local SEO:

Service Companies

Any service-based business such as a restaurant, a salon, a hotel or a bank, which has a physical location and relies on local customers, needs to improve its local search engine ranking. If the business appears near the top of local search results it is likely to draw in more traffic.

The great thing about local SEO is that it is a great equalizer. Your family-owned nail salon may not be as big as a nail salon that is part of a global franchise, but if your local SEO is in place, it could attract more traffic than the local franchise. Your nail salon may not turn up on search results worldwide, but if you are a family-owned business with a single outlet, you don’t need customers from other countries anyway.

Franchises and businesses with multiple locations

Even franchises, such as McDonald need local traffic wherever they are located. Big global franchises with multiple locations should work on local SEO to benefit from improving their local rankings.

Locations that house multiple businesses

Office buildings that house several businesses, buildings with private clinics or law offices and malls with many stores all need local traffic and can benefit from local SEO.

Agencies

Any firms that provide services to local business, such as advertising agencies, website companies and marketing firms will benefit from local SEO.

More and more businesses, big and small are realizing the importance of online presence. As the trend shifts to more geo-specific searches, ranking for local search queries will become instrumental in making local businesses stand out. If you own a business that relies on local customers, you need to ensure that your business is found on Google or Bing when searchers are searching for your products or services locally. Want a strong presence in local searches? Get in touch and talk to one of our experts. We know how to help.

4 Tips to Master Brand Storytelling

Posted on September 19, 2016 by admin@saba4321

You’ve heard a thousand times how important brand storytelling is to your online marketing strategy, but it can be hard to untangle what that means if you aren’t a natural born storyteller. So, how do you successfully tell your brand’s story?

1. Be True

First and foremost, whatever you do, be honest. Making truth a pillar of your content will help your brand appear genuine, and no one likes to discover they’ve been lied to. When creating content, use real people, real customers, real situations, and real facts that will connect with the people reading or watching.

2. Be Human

Sure, behind the content is a company, but your content should focus on how your product or service impacts the lives of living, breathing people. Even if you sell to other companies, highlight how your product adds value to the customer’s life. You’ve probably heard things about “humanizing” a brand, especially when it comes to social media marketing. That word isn’t going away anytime soon, so it’s time to figure out what makes your business relatable to real people.

3. Be Original

This day and age, it’s hard to come up with real unique content and there is a solid change you’re discussing something that’s been talked about many times over. So your job is to find a fresh angle. What’s unique about your company? If it isn’t the product itself, what’s something unique about the company? Why is your product and company important? What makes your solution the better choice on the market?

4. Remember the Customer

At the foundation of all content is the customer. Everything you do is to connect with the customer in a way that makes them want to use your product. Your content should never be a pat on your own back. The reader doesn’t care about how many big words you know or how much you sold. They care about how this product helps them solve a problem or improve their perceived quality of life.

Mastering brand storytelling is no easy feat, and not one all companies are equipped to handle on their own. At Saba SEO in San Diego, we take a content is king approach to online marketing, priding ourselves in our ability to understand the client’s brand and create unique, approachable content that connects with the target audience. To learn more about our content and SEO services in San Diego, call our office at (858) 277-1717 today.

5 Tips to Future-Proof Your Marketing

Posted on September 16, 2016 by admin@saba4321

Digital marketing, and the technology that powers it, continues to mature at light speed, making it all the more important for digital marketing companies in San Diego to be adaptable to whatever the future may hold. Here are a few tips to ensure your marketing technology doesn’t get left behind.

Be Flexible

It’s good to have policies, procedures, and systems in place–but make sure they can stretch to accommodate unexpected changes in technology. This means creating a flexible framework where components can easily be modified or replaced altogether without needing to reconstruct the whole system.

Centralize Consumer Data

One thing you don’t want to lose is all the consumer data you’ve collected over the years. Have a central repository for all the data you collect from all your different sources, including social media.

Remember Technology Acquisition Never Stops

One key to staying ahead of the curve is to never forget that technology doesn’t stop evolving. Build your systems with that in mind, so all components have the ability to change as the technology does. This includes components of everything from content planning to budgeting.

Enhance Connectivity

It’s not uncommon for different tasks to be completed using different technologies. What you use to analyze and budget likely isn’t what you use to lay out an annual marketing strategy or content calendar. However, it’s important to increase connectivity between different systems and make transferring data as simple as possible.

Promote a Flexible Mindset

Your business as a whole should promote a flexible mindset when change, innovation, and new iterations are welcome across the board. Employees who thrive on change will have an easier time adapting as marketing technology changes. And employees with strong general skills may have an easier time keeping up than those with a very specific set of skills. As you hire new people, look for technical and analytical skills and build upon that foundation.

In marketing, technology isn’t the enemy–it can help you reach new heights provided you know how to use it to your advantage and don’t let your systems fall behind.

If you need help getting your digital marketing up to par and ready for the future, reach out to Saba SEO, a leading SEO and PPC management company in San Diego. Call our office today at (858) 277-1717 and ask about our free website consultations.

What is Blackhat SEO? And why you should avoid it.

Posted on September 15, 2016 by admin@saba4321

When it comes to SEO, Google has a list of do’s and don’ts of rules on what a website should and shouldn’t do online in order to increase its ranking. Blackhat SEO is the name given to a set of practices that try to manipulate the system and rank very quickly. These practices bend or break the search engine’s rules to increase their site’s ranking.

Common Blackhat SEO practices include:

1. Keyword stuffing:

This involves unnecessarily overloading the website with keywords in the content and the Meta tags in order to get it to rank faster. For instance, if a website wants to rank for the keywords “San Diego SEO” here is how keyword stuffing would look like:

In the title tag: “San Diego SEO – SEO San Diego – Best SEO in San Diego”
In the H1 (headline tag) of the website: “San Diego SEO – SEO Company – San Diego SEO – SEO Services San Diego”
In the content: Welcome to the best San Diego SEO Company. If you are looking for a reliable San Diego SEO for affordable SEO Services, then we are your preferred SEO choice”

While this blackhat technique used to work in the past, it’s not only ineffective now but can actually lead to severe Google penalties.

2. Buying links from other websites:

New updates on Google sniff out any unnatural link that your website may have such as a paid link on a website that appears as an unnatural attempt to gain rankings. Since Google also holds websites responsible for inbound links, if a website has an unnatural link or links to another website it should make attempts to get them removed. If they cannot be removed they should use the Google disavowal tool to remove them.

3. Private Blog Networks:

Private blogs networks or PBNS are a group of websites – sometimes thousands of them, which so-called seo experts control. They are used by blackhat seo companies to artificially increase the number of backlinks to their client’s website in order to achieve first page ranking in Google. Unfortunately, Private Blog networks are very common and you should ensure your seo company is not using one on your project. Here is an article on the risks of using a private blog networks: https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2374165/the-private-blog-network-purge-are-you-at-risk

4. Cloaking:

This is the practice of hiding content from users, but showing it to the search engine in order to manipulate SEO rankings. Google can now seek out and penalize such websites using its Panda algorithm.

5. Doorway pages:

Doorway pages are web pages that are stuffed full of keywords and designed just to rank for SEO. They don’t offer much in terms of quality content or give value to the visitors to the page.

While these blackhat SEO practices can get results very quickly they are all spammy ways to try and rank a website. These shortcuts should be avoided as they can get your website penalized and sometimes they can lead a website to be entirely banned from Google’s index, which can be devastating for an online business. An seo strategy that revolves solely around ranking a website on the first page of Google and not offering any value to the visitor, it’ll most likely fail.

Any reputable SEO company should have no hesitation in disclosing their SEO strategies. If a company you are working with or considering to hire for your seo needs, insists on keeping their secret sauce secret, it should serve as a warning sign. When it comes to SEO, there is no secret sauce. Google recommends creating user-friendly websites with high quality content that offer value to the readers. If you can keep your readers happy, Google will reward you in the long run.

WhatsApp to Help Businesses Reach Users

Posted on September 14, 2016 by admin@saba4321

Much to the dismay of some WhatsApp users, the once ad-free encrypted instant messaging platform will soon become a tool for businesses to better connect with potential consumers. On a positive note, a move by Facebook, which acquired it in 2014, will make those ads more relevant to WhatsApp users. The social media giant will provide access to Facebook user data to help businesses place less-intrusive ads – vital for successful online marketing.

Access to an Extensive Audience

It’s estimated that nearly 20 million people use the WhatsApp mobile app in the United States alone based on projections of current volume. What this means for businesses is that they now have the potential to tap into a diverse and extensive audience with targeted ads. It could also provide:

Increased opportunities to reach mobile browsers
Access to reliable user data when planning ad buys
Ability to create more browser-friendly content

Addressing Privacy Concerns

There is an understandable reluctance among online browsers to share personal information, a fact that has been confirmed by multiple surveys in several countries around the world. Facebook has similarly dealt with privacy pushbacks with many users reluctant to share information they deem too personal due to rising concerns over identity theft, which affects approximately 15 million Americans annually.

Overcoming User Reluctance

The reluctance some users may have with added exposure to marketing efforts presents some challenges for businesses. Performing ad tests is one cost-effective way to determine how users of the popular platform will respond to various advertising attempts before launching a full-scale campaign.

Many WhatsApp users have already opted to provide their phone number in exchange for free text messaging via the app. This doesn’t necessarily mean those same users are thrilled about Facebook getting a hold of their data, but it does show some willingness to be flexible. For businesses, this means a need for well-researched ad buys while tapping into this newly available audience.

If you have a mobile app idea you are thrilled about and need to discuss our san diego mobile app development services or just want to learn more about the latest in online marketing, contact Saba SEO at (858) 277-1717. We are a leading social media management, SEO, and marketing company dedicated to helping clients connect with their audience. Call or go online today to ask about a free website audit.

Month: September 2016