Month: January 2019

Your organization is publishing rich, high-quality content, and you believe you’re following SEO best practices. However, some of your backlinks are harming you. How can you make sure to get high-quality backlinks? Here are 10 dos and don’ts to remember when you’re looking for backlinks that boost SEO and avoiding backlinks that hurt your SEO ranking, brought to you by the SEO experts from Saba SEO, one of the premier digital marketing companies in San Diego.

1. Don’t Link to Low-Quality Content

Don’t be desperate to get backlinks from a site that doesn’t create high-quality content.

2. Don’t Fall for Spammy Paid Links

Paid links seem like a fast track to SEO success, but it’s actually the opposite. Avoid any sort of paid links.

3. Do Check Domain Authority of the Backlink Site

Backlinks from domains that aren’t ranking don’t improve your domain authority. Check their domain authority and only approve high-quality backlinks.

4. Don’t Approve Backlinks That Aren’t in Text

Backlinks from outside the body of a text, such as in a sidebar or a footer, aren’t as effective. These will lower your SEO.

5. Do Only Allow High-Quality Directories

High-quality directories that offer complete and authoritative information are ideal backlinks. Sparse directories that lack useful information penalize your site.

6. Do Guest Blogs for High-Quality Links

Guest blogging on multiple sites is an organic way to obtain a backlink that improves your SEO. Sites that care about high-quality bloggers consistently publish rich content that Google loves. This method of increasing your SEO takes more time and effort, but the result will be worth it.

7.Do Offer Useful Free Products or Tools

Offering a free tool or product that is useful or solves a problem can garner some high-quality backlinks. Your authority and SEO will be rewarded.

8. Do Send Out Product News and Press Release

Sending out a press release can give your site more attention and new customers. By sending out press releases to high-quality publications and related websites, you can increase the number of backlinks you get from authoritative sites.

9. Do Turn Your Donation into an SEO Booster

Your donation or event sponsorship can lead to an SEO-boosting backlink. Choose high-quality organizations to donate to, and watch your SEO rank.

10. Do Create an Infographic

Creating an informative and useful infographic is an opportunity to share knowledge and establish your authority. Infographics are highly shared, which means multiple backlinks from sites related to your own expertise.

Following these dos and don’ts can help you make the most of your backlink strategy and improve your SEO ranking. If you want to learn more about backlinks or you need help with your SEO strategy, trust the experts at Saba SEO. When it comes to SEO, San Diego businesses know they can rely on our experience and professionalism. Call one of our knowledgeable team members today at 858-277-1717.

More than half of all searches have local intent, so you’ll want to pay attention to the top local search ranking signals that matter most to Google and other leading search engines. The start of a new year is also a perfect time to assess your local search strategy. If your goal is to do everything possible to rank well locally or improve your existing results, here are the signals to focus on in 2019, brought to you by the digital marketing experts at Saba SEO, a premier SEO company in San Diego.

Mobile-Friendliness

You should have taken care of this in 2018. However, if you didn’t, make 2019 the year you make your site as mobile-friendly as possible. Being mobile-friendly is especially important for local search results, since most local searchers look for stuff locally on their various devices while on the go.

Google My Business (GMB)

If you haven’t done so already, make 2019 the year you claim your GMB listing. A claimed listing will make your site more visible to both local searchers and Google. Don’t forget to fully optimize this powerful ranking signal for local SEO with:

• Selected categories that best describe your business – Fewer categories are better than just choosing anything and everything remotely related to your business
• Photos to add credibility to your listing – Photos with alt text can also serve as ranking signals
• Accurate NAP (business name, address, phone number) details – NAP info should be consistent for all references to your business online

Bing Places for Business

Google gets all of the attention with search stuff, but Bing has a sizable chunk of users as well. Boost your local SEO potential in 2019 by claiming and optimizing your Bing Places of Business account as well. Further increase your local visibility by claiming your listing on other popular directories used by online searchers. Some of these include:

• Yahoo’s Localworks
• Apple Maps
• Yellow Pages

Review Site Listings/High-Quality Reviews

Most SEO experts believe reviews on Google carry the most weight as far as this particular local search ranking signal goes. To make reviews about your business posted online as visible as possible, you’ll want to claim your business on popular review sites or ones relevant to your business. Common ones include Angie’s List, BBB, and Yelp.

Specifically, high-quality positive reviews typically pack the biggest punch with local search results, but be aware most search engines have rules against asking for reviews in exchange for something. Google also tends to appreciate reviews with:

• Relevant keywords and locations
• Responses (including honest responses that aren’t flattering to your business)

Social Media

There’s some debate about how much social media listings and activity matter to rankings. Even so, social pages do show up on search engine results pages when people look for local info, so it can help to claim your social listings and optimize your profiles. A Facebook business page should also be on your 2019 to-do list, since many local searchers use this popular social platform as a search engine.

In-Depth Local Search Ranking Signals

These are the local search ranking signals that are a bit more in-depth than what have been discussed already. Still, they’re something you’ll want to pay attention to if you want to get the right kind of attention online for your business. Signals falling within this category include:

• Structured data markups for local SEO
• Click-through rates (CTRs) – Boost your odds of getting meaningful clicks with meta descriptions and title tags optimized for local SEO
• Local keyword optimization (e.g., “pizza shop in Los Angeles”)
• Top-quality and diverse inbound links
• Website domain authority
• “Localized” content (e.g., references to your target locations and local landmarks)
• Proximity to searchers – You can’t optimize for this, but you can make sure your business location information is correct and up to date

Keeping these ranking signals in mind won’t do much good for you in 2019 if you’re also not diligent about tracking your local search results. Google Analytics is an excellent free tool you can use to do this. Filters can be added if you have certain local results you want to keep tabs on more than others. If you need some more help with local search, BrightLocal’s Search Results Checker, Moz Check Listing, and BuzzSumo are some of the free local SEO tools you may want to add to your search optimization arsenal in 2019.

If you need help optimizing your content for local search, reach out to the trusted professionals at Saba SEO, the top experts on SEO in San Diego. We can help you with search engine optimization, online marketing campaigns, social media management, web development, and much more. To find out more about our industry-leading services, call us today at 858-277-1717.

In the last few years, voice search has become a popular alternative to text search. Researchers predict that by 2020, up to 50 percent of all searches will be done by voice. To stay up to date with this trend, you should implement a voice search strategy for your site. The search engine optimization experts at Saba SEO, a leading San Diego SEO firm, offer five ways to improve your website’s voice optimization.

1. Increase Your Website Speed

Page speed is an important factor for all types of search engine optimization, but it may be especially important for voice search. Mobile voice searchers are usually looking for immediate results while they’re on the go, so being able to provide fast results is essential.

2. Optimize Your Listings

The best way to optimize your business listing is to make sure all of your NAP mentions are accurate. NAP stands for name, address, and phone number, and keeping this information consistent ensures Google indexes your site properly.

3. Use Questions

Most people use phrases when they type out a search, but they ask questions when they conduct a voice search. Because it’s faster and more natural, users are typically more conversational with voice search than with text search. To optimize your site for voice search, you can focus on long-tail keyword phrases that may appear in natural language questions.

4. Optimize for Featured Snippets

A featured snippet is the text box that appears at the top of a search results page and provides an answer to the query. Because voice searches often ask questions, optimizing your site to appear in featured snippets is a great way to optimize for voice search. You can do this by creating an FAQ page or by answering the questions on your Google My Business profile. When you include questions on your website, mark them properly with H2 headers to help Google recognize them.

5. Test Your Optimization

You can test your voice search strategy by using a variety of different devices, including Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Alexa. Determine where you rank for your common questions and how you compare to your competitors. Voice search is new and constantly changing, so you should test it frequently to see how your site performs.

If you need help improving any aspect of your online marketing strategy, reach out to Saba SEO, a premier search engine marketing, social media management, and SEO company San Diego businesses rely on for expertise in a wide variety of issues related to SEO. To learn more, call us today at 858-277-1717 to schedule an appointment.

Infographics were by far the most popular way to build links back in 2014 and 2015, but SEO practices can change quickly. Content creators and site developers only want to use the most effective strategies, so many people wonder whether or not infographics are still a successful link-building tool. The SEO experts from Saba SEO, a premier San Diego SEO agency, weigh in with the following analysis.

SEO experts at Moz investigated the issue by looking at the number of infographics featured on Entrepreneur.com over the years. In 2013, the number of infographics steeply increased, and in both 2014 and 2015, the site published almost 900 infographics. In the last three years, the number of infographics decreased to about 500 per year. 

However, when the SEO experts graphed the total amount of content published on Entrepreneur.com each year, it looked similar to the number of infographics. It increased drastically in 2013 and started to decrease in 2016. When you divide the number of infographics by the total number of articles in a year, the ratio has stayed mostly consistent since 2015. 

In relation to the amount of content published, infographics are about as popular now as they were a few years ago. When comparing them to other link-building strategies, infographics are still a favorite of many websites. They’re significantly more common than interactive features and photographs. The only link-building feature that seems to be more common is surveys, which are more popular now than ever. Surveys are also usually easier and faster to create than infographics, and they have the potential for compelling headlines. 

Infographics are still a worthwhile way to build links in 2018. If you want to focus on the most popular link-building strategies, infographics and surveys are your best options. Both of them can increase the number of outbound links to your site, which will help you expand your online presence and attract a larger audience.

If you need help developing an online marketing strategy and choosing which link-building tactics are best for your business, call on the experienced professionals at Saba SEO, a premier SEO company in San Diego. We offer a wide variety of services, including search engine optimization, social media marketing, and website development. To optimize your link-building tactics and maximize your SEO strategies, call one of our knowledgeable SEO specialists at 858-277-1717.

Site search is a search engine entirely devoted to a single website. Many websites have a site search feature, but few take advantage of its marketing potential. As you review your site’s performance from 2018 and make plans for your 2019 marketing strategy, you should consider the capabilities of site search. The professional web development experts at Saba SEO, a trusted provider of SEO services San Diego businesses can rely on, are here to explain the importance of site search.

One of the reasons SEO is such a powerful marketing strategy is because the audience is already searching for your product, service, or content. You’re not wasting money or effort on people who aren’t interested in your business. Site search has a similar effect. People who use your site search are interested in your product, and they’re also interested in your business specifically. If they’re taking the time to search on your website for something, there’s a high chance they’ll become a customer. 

One report found that site searchers were 87 percent more likely to achieve a business’s marketing goals than non-searchers. Site searchers are also 43 percent more likely to make a purchase than non-searchers. Other studies have found that site searchers are up to six times as likely to buy. They know what they want, so all you have to do is help them find it on your website. 

Your site searchers are a great resource, but you’ll have the most success if you make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for. Many website creators neglect their site search function or don’t include one at all. When users can’t find what they need, they’re likely to get frustrated and leave the site entirely. 

Instead, you should make sure you have a visible, effective, and easily navigable search feature. Most consumers value a fast and straightforward shopping experience, and the easier you make it for them to locate what they want, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

If you haven’t seen the true potential of site search, get in touch with Saba SEO, one of the most experienced marketing companies in San Diego. Besides providing help with site search, the experts at Saba SEO can help you with marketing campaigns, social media management, web development, search engine optimization, and much more. To find out more about our amazing services, give us a call today at 858-277-1717.

It’s not always an easy task to determine what’s going on SEO-wise when you start to see stats suggesting there’s a problem. After you’ve eliminated issues with things like keywords, content, and backlinks, shift your focus to possible technical SEO problems, which are more common on older or JavaScript-heavy sites. To help with your debugging efforts, San Diego marketing companies like Saba SEO can be a great help. In the meantime, here’s a checklist you can use to pinpoint technical SEO problems requiring attention.

1. Pick a Few Example Pages

Start with one or two pages that are representative of the problems you’re seeing with your site. You can always go through this checklist again with the other pages as you search for technical SEO issues. On the other hand, if the problem is only relegated to a few pages, focusing on those pages might be all that’s necessary.

2. Determine if Google Can Crawl the Page

It’s possible to experience technical SEO issue simply because Google is unable to crawl certain pages. There are a few ways you can find out if this is the problem: 

• Check the robots.txt validator in Search Console 
• Verify you can open a page’s URL with Googlebot Mobile and Googlebot (in Dev Tools) 
• Use the mobile testing tool to verify you can access the IP address 
• Use a VPN (virtual private network) to make sure your site is accessible from other countries (if you’re also targeting visitors outside of the U.S.)

3. Look for Conflicting Indexing Directives

Let’s assume Google can actually crawl your pages. In this case, the problem could be conflicting indexing directives. For instance, a page might have a canonical tag that tells Google to crawl it and a no-index tag that tells search bots to skip it. Some places to look for indexing issues include: 

• Sitemaps 
• HTTP headers 
• Google Search Console settings

4. See if Google Is Consistently Crawling Pages

Get to your log files to see what Google is seeing and how bots are accessing your webpages. Check crawling patterns by plotting your status codes over time. Make sure Google is downloading all resources associated with each page. Look for differences between maximums and minimums for your pages and resources that may suggest Google isn’t downloading all resources.

5. View Pages Through Google’s Eyes

Use the Fetch & Render and Mobile-Friendly test tools to see what kind of errors Google may be seeing, then use the Diff Checker tool to compare results from the Fetch & Render and Mobile-Friendly tools with what you’re seeing in your browser.

6. Find Out if Google Is Seeing Something Different Than What You’re Seeing

In some instances, Google might be seeing something different from what you saw when using the tools mentioned in the previous step. For instance, Googlebot may spend less time rendering JavaScript than what testing tools usually do. Other times, the issue may be related to overloaded servers or caching.

7. Determine if Google Is Confusing Your Webpages with Similar Ones

Sometimes, Google runs across pages with duplicate pieces of content. When this happens, bots may get confused. For example, you might have a competitor intentionally copying and using your content. An effective way to identify this problem is do to an exact match search (e.g., placing quotes around a large piece of content and performing a search to see if matching content shows up).

8. Check for Other Possible Technical SEO Problems

Look for other possible technical SEO problems that may be affecting your webpages, which means taking a moment to check for things such as: 

• Poorly constructed or invalid HTML 
• Lack of an XML sitemap 
• Incorrect/missing robots.txt 
• Slow page speed 
• Incorrect rel=canonical 
• Multiple URL versions

If you can’t find the problem after running through this checklist, try website testing tools to see if any technical issues you may have overlooked can be identified. Even if you’re not yet seeing any signs of technical SEO issues, it never hurts to be proactive by keeping track of your site’s performance so problems can be discovered and resolved as quickly as possible. If you’re still not having any luck, an SEO professional should be able to dive into the inner workings of your site to see what’s going on. Look for a trusted agency that provides high-quality SEO services. San Diego businesses and many other companies across the globe have relied on Saba SEO to assist them with a wide array of SEO-related issues. If you’d like to learn more, call us today at 858-277-1717 to schedule an appointment.