May 2019 - Saba Digital Marketing

Google My Business Explores Premium Features for a Monthly Fee

Posted on May 31, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Google My Business has been a free tool for organizations to list their businesses online, which has been essential for ranking in local SEO (search engine optimization) searches. Recently, Google has been sending out surveys asking businesses what they would want if Google My Business became a premium paid service, as this would change the nature of a free Google search. The San Diego SEO service experts at Saba SEO discuss a few of the products that may be available if Google My Business offers premium features for a fee.

Verified License

Google would verify any professional licenses you provide them. After the verification process is completed, your verified license would be included in your Google My Business listing.

Google Map Pin

What could be easier than having your business location pinned on Google Maps? A paid listing would include this handy tool to make it easier for customers to find you.

Book Button

A premium listing would include the book button placed prominently in your Google listing. A customer would be offered product or time availability options, and they could book it right from your listing.

Verified Reviews

Google would guarantee verified reviews, which give potential customers an authentic seal of approval.

Automated Response

Google could also set up automated message responses and automated review responses. Your business could set up generic responses to instantly reply to any reviews or messages. Customers feel more confident about doing business with companies that acknowledge them.

Background Check

At the premium level, Google My Business could offer a background check they would publish on your listing, which would give new customers more confidence in trying your product or service.

Video

Your Google My Business already shares what you include in your business profile and your social media. This premium service could also offer a video of your choosing. Video is growing in importance, and Google would publish your video on your site.

Google Guarantee

Google wants you to pay for the Google Guarantee, which assures customers they’re dealing with an authentic business. Customers can feel comfortable sharing their credit card and other personal information when purchasing products backed by the Google Guarantee.

It’s hard to keep up with the rapid pace of Google’s changes and updates, so it’s best to let the experts at Saba SEO take care of your online ranking. We are one of the premier San Diego marketing companies, and we have more than ten years of experience in search engine optimization, website design, content development, and Internet marketing. Our experts stay up to date on the latest Google changes so we can offer customized solutions to help you increase your search engine ranking. Whether you need a mobile-friendly website or high-quality content, we are here to help. Call us at 858-277-1717 to schedule an appointment with one of our SEO experts.

Do Nofollow Internal Links Affect SEO?

Posted on May 29, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Some SEO tools may advise you that a nofollow internal link will affect your performance on search engine results pages (SERPs). Advice like this is often given because no SEO tool takes human perspective into account—at least not yet. The truth is that using nofollow internal links won’t have an impact on how your site performs on any search engine. The SEO experts from Saba SEO, a premier San Diego SEO agency, offer a closer look at nofollow internal links and what they really mean in the world of SEO.

What Is a Nofollow Internal Link?

Before going any further, let’s define what a nofollow internal link really is. Google defines it as a link from your website you don’t want search engines to pay attention to for ranking purposes. These links have no SEO value. However, human visitors to your website can still use them.

Each Search Engine Treats Nofollow Links Differently

Google routinely defines nofollow links as ones that literally mean “do not follow this link.” However, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines treat this attribute a bit differently. “Nofollow” is actually meant to be used for instances when the author of a website isn’t likely to be responsible for the linked content.

Nofollow Internal Links Sometimes Make Perfect Sense

There may be times when you don’t want some of your internal pages to show up on SERPs. As long as you’re doing this for perfectly legitimate reasons, there’s no reason using nofollow internal links should impact your SEO results. For example, you might use this attribute for:

• Your login screen
• Ad content on your website
• The blog comments section on your site
• Internal pages that aren’t an accurate reflection of your site’s content

Nofollow Links Don’t Automatically Raise Red Flags

Google is well aware of the fact that some internal website content with links shouldn’t be followed. After all, do you really want searchers judging your site based on what’s said in random blog comments you can’t control? There are also some webpages with internal links that are only meant to make navigation easier. The point is Google won’t automatically scrutinize your site more carefully just because you have internal nofollow links.

Finally, be aware that any nofollow link will only work as intended if you pair it with a noindex command. This command needs to be on the destination page. Also, there can’t be any other links that are meant to be followable on the same page.

There are good reasons to use nofollow internal links, and you can rest easy knowing they won’t harm your rank. If you need help setting up links on your site, understanding how search engines view your content, or developing your overall SEO strategy, call on the SEO experts from Saba SEO, an industry-leading provider of San Diego SEO services with more than a decade of experience. Reach out to one of our SEO specialists today at 858-277-1717.

Tips for Investing in Content the Smart Way

Posted on May 27, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Content is only going to be good for your bottom line if you invest in it wisely, and it helps to have a firm grasp of what’s likely to work, the content-related goals you should be shooting for, and whether you’re putting your time and effort into topics likely to attract the right kind of attention online. The Internet marketing experts at Saba SEO, a premier firm specializing in SEO in San Diego, take a closer look at what you’ll need to know to invest smartly in content.

Choose Quality Over Quantity

If you have the time and budget to crank out really awesome content at a high volume, that’s great! Realistically, though, most businesses don’t have the ability to do this. Instead of settling for a bunch of mediocre or uneven content, put more effort into producing higher-quality content. Generally, producing high-quality content involves:

Using expert quotes, when appropriate
Spending more time preparing in-depth articles with longer word counts
Including top-quality images or graphics

Regularly Update Your Content

Just because content is performing well doesn’t mean it will always generate the same amount of traffic, clicks, leads, or conversions. Even the best content needs to be updated on a regular basis, which you can do by:

Adding more recent facts
Incorporating responses to feedback you’ve received on your well-performing content
Removing anything that makes your content seem outdated

Pick Topics You Can Rank First For

These days, Google routinely “borrows” from content to produce results that show up directly on search engine results pages, which could mean fewer clicks back to your website. Because of the desire to present more info for searchers, there’s no longer much difference between ranking at number 2 or number 22. If you have a topic you know you can’t rank first for, you’ll be better off choosing another topic. Possibilities include:

Using a sub-niche topic instead
Picking an entirely different topic that’s not thoroughly covered by your competitors
Using tools like Answer the Public to find out what popular questions you can answer with your content based on topics related to some of your main keywords

One other way to invest smartly in content is to dive deeper into the data related to your existing content, which can allow you to identify content gaps and learn what pieces of content and which topics resonate well with your intended audience.

The smartest investment you can make is paying close attention to the quality of your content to ensure it’s timely and relevant to your target audience. As one of the premier marketing companies in San Diego, Saba SEO can help you create content that boosts your rank. With more than ten years of experience in Internet marketing, web development, and search engine optimization, we can help you create high-quality content and effective long-term SEO strategies. To talk to one of our content marketing experts, give us a call today at 858-277-1717.

How to Use Machine Learning to Build Your Own Search Ranking Algorithm

Posted on May 24, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Machine learning is all about identifying patterns in data. When the task at hand is determining how to present the information searchers see online, Google, Bing, and other leading search engines apply the concept of machine learning in a way that’s designed to improve the accuracy of results. However, you may be surprised to know you can also use machine learning to create a search ranking algorithm specifically for your needs. Here’s how, brought to you by the experts at Saba SEO, a premier San Diego SEO company.

Set Your Algorithm Goal

Before you start to build your own search ranking algorithm with machine learning, you have to know exactly why you want to do so. A common reason is to better align products and services with what shows up on search engine results pages (SERPs). Because everyone can evaluate relevance differently, it helps to know what you think is relevant to your target audience.

Gather Data

Machine learning won’t work without data, which can be collected by gathering SERP results and using actual humans to rate those results based on how relevant they are to what’s being searched for. As you continue with this process, you’ll get a set of queries and URLs. Split this data into a training set and a test set. A quality rating will be assigned to queries for both sets so algorithm performance can be measured and evaluated.

Determine Your Model Features

A “feature” refers to characteristics that define each document or piece of content. This information is used to make a prediction about how relevant a document will be to a searcher’s query. Possible features might include:

A document’s word count
The language your document is written in
Document scores based on what’s shown in a link graph

It’s entirely possible that some features won’t predict the quality or relevance of a search either positively or negatively. Some will also be negative. However, it’s good to have this type of mix so your algorithm can “learn.”

Train Your Algorithm

Ideally, you want a ranking algorithm that maximizes your search engine results page ratings from the set of queries and URLs you prepared with their respective quality ratings. You want results grouped from higher to lower quality ratings.

Make Appropriate Adjustments

When you have a lower rating ranking above a higher one, you’ll have a pairwise error. You’ll have to go through a “rinse and repeat” process as you adjust features until you get the appropriate order.

Evaluate Your Algorithm’s Performance

See how well your ranking algorithm is doing by comparing the training set with the test set. The results you get from each set should line up fairly closely.

Do an Online Evaluation

An evaluation will allow you to see if you’re observing search behaviors that suggest real users are satisfied with the results. As you do this, you’ll learn more about the behavior of your intended online searchers.

Results are often subjective. For instance, if a searcher goes back to the original search page quickly after visiting your landing page, it could be because the info presented was so good it gave them exactly what they wanted. On the other hand, maybe your linked page didn’t deliver. Even so, each time you evaluate your results and make adjustments, you’ll be learning more about your intended audience.

If you’d like more information on building your own search ranking algorithm, call on the SEO specialists at Saba SEO. As an industry-leading SEO company in San Diego, we have more than a decade of experience in search engine optimization, website design and development, and social media marketing. To learn more about how we can help you enhance your overall SEO strategy, reach out to us today at 858-277-1717.

3 Tips for Organizing Digital Assets to Enhance Content Marketing

Posted on May 22, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Content is the heart of most online marketing efforts. That being said, content isn’t going to be all that useful if it’s not well organized and prioritized. In some situations, you might not have enough content. However, it’s more common these days for businesses to have so much content it becomes overwhelming. Read on to discover three smart ways to organize your content-related digital assets, provided by Saba SEO, one of the top-tier marketing companies in San Diego.

1. Know What You Already Have

Before you take any other steps, you’ll have to know what content you already have. Create a database or a basic spreadsheet that clearly inventories your content. Take note of such things as:

The date each piece of content was created
Who the target audience is/was
What product and/or service it’s related to
Whether or not it’s still easily accessible (e.g., do you own the source file?)
The source of the content (e.g., written by you or your staff or acquired from an outside source)
How effective the existing content has been

2. Determine Your Content’s Status

Assign a status to each piece of content so you’ll know what’s usable, what’s not, and what needs some attention before it can be used. A simple way to do this is to focus on three main questions about your content:

Is it still relevant and usable?
Is it clearly something that’s no longer relevant?
Does it need to be updated before it can meet your needs again?

2. Identify the Content You Actually Need

Once you know what you have and the status of each piece of content, identify any gaps you have within your content. This way, you can focus on what you actually need without wasting your time duplicating content that’s still viable. Having a better understanding of your content also allows you to:

Determine how your content aligns with your marketing goals and objectives
Figure out how to leverage your content in a more effective way
Put together a cost-effective and sensible plan to update existing content or obtain what you need

If you need help organizing your digital content, call on the professionals at Saba SEO. We’re premier experts in Internet marketing San Diego businesses rely on for content development, SEO, and website management. With more than ten years of firsthand experience in helping clients with social media marketing, PPC, SEO, search engine optimization, and website design, we can help you manage your content to boost your website ranking and reach your target customers. Give us a call today at 858-277-1717.

Article vs. Category Page Rankings: Which Should You Focus On?

Posted on May 20, 2019 by admin@saba4321

One of the recent challenges for content creators is determining whether category or article page rankings are more important to SEO (search engine optimization) rankings. What’s the difference between category and article page rankings? The digital marketing experts from Saba SEO, a premier SEO company San Diego businesses rely on for high-quality expertise, explain how categories and articles rank differently.

What a Category Is

A category is a basically a topic header. The information included in different articles within that category are smaller pieces of the bigger puzzle. Each article links back to the main page of the category. Those articles also link to authoritative sites.

Why an Article Can Lower SEO

An article can lower your site’s SEO if it’s not related to any of your categories. If you have only two categories, such as one on “vegetables” and another on “fruit,” an article on “fish” wouldn’t fit into either. If it was published on your site, Google would be confused as to what your site was all about. You’ve promoted it as a fruit and vegetable site, but now you’ve added fish to the mix. Now Google questions your brand authority, and your SEO will likely decrease. Creating a specific category for fish would indicate your authority has been extended to include fish. By adding a new category, you’re demonstrating your expertise to Google, which increases your SEO.

How to Build Pillar Content

Google is looking for professionals and will rank sites that are experts in their fields. One natural way of accomplishing this ranking is to offer a series of categories with related topics. This method creates a knowledge base that proves to Google and customers that you’re a one-stop site. You have all the information they’re looking for and the solution customers need. Google also rewards your SEO because using pillar content is more organized and creates an improved user experience, which ticks an important SEO box.

Understanding how categories and articles fit into your SEO strategy can help you boost your page’s rank, build your customer base, and, ultimately, increase revenue. For expert assistance with your SEO planning and execution, rely on the experienced professionals from Saba SEO, a premier provider of SEO services San Diego businesses trust to deliver high-quality expertise with integrity. Give us a call today at 858-277-1717.

Awesome SEO Competitor Analysis Tools

Posted on May 17, 2019 by admin@saba4321

In the world of SEO, competitive analysis is the act of comparing your website to sites belonging to businesses competing for the same online searchers. Basically, what you’re doing is getting a general feel for your competitors’ online marketing strategies. The idea isn’t to copy them. Instead, you should use this knowledge to fine-tune your own strategy. Here are some amazing tools you can use for SEO competitive analysis, brought to you by the experts at Saba SEO, a premier SEO company in San Diego.

KWFinder

Use the SERP analysis feature in this tool to identify your top competitors for your various keywords. This info can be used to alter your own keyword strategy or search for similar terms/phrases that can still perform well for you even with lower volumes.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a well-known backlinks tool, but it also generates a Content Gap report. The report will show you the keywords your competitors are targeting that you may have overlooked.

SEMrush

This award-winning tool presents easy-to-read charts, detailed organic traffic analytics, and backlink and keyword gaps. It will also provide a thorough assessment of your competitors’ overall online performance by showing:Your competitors’ search engine marketing (SEM) approach

Effective SEO methods being used on competing websites
Sites or pages linked to your competitors’ sites but not yours
Competitors’ ad tactics and strategies

Rank Ranger

Rank Ranger is a good tool to use if you just want a direct comparison between your website and your competitors’ sites. You’ll also see websites within your niche that are among Google’s top 20 search results for various keywords. Also, you can see what your competitors are doing to attempt to boost their click-through rates (CTRs).

Mangools

This tool uses nearly 50 metrics to analyze competitors appearing on Google’s search engine results pages. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to quickly figure out what your competitors are doing to rank well on SERPs. Specific competitor analysis features include:

An analysis of competitor websites’ total online presence
Backlinks profiles for competitors
An analysis of local search results based on various SERP features

This is just a handful of the many tools available for SEO competitive analysis purposes. UpCity’s SEO Report Card is worth considering as well if you want to get a summary of your site’s strengths and weaknesses. Moz Pro will also give you a lot of SEO insights you can use to make your website more competitive. Lastly, try WooRank to track your progress as you make adjustments to your SEO strategy based on what you learn from getting to know your competitors’ strategies better.

If you need help optimizing your business’s SEO strategy, reach out to the experienced professionals at Saba SEO, the leading experts on SEO in San Diego. We can help you with search engine optimization, online marketing, social media management, web design, and much more. Give us a call today at 858-277-1717 to learn more about our high-quality service.

10 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Content Marketing

Posted on May 15, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Content is still king in terms of how it can encourage interaction in the form of clicks, shares, and conversions. Still, there are times when content marketing missteps can have the wrong kind of impact on a business and brand. The experienced content marketing experts from Saba SEO, a leading provider of San Diego SEO services, offer these ten content marketing mistakes you’ll definitely want to avoid.

1. Getting Facts Wrong

Startling statistics and compelling facts can be excellent ways to grab attention with your content. However, if you get some of those facts wrong, your credibility and trustworthiness will take a big hit. Check and double-check any facts you use within your content to make sure you’re passing along accurate info.

2. Going Off Topic

Nothing frustrates content viewers or readers more than something that promises to be about one thing and then deviates to unrelated topics. Stay on topic and avoid unnecessary filler. If you do need some extra material, consider:

Using quotes from reputable people within your industry related to your topic
Presenting related facts in bulleted or numbered lists

Briefly mentioning a minimum of one or two related topics towards the end of your content before doing a brief recap of your main topic

3. Writing About Irrelevant Topics

You’re not going to be doing your brand any favors if you’re writing about topics your intended audience simply isn’t interested in. Tools like Answer the Public and Google Trends can be used to get a better idea of various topics people within your target audience are searching for online.

4. Presenting Inconsistent Content

Content marketing is only going to work well for your brand if you stick to certain messages that fit in with your brand’s unique image. Avoid the temptation of trying to follow trends or copy what’s working for other brands. You’re more likely to increase brand recognition if you maintain a consistent tone with your content in all its various forms (e.g., website text, videos, images, social and blog posts, and ad copy).

5. Copying Content

There’s nothing wrong with checking out your competitors’ content to get an idea of what they’re presenting to the same audience. However, you want to make sure your own content offers a unique spin that’s right for your business. Copying content can also result in an abundance of bad things for your brand, including:

Duplicate content issues with Google
Lost credibility
Diminished SEO value

If you really want to use somebody else’s content, link back to the source, which is also a good way to get backlinks.

6. Publishing Inconsistencies

Having a sporadic approach about content presentation can be really frustrating for your target audience. Fortunately, there are content scheduling tools you can use to maintain consistency in how often you present content. You can even bank some content and determine when you want it published.

7. Having No Content Marketing Strategy

You’re only setting yourself up for disaster if you start putting out content without first having a clear strategy in mind. One way to do this is with a pillar-and-cluster strategy, which means you’ll have a page with one main topic (the “pillar” page), and subsequent pages (the “cluster”) that link to your main page will cover subtopics related to your main topic.

8. Focusing on One Type of Content

You’ll have a hard time ranking well on search engine results pages (SERPs) if you only focus on one type of content. You’ll get better results if you mix things up with a diverse content marketing strategy. Options include:

Video content
Infographics
In-depth articles
Engaging blog and social posts
Live-streaming content

9. Not Tracking Results

You’re not going to know what is and isn’t working with your content marketing strategy if you’re not tracking results. There are plenty of tools you can use to keep tabs on how all your content is performing online. Google Analytics and SEMRush are just a couple examples.

10. Forgetting Calls to Action

If your goal with content marketing is to generate leads and inspire conversions, you need to tell people viewing your content what you want them to do, which is why you need calls to action that are clear, concise, and compelling.

The professionals at Saba SEO, a premier San Diego SEO agency, can help you avoid these types of mistakes and provide expert assistance with all your content marketing efforts. We have more than a decade of hands-on experience helping clients with social media marketing, PPC, and SEO. If you need help boosting your website ranking with outstanding content, give us a call today at 858-277-1717.

Choosing Content: Quality vs. Quantity

Posted on May 13, 2019 by admin@saba4321

Ideally, it would be great if you could crank out an abundance of content that’s Pulitzer Prize–worthy on a regular basis. However, this is rarely realistic. What often happens is that efforts to increase content output result in some oversights with regard to quality. Which way should you go if you’re a content marker looking to produce a sufficient amount of high-quality content? The professionals from Saba SEO, one of the premier content marketing companies in San Diego, answer this question by taking a closer look at the quantity vs. quality debate.

The Benefits of Quantity

All published content has the potential to generate more traffic for your website, especially from organic search sources, which can be a good thing. However, if there are quality issues, the impact could be less impressive. There’s also evidence that quantity helps with lead-generation efforts. Cranking out more content could also mean:

More emails sent out to carefully targeted recipients
More social media posts to spark online engagement
Increased brand promotion and message amplification
Greater brand awareness as more consumers are “touched” by your content

Why Quality Matters

Quality is subjective when it comes to content marketing. You can have a really awesome piece of content, but it’s not going to do you much good if it’s not getting read, viewed, or shared. Also, if you always opt for quality over quantity and present less content, you may not get as much traffic or brand awareness or as many leads and conversions. On the plus side, high-quality content has its rewards as well, some of which include:

Making a really good impression on the people viewing it
Attracting the right kind of attention from Google
Earning higher rankings on results pages
Getting links from reputable sources

Finding a Happy Medium

It’s not really a question of quantity or quality—you need both. It comes down to finding a happy medium that works for you. With quantity, determine how much time you can realistically devote to producing content or how much you can afford to pay to have someone create it for you. With quality, tap into your analytics data to see how your content is performing. The feedback your content is getting can also give you an idea of how well you’re doing with quality. There are also plenty of ways to increase your content volume and promote really well-crafted content. Options include:

Reaching out to online influencers willing to promote your content on their websites, social media pages, or blogs
Soliciting user-generated content
Welcoming guest bloggers who are willing to contribute content

Content marketing, on average, makes up about 25 percent of a brand’s overall marketing budget. Business-to-consumer companies typically spend more on content marketing than business-to-business companies. Even if resources are limited, there are smart ways to find an optimal quantity-quality balance. As a content marketer, you’ll have to determine how to tip the scales based on your needs and priorities.

If your content isn’t boosting your rank and drawing in customers, take a look at your balance between quantity and quality to see if you can make some changes that appeal to a wider audience. For assistance with developing content that increases your rank and boosts revenue, call on the experts at Saba SEO, a premier San Diego SEO service provider with almost fifteen years of experience helping businesses grow by creating valuable content that ranks highly. To move your content strategy to the next level, give us a call today at 858-277-1717.

5 SEO Trends You Don’t Need to Obsess About

Posted on May 10, 2019 by admin@saba4321

When there’s a lot of buzz about certain SEO trends, there’s a tendency to feel like you need to get on board. However, not all search engine optimization trends need to be given your full attention, even though they may still be worthy of your consideration. Other times, there are smarter ways to embrace certain trends you may not have considered. Here are five specific things related to SEO you really shouldn’t obsess over as you plan and manage your optimization efforts, brought to you by Saba SEO, a premier provider of SEO services San Diego businesses rely on for unmatched expertise and high-quality service.

1. Voice Search

Optimizing for voice essentially means answering questions people are likely to verbally ask to find something online related to your business. “Voice search” has been all the rage for the past few years, even though its use is down in 2019. If you’re considering embracing voice search, do some research to determine if there are practical ways it could boost your desired online marketing results.

2. Duplicated Local Landing Pages

Some businesses use duplicated local landing pages to rank well for different locations. The problem is that such pages don’t really do all that much for the user experience. Also, you run the risk of duplicate content errors, since there are only so many ways to rewrite the same content over and over. If you really do need to use duplicated landing pages, improve the user experience by including:

First-person testimonials
References to local business districts for added local SEO appeal
Unique references specific to problems common in each target area
Optimized metadata for images on these pages

Bonus tips: Set up a Google My Business page for a service area business. Also, consider a metro page instead of city-specific pages.

3. Multiple Local Citations

There are case studies that show having your business listed in multiple directories has real SEO-related value. However, you don’t want to overlook quality in the process. Instead, focus on top-tier citations before moving on to industry-specific listings.

4. Keyword Rank Tracking

There are numerous tools you can use to track how your keywords are performing. The potential problem here is that you may not be getting the most accurate impression of how well your keywords are performing, especially if you’re tracking a large volume of keywords at once. Instead, narrow your focus to fewer keywords—meaning somewhere around 25–30 at a time instead of hundreds. With fewer keywords, you can use your keyword tracking tools along with your own manual search efforts to see if your keywords are really performing as expected.

5. Guest Posting

Posting on relevant sites can be a good way to expose your brand to a wider audience. However, guest post networking is less effective. Because such networks usually share the same IP address, search engines may flag your posts as spam. Instead, put together your own guest post outreach strategy, which also gives you the opportunity to target publications more specific to your industry or niche.

You’ll be better off with your SEO efforts if you pay less attention to trends and more attention to what matters most to your target audience. If you still have some doubts about what to consider with SEO, tap into your data to see what’s working and where some newer techniques and technologies may be appropriate.

New SEO trends seem to be popping up every day, so it’s difficult for businesses to know what’s important to pay attention to. If you need help analyzing the value of the latest SEO trends and prioritizing your SEO tactics, reach out to the experts at Saba SEO, an industry-leading SEO company in San Diego. For almost fifteen years, we’ve been helping businesses craft effective SEO strategies that maximize rank and optimize revenue. Give one of our SEO specialists a call today at 858-277-1717.