Saba Digital Marketing

How Amazon’s New Home Services Could Affect SEO

If you have been keeping up with marketing news, you may have heard that Amazon has launched a new marketplace for local businesses called Amazon Home Services. In brief, this new service allows consumers to order and schedule services ranging from plumbing to interior design. Beyond sounding like an easy fix for everyday tasks, leading San Diego SEM companies think Amazon Home Services may have several positive effects on your SEO efforts.

Web Content Marketing

For home services, the traditional way of driving sales was to use search engine marketing or physical advertisements. While these still have a large role to play, Amazon Home Services will provide you with another means of selling your services. Since Amazon is one of the most visited websites on the internet, a link back to your site will play a large role in improving your search engine rank. This will help you gain a larger readership and direct sales.

Reviews

Amazon Home Services will provide you with a highly credible platform for reviews. Customers will be able to review your services through Amazon’s established review system. If you provide good services, this may drive local sales to your company in the future. This also offers you an opportunity to positively engage your customers by allowing you to address any of their issues. This can turn negative reviews into a win for your company. Having reviews on Amazon also increases the chance of your business appearing high in search results.

Credibility

Since local businesses must apply and be checked by Amazon before using the Home Services platform to sell services, essentially all companies on Amazon are deemed credible. This can increase customers’ trust in your company and drive sales. Along with building your brand among people in your local community, Amazon’s credibility ranking for you may go on to improve your credibility with Google. In turn, this could increase sales that come from organic searches.

Learn more about increasing your online visibility or leveraging your current SEO efforts by reaching out to Saba, Inc. We provide social media, SEO, and AdWords San Diego companies trust. Call us today at (858) 277-1717 and request a free website audit.

Questions to Ask Your Future Online Marketing Team

When you are hiring an online marketing firm in San Diego, you should do your research ahead of time so you can be sure that you are getting the services and support that you need. While you certainly need to know the company’s basic services and rates, there are some questions that often go unasked that are important to determine a firm’s legitimacy and fit for you.

What Tools Do You Use to Track Progress?

This question will give you some insight into what your online market team will do with regards to analytics, but it will also demonstrate their credibility. If the firm gives vague details or cannot give you a clear answer, it’s a good assumption that they are not a valid company. A credible company will explain their analytics tool, how they determine success, and when they’ll provide reports to update you on the progress.

How Quickly Will my Website’s SEO Improve?

If you are working with an online marketing company and are interested in SEO services, asking this question is a test to determine a firm’s trustworthiness and credibility. If the SEO team states that they will greatly improve your website rank within a few days or even a couple weeks, you should be skeptical. Most search engine algorithms do not allow websites to improve rank in this short amount of time, so it is likely that answers like this are pure sales talk. A credible San Diego SEO firm will set a month by month timeline of their goals to improve your SEO.

Can I See Some Examples of Your Work?

One of the best indicators of an effective online marketing firm is an example of previous work. If your potential online marketing team can show you cases of how they expanded a website’s traffic by over 50% in less than three months (or another figure within a reasonable time frame), you can bet that they have a top-quality system of optimizing your website. You should also pay attention to the kind of website that they worked on. Internet users react to various kinds of websites differently, so the same results should not necessarily be expected all the time.

Interested in learning more about online marketing? Perhaps you’re looking for a new company to help you succeed in the future. Whatever the reason, reach out to Saba, Inc. at (858) 277-1717 and request a free consultation and website audit. Along with SEO services, we provide PPC services, mobile app development, and web design and development for San Diego businesses and companies throughout the nation.

Today’s Top Online Marketing Trends

In an online world that is becoming increasingly connected to innovative people and companies from across the world, it is more important than ever to keep your marketing skills ahead of the game. Learn the online marketing trends of today to improve your business’ or blog’s online presence.

Social Media is Changing

The use of social media for online marketing has been a topic of discussion ever since Mark Zuckerberg’s founding of Facebook. Like all useful and innovative tools, social media changes rapidly. Those who wish to take advantage of it must utilize all of the social media tools available on a variety of networks. Business owners can make their brand far more recognizable if they effectively use Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ for online marketing.

Content Must be Mobile

If you have been paying attention to the purchasing habits of people across the world, you know that smartphones and tablets have become more popular than ever among almost all age groups. Both young children and the elderly are using mobile devices to browse the internet and perform tasks in their daily lives. This opens up an opportunity to promote your content on a new playing field. If you create a mobile app or responsive version of your website, you will be ensuring that people are able to view your content and promotions.

Social Impact and SEO are Related

In the past, your contents’ impact on social media and its search engine ranking were not necessarily related. As Google and other search engines continue their goal of providing users with high-quality content, the presence of your content on social media sites may affect your site’s credibility and reputation. For example, an article that has been shared 3000 times on Facebook may have a higher search engine rank than an article that has only been shared two times.

Have other questions about how to market your website in today’s new online world? Reach out to Saba, Inc. at (858) 277-1717 and speak with an online marketing expert. We specialize in SEO in San Diego and also offer a wide range of other internet marketing services including PPC, web design and development, social media management, and more. Schedule your free consultation today!

What’s the Difference Between SEM and SEO?

With so many internet marketing acronyms floating around, it can be hard to know what they all mean. Most people researching digital marketing have heard of SEO and SEM, but what’s the difference? Both involve digital marketing with search engines, keyword research, and ongoing campaign optimization. However, each term has slightly different meanings, advantages, and applications.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

In short, search engine marketing means “marketing with search engines.” This includes any and all types of marketing strategies, from search engine optimization (SEO) to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Since the term is still relatively new, the term itself might carry different nuances depending on who’s talking. Generally, SEM often focuses on the use of sponsored search results and paid advertising. This form of advertising is sometimes called “paid search,” since you are paying to include your ad next to specific searches.

SEM, when thought of as paid advertising, is relatively straightforward: you pay for ad space that appear next to your chosen search queries, then test and optimize the advertising campaign over time. With this type of marketing, it’s much easier to track your ROI and your results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is another type of marketing that focuses only on improving search engine rankings. Technically, it would be classified as one SEM technique.

It is well-known that top-ranking search results earn many more clicks than search results that fall farther down the page. In fact, the vast majority of people almost never click past the first page of search results. This is why SEO receives such emphasis from online marketers who understand how important it is to rank well.

SEO includes a variety of strategies and approaches, but there are two primary strategies: gaining inbound links (backlinks) and improving on-site keyword optimization. The techniques for earning more inbound links and maintaining on-site SEO change over time, and, like SEM, require ongoing investments and optimization.

Interested in Learning More?

To learn more about SEM and SEO for your business, call (858) 277-1717 and request a free website audit and consultation with the internet marketing experts at Saba, Inc. We’re more than happy to answer any of your questions and can help you determine the right marketing mix for increasing online visibility and traffic. We look forward to hearing from you!

When is it Time to Outsource Your Marketing?

When your small business began, there’s a good chance it consisted of you, alone, on the computer, hustling away and trying to create the groundwork for your idea to grow. That means you probably started out handling marketing initiatives on your own. But once your company begins to take shape, it becomes more difficult and less efficient for you to take the marketing reigns yourself.

That leaves us with the question, “Should you think about outsourcing this important part of your business?” Here are the biggest reasons why you might.

  1. There’s Too Much Work

    Whether you’re tackling marketing tasks on your own or you have a few employees to help, there shouldn’t be more to do than your staff can reasonably handle. The aim is to have time to focus on marketing strategy, not just marketing work.

  2. Your Marketing Lacks Diversity

    Ideally, you want to incorporate both traditional marketing channels like print advertisements and inbound marketing methods such as reaching prospective customers via social media and search engine optimization. If you feel like you aren’t using all the tools and channels that you could be, it might be time to get some experienced professionals to come up with new ideas.

  3. Your Results are Poor

    If your revenue is stalling or you’re simply not reaching an audience, you might not even know which direction to turn for improvements. That’s when you can think about approaching a marketing agency who will be able to look at your business rationally from an outside perspective and work with you to come up with viable and affordable solutions.

  4. You Want to Grow Rapidly

    Maybe your marketing strategy has actually worked well so far. That doesn’t mean it’s not a smart idea to give yourself a net as the business grows and expands. A combination of outsourcing and internal marketing can help you keep up with the rapid pace of growth you may be faced with when you’re at the helm of a successful business.

If you’re thinking about expanding your current marketing to include inbound marketing channels like the internet and social media, request a complimentary, no-obligation consultation with the San Diego internet marketing experts at Saba, Inc. We provide a wide range of services for clients in San Diego and throughout the country, all with the goal of increasing visibility online to promote more leads and sales. Call us today at 858-277-1717 for more information!

4 Secrets for Increasing Newsletter Subscriptions

Gaining and retaining newsletter subscriptions is not an easy feat for any organization, yet with the right strategies and forward thinking, you can boost your monthly subscription numbers. Our San Diego online marketing experts share a few newsletter subscription strategies that do not take much time or investment on your part, and you’ll likely see noticeable results almost immediately!

  1. Offer Incentives

    Who doesn’t love getting something for free? One of the biggest reasons people sign-up for anything is to receive free gifts and discounts. Within your newsletters, push your promotions. Whether you are having a sale or you offer monthly discounts to subscribers only, use your newsletters as a place to showcase these incentives. You might also have a giveaway to attract new subscribers.

  2. Don’t Complicate the Process

    Consumers have a nearly unlimited amount of options to choose from online and a relatively short attention span. Do not make your newsletter signup process overly complicated or too long. Only include the information that is essential for your needs so that you don’t drive away potential subscribers.

  3. Consider Twitter Lead Generation Cards

    Today’s consumers are looking for the easiest way to accomplish their goals, which is why social media managers in San Diego love Twitter Lead Generation Cards. A simple call to action can be added to the end of a Tweet, and all the user has to do is click the call to action and their profile information is automatically shared with your business. Because the information received is linked to the user’s Twitter profile, you can also be sure that you’re getting a lead from a legitimate email address.

  4. Use a Data Capture Form

    Sending people away from your website will decrease the chances they will complete a form. If you embed a data capture form on your homepage or other areas throughout your website, this can help to increase your sign-up conversions. The fewer clicks the user has to make, the higher your success rate will be.

These simple secrets will greatly increase your sign-up conversions. Just remember to provide incentives and make the process as easy as possible and you are well on your way to making your newsletter a more effective marketing tool.

For more information about growing your customer base and engaging with current and prospective clients, reach out to Saba, Inc. at 858-277-1717. We are a trusted San Diego SEO company that specializes in organic and pay-per-click marketing, as well as web design and app development. Reach out to us today and request your free website audit to get started.

Can I Really Drive Traffic with a Limited Budget?

You know the importance of having a website and establishing an online presence. But how do you get prospective customers to visit your website? Furthermore, how do you drive traffic with limited funds? If you’ve asked yourself these questions before, worry not, you are just one of many. Driving traffic on a limited budget is a problem faced by companies big and small, but fortunately, there are viable solutions.

It All Starts with a Plan

When you have a limited budget, any San Diego internet marketer will stress the importance of creating a strategic plan to map out exactly how that budget is going to be spent. You’ll need to look at all your options for driving online traffic, from Facebook and Twitter to SEO and PPC, so you can decide which strategies would be most relevant for your target audience and why.

Options for Driving Traffic

While there are many ways to drive traffic to a website, here are a few of our favorites:

  • Social Media 

    Social media networks provide outstanding opportunities to promote and share your product or service, and the best part, it’s free! You can directly communicate with people who already love your company in addition to prospective customers who are interested in learning more about what you have to offer. By answering customer questions, sharing promotions, and giving your followers the inside scoop about what your company’s doing, you can enhance your brand’s image, create a loyal fan base, and ultimately, drive traffic to your website.

  • Blogging

    Today, users are constantly looking for information online, wanting the inside scoop on the products or services they’re going to buy. Blogging is free and a great way to communicate this information with a company’s target audience. No one knows your product or industry better than you, so why not share that knowledge. Blogging relevant industry information increases your authority in the space, and when done correctly, can boost visibility in search engines and website traffic.

  • Pay-Per-Click 

    With pay-per-click marketing, you create a campaign that will allow your own customized advertisements to show in Google search results for keywords that you choose. You then pay on a per-click basis, meaning you only pay when a prospective customer clicks on your ad and is taken to your website. You can also set a daily budget, ensuring that your advertising costs are contained to an amount that you are comfortable with. For more about the ins-and-outs of pay-per-click marketing, click here.

  • Search Engine Optimization

    Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing a website (content, title tags and descriptions, headers, page speed, and other metrics) so that it will appear favorably in search engine results pages (SERPs). The basics of SEO can applied by a savvy businessman or woman, but for those who do not have the time to learn about SEO, there are reputable SEO companies in San Diego that can work with your budget to help you attain long-term visibility in SERPs. SEO is often seen as a long-term investment (it may take anywhere from 6-12 months to see results) that will continue to produce traffic month over month.

Testing the Market

Generally, a combination of online marketing strategies should be implemented for 4-6 weeks. Then you can collect data and analytics to determine which strategies are the most successful, allowing you to shift your concentration and budget to the ones that generate the highest returns on your investment.

For more information about driving traffic on a limited budget, reach out to the internet marketing experts at Saba, Inc. We are a premier SEM and SEO company located in San Diego, CA and have clients throughout the United States and Canada. Call us at 858-277-1717 to request a free consultation with one of our web experts.

How the Internet of Things will Change Marketing

To kick off Easter weekend, Amazon shared news of its latest invention, the “Dash Button” which has the potential to connect customers with products faster and with more convenience than ever before. The small button is connected to a home’s wireless internet network, and is programmed to automatically order more product, whether laundry detergent or coffee, when the customer runs out.

The Dash Button marks a potentially dramatic change for how day-to-day tasks will be performed. This type of technologically-advanced future, all intertwined via the internet, has been termed the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s becoming clear that it’s no longer just a buzzword used by internet marketers, but a very real part of our future.

Under the IoT concept, many aspects of day-to-day life will be dependent on the internet. In the business world, for instance, machines will automatically sense when certain products are too low, so managers and store owners never have to worry about placing shipments on time. This data can then be tracked on an ongoing basis, giving companies analytical data that can be examined to determine the success or failure of specific products. How long did product A stay on the shelf? Was product B only popular during a specific season?

With the rise of IoT and its related technologies, power is being placed in the hands of the customer. Along with personal preferences, they have technologies telling them which products may be better for their lifestyle. Smart appliances like washing machines may sense that a certain brand of detergent is better for overall functionality. There’s even talk about refrigerators being able to sense when favorite products are running low, creating a list for the owner that can then be emailed or sent to his or her smartphone.

For businesses and marketers, these types of smart products make it even more important to provide a quality product and create a loyal fan base. Let’s take a look at some of the examples we mentioned above. Perhaps a customer purchases a smart washing machine and also uses the Dash Button for one touch ordering of laundry detergent when they run out. If you manufacturer laundry detergent, it’s crucial to have a quality product that works well with all washing machine appliances. Then, if your laundry detergent is able to retain quality, one-touch reordering goes a step further and creates a customer that is practically guaranteed and brand loyal.

Businesses can anticipate and need to this change by differentiating their products from the competition, which will hopefully help in creating the best products for the customers, without cutting any corners. The IoT is on the horizon and has the ability to flip the world of marketing upside down.

If you own a business and want to know how you can stay relevant in our constantly changing online world, reach out to Saba, Inc. today. We are a trusted, local internet marketing company offering a wide range of services from website design to SEO in San Diego. Call us at 858-277-1717 and request a complimentary consultation and website audit – we’re here to help!

The Hotly Debated Topic of Net Neutrality

So, what is “net neutrality”?

Recently introduced into the American lexicon, net neutrality is the guiding principle that Internet service providers (ISP), such as Verizon or Comcast, should treat all web traffic the same and not discriminate or charge based on content, platform, site, or user. Without net neutrality, ISPs could charge customers for faster access speeds or content delivery.

Who’s For It

Internet giants like Facebook, Google, Netflix, Amazon and eBay are all for net neutrality, and more than 100 technology companies have reached out to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with pleas to protect web users against discrimination. Beyond discrimination, proponents of net neutrality worry about a digital world with rampant Big Brother censorship, where basic access to timely information will be reserved for the rich.

On November 10, 2014, President Barack Obama gave net neutrality the thumbs up, arguing for “no blocking, no throttling and increased transparency.”

Who’s Against It

By and large, ISPs are opposed to net neutrality. Most ISPs stand to significantly deepen their pockets by charging for tiered bandwidth plans, a practice called “paid prioritization.” ISPs trumpet the benefits of laissez faire business, arguing that discriminatory bandwidth fees will encourage them to upgrade their infrastructure, a benefit for everyone.

Impact on Marketing and SEO

Net neutrality is the foundation of modern search engine optimization (SEO) and allows for equal competition among all advertisers. Without it, the scales tip in favor of large companies that can afford to pay for top-tier bandwidth. Meanwhile, small content producers like mom n’ pop enterprises who can’t afford the premiums for “fast lane” content delivery see a significant drop in their website traffic.

Additionally, if ISPs are able to regulate content delivery, not just speed, high-quality media used for things like marketing and breaking news on smaller sites could potentially disappear as well. Website analytics and demographic statistics would be skewed, search engine popularity would be no guarantee of performance, and money would count more than merit.

At Saba, Inc., we’re interested to see how the net neutrality debate plays out and will continue to keep you updated on any breaking news! In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about how the Internet can help grow your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to us – 858-277-1717 – we’re here to help!

Tips for Picking the Perfect Domain Name

A domain name can make or break a website. Your domain name is the name of your business that people remember or forget, and whether or not you receive traffic to your website may very well depend on what name you choose. If you haven’t picked a domain name, the following tips from our San Diego SEO experts will help you avoid some of the common mistakes that could land your website in the dark corners of Google search results.

Short and Sweet

The best domains are those that can be easily recalled and typed in a URL bar. Try to use a domain name that is no more than two syllables and make sure you use a common spelling. Unless you have a ton of money to throw behind a brand campaign, misspelled domain names on purpose won’t do you any good.

Unless you use the name of your company or yourself, your domain name should directly relate to the type of business you’re in. Because the Internet has been around for over two decades now, the most basic of names are taken, or are on sale for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Narrow your niche to come up with something that is more unique, yet is easily identifiable with your business.

Keyword Brainstorm

Your website will be focused around a set number of keywords, and your domain name will be at the very core of your plan. Our San Diego internet marketing experts recommend using the Google Keyword Planning tool to help determine which words are popular enough, yet not too competitive.

Start with three to five strong, basic keywords that explain your website. For example, if you sell shoes, brainstorm around the words “shoes”, “sneakers”, and “running shoes”. These are all very broad terms that are too hard to win, but, when paired with a specific word, you can narrow your niche to a winnable size. For example, if you sell shoes in San Diego, options include sandiegoshoes.com and sandiegoshoesandsneakers.com.

Avoid the Use of Hyphens

Have you recently picked up a book on SEO that was published nearly ten years ago? The Internet marketing game changes on a daily basis, so you should rarely use internet advice from a source so old!

SEO experts that built websites over five years ago commonly used hyphens in domain names to separate the main keyword of the site from the rest of the name. While this trick might have worked before, it’s best to stay away from it now. Google is smart enough to read your domain name, and they care more about the content of the actual website than how you use hyphens in your domain. The hyphen is also a guaranteed way to lose customers who want to find you by manually typing your URL into the search bar.

Finding the right domain name can take weeks, if not months to complete. Tread lightly and never make split second decisions without performing extensive research. For more information about domain name selection, building a responsive website or marketing your business in the online world, reach out to Saba, Inc. at 858-278-1717 and schedule a complimentary, no-obligation consultation with one of our marketing experts today.

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