Three Content Marketing Challenges You Can Say Goodbye to in 2016

Digital marketing expert Qamar Zaman says press release marketing can help businesses overcome three of the biggest content marketing challenges of the past year.

As the new year begins, businesses everywhere have begun putting their plans into action for surpassing the successes seen in 2015 with their marketing efforts. Many who fell short of their goals have gone to great lengths to assess what went wrong during the past year in an effort to get it right this time around.

 

Major Content Marketing Benchmarks and Drawbacks of the Past Year

One of the most significant items placed on the list for assessment is content marketing and what ROI was seen after implementing related strategies.

Before 2015 began, writer Kim Garst wrote in an article published by the Huffington Post that among the top digital marketing trends expected to dominate the year were a decrease in the number of online marketing strategies employed by businesses and content marketing becoming more about quality rather than quantity.

As stated by Garst “A successful content strategy should be about producing first-rate content, not just rehashing or compiling everyone else’s insights. Businesses will finally realize that blah, run-of-the-mill content does very little in terms of increasing search rankings or attracting followers. In fact, they will begin to see that producing low-quality content can actually be damaging in terms of SEO and building trust.” Read more from the Huffington Post here.

According to Qamar Zaman, a digital marketing expert and CEO of online press release distribution service, KISS PR, there were three key challenges that a number of businesses faced in 2015 with regard to content marketing in particular in their effort to focus on quality driven results as opposed to quantity. These included:

• Problems with identifying clear goals
• Failing to promote content effectively
• Problems with utilizing social channels for broad reach

Zaman says these issues gained more prominence for businesses last year because of the frustrations that accompanied the hard hitting changes in the overall landscape for SEO. Zaman, a certified Google analyst says, “Google never wavered from its determination to make sure that search results were spot on matches for user inquiries. The stricter rules made a lot of content businesses were putting out less qualified for the most competitive rankings.”

New Year, New Business Marketing Resolutions

This year, experts are predicting that the evolution of how content can be utilized digitally will make it a major component of marketing strategies for companies of all sizes. Writer Shafqat Islam wrote of the topic in an article recently published by Mashable, “Over the last five years, content marketing has matured and content itself is now the fuel that powers the entire modern marketing engine. Brands will recognize the deeper value of content and put it at the center of the holistic customer experience they provide — every channel, every time, every customer.” To read more visit http://on.mash.to/1JHYtZN.

However, as expressed by Zaman, businesses will have a hard time using content to elevate their success to the levels they are seeking unless they have effectively dealt with the three aforementioned issues specified. Says the CEO, “identifying clear goals, using the right channels for promotion, and making content engaging on social media are going to be paramount to businesses seeking true success with their content marketing efforts throughout the year ahead.”

Zaman says that press release marketing is a driving force that can help businesses accelerate their growth while dealing with a number of content marketing challenges stating, “with a service like KISS PR, businesses have a turnkey solution at their disposal that can provide them with a means of meeting specific target marketing goals, and promoting their content through an extensive network, including on social media.” He proposes that with press releases the three key challenges that impacted so many businesses in 2015 can be easily overcome in 2016.

Zaman’s service is multifaceted in its approach to helping businesses achieve greater visibility through digital promotion. Businesses can contact KISS PR today to inquire about how press release distribution can help with their unique content marketing needs this year.

For more expert business marketing tips from Qamar Zaman, or for more information about the services provided by KISS PR, please visit http://bit.ly/1WPsNDq.

Media Contact:
KISS PR
Salma Zaman
972-646-2788
Connect with KISS PR on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog

Did Google roll out a Brand Bidding Algorithm Update Last Week, Or Was it Part of Penguin 4.0?

A week ago, there’s a bit of a commotion in the SEO community that prompted some to conclude that Google had at last rolled out its most anticipated algorithm update which is Penguin 4.0.  But, after careful checking, reliable sources and even Googlers themselves confirmed that it’s not Penguin yet.  Googler Gary Illyes also confirmed it on his tweet.

So, what really happened?

For those who haven’t caught up yet with this latest algorithm roll out, here’s a quick flashback on what had transpired last week.

 

On the 11th of this month, Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast, reported that they’ve witnessed the biggest and most dramatic changes in Google rankings in the last few years. At first he taught that it’s the most awaited Penguin update, but later on he corrected himself and concluded that it’s a Google core algorithm update.  Here’s what he wrote on his blog.

 

“So… What changed? We don’t know. The changes are… Weird. We’ve been using a couple of datasets to look at this update, but most of all we’re looking at SearchMetrics. They publish a list of winners and losers every week and this week the changes seem to have happened mostly for news sites, specifically for brand terms.”

 

Joost is actually referring to the sudden fluctuation of the SERPs (search engine result pages) that mostly affected news websites wherein brand keywords are the target.

 

Likewise, on the day before that, Dan Petrovic of DejanSEO.com, has a bit similar observation.

 

“It looks like Penguin, but it’s broader in its scope so at this stage it appears to be a multi-purpose update encompassing a range of search quality parameters. From webmaster reports we know this update carries global impact.”

 

Link Research Tools and Search Engine RoundTable also have the similar observations.

But, are there proofs that what Google rolled out or tested was the Brand Bidding Algorithm?

Some experts in the industry concluded that the search giant rolled out an update for its Brand Bidding algorithm, but there are also those who are not convinced.

Joost de Valk is not convinced with the brand bidding algorithm and he quickly explained it in the following blog post.

 

“Bartosz has written a good post (with tons of interesting screenshots if you don’t have access to SearchMetrics), that touches on some of the things I had seen too. He calls it a “brand bidding update”, which I don’t think is right. I do agree with him that the change was in the type of results that Google shows for brand queries. The switch seems to have been from news articles to more “timeless” URLs.”

Our take about this latest unnamed roll out.

This core algorithm update is really something that should be analyzed more deeply.  As of this writing, we noticed that there are only a very few who tried to dig more data to find out what really it is.  Google hasn’t released any statement yet about it and what we mostly read online are just mere speculations and unconfirmed conclusions.

 

Despite the confusions, we think the roll out last week was part of Google’s core algorithm update that they regularly release every now and then, but that one is really big.  And, basing on how it affects branded key terms, it is definitely not related to the much anticipated Penguin 4.0 update.  But, we can’t really say that we are right.  Let us end this article with this interesting comment from one of the members of a Black Hat forum.

 

“There have been massive SERP changes/fluctuations since September/October of 2015. For all we know, Google has been silently rolling out the new Penguin algorithm all this time. It is in their best interest not to announce its rollout when it is actually happening and instead wait for it to roll out, the SERPs to stabilize and then “announce” that they have implemented it. This way they get to avoid the massive PR sh*tstorm which always takes place when they announce large algo updates the moment they take place. Why do you think Matt Cutts is no longer the spokesperson for these updates? They learned that it is better to just be as vague as possible and/or keep everyone in the dark when it comes to large updates.”

 

Lastly, on the 16th of this month, another massive core algorithm update has been rolled out by Google and it is called “Burj Khalifa”. Google has been very sneaky these past few months.  Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for us) they always have the upper hand if they wanted to announce the release of their big algorithm roll outs or not.  Now, it’s your turn to create a conclusion.

Read my latest blog post on SEO 2016 Link Building Fundamentals
Qamar Zaman is a head of SEO and CEO of OneSEOCompany.com

Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog

SEO 2016 Link Building Fundamentals

Qamar Zaman a Dallas based SEO outlines fundamentals to link building In 2016 – 7 Mortal Sins in Off-page Optimization You Should Not Commit Again.

It’s already 2016, but when I checked my inbox this morning, I still got emails from online companies wanting to publish a sponsored post on my blog with a back link to their commerce website. What these people are thinking? Real-Time Google Penguin is expected to hit within this month or early next month and these individuals are still looking for ways to get their websites penalized.

For those who don’t know, Real-Time Google Penguin or simply Penguin 4.0 is one of the most anticipated algorithm update from Google that might have been launched before this write-up has been published. As of this writing, a lot are expecting that it will be released within January or early February, but others said Google will release it on March. But, nevertheless, building backlinks these days should not be trusted to people who are still using black-hat or grey-hat tactics to game the system.

According to experts and insiders, Penguin 4.0 once unleashed will automatically penalize websites with suspicious or shady backlinks. With this information alone, it’s sad to know that there are still SEO practitioners who are still committing these mortal sins in off-page optimization.

7 Mortal Sins in Off-Page Optimization People Are Still Doing These Days

1. Paying bloggers to publish your article and asking them to make the backlink do-follow.

There are still a lot of SEO practitioners who believe that this is something Google won’t notice. I mean, how would Google know if you are paying a blogger or not to get a backlink from their high authority blog site? Nice rationalization, right? But, believe it or not, Google will know. May be not now but later, they will find out that you’re buying links. And, once that happened, it will be too late for you to save whatever it is that needed to be saved.

My point really is, if you are doing sneaky things, better not leave any trace because if you do, well, you are trading the future of your business in exchange to temporary boost in search rankings.

2. Forcefully inserting a SEO keyword as an anchor text in a blog post or landing page.

Believe it or not this practice still happens nowadays. Exact-matched SEO keywords forcefully inserted in a blog article and landing page for the sake of getting high rankings is really a suicide, but why is it that there are still many who are doing this kind of trick these days? Google may not penalize your website now, but their upcoming Penguin 4.0 release will definitely leave “harrowing fatalities” for those who keep doing this abuse.

Real-Time Google Penguin algorithm update is expected to instantly penalize all web pages that show signs of spammy links. Would you wait to be penalized first before you straighten up your act?

3. Commenting on unmoderated .edu or similar websites (with high domain authority) to get “high quality” backlinks.

This trick is outright spammy but you will be shocked at how many people are still doing it these days. Leaving comments on unmoderated .edu pages with exact-matched keywords as usernames is definitely one of the easiest ways to boost rankings in search…before. But, if you are still doing this kind of lousy trick these days, please stop it now.

If you hired a SEO agency before and you have no idea that you have backlinks from these spammy pages, you better start a SEO audit to determine where you can start disavowing all those links before Penguin 4.0 will hit your website. You can search for free SEO audit software online or you can buy premium ones as well.

4. Getting backlinks from a webpage with more than 1000 outgoing links.

This is somehow related to number 3. Imagine having backlinks from unmoderated comment section from a .edu website filled with similar spammy backlinks? What value would it give your website when it has a backlink from another web page filled with spam? If you want to ruin your link reputation, then by all means keep on doing it, but for sure if you are the business owner and you know that you hired someone who is still doing this, then by all means pull out your project immediately.

Getting a backlink from a webpage with excessive number of backlinks can automatically trigger Google’s anti-spam filter and can lead to your page getting de-indexed and penalized.

5. Getting backlinks from web pages with the same IP address.

This is actually a thing in the past. Those days wherein webmasters and SEO experts create blog networks to increase backlinks for their money sites and ultimately increase their search rankings. But, surprisingly, there are still people who are doing it these days. They are the ones who proclaimed that they don’t rely solely on Google, thus they are not afraid to go beyond what is ethical.

The problem here is, despite the fact that they are not bothered if Google will penalize them, what’s the guarantee that other search engines won’t do the same? Any tactic to game the system (any search engine for that matter) is bound to get caught and the culprits will be having their not-much anticipated consequence.

6. Creating too many backlinks with exact-match anchor texts.

Too many exact-match anchor texts and do-follow backlinks are signs that you trying to manipulate the system. Even a simple link audit tool can easily detect that you are building links solely to increase your search rankings. You may not be caught easily now but trust me, in the long run, Google will catch up and all your optimization efforts will fade into thin air.

The best way to avoid getting hit by the next Google algorithm update is to diversify your backlinks and never get obsessed with the do-follow trend. Of course, getting a dofollow backlink is great, but if you have way too many, search engine bots will get suspicious and the next thing you know, your website is already deranked and de-indexed in the SERPs (search engine result pages).

7. Using automated program to create backlinks.

Creating automated backlinks is definitely very unethical and is strongly discouraged by big search engines most especially by Google. But, it’s still surprising to observe that many practitioners in the industry still use automation in the guise that it makes redundant tasks easier to manage. But, despite this, the abuse in using automated software in building backlinks is still rampant among those who are fond of utilizing black-hat SEO to game the system.

Are you still committing these mortal sins in Off-page Optimization these days? If you are, I highly recommend you look for ethical alternatives now, or else suffer irreversible consequences later that can ultimately cost you your job or your business.

Building backlinks should not only focus on increasing its number. It should also focus on creating long lasting relationships with leaders and authority in your niche. Reaching out to bloggers, contacting fellow webmasters for a guest post request, attending SEO conferences, sponsoring social media activities, and getting a free backlinks from all these are the type of link building you should do this 2016. Isn’t it more fulfilling if your link building campaign also reflect on how you do well in building relationships in real life?

Qamar Zaman can be reached at OneSEOCompany.com or via phone call 972.437.8942

Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog

Quality Link Building – Good or Bad Links How Can You Tell?

What are Links and How would You know you have a Good Link or a Bad One

Link building expert from Dallas Qamar Zaman explains – Good/Bad and Ugly Link Building

SEO stands on the spinal cord of the links. All of my friends, the small business owners who indulge in the search engine marketing put in much time and efforts in building links. Good or bad, they don’t care as they don’t understand the concept of link building in the first place, and those who do, have little or no knowledge of measuring the quality of links that they earn.

Before we step into serious discussion of  analyzing the health of links, I want you to understand “Links”. The fine thread, the spinal cord” on which your SEO stands and which helps your web pages to gain authority on the search engines.

“Backlinks enable you to keep track of other pages on the web that link to your posts. For instance, suppose Alice writes a blog entry that Bob finds interesting. Bob then goes to his own blog and writes a post of his own about it, linking back to Alice’s original post. Now Alice’s post will automatically show that Bob has linked to it, and it will provide a short snippet of his text and a link to his post. What it all works out to is a way of expanding the comment feature such that related discussions on other sites can be included along with the regular comments on a post”. Google Support Center

Moz explains links as “For search engines that crawl the vast metropolis of the web, links are the streets between pages. Using sophisticated link analysis, the engines can discover how pages are related to each other and in what ways.”

Pretty simple, but be careful, if you are linked to a site that is not relevant to yours or if it is relevant, its carries no authority or if the site that has earned bad links, your ranking and your website visibility could be in trouble. Hence, now things don’t remain so simple.

There are two main reasons why you would want good linkbacks:

1. To increase the traffic to your website
2. To rank higher on the search engine (SEO purpose)

This is why online marketing companies, business owners and bloggers try and get as many  to their web pages and blogs as possible. But we must think that too many backlinks can be harmful too, if they are coming from the wrong places. Google is ready to penalize all such websites that have spammy links or irrelevant links or you can say bad links. Hence, good link profile is what you need if you want to survive on the search engine landscape.

Let’s see what Neil Patel has to say about good link profile

What Is a “Good Link Profile” and How Do You Get One?

“You know that good link-backs are an important part of SEO. You know how important it is to work at building strong backlinks. You understand the impact of over-optimized anchor text. You realize the toxic effect of links from spam sites and directory listings. But how important is it, really? And, more to the point, how can you get a link profile that Google loves?

I want to explain the components of a “good link profile” and provide suggestions for how you can improve your link profile.”

http://bit.ly/1SolGiZ

Don’t get overwhelmed.

Be careful now. Don’t rush. Link building can sure improve your web traffic and get you a good place on the SERPs, but what if you get bad, spammy linkback. The search engine knows this and you along with your website could be in trouble.

Backlinks can turn out to dangerous for your website and have a negative impact on your search engine marketing.

This could happen if:

• Your website get links from irrelevant sources
• If the links are coming from low quality Sites
• If you have over Optimized the Anchor Link Text
• If you are buying links which could carry links for various low quality or unrelated sites
• You have put Outbound Spam Links

If you have not heard of “Penguin” and if you are not watching your back, you could be in trouble.

Alex Johnson says in his article published on the Search Engine Journal

How To Spot Bad Links & Deciding Whether To Take Action

“Since Google’s Penguin 1.0 update launched in April 2012 (and a recent update on Oct. 4), a painful reality had dawned on us: inbound links could negatively impact on our Google rankings.

Prior to this, the worst an inbound link could do to your site was nothing at all.  Google suddenly changed the rules, and we had to look out for potentially “toxic” links pointing to our sites. Which can be scary, as these links are often out of our control.”

http://bit.ly/1PhnLj0

We are all Google focused. The web visitors Google to search and the businesses Google to promote their businesses. So we have to follow the rules made by the search engine in the effort to provide its users with the best possible search results and giving them value for the time spent by them Googling. This is not to say that Google has anything against the business owners, but the search engine is against the bad or black hat practices done by some webmasters.

Well, penalties can be removed and a reconsideration request could be filed to the search engine to remove the penalties.

But before anything hits your web marketing efforts, why not be cautious and analyze your links.

Neil Patel once again comes to our rescue with his latest blog about determining whether our link are good or bad. Let’s see what he has to say about it.

How to Determine if a Link is Good or Bad

“You want to avoid Google penalties as much as possible, especially now that Google is so concerned about user intent, as opposed to the keyword phrases they search for.

In the past, you could get away with any kind of links. Google frowned at bad links from the beginning, but they didn’t have a system for fishing out culprits. But it’s a different ball game now.

The Panda update redefined content quality. The Penguin update made it clear that Google prefers earned links, not built links.”

http://bit.ly/1SolGj0

Closing

It is about your online reputation and the authority that you can build for your website and web presence. Links have always been important, but with the current Google penalty scenario, we must be careful in earning links or be ready to face the wrath from the leading search engine.

About Me

I have been doing SEO for over 15 years. If you need help in building quality link building outreach check my Link Building Outreach Tips by Dallas Link Building Expert.

Qamar Zaman

OneSEOCompany.com – SEO For Lawyers

Submit Press Release 123 – Affordable Storytelling Using PR

 

Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog

SEO Forecast 2016 By Dallas SEO Expert Qamar Zaman

10 Game Changing SEO Trends Every Small Business Owner Should Know in 2016

A year ago, experts revealed that 57% of marketers believe that SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation. By 2015, Perform Insider reported that on average, conversion rates are 10 times higher from search compared to traffic from social media.

Another report from B2B Marketing last year revealed that every month there are more than 10.3 billion Google searches. From this, they found out that 78% are U.S. internet users who are researching for products and services online. These figures are enough motivation for many small businesses to keep their SEO campaigns thrive especially in an industry wherein big brands always dominate.

SEO in 2016: Why You Should Keep On Innovating?

Unlike other marketing tactics, SEO’s dynamic doesn’t depend on one formula alone. In fact, it’s constantly evolving nature makes it difficult to standardize. The need to keep yourself up to date with the latest changes in search technology is a major aspect that can help you create an effective search engine optimization plan that can withstand the test of competition and of course, the test of time.

To survive and thrive in SEO in 2016 and beyond, one should keep in mind the importance to constantly innovate. Thus, to help you prepare what lies ahead in SEO for the year 2016, we bring you the list of game changing trends which top industry experts predicted to shake the landscape of search marketing next year.

The Top 10 Game Changing SEO Trends Small Business Owners Should Know in 2016

When it comes to SEO, even the thought leaders and experts in the industry can’t agree on the same thing. Everyone has their own opinion, findings, researches, and data that somehow back up their conclusions. Let’s take a look at what the prominent SEO personalities and online marketing experts foresee on how SEO trends can change the landscape of the online marketing industry next year.

1. Ranking on top of the SERPs is not the only way to get organic clicks. (Link Assistant)

This might be a big revelation to some, but for those who keep a closer watch on the day to day changes that have been happening in the search landscape, this is something like a given. The time has come that ranking on top of the SERPs is not the only way to gain organic traffic. How does this come to this? Is this the end of search engine optimization?

The introduction of Google’s different layouts for their search result pages paves way to this game changing dilemma. This forces everyone to rethink their optimization strategies. The need to have a different tactic for each of the SERPs layout such as local pack and paid ads pack is now getting more important. Does this mean that SEO is going to end? Of course not. The thing is, there’s more demand now to optimize content for search as opportunities to gain visibility increases.

2. If you won’t adapt to mobile trends, then you should not just do SEO. (JeffBullas.com)

Mobile is expected to surpass desktop usage by 2016. This prediction is backed up by studies and researches that show how mobile phones become the widely used gadget in browsing the web. According to a survey, search is the most common starting point for mobile research wherein 48% begins on search engines. With these data, there’s no excuse anymore not to optimize your website for mobile platforms. If your website is not mobile friendly, you’ll lose a significant chunk of traffic that could have surely help you increase conversions and sales.

According to Jeff Bullas, businesses should start to have a mobile mindset for all their website and product based decisions. The need to consider how their content would look like on mobile platforms should be taken into account when finalizing their website, product pages, service pages and layouts.

So, why is this a game changer? Those who haven’t switched to mobile yet must now adapt, or else, their competitors can steal the traffic and audience that are supposedly theirs.

3. Conversation Rate Optimization should be reinforced along with SEO. (Business2Community.com)

The need to increase the conversation rate of your webpage is necessary if you don’t want to waste potential prospects who you failed to convert. According to Keith Hodges, this can be done by using a sophisticated web tracking tool such as Google Analytics. This can help you understand how to get prospects convert faster especially those with shorter attention span.

Why is this a game changer? If you are too focused on SEO, there’s a big chance that you will not try CTO because you are already contented with the results of the former. But, for those who fully know how to maximize their resources to increase successful conversions, CTO can help them narrow the lead of their competitors. The traffic that your SEO hasn’t captured, your CTO will.

4. Video would probably rise more in relevance compared to text content. (Forbes.com)

When it comes to return of investments for B2C industries and brands, Jayson DeMers, in his article in Forbes, believes that video content will overtake written content in 2016. If realized, this is definitely a game changer especially for brands who have never ventured to video content before.

Jayson explained that although written content is still considered the standard format by vast majority of content producers, video is expected to overtake it by next year mainly due to the fact that a handful of new technologies such as Vine, Periscope, Snapchat, and other apps are partially responsible in setting user expectations toward more visual content. He further discussed that with this trend the real herald may come from Google, the company that is currently experimenting with video ads in search results.

Why is this trend a game changer? Marketers or businesses especially those who have been optimizing written content for search engines need to slowly adjust starting from now and carefully make way for videos in their content marketing strategy. Those who won’t make a move might lose their potential prospects to their competition.

5. Page loading speed is part of the major factors that can affect successful conversation. (Link Assistant)

Definitely not new, right? But, if your page speed is still as slow as a snail, then you better find ways to fix it. Internet users are impatient and demanding prospects. They will abandon your page with no second thoughts if they find your page laggy. In fact, many unsuccessful conversions are caused by poor page speed performance.

Link Assistant also emphasized that page speed is a search ranking factor. Those websites that load quicker can surely outrank those ones that don’t. Also, it is worthy to note that slow loading pages are difficult to crawl and index. Thus, before you proceed with your SEO campaign, make sure first that your content is plastered on a page with excellent speed.

Why is this a game changer? Web savvy small businesses now have the opportunity to compete against big brands that are still relying on traditional means to promote their products or services. This means that if the latter won’t adapt to this trend, they will surely lose their edge and their competitors will have the chance to outrank them.

6. Social Media Mentions would become as relevant and authoritative as links. (93 Digital)

Although Google never owned up that they use social signals in ranking web pages, many studies performed by known experts showed otherwise. According to 93 Digital, links will remain important, but mentions via social media will become more relevant and next year, their relevance will be as equal to those of links.

Why is this a game changer? If you have already built a name in social media, getting mentions from popular platforms won’t be that difficult anymore. But, if you just recently tried your luck in there, even if you are a big brand, you definitely need to work harder to gain trust, and loyalty from your audience.

7. User Behavior as part of search ranking factors. (Link Assistant)

Gone are the days wherein simplistic SEO approaches such as keywords and links are the only major factors in ranking webpages in search engine result pages. According to Link Assistant, user behavior factors affect rankings. They said that Google may have denied this finding, but this just not just mere speculation because this is backed up and proven by many experiments done by industry experts.

Why is this a game changer? Despite the fact that Google hasn’t owned up yet that they are using this as part of their ranking algorithm, it is always an advantage on your part to put this factor in consideration. Getting a step ahead from your competition can always give you an edge which can help you stay on top of search rankings game.

There are 5 new elements from users’ behavior that you need to focus on to get better understanding on how you can put your content on top of the SERPs: Click-through rates, Engagement, Information that fills gaps in searcher’s knowledge, Loyalty per visit, and fulfilling the searcher’s task. Read the more detailed explanation for each element here.

8. The increasing prominence of voice search. (JeffBullas.com)

Probably the latest challenge search engine optimization experts now currently face. The rise of voice search would force businesses to modify their SEO strategy to fit the demand of this technology that is now embraced by many.

According to Jeff Bullas, keywords used in text-based search is quite different from the keywords used in voice search. For example, when someone looks for the address of Home Depot, he would only type “Home Depot” to find its location, but in voice search, the searcher has to say “Where is the nearest Home Depot?” Jeff emphasized that with this new trend, businesses should focus on how the search began and how questions (from voice searches) define the changing patterns in mobile devices.

Why is this a game changer? Those who don’t adapt to this technological change will lose in the mobile arena. If your target audience are mostly active in mobile, then you should rethink your SEO strategy now before your competition will own it.

9. Full swing updates of the Panda Algorithm in real time. (Business2Community.com)

In 2016, experts predict that the industry will see the real time Google Panda algorithm updates in full swing. Business2Community.com said that it will be updated and rolled out by the end of December, thus next year is the time wherein businesses can fully utilize their resources to adjust their search optimization strategies according to the newest algorithm rules.

Why is this a game changer? No one fully knows what are the specific changes and add-ons that Google will employ in the next Panda update. That fact alone can affect how everyone in the industry would implement their SEO campaigns once the update will be fully rolled out.

10. Social media content will be more heavily indexed. (Forbes.com)

This is somehow related to number 6, but this one is more visible and has already been confirmed by the search giant themselves. If you have noticed recently, every time you do searches in Google, more especially if it has do with news related topics, tweets from Twitter and posts from Facebook are already showing in results pages. This only means that next year, businesses should expect that more and more social media content will be crawled and indexed by search engines.

So, why is this a game changer? Those who have invested more in social media for this year would surely be rewarded more next year. But, if you are still having second thoughts in jumping into the social media bandwagon, then it’s up to you. You just have to know that if you want to compete and get a lead advantage, you should always be proactive and should know how to jive in with the trends.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of things that we can expect about SEO next year. But, there are top 10 trends that every small business should keep a tab on if they want to be on top of the SEO game. They are the following:

• Getting organic clicks doesn’t mean you only need to get on top of the SERPs.
• Mobile optimization is a must.
• Conversion Rate Optimization should complement your SEO efforts.
• Search optimization for video content should not be put aside.
• Page speed is a very important search ranking factor.
• Social media mentions will become equally important as links.
• Prepare your SEO strategies for Voice Search.
• Full Roll-Out of a new Google Panda Update.
• Invest more in social media now so that you won’t be left out next year.

Of course, these trends are not expected to fit to all types of business. You pick some or a few of these ones that you think can help you out in staying ahead of your competitors.

My forecast will not be complete if I did not include natural link building. Instead of me having to write a complete article I want you to read Why Manual Link Building Will Never Be Obsolete, by my mentor and Good friend Eric Ward.

Shameless plug – About Qamar Zaman

Qamar Zaman is a Dallas based SEO professional & Founder or Submit Press Release 123 and OneSECompany.com who has spent over 2 decades learning the art of SEO from some experts that include. Eric Ward, Bruce Clay, Neil Patel & many others.

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Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog

User Behavior: How Can You Improve It to Increase Successful Conversions?

When some experts declared user behavior as part of the most important trends that everyone in the industry should watch rise in prominence next year, a lot of eyebrows raised. The mere mention that it is actually part of Google’s search ranking algorithm can spark a heated debate. But, what is really the truth? Is it just pure speculation? Are their evidences that can prove that user behavior is indeed used by Google to rank pages in the SERPs?

Before we’ll discuss how you can improve user behavior to help you increase the conversion of your legal or medical site, let us first find out if there are indeed solid evidences that can prove that it is indeed part of the factors used by the search giant in ranking websites.

Is User Behavior a Proven Factor in Search Ranking?

In a detailed article published by Link Assistant, they presented three evidences that serve as solid proofs that user behavior is indeed a search ranking factor.

1. They claimed that Google announced it themselves.

Link Assistant carefully laid out how Google’s former Search Quality Chef, Udi Manber, mentioned the use of user behavior during a Federal Trade Commission court case. We lifted the following from Link Assistant’s blog post.

“The ranking itself is affected by the click data. If we discover that, for a particular query, hypothetically, 80 percent of people click on Result No. 2 and only 10 percent click on Result No. 1, after a while we figure probably Result 2 is the one people want. So we’ll switch it.”
The bold and italicized sentence says it all. It is actually a straightforward statement. Click data, which is part of a user’s behavior affects how Google ranks webpages. Read more statements from Google that further affirmed that user behavior is indeed part of their search ranking algorithm.

2. They also presented that Google’s Patents imply that they are indeed utilizing user behavior patterns.

In their patent, Google clearly mentioned this statement.
“[…] User reactions to particular search results or search result lists may be gauged, so that results on which users often click will receive a higher ranking.”

This is only one of the many mentions that can be found in one of their patents. According to Link Assistant, there are still a lot of other ones that cite user behavior as a ranking factor. They further explain that in those patents, the search giant straightforwardly cites that along with good old SEO factors, several user data can be used as a rank modifier, the one that determines a page’s rank in the SERPs.

3. They presented the real life experiment conducted by Rand Fishkin.

Rand Fishkin is one of the most famous content marketers in the industry. His extensive knowledge in search engine optimization is highly respected even by his fellow thought leaders and experts. To prove that user behavior is indeed one of the factors in ranking pages, Fishkin conducted an unusual experiment. Here is what he did according to Link Assistant.

A couple of months ago, Rand Fishkin of Moz ran an unusual experiment. Rand reached out to his Twitter followers and asked them to run a Google search for best grilled steak, click on result No.1 and quickly bounce back, and then click on result No. 4 and stay on that page for a while.
From that actual experiment, they’ve proven again that user behavior can indeed influence search ranking. Check the detailed results here.

How to Improve Your Legal Site’s Conversion by Looking at User Behavior Patterns

It cannot be denied anymore that user behavior plays a major part on how Google positions pages in the SERPs. If you have a legal website and you are trying your best to put your webpage on the top of the SERPs but still failed, then you might have overlooked something really crucial. And, that is how potential prospects have responded to your content. Ask these questions first before you’ll do another SEO campaign to boost your ranking.

• How much is your page’s click through rate?
• What is the average time your visitors spent checking your page?
• What is the average bounce rate of your page?
• Have you double check your page title, Meta description, and how your snippet looks like in the SERPs?
• How about the content of your page? Is it informative, interesting, and compelling enough?
• Once you determine which aspect needs improvement, you can create a strategy to help increase your conversion. Here are the steps you can take.

1. Improve conversion rate by increasing click through rate.

You cannot increase successful conversions if there are only very few who click your link and actually visit your site. If you are a law firm, you should take into consideration how your page appears in the SERPs. If it is ranking well but only a few clicked and visited your website, then there must be something wrong with your title and Meta description. Consider the following screenshot.

The one inside the red rectangle has more chances of getting higher clicks because it has more compelling Meta description. As you can see, that one ranks higher than the one in the lower side. This is because click through rate (an aspect of user behavior) can influence how Google positions a page in the SERPs.

2. Improve your click through rate by creating a compelling title and Meta description.

Of course, this is still in direct relation to number 1. The most effective solution to increase CTR is to improve the wordings in your title and Meta description. Searchers would usually click those ones which straightforwardly answer their search queries.

In the screenshot above, the reason why that result in red rectangle is positioned at the bottom of the page is because its title and description are not compelling enough for those who search for information using the keywords “San Francisco Labor Attorneys”. Most of them preferred to click the one on the top. Here, we can see how powerful a title and a Meta description are in enticing clicks and visits.

3. Lengthen the stay of your visitors by improving the quality of your content.

Another important aspect that user behavior patterns can contribute to your search optimization campaign is by telling you the level of engagement of your visitors: if they left your page after a few seconds, or if stayed for a while, or were successfully converted.

If your bounce rate is low, this means that your content is engaging, but if it’s the opposite, then you better find ways to make it more compelling. Your copy should convince your prospects that you are the law firm or lawyer that they are looking for. Include statistics or figures to prove your credibility. It is also worthy to mention how many cases you’ve won for a specific type of lawsuit.

4. Attract traffic from social media by giving your visitors tools to easily share your content.

Another user behavior pattern that is quite useful in telling you how engaged your website visitors are is on how aggressive they are in sharing your content to their social media networks. Install social media widgets in your page and encourage your visitors to share it if they find it useful. Aside from the fact that this can help you gain traffic, this can improve your citations in social media websites, which a lot of experts have predicted will have a great influence in search rankings in the coming year.

All these tips can also be applied on your medical website. You only need to customize your strategy to fit your niche. Always remember that one of the most crucial parts in search engine optimization is on how you can elicit the right behaviors from your prospects. Don’t just aim for the top spot, aim for the most click throughs, the longer time spent, and of course, more successful conversions.

Related Google Analytics Tips: Analyzing Visitor Personas
Also read my SEO Forecast 2015. I am now working on 2016 Forecast so don’t forget to bookmark my blog.

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Qamar Zaman SEO Expert for Lawyers
T: 972.437.8942

Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog

Lawyer Marketing: Steps in Setting up Your Very First YouTube Ad

According to statistics, consumers are 27 times more likely to click through online video ads than standard banners. In the US alone, rich media and video ads are the most preferred ad formats for ad buyers. It is noted that images which are more preferred two years ago are now declining in demand by 45%. It is predicted that digital video advertising in the country will reach at least $5.4 billion by 2016.

YouTube as a Tool for Your Video Advertising Campaign

If you want to reach out to a big and untapped market, then you need to venture into something you haven’t tried before. Driving more visibility and leads to your legal website through video advertising is obviously not something you are familiar with, but with the help of YouTube, the most popular video community website in the world, you will surely achieve your marketing goals.

According to statistics, videos hosted in YouTube are 91% more viewable across all types of platforms and devices compared to those which are hosted elsewhere. Also, it is important to note that over 50% of the total views come from mobile users. This means that if your target audience are mostly in mobile, you should use YouTube to host your video ads to increase their visibility.

Simple Steps in Setting up Your Very First Video Ad in YouTube

If you want to be hands on in setting up your very first video ad in YouTube, you can follow these simplified steps. This only applies to those who already have set-up their Google AdWords account. If you haven’t set-up it yet, you can follow these steps.

1. Go to http://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise. You will be redirected to the Advertise page.

Click the Get Started button to start creating your video ad.

2. After clicking the Get Started button, you will be redirected to the Campaign tab.

To start creating your ad, you must enter the URL of the YouTube video you want to advertise.

3. Look for the URL of the YouTube video you want to use in your ad, copy and paste it on the Video add text field.

After you pasted the URL, hit Enter so that you can see the preview of your video.

At the upper right side, you can see the estimated daily budget and approximate total daily views of your video ad. Take note that you will only pay for it if it is fully viewed for 30 seconds or more. The viewers have the option to skip it after 5 seconds but you won’t pay if they will do that.

4. Now, start filling in the details to create your video ad.

Make sure your headline is catchy and not long. It should capture the interest of your prospects at one glance. Your descriptions should also put a more detailed emphasis of your brand’s relevance and what your target audience can get after viewing your ads. Select the best thumbnail and click the Continue button.

5. After clicking the Continue button, a pop up window would appear. It will ask you where you want to send your prospects after they click your ad.

It depends on you where you want to send your viewers. Since you are paying for it, it is more recommended to send them to your website so that there’s a higher chance that they will be converted into paying clients.

6. After selecting the “To my website” radio button, you need to input the URL of your website.

After entering your website URL, click the Continue button.

6. You will then be asked about your budget. This includes the currency you will use, and the ad spending you want to pay for daily. You can also customized your daily budget and will be billed accordingly.

As for your maximum cost per view, this is something that you need to test first. You can try to set an initial amount and then try to observe if it works. You can change it anytime you want. If you are not sure what to do, you can always consult an online advertising expert to help you out.

After inputting your Maximum CPV, click the Continue button.

7. You will then be prompted to specify who your target audience are by filtering them by location, their web activities, their ages, genders, and interests.

So, if your target audience are mostly from New York, you need to input it so that those who can see your ads are all from there.

If you want to target only one, then you can do that, but if you want to select all people based on their web activities then you may do so.

After filtering your audience based from their web activities, you can now select the age range, gender, and interests.

Lastly, after filtering everything, you just need to click the save and continue button to finish creating your video ad.

Now, you’ve just created your very first YouTube ad.

After that you will be redirected to the Account tab to input your account details, “Billing” tab to input your payment details, and Review tab to review your ad for the very last time.

Conclusion

Setting up your very first YouTube video ad can be a bit time consuming at first, but once you will get the hang of it, everything would become easier later. Having an active video ad campaign can help a lot in reaching out to prospects who you cannot reach through other major means of online marketing. Good luck!

Need help with Google Advertising, PPC and and Video Marketing contact lawyer marketing expert Qamar Zaman on LinkedIn or visit QamarZaman.us

Qamar Zaman
Chief Visionary at One SEO Company. An Internet Entrepreneur SEO & lawyer Internet marketing professional & Starbucks Lover.

from Dallas Internet Marketing Blog