In this Google Guide for Winning Ramadan in Pakistan with Digital Marketing, you can learn how to build effective digital campaigns during Ramadan. For online marketers and advertisers, this is a great opportunity to leverage billions of Google’s user to effectively engage during Ramadan. Successful brands will take the opportunity to innovate and craft content that is not just relevant, but helpful to audiences during this holy month, paving the way to success, no matter your marketing objectives.

Ramadan in Pakistan

Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims which culminates with Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations. The month of Ramadan is the largest festivity in Pakistan, celebrated by millions all over the country. The holy month of Ramadan inspires Pakistani Muslims to practice Islamic values including self-improvement, spiritual development, and community.

A large part of the Ramzan experience is the shift of daily routine—from fasting from dawn to dusk, to preparations for the day’s iftar and the Eid ul-Fitr festivities. This in effect causes major shifts in consumer behaviour and intent, impacting how Pakistanis do shopping online.

Winning Ramzan and Eid ul-Fitr with Digital

So how do you grab the attention and cut through the clutter during the holy festive season in Pakistan? In this guide, Google shared step-by-step playbook to ensure the success of your digital marketing campaign in Ramzan across Google’s platforms. How to make your ad stand out from the crowd during Ramadan in Pakistan? Google published the secrets for a successful digital marketing campaign during Ramzan in the following steps.

Google Guide for Winning Ramadan in Pakistan

1. Find Your Audience: Google Understanding the Ramzan Audience

By understanding your audience’s motivations during Ramzan and its impact on their digital habits, you can deliver tailored and effective messaging to an audience that makes sense for your campaign. Based on Google internal data, they have identified four audience types to reach out to during Ramzan.

• The Entertainment Seeker
• The Ramzan Homemaker
• The Festive Groomer
• The Sports Fanatics

2. How To Capture Their Attention:

How do you retain your audience’s attention in a digital world filled with noise? The key of a winning combination is data-driven insights and creative storytelling. Google provided four effective tips, help you to get exceptional results in this Ramzan and Eid ul-Fitr 2019.

2.1 Resonate with your Audience:

2.2 Sequential Storytelling:

2.3 Innovative Display Advertising: 

2.4 Key Ramzan Moments on Search:

3. Success Stories

4. Execute Effectively: Drive Impact This Festive Season

Once you have identified your audience personas, made some engaging creatives, it’s now time to make sure they convert into happy paying customers. Ensure that your campaign achieves a significant impact this festive season of Ramadan 2019.

5. Connect with Pakistanis by Utilizing Google Marketing Solutions

The consumer journey is never confined to a single platform. Therefore, it is crucial to tap into the various Google platforms available to ensure that your campaign reaches your target audience at each step of their consumer journey. Google shared few suggested formats that you can use across platforms, at every stage of the funnel:

For more best practices and insights, download this Google Guide for Winning Ramadan in Pakistan and start digital marketing campaigns during festive season.

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Google Published New Guide for Linking Google Analytics and Google Ads

Google published new guide for linking Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts that can get you deeper insights, smarter campaigns, and enable you to earn better business outcomes. In this new guide you can learn how to link both Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts and see the full customer cycle, from how they interact with your marketing ads and complete the goals that you’ve set for them on your site.

Why Link Google Ads and Analytics Accounts?

When you link Google Ads and Analytics, you can:

• See ad and site performance data in the Google Ads reports in Analytics.
• Import Analytics goals and Ecommerce transactions into your Google Ads account.
• Import cross-device conversions into your Google Ads account when you activate Google signals.
• Import Analytics metrics like Bounce Rate, Avg. Session Duration, and Pages/Session into your Google Ads account.
• Enhance your Google Ads remarketing with Analytics Remarketing and Dynamic Remarketing.
• Get richer data in the Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels reports.

Google published new guide because the rise of mobile devices and new digital technologies has resulted in customer journeys that are more varied than ever. With the help of this guide you can use your Analytics data to make your ad more specific, reach target audience and maximizing ad response based on location, device, browser and page depth insights, among other data points.

According to Google, in this new guide you will find a clear, step-by-step playbook to unlock deeper insights and create smarter campaigns. You can see that how the advanced measurement capabilities in Analytics can offer a clear and specific understanding of campaign performance.

It included that how you can select audiences in Analytics and share with Google Ads, also Import your Google Analytics data into your ads flow, along with improved reporting options based on increased data insights.

There are some other interesting features  if you’re thinking of using Google Ads, it’s definitely worth checking out the guide and considering your options for improved data tracking. The more data the better, and with so many actions can be track, makes sense to dig into them and improve your ad performance.

You can download the full “Linking Analytics and Ads: The Solution to Today’s Marketing Challenges” guide here.

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Google Ads Keyword Planner Upgrade With New Features

If you recently log into Keyword Planner Tool in Google Ads, you’ll see new notifications with many new features including  Google Ads Editor V1_1. I try to dug down and use my current SEO client’s account and found that Google Ads is adding several new features in the keyword planner tool, some  are taken from older features and just added to the new Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool.

If try to explore and find new keywords in the tool, you can add up to 10 seed keywords when you select the “Find New Keywords” option.

Grouped Ideas:

You can use Grouped Ideas to manage multiple keywords and view keywords by theme or add the set as an ad group in your plan. In the “Grouped ideas” menu option you can find and add all or some of the keywords in grouped idea to an existing or a new ad group.

View Monthly Keyword Trends:

Suggest Daily Budget:

When you add selected keywords to your existing or new plan, it provides a suggested daily budget that will help to make sure that this campaign’s budget is not limited on any day during the forecasted time period.” You can find this option under the total Cost estimate.

New Competition Column Option:

In the New Google Ads Keyword Planner you can view new Competition Column that will show you how competitive ad placement is for a keyword. You can see in the screenshot, along with two other columns to get more granular competition ranking across the keyword ideas.

Why You Need To Use Updated Google Ads Keyword Planner:

This new and updated Google Ads Keyword Planner getting more attention due to latest features which was also available in the old UI version, but now it has incorporated into this version. No doubt about it, very useful for advertisers to add multiple keywords to existing campaigns and save their valuable time.

Summary:

• Up to 10 seed keywords when searching for new keyword ideas.
• Keyword trends can be viewed or downloaded for individual keyword ideas.
• Grouped ideas can be view by keywords by theme or added to sets as a group.
• Saved grouped ideas (Selected Keyword) can be add to new or existing campaign.
• Get suggested daily budgets that is based on the max CPC bid and forecasted costing.
• Get a detailed report in the new competition column that shows ranking across keyword ideas.

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Google Released v1.1 of the Google Ads API

Google has announced the new version of Google Ads Editor and replaced the old AdWords Editor. The latest version of Google Ads 1_1 incorporated with new features for ads, conversions, reporting as well as Hotel Ads, App campaigns and more. Keep in mind that the Company has rebranded Google AdWords to Google Ads Editor and also added new features. On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, Google wrote at Developer Blog “Today we’re announcing Google Ads Editor, v1 which is a new and advanced version of the Editor that you’ll love over the past 13 years”.

Google officially released this new 1.1 version of Google Ads and you only need to update your client libraries in order to use v1_1 features. If you’re still using previous version of AdWords API, now it’s a time to upgrade with the new API.

What is Google Ads API?

The Google Ads API is the modern programmatic interface to Google Ads. It enables developers to interact directly with the Google Adwords platform, vastly increasing the efficiency of managing large accounts and campaigns. With the Google Ads API you can build a program that can manages Google accounts from customer to keyword level. Programmatically the API works the same like Google Ads UI does, and exposes both standard JSON REST endpoints and a high-performance gRPC interface. Google also provided pre-built client libraries in a variety of programming languages to get you started.

Client Libraries:

Our client libraries provide high-level views and basic building blocks of Google Ads API functionality, making it easier to develop apps quickly. We recommend starting out with one if you’re new to the API.

Here are the highlights:

• Ads. Create assets for asset-based ads using AssetService.
• Campaigns. Create App Campaigns (equivalent to Universal App Campaigns in AdWords API) by creating a Campaign and setting the advertising_channel_type to MULTI_CHANNEL and the advertising_channel_sub_type to APP_CAMPAIGN.
• Conversions. Adjust conversions with the new Conversion Adjustment Upload Service. Upload call conversions with the Upload Call Conversions Request in the Conversion Upload Service.
• Hotel Ads. Hotel Ads now includes more metrics and segments. See the release notes for details.
• Recommendations. Added Recommendation types Move Unused Budget Recommendation and Keyword Match Type Recommendation.
• Reporting. Views were expanded to include more metrics and segments. See the Reporting section in the release notes for exact details.

Why You Need To Update?

The new beta (V1) version of Google Ads API was released in March 2019. If you still using the Old APIs and not updated to the latest version, now is a good time to migrate because the old V0 beta version will shut down on April 30, 2019. With the V_1 version, you can update your client libraries and get familiar with the features and functionality of this latest version. Also Google designed new Query Language,  to make querying more faster and flexible.

Also Read: 

Google Ads Keyword Planner Upgrade With New Features

Many times I covered about Google Search Ranking Algorithm Updates but recently I am seeing huge fluctuations in the algorithm, started from 26 March A.K.A. Broad Core Update. Right now these fluctuations are still happening and won’t die down, it seems like Google Search Ranking Algorithm Changes is the major update of the year in the Search Industry.

I am seeing many SEOs and Webmaster are chattering about mass fluctuations from March 29th through today, April 1st. But this is not a April Fools joke. Just to keep you updated on the core update, here I like to share the screenshots of webmasterworld forum.

Now, back to the March 29th through April 1st changes. I am not seeing too many of the tracking tools picking up on the change but the forums do seem busy. Here are some screenshots from monitoring tools.

Search Engine Monitoring Tools Tracking Google Algorithm Update:

MOZCast:

SERPMetrics:

Algoroo:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

RankRanger:

Cognitive SEO:

SEMRush Sensor:

As you can see that some Monitoring Tools are showing normal fluctuations and same are on high-alert, but SEOs and Webmaster are chattering about this huge changes in the SERP (Search Engine Rank Positions). I’ll keep an eye on them and ongoing chatter from SEO community. I will suggest to all SEOs, Webmasters and Site Owners that keep monitor your daily traffic in Google Analytics and manually check your Keywords Ranking. If you see any minor or major fluctuation or changes in SERP please share it here.

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Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On March 27th

Previously I covered March 12 Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update but recently I am seeing another update is happening between the 26th and 27th March. I saw some SEOs are chattering about this unconfirmed update because it is possible that algorithm is still tweaking since last update which Google announced as ‘Broad Core Update’.

Right now, I am seeing that many SEOs are confused and chattering in the search community and also some of the search engine monitoring tools are showing fluctuations. Here I like to share the screenshot that what Google’s Search Liaison posted on Twitter:

Here are some SEOs commenting on both WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld Forums:

I am not sure that this update is happening in the UK or not. But Eric Hedekar from Moz noticed the major changes from SERP to featured snippets in the last week at UK. Here I like to share the screenshot of his tweet FYI:

Search Engine Monitoring Tools Tracking Google Algorithm Update:

SERP Metrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

RankRanger:

SEMRush Sensor:

SERPWoo:

Mozcast:

Other search engine monitoring tools are not showing big fluctuations but I’ll keep an eye on them and ongoing chatter from SEO community. I will suggest to all SEOs, Webmasters and Site Owners that keep monitor your daily traffic in Google Analytics and manually check your Keywords Ranking. If you see any minor or major fluctuation or changes in SERP please share it here.

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Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On March 12 (Florida 2)

Like I have mentioned so many times that Google is continuously update its search algorithms and sometime they announced official and sometimes they are hidden just like I covered on 7-Feb-2019.  But due to very busy schedule I couldn’t cover the latest Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update which was happened on March 12 and they named it as ‘March 2019 Core Update’ (Florida 2). Here is the screenshot of tweet from Official Google Account.

Danny Sullivan also tweet and officially confirmed that Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update started on March 12.

I have also seen that many SEOs and Webmasters are chattering about this Algorithm Update which has happened on March 12. At WebmasterWorld forums you can see the ongoing chat and comments from SEOs:

Search Engine Monitoring Tools Tracking Google Algorithm Update:

Mozcast:

SERP Metrics:

Algoroo:

Advanced Web Rankings:

RankRanger:

Cognitive SEO:

SEMRush Sensor:

I will suggest to all SEOs, Webmasters and Site Owners that keep monitor your daily traffic in Google Analytics and manually check your Keywords Ranking. If you see any changes please share it here.

Also Read: 

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update 7 Feb

John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google published a post at Webmaster Central Blog and gave some commonly-asked questions to SEOs, webmasters about how Google shows dates in the search results.

John said that Google’s shows the date of a page in the search results when its automated systems find out that it is relevant to do so, such as for pages that can be time-sensitive, including news content:

John added that Google uses numerous of factors when determines a page including any prominent date mentioned on the page or provided by the publisher through structured markup.

Due to lack of structured data and content publishers does not provide clear date so that is why Google doesn’t depend on one single factor because all of them can be prone to issues. That’s why Google automated systems look at multiple factors to shows dates next to listings in search results when a page was published or updated.

How to Specify a Date on a Web Page for Search Results:

John provided technical help that how site owners and publishers can mentioned date when page become live or published and Google to pick the right date

• Show a clear date: Show a visible date prominently on the page.
• Use structured data: Use the datePublished and dateModified schema with the correct time zone designator for AMP or non-AMP pages. When using structured data, make sure to use the ISO 8601 format for dates.

Google News Guidelines:

Google News requires clearly showing both the date and the time that content was published or updated. Use only structured is not enough, so it is recommended to use a visible date and time. Because they will be visible between the headline and the article text. Furthermore you can get help page about article dates.

If an article has been updated, it is important to change or update with a fresh date and time. John said that “do not create a very slightly updated story from one previously published, then delete the old story and redirect to the new one. That’s against Google article URLs guidelines.”

I think these guidelines help provided by John Muller will help to make it easier for publisher and site owners to specify the right date on the web pages. If you have any questions or comments on this update, feel free to use Google’s webmaster help forums.

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SEO Strategies in 2019: How to Rank Higher in Google

In the world of digital era, nobody likes to use slow website especially if you are on mobile devices and that’s why Google has redesigned Test My Site Tool with new features including speed, competition comparison and shareable reports to build a better mobile experience.  The Vice President, Jerry Dischler published a post  on Google Official Ads Blog and said that

Today we’re introducing two new updates: a top-to-bottom rebuild of Test My Site, and more availability and growth of Rich Communications Services (RCS) Business Messaging.

What Is Test My Site Tool?

This updated and revamped Test My Site Tool is specially designed for site owners to measure their mobile site speed, benchmark and take action on the results from a single platform. Because in the mobile era, it is important to deliver fast and engaging mobile experience where people can learn, find information, DIY (Do it Yourself) and buy products, so that is why Google rebuild its Test My Site Tool with two new features for marketers and business that help to improve their site performance and understand how mobile speed impacts conversions.

The new tool will help site owners and publishers that how they can improve their site performance and understand why slow mobile speed impacts on conversions. With the this Test My Site Tool you can measure mobile site speed and helps to reduce the gap between marketer and developer by delivering actionable steps with simple fixes. I personally used this test my site tool and not happy with the results. Here I like to share the screenshot of SEOBizWorld.com and agreed with that slow mobile site limits your business.

So with the New Test My Site, businesses can now see:

• The speed of both their entire site and of individual pages
• Whether their site/page speed is faster or slower compared to the prior month
• Whether their site speed/page speed ranks Fast, Average, or Slow
• How their site speed compares to others in the industry
• The potential impact of site speed on revenue
• A detailed list of recommended fixes to increase speed on up to 5 pages on their site
• A complete report to share with their team

RCS Business Messaging

SMS Messaging on mobile devices is limited due to 160 characters and very few images, so Google also introduced another feature called RSC (Rich Communications Services) Business Messaging. RCS is a upgraded version of SMS that delivers fast and interactive experiences for rich media, suggested replies and actions through default messaging app.

It is true that slow mobile sites lose potential customers due to loading time. A study shows that the delay of one-second in loading can impact the conversion rate by up to 20%. But it is possible that there are many other reasons for slow mobile site but finally you can find all the technical details with a single click and generate report to share with colleagues. Visit the website here.

Also Read: 

Google Early Registration for .Dev Domains Top Level Gtld

In the world of Search Marketing, there are many things happening that every SEO Expert need to know and keep up with the latest techniques to build a successful plan to achieve their goals. There is no doubt that Google is making lots of changes in the search algorithms and user interfaces, so I think now it is the right time to re-evaluate your Old SEO Strategies and adapt some new trends. But first you need to know what is SEO Strategy and how to plan and execute to get top ranking in the search engine results page (SERP).

What is an SEO Strategy?

Modern SEO marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan that involves to find the right combination of keywords (search terms) and optimize the website’s content that helps users to find the answers, because most search engine like Google consider the user intent behind the keywords before showing the results.

A successful SEO strategy includes on-page optimization which includes intent-based keywords and off-page optimization which includes to earn high quality backlinks from other websites. To achieve long terms results, your SEO strategy need to integrated with other marketing strategies such as content marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, Online PR, and digital advertising. But before make SEO strategy you need to perform a detailed website audit which will help you to find the weak points of your site and improve strength.

Here, I am sharing the Latest SEO Strategies in 2019 with Tips and Tools. 

Keyword Research and Analysis:

Keyword research and analysis is one of the most important part to build an effective SEO strategy in 2019. You need to consider the following important factors when performing Keyword Research and Analysis.

• Use Best Performing Keywords
• Find New Keywords Opportunities
• Building Additional User Intent Content
• Make Right Combinations of Keyword Phrases
• Find Trending Topics with Low Competitive Keywords

(In my next upcoming post, I will publish the list of latest keywords research and analysis tools that works in 2019.)

Important Tip: 
You also need to keep on eye on competitors include their top ranking pages and keywords.

On-Page SEO:

On-Page optimization is the main important part when it comes to SEO for optimizing websites, because if you do not follow the webmaster guide lines, you can’t achieve your goals and win top ranking in the SERP. So you need to focus on On-Page Optimization and consider the following:

Meta Tags Optimization:

This is the most critical part in On-Page Optimization, because tags are easily read by Search Engine Bots and also they give priority as well.

Meta Title: Use your main important / targeted keywords in Meta tile.

Meta Description: Same as above but you can add more keyword with a perfect combination of search query.

Heading Tags: These types of Tags are important because H1 is standardized by Google so I prefer and use H1 Tag in the body especially in “Above the Fold Content”.

Image Tags: The purpose of Image Optimization is to come on the TOP in Image Search Results, so please keep in mind that when upload images so use ALT Tag which can be your Keyword or any other Search Term.

On-Page SEO Analysis Tools to Get Accurate Results: 

• SEMRush
• Woorank
• Rank Tracker
• MySiteAuditor
• SEO PowerSuite
• SEO Site checkup

Off-Page Optimization / Link Building:

According to Google, links are still the ranking factor when it comes to search engine optimization because without any link it is very hard to rank your site in top search results page. Anyways, don’t rely on old link building techniques like blog comments, paid links, link scheme, PBNs can be harmful for your site.

Best Link Building Techniques in 2019:

Infographics : Design and submit to relevant websites

Guest Postings : Contact influencers or bloggers who can publish your content and link back to your site

Video Marketing : Create videos and submit to video sharing sites like youtube, dailymotion and more

Article Marketing : Write unique and informative articles and submit to article sharing sites

Blog Directories : Find high PR blog directories website and submit your blog as per your related niche.

Business Listings: Find sites like YELP, hotfrog, sitejabber, manta and others, create and verify account and submit your business with website link including NAP.

But I will suggest you that focus on ON-PAGE Optimization, create your own blog and publish content on regular basis and then start link bundling activities.

Link Analysis Tools:

• Moz
• Ahrefs
• Seobook
• Webmeup
• Majestic SEO
• Linkdiagnosis
• Searchmetrics

Content Marketing:

In 2019, the key to high rankings is to publish long-form, natural, comprehensive content that engages the curiosity and interest of viewers. 
Let’s find out that what type of CONTENT get more links and shares

• Videos
• Quizes
• How Tos
• Blog Posts
• Infographics
• Why, Where, Who (WWW Concept)

What Content Types that can get backlinks easily? 

• Why Posts
• Research Based Content 
• Opinion from Journalists 
• Long Written Content More Than 1000 Words

Need to Focus on: 

• Use long tail keywords include synonyms and related search terms.
• Write effective blog posts titles embed your main targeted keywords.
• Embed images, videos, Info-graphics and Visuals, Reports and Charts.
• Regular check Content and follow the Google’s content quality guidelines.
• Use headings, bullet points, list and other stuff which you think need to add.
• Enable comments box that can be easy to moderate and publish with healthy comments.

List of Content Marketing and Discover Tools: 

• Quora
• Inbound
• Alltop
• Reddit
• Buffer
• Google Trends
• Quicksprout
• Aherfs Content Explorer
• TopTenz for Effective Blog Title Writin Examples
• Google Analytics (Check User Behaviour, Site Content, Most Visited Pages)

Mobile SEO:

There are more than 70% users search on the mobile devices and that is why Google has shifted to mobile first indexing, which means that Google will use the mobile version of your page for indexing and ranking. For getting high rank in mobile search you need to focus on the following most important factors:

• You need to use Google Mobile Friendly Test Tool and you will get the report that your page is mobile-friendly or not.
• Find out what is speed of your mobile site? Use Google’s page speed test to see if there are any speed issues.
• Optimize Titles and Descriptions to Improve Mobile SEO.
• Use schema markup so Google knows what kind of content you have on your site.
• Minimum Advertisements 
• Use HTML5 and replace Flash Usage 
• Use well optimized images that are relevant to searches.

Conclusion:

There is no doubt about that search engine optimization is going complex day by day but build an effective SEO strategy will help to improve keywords rankings and generate more organic visitors on your website. You can see in this summary that how to make effective SEO strategies that can tailored your business needs, target market and your resources.