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iTech Dunya is a technology blog that specializes in tech-related topics.Our GOAL is to produce high-quality content for our millions of readers.
New Update From Google "Pigeon" Local Search Algorithm

Google's most recent search algorithm update- surnamed Pigeon has impacted local search, retailers and SEO since July of this previous year 


  1. Makes Local Search Rankings Work More Similarly to Organic/National Search
Google uses more than 200 hundred factors to determine where your website ranks in organic search. Organically, Google’s looking for fresh, original content, beautiful, well-organized websites, and naturally optimized web pages.
It’s too early to tell precisely what the ramifications will be for local search. But Google has at least made it clear it wants local search to work more like organic search.
  1. Eliminates the Local 7-Pack for Many Search Queries
Fewer search results are going to display it now. Experts are still debating whether this is bad or good for local SMBs.
  1. Local Directories Get Better Visibility in Search Results
In the past, Yelp accused Google of manipulating search results with its name lower in Google’s rankings. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know.
But Yelp gets better search visibility now. Others like Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor, and even very small directories few people know are getting better web rankings too.
  1. Search Radius is More Precise
“Search radius” refers to your geographic location, and what results appear when you do a local search. A post by Search Engine Watch notes in one instance this “has been reduced significantly.”
Other individuals have made conflicting reports. In the near future, we’ll know more about the true impact of Pigeon on search distance and location and your rankings.

How does the Pigeon update affect local businesses

The Pigeon update will undoubtedly have some kind of effect on rankings of both local businesses as well as non-local businesses that compete in rankings with local alternatives – ultimately resulting in potential increase or decrease in referrals, organic traffic, and keyword rankings for most sites.
Businesses in the UK do have the benefit of learning from post-Pigeon research from the US, however, Google may well have further 'tweaked' it's Pigeon algorithms since July 24th following heavy criticism especially in relation to the update re-opening local results to spam tactics.

Pigeon affects both Google Web Search and Google Maps Search

In the past, similar searches on Google Web Search and Google Maps Search often yielded a very differing set of results. The Pigeon algorithm now connects the two in a more cohesive way - it ties deeper into the site’s web search capabilities, leveraging hundreds of ranking signals, along with search features like spelling correction capabilities, synonyms and Google’s knowledge graph.

Priority for local directories and more accurate results for Yelp queries

The algorithm places greater weight on directories and directory listings for local searches with sites like OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon etc. receiving higher visibility within the search results.

Yelp-specific queries will appear ahead of Google's own results. This is in result to Yelp criticising Google for 'pushing its own reviews ahead of Yelp’s, even when the searcher asked specifically for “yelp” in their query'.

Pigeon does not improve SERPs (search engine results page)

Following an update, if the organic traffic sent to your website by Google is down, but the quality (conversion rates) is up, then this is considered a successful update from Google's point of view. For the Pigeon update however, the response has been a decrease in both organic traffic and conversion for businesses that were negatively affected. In other words, Pigeon does not affect the quality of your traffic, it simply gives you less of it. 

Authoritative domains are still important

Taking equity and page authority into account, links metrics still play an important part. Businesses with well-structured, mobile-friendly pages and optimised content actually saw an increase in traffic post-Pigeon. In other words, continuing with your SEO efforts, focusing on best-practises still works as one would expect, however, the approach to take does depend on the size and maturity of both the business and the website.

Location (proximity) is now more important than ever

Proximity clearly matters as a search signal in the post-Pigeon world. There is a clear preference for businesses that are closer to city centre, a slight preference for locations just outside of urban centres in large markets but a sharp drop for any past 20 miles. Over time however, this affect is likely to subside as the location of the searcher becomes more significant. But for now, the prime position for a business is to be as close as possible to city centre.

Don't over-optimise your website

This links back into your overall approach to optimisation, with the 'natural' approach winning yet again. Businesses that have previously adopted an 'aggressive' approach have seen the biggest drop.
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iTech Dunya is a technology blog that specializes in tech-related topics.Our GOAL is to produce high-quality content for our millions of readers.
Over the course of 9 years in SEO, I've seen a little bit of everything. I've personally evaluated thousands of domains over my career. As most know, SEO has changed a lot, so SEO strategies and techniques change with the search marketing tides. SEO in 2016 is a far cry from SEO in 2006, it's always changing and it's tougher to rank today than ever before.
Rough estimate, I'm going to say over 70 percent of the domains I've evaluated have had one SEO mistake after another. Even with all the resources we have today, the latest victim was only 3 days ago. I've seen patterns build that honestly have me questioning where business owners get their SEO advice. There's a lot of credible sources out there, but there's also a lot of regular Joe's that claim the title "SEO Expert." So you have to be careful what you read and who you hire if you're looking for SEO services.
After this last evaluation, I felt it would be proper to bring these key issues up since I'm still seeing a large percentage of our clients make these SEO mistakes. So, shall we?

(1.) Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the very first (if not the first) thing you should be doing. It's not the simplest of SEO task, but it's not rocket science either. Targeting the right keywords is crucial to SEO and the operations of your business. And as you'll see, keywords play far more important roles as we work through this article.
If you're wondering where you can search for keywords to find relative terms and see search volumes for keywords, try Google Keyword Planner.
Just in case you don't know, keywords are any word or word group. A keyword could be "apple," "bird," or "nike shoes." Keywords are the heart of search engines as you can find pretty much anything you want to search for. If you're looking for a new pair of shoes, you likely take to Google and use that exact keyword phrase to find what you're looking for.
Since most of you are either selling products or services, your keyword research should bring back results of keywords that closely resemble what you're selling or what services your business offers. Building your keyword panel (a group of keywords to target) should be priority.
When you're researching your keywords, look for keywords that have search volume. This means users are searching for it. If a keyword has little to no search volume, it's going to be tough to see traffic come to your website targeting it. You should find as many keywords as you can, a few hundred if possible. Some niches will have far less I know, but take what you can get.

(2.) Mapping Out Your Content

There's a reason why Content is King, I'm sure you've heard the terminology in SEO before. In order to map out your content, you need to know the keywords you'll be mapping out. You can put it in a spread sheet, Google SS or Word doc. 
Each page on your website needs to be unique, specifically designed to rank for a specific keyword. 

(3.) Content Structure In SEO

I'll pretend that you already have all your keywords researched, as well as your content targeting your keywords mapped out. Basic SEO, SEO 101 teaches us a few important key elements to SEO optimized content structure. First, let's say that we're targeting the keyword "How To Rank A Keyword."
Using your keyword in the page/post URL - If we're trying to rank for "How To Rank A Keyword," we want to use this keyword term in our URL. Example;
(yoursitename) dot com/how-to-rank-a-keyword/
Best SEO Practice tells us to use our main keyword in a <h1> tag within the article. All <h> tags are important but none more so that the <h1> tag, And since content is valued top (being the highest valued) to bottom (being the lowest value), we want to make sure our main keyword <h1> tag is at the top of the page.
Our <h1> may read; "How To Rank A Keyword In Google Fast"
See how I included the keyword in the <h1> tag? Notice my main targeted keyword is in the main front of the <h> tag, that is for a reason. This is another SEO 101 tip. When you use <h> tags as they do go from <h1> to <h6>, always try to make sure the keyword is in the main front.
<h2-h6> tags should be utilized throughout your content more than once.
Yet another SEO content structure tip is having your main keyword listed in the first paragraph. You also want to make the main keyword and any secondary keywords are listed throughout the article. Keyword density (the percentage of times a keyword appears in the page) should range from 3-5 percent. 
You can also add images, video and internal links to add more SEO value to your article.

(4.) You Only Need One Page/Post To Rank Any Keyword

This tip leads to the biggest issue I've seen with many of the websites I've evaluated, multiple pages targeting the same keywords. This can be a huge mistake and one that does more harm than good. If you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, your own content can fight one another trying to be the ranking page.
You only need one unique page/post to rank any keyword (in due time of course). All of your content should be targeted in this same manner. You don't want 10 articles using the same keyword in the title or URL. You can use secondary keywords within multiple articles and should. Then build internal links with them using the appropriate anchor text.

(5.) Keywords Have Competition Levels, Know Them Out The Gate

Every keyword you could possibly target has a competition rating. Google rates competition in keywords as low, medium and high. Some SEO software providers and tools assign a number to this, 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest.
While other SEO experts will tell you not to go after competitive keywords, I suggest that you do. They are likely keywords that you want to rank for and if so, you need to be targeting them right outside the gate. 
By targeting competitive keywords from the start, it will give your content more time to develop rankings for the chosen main keyword and any secondary keywords used. You'll be able to promote it via marketing, perhaps social media marketing since social signals and shares do have small SEO value. The longer your article is published, the higher chance you have to rank for it. 

(6.) Ranking Competitive Keywords

Back to the old phrase "content is King." When you're a new statup business or have a website that is SEO young, writing high authority content is the only way to go about it. If you have a competitive target keyword, you better make sure that the article is page one worthy.
I don't know how many times I've evaluated websites only to find they have 20-30 articles targeting the same main keyword. No wonder you don't rank. Again, it only takes (1) article to rank a keyword. Remember that before you map and plan your content. 
You still want to aim for long-tail keywords, these are simply keywords with 4 or more words. They are easier to rank for as they have less competition. 

(7.) Where You Fall In Line With SEO

Most websites ranking first page on Google are there for a reason. You'll find upon research that likely, these websites have high DA (Domain Authority) or have 10 year old websites. 90 percent of the time, you can find these websites rank for a reason.
If you have a new website, your DA is one, the lowest possible DA. Means you're at the bottom my friend. Domain authority is a good indicator of the SEO value of a website. Moz is the creator of DA. You can download the Moz toolbar to easily check the DA of any website.
I don't know how many times a business owner will come to me saying "I want to rank first on page one in a month. I go to evaluate the website and they have a DA5, most cases a DA1. My answer, "there's no way in hell." Sure, you can gain quick value doing some black hat SEO (which I do not) because eventually, you will fall from grace.
So you have to know where you fit in within the "SEO World." Know that SEO takes time and you'll be rewarded for the time you put in. SEO is a long-term solution.

Thoughts on SEO

SEO is very complex, there's thought to be over 200 different SEO ranking factors. I feel like it's closer to 300 myself. What we do know, there's a lot of them. And all of them together determine where you will rank for your keywords.
You can avoid a lot of mistakes just by applying what you read in this article and start taking action on your own website.
Lastly, don't rely just on SEO to grow your business. Sure, organic traffic is often our top converting traffic. Sure, SEO can bring in title waves of traffic and backlinks. What SEO doesn't promise is sales. Utilize other marketing tactics and strategies to evolve with your SEO. This is especially true for those of you that have starter websites with no SEO value.
Your website is going to take months to get established. In the time being while you wait on your SEO, you can be using marketing tactics to bring in traffic, leads and generate sales. 
And as always, if you need someone to do it for you, I'm always here.
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iTech Dunya is a technology blog that specializes in tech-related topics.Our GOAL is to produce high-quality content for our millions of readers.

Kenya's 10 Biggest Technology Trends From 2015

As is normally the case at the end every year, I like to do a blog post on what I saw at the biggest trends in technology in Kenya from a somewhat personal perspective? Naturally, there are many other significant things that happened from a technology standpoint in 2015 in Kenya but these are the 10 that really stood out for me:
On-demand digital services exploded
Uber. Easy Taxi. Sendy. Airbnb. YouTube. Apple Music. Even Netflix. All of them found traction in Kenya in 2015. After a relatively slow start for some of them this became the year that everyone fully leveraged the mobile Internet, smartphones and mobile apps to truly transform their lifestyles with on-demand digital services. Case in point for instance in my case is that I can't remember the last time I used a regular taxi instead of an Uber or Easy Taxi. Its ridiculously convenient and cost-effective. Kenya's taxi industry has been disrupted for sure.
Television in Kenya is also being disrupted by on-demand services like Netflix and YouTube to the detriment of established broadcast television businesses like DSTV (speaking of which, have you noticed that everyone has essentially shut down their DSTV subscriptions?). Everyone is streaming everything, on-demand. In a sense, even after all the drama on the move to Digital TV in Kenya, people would rather stream video via the Internet on their own terms. On-demand digital services as a collective will only become more pervasive in 2016 and beyond in Kenya
Safaricom (finally!) launched an M-Pesa API
In late 2015, after waiting for close to 4 years, Safaricom finally launched its M-Pesa Application Programming Interface or API for short. The M-Pesa API is essentially the holy grail that mobile app developers have been waiting for ages to arrive where mobile money transactions concerned. Using the M-Pesa API, mobile app developers and by extension mainstream businesses will be able to leverage the full potential of monetizing products and services in a seamless manner via digital channels such as e-commerce enabled websites and mobile apps. The prospects are huge in this space given that Safaricom's M-Pesa has over 22 million users as of this writing - thats over 50% of Kenya's population. The M-Pesa API opportunity is still very much at a nascent stage so expect to start seeing major developments in this area over the next few years as it matures and becomes ubiquitous to digital commerce in Kenya
Budget smartphones got really awesome
I'm not sure when it happened exactly but sometime in 2015 budget smartphones in Kenya got really awesome. This meant that you could spend under Kes. 10,000.00 and still got a smartphone that was every bit as capable as a device that was more than double the price. Everything about budget smartphones got awesome in Kenya in 2015. Displays got bigger and better. Battery life improved enormously. Processors and memory increased massively. The fit and finish got premium. They ran latest versions of mobile operating systems like Android Lollipop. The obvious impact of really great budget smartphones in Kenya is that they sold like hotcakes and as a result feature phones are fast going the way of the dinosaur. Thanks to an increasing appetite for mobile apps as well that enable instant messaging and social media, everyone wants a smartphone these days including Mama Mboga - its a no brainer - and really good budget smartphones are making this a reality in Kenya.
Mobile Internet data costs dropped by over 70%
In the early part of 2015 Airtel launched their disruptive mobile offering called UnlimiNET. The data bundles offered under the same were radical! mobile Internet suddenly a lot cheaper to the extent that many new subscribers signed up. Safaricom, being Safaricom, were quick to respond and also dropped their mobile data bundles pricing by a massive factor. I did a quick calculation and on average mobile data costs are now over 70% less than what they used to be. As a result, whereas previously Kes. 1,000.00 got you 1GB of data, you now get 3GB of data - 3 times as much data! This has changed consumer behaviour around mobile data use as we are now not as sensitive as we used to be with mobile data costs, thereby enabling us to fully explore anything and everything thats possible on our mobile devices. To a large extent, the rise of on-demand services in Kenya could be partly attributed to inexpensive mobile data.
Mobile app-based lenders started disrupting banks
This trend is only beginning but its getting huge already and banks in Kenya are getting disrupted whether they know it or not. Basically, mobile apps like Mkopo Rahisi, Branch, Pesa Sasa and Saida are fast gaining currency as disruptive lenders who leverage big data, algorithms on social media like Facebook, and mobile money transactions history to issue near-instant unsecured loans via mobile money. The loans that these services issue target Kenyans who need loans really fast and can pay back in a matter of days that they normally would never be granted by a bank or more traditional micro-lender. The interest rates are quite high but the allure of speedy loans and a reliable mobile-app based offering are changing the financial services technology space (i.e. fintech) in Kenya as far as consumers are concerned - banked or unbanked.
Smart mobile everything continued to be the main thing
Smart mobile everything is a phrase I coined a few years ago when describing the perfect trifecta of inexpensive smartphones, mobile internet and mobile money in Kenya. This trend continues to be super important in driving Kenya's digital ecosystem growth in a unique and aggressive manner. The numbers do not lie since according to the latest report from the Communications Authority, Kenya has almost 90% mobile penetration and over 70% Internet penetration. At the same time, broadband internet is still 99% mobile and has over 6 million subscribers as of this writing. There are many more metrics to support the growing significance of the smart mobile everything phenomena in Kenya but the most important takeaway is that this where the real action in digital lies.
Social media got really huge
Social media continues to gather momentum with likes of Facebook approaching 5 million users in Kenya as of this writing. Instragram was clearly the breakout social media platform in Kenya this year and my estimate is that anywhere between 2 to 3 million Kenyans are on it? My argument here is that some users from Kenya on Instagram have over half a million followers which suggests that my estimate is NOT far fetched. Other platforms like Twitter and Linkedin have close to 2 million users and my estimate is that the YouTube probably has over 4 million users. Snapchat is gaining popularity and probably has anywhere from half a million to a million users as of this writing, comprised largely of Kenyan youth. Collectively, my best guess is that Kenya has between 6 and 7 million social media users which is significant whichever way you look at it.
Digital media consumption accelerated 
In 2015, digital media consumption in Kenya accelerated thanks to social media and on-demand digital content platforms. Increasingly, no one is really watching broadcast television unless its news or that sort of thing. The majority of consumption is going mobile and online with social media being a key driver behind this trend. I got some numbers this year from Google that suggest digital media consumption in Kenya is now close to 25% of all media whereas digital advertising is only 4% of all media spend. This means that digital media consumption is already ahead of many traditional media and yet digital ad spend is NOT yet on par, even as its growing massively.
Kenya's E-Government initiatives took off
E-Citizen. E-Visa. iTax. E-Government services in Kenya really took off in 2015. You now can apply for new passports, drivers licenses, visas, etc, all online. This has been a major boon for many Kenyans who cannot access other services like Huduma centres by virtue of the fact that they are not in the country or live and work in highly remote locations. The Kenya Revenue Authority's iTax launch was a massive success and many businesses and individuals are doing their tax returns online. Going forward, Kenya's E-Government initiatives will become more pervasive to the extent that we will wonder how we ever lived without them.
Kenya achieved 20 years of being on the Internet
One metric that no one seems to be talking about is that Kenya achieved 20 years of being on the Internet in October 2015. Indeed, I can recall quite vividly recalling when this happened in Kenya all those years ago on a pokey analogue leased line at the Africa Regional Centre for Computing or the ARCC as it was known then. The Internet was super slow and it was mesmerising watching websites like Yahoo! and CNN loading back then. The Internet has come a long way after 20 years in Kenya to the extent we cannot do without it. Many of the pioneers of the Internet in Kenya 20 years ago have all but disappeared but the Internet is here to stay and has transformed Kenya to be known by the moniker of the Silicon Savannah.
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iTech Dunya is a technology blog that specializes in tech-related topics.Our GOAL is to produce high-quality content for our millions of readers.

Small Business, Social Media and You

As indicated previously, social media is a great equalizer: big brands can be outsmarted without making huge investments, and small brands can make big names for themselves.
Blendtec was a relatively unknown company selling $400 high-performance blenders. After seeing CEO Tom Dickson testing the machines by blending two-by-fours, Marketing Director George Wright had a brilliant idea for a series of viral videos. He started to blend everyday objects—glow sticks, iPhones, Rubik’s Cubes, and television remote controls—and posted the videos to media-sharing sites such as YouTube (see Figure 1-3). The videos have now been watched more than 100 million times and have garnered the company a ton of press and buzz.
A small specialty baker in New Jersey, Pink Cake Box, leverages nearly every type of social media that exists to build a substantial brand. Employees write a blog that features images and videos of their unique cakes. They post the photos to Flickr and the videos to the company’s YouTube channel. Pink Cake Box has more than 1,300 followers on Twitter, and more than 1,400 fans on Facebook.
The software startup I work for, HubSpot, has invested a lot of energy in social media marketing with some success. Our blog has more than 19,000 subscribers (fueled by appearances on #Digg, #Reddit, and #StumbleUpon), our company Twitter account has more than 16,000 followers, our LinkedIn group has more than 34,000 members, and our #Facebook page has more than 6,000 fans. We’ve launched a marketing forum, and have a lot of fun making amusing (and sometimes serious) videos for #YouTube.

Social Media and You


Whether you are part of a small, medium, or giant business, or are an individual entrepreneur, your cus- tomers are using social media, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be, too. It costs almost nothing, it’s easy to get started, and it can have an enormous financial impact on your business.
This book will teach you everything you need to know to pick the right tools and get started. While writ- ing this book, I spoke with some of the most brilliant social media pioneers, including people from Flickr, Yelp, Mashable, WebmasterWorld, Second Life, and Scout Labs. They shared their wisdom on how you can—and should—be working with social media.
Your customers and your competition are already involved in social media. Why aren’t you?

Thanks & Regards 

Vaibhav Mishra                                                                                                          Skype ID : vaibhav.bittarget                                                                                    Mail ID : vaibhav@bittarget.in
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