Posts by Omar Kattan

Sandstorm Digital Client Reporting Portal

Announcement: Launch of Sandstorm Digital Client Portal

We’re delighted to announce the launch of our Google API-integrated client portal for digital activities reporting, SEO auditing, buzz monitoring and competitive intelligence gathering. We’ve tapped into the Google Analytics API and are now able to provide our clients with multi-market/language insightful 24/7 reporting, keyword rank tracking ...
Warehouse 1 Buyer Persona Example (1)

4 Step Planning Process For B2B Content Marketing

We’re currently pitching to take on the content marketing and social media strategy for a sizable B2B company in Saudi Arabia. During one of my early discussions with the client, the topic of Facebook came up.  Specifically, that most of the proposals he received focused around a “Facebook strategy”.  He wasn’t convinced that ...
social-media-middle-east.jpg

Social Media Usage in the Middle East [INFOGRAPHIC]

We came across this infographic from Go-Gulf.com (via Arabian Gazette) and wanted to share it with you. It’s about the demographics and use of social media in the Middle East.  We can’t vouch for the stats, but  sources are found at the bottom. The most striking statistic:  88% of the Middle East population uses social media on a daily ...
Arabic SEO Series - Content Targeting - Sandstorm Digital

Arabic SEO Series: Country Level Content Targeting

At Sandstorm we’re fortunate to work with some of the region’s/world’s best know brands.  Recently, we worked on a couple of SEO projects that involved localisation of the brand’s web presence. Many questions (some common) arose from various clients about this so I thought I’d write up a series of Arabic SEO blogs posts ...
Rolex Icons Campaign SERP

Google Moves From Strings To Things With rel=author

I’ve written quite a few times about the importance of content authorship for ranking and SERP conversions on Google. In his latest video, Matt Cutts reaffirms the importance of authored content and the move away from an anonymous web to a web built on identity, the knowledge graph and the authority of not only content publishers but also content ...
Google's 200 Ranking Factors

Google’s 200 Ranking Factors [INFOGRAPHIC]

Ranking on Google is tough. Their algorithm takes into account over 200 ranking factors. Staying on top of them all can be a nightmare. This infographic from SingleGrain and Backlink is an excellent resource to help you stay on track of the various factors influencing your ranking on Google. We hope you find it useful (Click image for LARGER Version).
JC Penny - Hitler Kettle

How We Leverage QDF For Content Marketing

Last week, JC Penney was caught up in a social media PR disaster when one of its products (a kettle) was compared to Hitler. See below. It inspired me to write this short post. The Power of QDF Google’s algorithm has a freshness component commonly referred to as QDF (Query Deserves Freshness).   In a nutshell, Google surfaces fresh content associated ...
Improve Alexa Rank

HOW TO: Improve Alexa Rank

The Alexa rank of your website is one of the publicly available metrics about the traffic of your blog or website. It doesn’t have a direct correlation to the amount of traffic that you get to your website, as Alexa only counts the visits to your website by visitors who have installed the Alexa toolbar on their browser. Common Alexa Myth Dispelled Your ...
Mobile Advertising - MADWORLD Dubai - May 14-15

My Recent Presentation at “MadWorld” Mobile Advertising Event – Dubai

I recently spoke at MAD World, the region’s premiere mobile event; the topic of discussion: “How to Create Attention Grabbing Clickable Ads That Simplify The Path to Purchase”. My presentation in a nutshell: It’s not a one shoe fits all solution. Each mobile campaign is different and depends on various factors. To be thorough, ...
figures_with_dart

Four Reasons to Use Behavioral Ad Re-targeting

When someone opens a new website, they ignore most of the advertisements. The banner ad for a leather jacket? Not interested. The auto-play ad showing off a new pair of shoes? Stopped and ignored. The pop-up for an upcoming sale on all sweaters? Blocked by a Firefox add-on. Why do people ignore these ads? Because they aren’t showing any products ...