This is an interview on the InstaVIP Podcast with Qamar Zaman of KissPR.com
Steve Wetmore 0:02
Today on the InstaVIP podcast we are interviewing Kumar’s Zaman with Kiss PR in Dallas, Texas. Specifically, we’re going to be discussing the future of SEO in 2020. Kumar’s credentials are very impressive. He has been published on Forbes, CNN several times on USA Today. While using “White Hat”, SEO methods, Kumar has helped hundreds of companies gain visibility and grow their business. How are you this morning?
Qamar Zaman 0:41
I’m good, Steve. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Steve Wetmore 0:44
Awesome. Could you give us some background on who you are and what you do?
Qamar Zaman 0:51
Steve, I’ve been in the SEO field for almost 20 years started the business in 2002, unofficially incorporated in 2014 or 2004. After a major hurricane, I used to live in the Cayman Islands. And after the hurricane, everything got devastated. couldn’t do much web design. Seo was really at infancy couldn’t do much web design. So I moved to Dallas where my second home was, and that’s where I started selling websites. And fast forward now. I’m mostly doing SEO. I do some website work, but mostly SEO and digital marketing. That’s where I am.
Steve Wetmore 1:40
Interesting Qamar. So can you can you share some highlights of your career over the last 20 years?
Qamar Zaman 1:48
Sure. Started kiss PR which was not called kiss PR It was called One Visibility and people had trouble Kind of understanding and misspelling. So I went and got a domain name called kiss VR. But before that happened, I had invented I would say a product. And I had in my pricing page, three columns and there was the price called $10 and $20 and $30 and the middle price which was 1999 or $20 was called kiss and that product was very successful everybody bought it and because it was called keep it super simple for search engines. So I decided that you know, everybody likes it, so I should call myself kiss, which stands for Keep it Super Simple and keep you know, it’s super.
And I started getting into marketing and SEO. It was a rough journey, because the SEO competition is intense. There’s a lot of people that claim to do SEO. And in the intro, you said, You know, I do white hat SEO? Actually, there is no white, gray or black hat. SEO is Seo because, you know, a lot of people, most people will say, this guy does white hat SEO, the moment you hear that, you’d run away from them because they actually don’t.
So it’s funny that you said that because Google doesn’t want you to do any SEO. You know, that’s what Google says. They don’t manipulate search results, just make it organic. And Google says it for whatever reasons they say it for, but to do search engine optimization. You have to do certain things. So The best way I put it is, I use Google’s best practices to get the websites found. And that’s really been the secret to my success. And I’ve kept it simple. And as a result, and as the name implies, Keep it Super Simple (KISS). As a name applies, you know, my clients haven’t gotten excessive and very successful results.
I have worked with over 30,000 small businesses in the last 20 years. Wow. And they are still using my services, which have a very affordable point.
And to segue into the need of doing affordable SEO, I use a lot of press releases in my SEO which Google will tell you that back links are dead, etc.
But I don’t use it for link building. I don’t use it for any other reason. It’s just that when you have a product and you talk about your product consistently, somebody out there will find you and your press releases. People do read it, you know, they are found in the search results. People do go to Google News. They go to Yahoo News, they read all the big journals that are trusted, like the USA today and the Wall Street Journal etc. And that’s how people have found me and interviewed me.
And as a result of that, I’ve been lucky enough to be found by Forbes and ultimately became a Forbes content writer. I write for Forbes, I was also mentioned couple of times in their expert panel on the tips that are provided, which are also there. So you just need to keep things very simple and ethical. And imagine me explaining what is SEO to my friends and I say “if the CEO of Google was looking over your shoulder, what would you do that he would say, “Well, this is not right or honest.” Okay? So just be cognizant of that and build good digital assets. And ultimately, the more you chase Google, the harder it becomes. So just be natural, and this approach become successful.
Steve Wetmore 6:19
Interesting. That’s a great perspective. Thank you for that.
So, let’s pull out our crystal ball and give us your insights on what you feel is going to be the future of SEO, particularly in 2020.
Qamar Zaman 6:42
Sure, I’ve been doing SEO for 20 years and there’s one thing that I have seen that consistently has been there is link building. You are still going to be able to do link building. The real question is what types of links are these. So the best are natural links; create content that people are searching for, and are able to share your content. So if you create a good content and people see your content on social media, and then they become your fans, they know, like and trust you and they are going to share that content with their friends.
That link may not be placed on the very authoritative site, but because that link is getting viral and it’s getting shared. It’s a great signal. So that to me, will continue to be important.
Google dedicated one of their products Google Plus, you may recall it was not very successful and it went away. So they have put all of their effort into Google My Business which is technically the map page. And if you claim your map and you really work hard as using the best practices, Google My Business will become a very important factor.
In fact, MOZ.com, which is a great tool and they are very authoritative. In 2018 MOZ had made prediction that Google My Business signals are counting towards the 100% Factor.
25% was Google My Business. And link signals were 27%. So I think they will continue to dominate Google My Business.
The next trend I see is that reviews will continue to dominate your search because people are researching for who they want to do business with. They need to know who they can trust and reviews are the best signals.
Companies that have bad reviews, obviously, don’t get as much business compared to, you know, people that have good reviews or continue to get good reviews.
Now there is some some people say that you need to have 40 reviews and four plus ratings. I don’t know about that. But as long as it’s all organic, you get what you get. And sites are getting a five star review from every customer. So as long as it’s not a gamed approach, I think Google will continue to see that.
Citations, which means getting links from sites remain very important. So if your links are found on ways and other sites, they are going to be a big factor in ranking.
But at the end of the day, it’s all behavior, how people will behave from where they find the content, and then they come to you. You know, I have an Instagram page and I have like, 20,000 followers. And I’m getting a lot of traffic from my Instagram to KissPR.com. So I think Instagram, even though Instagram does not pass any link value to my page from an SEO perspective, is a good signal. I think that channel will continue to drive more traffic for me, as long as I keep posting good content and gaining better engagement.
And I think Google does look at it, they have said they don’t. But you know, it’s organic, so anything organic will benefit.
Mobile voice search is going to be the next big thing, artificial intelligence, Voice Search. Those are the next big things.
Google just released a new algorithm called bird, which basically tells me that voice search is going to be big. And because everybody’s searching on their mobile – we know mobile and voice search is going to be the next dominating factor of personalization in Google.
Steve Wetmore 11:00
Interesting. Well, thank you for that.
Working with your day to day SEO methods, you know, as you’re working for your customers, what are your three top tools that you use to get your work done?
Unknown Speaker 11:22
#1 I believe in a cloud system because I’m always there, so I’m not carrying the computer all the time. I want to be able to access my data on the phone. So the tools that I really love, and I literally work around are Google Docs, because it’s relatively inexpensive and it’s secure.
I mean, if Google is not secure, then who could be. So that’s one of the tools that I use excessively.
#2 I use Canva for my graphics that I design for posting images on Instagram – is a very easy to use.
#3 Then I use a tool called Evernote. So I keep everything in Evernote.
#4 In fact, the fourth would be zoom. So I use zoom a lot too.
And those, those are my four. You can call it a “Swiss Army Knife”.
Steve Wetmore 12:16
Very, very interesting. So if if someone wants to reach you, where do you want them to find you on LinkedIn or at your website?
Qamar Zaman 12:31
The best place is obviously my website, because it’ll be hard for them to search me on LinkedIn unless they know my exact name.
So the website that I can share with the people that are listening to this podcast and they want to try some unique methods is kisspr.com
Kisspr.com is the main website for digital marketing and Story.KissPR. This is where all small businesses come in and use press releases and content marketing for their business. So those are the two places.
Steve Wetmore 13:07
Awesome, fantastic. Well Kumar This is very insightful and I’m sure our audience will get a lot of great information from article once they, they digest it. So thank you again, and look forward to talking to you in the near future.
Qamar Zaman 13:27
Thank you.
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