• FAQs

          Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses drive visits to their website through organic search traffic. Given that the top organic search results receive a third of the clicks, a decline in ranking could be detrimental for your business. Implementing SEO best practices on your website will help to ensure that your web content is seen by as many potential customers as possible. The more visitors you have, the better your chances are of converting those visits into sales!

          Local search engine optimization (SEO) helps local businesses gain visibility by optimizing their local business listings for local search. A business that leverages local SEO will include its address, phone number, local opening times, and exact location in the form of a local citation. The goal is to rank for local searches which are usually performed by people in a specific geographical region looking for a business near them.

          We typically see results within the first 30 to 60 days, but when it comes to SEO, there are many factors at play. It's important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy and results may not come as fast at you wish.

        • FAQs

          Digital advertising uses the internet to send advertisements to customers who are online through different websites and social media platforms like Google, Bing, LinkedIn and Facebook.

          The price for Google Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.

          The price for Social Media Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.

        • FAQs

          This depends on the complexity and size of a redesign and if eCommerce is needed. On average, it takes around 14-18 weeks from the web design intensive stage to launch.

          If your website experiences the following issues: it’s not responsive on all devices, has a slow loading speed, the design appears old and tired, users don’t spend long on the site, sales are stagnant, or your business is going through a rebranding - your website needs a redesign to boost your brand awareness and sales.

          Sometimes there’s no need to rebuild a website. Minor edits, refreshing page content and images, or restructuring page layout for SEO best practices can boost traffic and sales.

        • FAQs

          Semantic search launched in 2013 with the release of Google's Hummingbird update. Since then, Google's search engine has become more complex. The integration of machine learning, with RankBrain, and NLP, with BERT, has enabled the search engine to better understand the context of a query and deliver more personalized and targeted results. Semantic SEO is the process of creating machine-readable content using structured data and linked open data to help search engines better understand your content.

          On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page SEO refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals. From meta tags to page content, website structure, and HTML, on-page optimization services are focused on making your website more visible to search engines.

          Structured data refers to any organized data that conforms to a certain format, such as information in a relational database. When information is highly structured and predictable, search engines can more easily organize and display it in creative ways. Structured data involves using a piece of code that is laid out in a specific format easily understood by search engines. The search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a more dynamic way.

        • FAQs

          An SEO agency has experts in different areas of search engine optimization that may be out of the realm of your marketing team's abilities. SEO can be very complex and time-consuming. Furthermore, as search engine algorithms change it can be difficult to stay current on the latest ranking factors and strategies for improving online visibility. You will likely see a greater return on investment and better results from using a professional SEO agency than you would from tackling this on your own.

          As a digital marketing agency, SMA Marketing provides products and services in four areas: SEO, Local SEO, Digital Advertising, and Web Design

          We focus on building authentic, long-lasting relationships with our clients. We’re goal oriented and results driven and believe in doing good and making a difference in the world.

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5 SEO Optimizations You Can’t Afford to Ignore

Amanda Fallace

December 9, 2021

It is estimated that there are around two trillion search queries performed each year. Though this number may seem daunting, it poses many opportunities to help your website stand out from the crowd. With some fine-tuning of your search engine optimization strategy, you can raise your odds of being successful in search, which will significantly improve your site’s visibility.

There are several search engine ranking factors involved in generating high organic search results. This, in combination with Google’s ever-changing search algorithm, can make SEO difficult to execute effectively. The good news, however, is that there are a few highly valuable optimizations that can have a significant impact on your search rankings. No matter how involved your search engine optimization strategy is, here are 5 SEO optimizations that you can’t afford to ignore.

5 Essential SEO Optimizations

1. Mobile Optimization

Over the years, the popularity of mobile devices has grown significantly. In fact, Search Engine Land suggests, 60% of Google searches are performed on mobile. With that said, if you’re looking to attract search engine users, then you must have a mobile-friendly website for a better user experience.

To check if your website is mobile-friendly, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Simply paste your URL into the tool and Google will analyze your site and determine whether or not it is mobile-friendly. If your website fails the test, the tool will provide you with some suggestions to help you improve your site for mobile search visitors.

The best solution for mobile optimization is implementing a mobile-responsive theme. This allows your website to automatically adjust to any screen where it is viewed. WordPress offers hundreds of responsive themes that you can use for your website, many of which are free. You can view some high-performing themes here.

2. High-Quality Content

In the past, you could write a short piece of content, stuff it with a bunch of keywords, and get it to rank. But, a lot has changed since then.

Today, your content will have the greatest chance to rank high in search engine rankings when it has enough details about the topic you’re writing about. In other words, you must help Google understand the context of your content. The best way to do this is with consistency and on-page optimization.

Here are a few SEO Best Practices for content:

  • Including H1, H2 and H3 headers
  • Using ALT Text on images
  • Incorporating internal and external hyperlinks
  • Writing a descriptive title and meta description
  • Incorporating long-tail keywords into the text of the relevant content
  • Making sure your web pages have at least 300 words of content so they can be crawled

3. Page Speed

One major ranking factor for website pages is speed. While page speed is essential for user experience, it’s even more so to web crawlers, who won’t waste their time attempting to crawl a page that takes too long to load. The slower your pages are to load, the less likely they are to be indexed by Google.

Hundreds of factors can have an impact on your page speed. Tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights quickly analyze the content of a web page, then generate suggestions to help improve your page speed. For other optimization ideas to help increase your page speed, check out this video on website page speed.

4. High-Quality Backlinks

Simply put, links are a signal to Google that your website is a quality resource, worthy of citation. In turn, sites with more backlinks tend to earn higher search rankings.

It’s important to note that not all links are created equal. Some hold more value to your site than others. For example, a link from an authoritative website like Forbes will have a greater impact on your rankings than a link from a small or newly built site that lacks authority. With that said, you should only focus on earning links from websites that have a high domain authority and a significant amount of traffic. Tools like SEMRush will help you easily identify these sites.

5. SEO-Friendly URL Structure

While URLs are considered a basic element of SEO, they are highly important to your website’s overall success, both from Google’s and a user’s point of view. Complex URL strings make it hard for users to share your content and can also frustrate crawlers.

According to Moz, a well-crafted URL provides both humans and search engines an easy-to-understand indication of what the destination page will be about. Check out this graphic to see the proper anatomy of a URL:

Anatomy-of-a-URL-cheat-sheet_170316_122433-1

A Strong SEO Strategy

No matter your industry, the success of today’s businesses relies on their ability to be found online. Implementing a strong, quality SEO strategy is not only beneficial to a brand and its marketing efforts, but it is critical to its web presence, especially within competitive markets. Including the 5 SEO optimizations highlighted in your SEO strategy are a sure way to improve your rankings.

Looking to improve your SEO strategy? Contact SMA Marketing today. As SEO industry experts, we have the skills and knowledge to drive the right organic search traffic to your website. Check out our On-Page SEO Guide where we detail ethical and effective SEO best practices. Click below to download our FREE On-Page SEO Guide!

On-Page SEO Guide

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and completeness.

Amanda Fallace

Amanda is SMA's Lead SEO Strategist working from her home office in Port Orange, FL. She is passionate about SEO and the Inbound Methodology. As a Florida native, she enjoys spending her spare time at the beach with her beloved dogs, Bentley and Kona.

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