• 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.

  • Contact

6 Website Redesign Mistakes that Will Turn Your Website into a Zombie

“It seemed just like any other website redesign project. The team worked well together, aside from the normal butting heads over a few design issues. But all in all, the project ran smoothly. After the 3 months of hard work, late nights and multiple concept changes, the new site was ready for launch. What happened next, no one on the team could have prepared for. What was supposed to be the launch of an exciting new website, transformed into a monster none of us were prepared to face. The new site was live, running and working just like a website should. But according to our data, it was as if the site was actually dead. Looks like we had a zombie website on our hands.”

This horror story is too often the reality for a number of businesses who undertake a website redesign. What you thought was going to be a huge success turned into a living nightmare. Your new site is live, but instead of new traffic and happy visitors, they are running for their lives in the other direction. All of the best practice documents, tips and tricks couldn’t have prepared you for the terror of dealing with a zombie website.

Your next website redesign doesn’t have to play out like a horror film. Here are 6 mistakes to avoid before your next big redesign. Following them could save your business’ online marketing life.

1. Your Website Redesign is Based on a Feeling

Just because you want a new look, doesn’t mean you should persue a redesign. Before undertaking such an important task, you must get feedback! Start by looking at the analytics and assess how your users are engaging with your site. Talk to your customers and get their input. Your redesign needs to be in sync with the rest of your marketing efforts. So don’t force it, use it to your advantage. Use a simple pros & cons list to weigh your options and to help keep you grounded and focused.

2. You Created the New Site For Internal Purposes

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your website is not for you, your co-workers or even to boost the CEO’s ego. It is for your audience. If you are doing a new site in order to make an internal department of your company or business happy, you will fail. In order to create a website that gets results, it must be created out of goals and centered on attracting and converting your audience into customers. Focusing internally is maybe the fastest way to turn your website into a zombie.

3. You’ve Got Too Many Opinions Involved

While feedback is great, not all feedback is equal. Isn’t it funny that the ones who complain the most that are usually nowhere to be found when it comes time to execute the change? Listen to others’ feedback, but make sure you are listening to the right voices – mainly your audience and those in the organization that understand your buyers’ needs and wants. Design-by-committee often leaves a project without one owner who has responsibility for it being completed on time and correctly.

4. Death by Compromise

In many compromises, you end up with 2 parties who settled for much less than they wanted and as a result both are upset and the solution they arrived at most likely sucks and doesn’t fix anything. The biggest way to combat this is to throw preferences out the window and force decisions to be made around achieving goals.

5. You Forgot About Future Growth

For many business, you are stuck in the never ending two to three-year redesign cycle. By launching a site and letting it sit idle until the next redesign, you have successfully created a zombie without even realizing it.  Embracing the truth that websites should be living and able to constantly adapt to your audience will result in happy users and higher conversion rates. We call this approach Growth Driven Design. Check out this free eBook which goes into this subject in a lot more detail.

6. You Changed Everything at Once

Now, there are times when a total makeover is needed, but this is rarely the case. When you make huge changes all at once, you have no ability to determine where the changes you made had the greatest impact. By breaking up the redesign into phases you can see how each update impacts your website as a whole.

By avoiding these 6 common mistakes, you can prevent a living nightmare.  A website redesign is not something you should do just because. Make sure you know what your goals are and plan out how you are going to achieve those goals. If you killed your last site and are now dealing with a zombie website of your own, there is hope. Review your mistakes, compare the data and put a new plan into action. Take the lessons you’ve learned and avoid these 6 six mistakes and you can bring your website back to life. Need help with a plan? We’ve got your back. Contact us today!

New Call-to-action

Search by Topic

  • All Resources
  • SEO
  • Digital Advertising
  • Content Marketing
  • Web Development