• 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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Accelerated Mobile Pages: Speed & Your Website’s Mobile Web Experience

Ryan Shelley, CPBI

March 3, 2016

Consumers today research content and information in vastly different ways than just a few years ago. Over half of the searches made worldwide on Google each month happen on mobile devices. With the accessibility of Smart Phones, the mobile revolution is no longer just impacting western economies. With this global shift in how people connect and research for solutions online, business owners need to place a greater emphasis on their website’s mobile experience in order to deliver their message in the most impactful way.

On April 21, 2015, Google released a significant new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm. The purpose of the update was to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results. The update became known as “mobilegeddon.” While many site owners have implemented a mobile website or have adopted responsive design, most mobile experiences leave much to be desired. As Google puts more and more of a focus on user experience, and more specifically mobile user experience, website owners need to pay attention.

Introducing Accelerated Mobile Pages

The goal behind this initiative is to create a better, faster and more friendly mobile web experience for users. The push for a faster mobile web is two-fold.  The main focus of this project is speed. Why, because today the average attention span has shrunk to 8.25 seconds – that’s shorter than that of a goldfish. The second focus is about helping businesses, website owners and content publishers better engage their users, which in return will help their marketing and could lead to more revenue.

“Every time a webpage takes too long to load, they lose a reader‚Äîand the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions. That’s because advertisers on these websites have a hard time getting consumers to pay attention to their ads when the pages load so slowly that people abandon them entirely.” ~ Google AMP 

In order to create a smarter, faster and more user friendly mobile web experience, Google, along with a number of publishers and technology companies have come together to make mobile work better for the world. Some of the early adopters have been Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress.com, Chartbeat, Parse.ly, Adobe Analytics and LinkedIn.

The 3 key areas accelerated mobile pages will focus on are content, distribution and ads.

  • Content: The AMP Project is all about helping “publishers to focus on producing great content, while relying on the shared components for high performance and great user experience.” Google AMP Project
  • Distribution: Fast distribution is key for publishers across the web. With the AMP Project Google has “designed a new approach to caching that allows the publisher to continue to host their content while allowing for efficient distribution through Google’s high performance global cache.”
  • Advertising: When it comes to funding free content and services online, ad revenue is extremely important. Having too many ads can be distracting to the end user, so finding a way to make advertising more inviting and user focused, the AMP Project will “support a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies.”

How Does This Impact Your Website?

Having a mobile website is no longer enough. If you still haven’t gone mobile, now is the time to take action. [Get a Free Mobile Website Assessment Here] Research done by BuzzBoard found that 47.3 percent of small businesses do not have mobile-ready sites. Mobile is the primary way consumers are searching for information online. Those with mobile websites have the potential to double the audience of those without mobile sites. According to comScore’s “Global Mobile Report,” virtually half of all traffic to the top 100 digital media properties are mobile only.

The problem with not embracing mobile is two-sided. First, consumers are demanding it. Second, as we read at the top and have seen with the “Mobile Friendly Update,” Google is tweaking their algorithm to favor mobile sites.

If you want to be relevant to your audience and increase the amount of targeted web traffic to your site, a fast, user-focused mobile experience is a must! Google is constantly updating and tweaking their algorithm to deliver the most relevant results. So how can your business stay in front of the competition and create an advantage? Search Engine Land created a guide with 7 observations on the impact of speed in relation to mobile search. Below is a quick overview, but to get all the details check out their full article here.

Consumers Want Speed

Consumers want more than just mobile websites, they want fast mobile websites. If your website is slow, you lose.

Speed Is A Google Mobile Ranking Factor

Google itself has come out this year stating that Google favors faster sites. When Google makes a statement like this, website owners need to pay attention and put into action what they express.

The Push For Faster Content

Google is competing to keep users on the mobile web when they are increasingly spending time on apps. Apps are now addressing poor speed on mobile, like Facebook’s Instant Articles. This is one of the main driving points behind Accelerated Mobile Pages.

Local SEO Impact

According to a 2013 Harris Interactive survey, 33 percent of users who had a negative mobile shopping experience head to a competitor’s site. But what’s even more important is that 30 percent will never return to the offending website. First impressions matter.

Basic Tips to Speed Up Your Website

  • The weight or size of your website’s pages are a key factor in page load times. Minimize the number and size of files that must be downloaded when your page is loaded. Using a caching plugin or a CDN to gzip your files can increase speed.
  • Images and videos are heavy. Use compression tools and other size-reducing utilities to lighten the amount of data that must be loaded. For WordPress sites, WP Smush is a great plugin.
  • Avoid heavy formats for your page. If you’re still using Flash, now is the time to stop! A great thing about Google’s AMP is it controls third-party Javascript so that it doesn’t interrupt page load.
  • Optimize your font for page load. Some fonts can be surprisingly large, and being smart about your selection and strategy for how they are used can improve speed.
  • Optimize the timing of when certain items on your page load. For example, content below the fold that isn’t viewable until the user scrolls down the screen can be delayed to load after content above the fold. Also, preloading can be timed so that content is loaded during inactive breaks before the user gets there.

Speed is the name of the game for today’s mobile marketing and search world. Part of a great user experience is speed. This was even outlined in the Google Search Quality Guidelines as a factor when rating a site. Learn more about the Accelerated Mobile Page Project here: https://www.ampproject.org/

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Ryan Shelley, CPBI

Ryan is passionate about helping companies make a more personal connection online with their customers and prospects. He is a regular contributor to Search Engine Land, the largest and most popular SEO news site on the web. His works have also been featured on the HubSpot Blog, Business2Community and by LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.

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