• 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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The Best Digital Marketing Tools

Amanda Fallace

February 7, 2023

The web offers thousands of tools for new and experienced digital marketers. With so many options, selecting the best tools for your needs can be a long and overwhelming process. Take your marketing strategy to the next level by reviewing some of our most used and loved tools below.

All-in-One Tools

SEMrush

If you’re serious about improving your SEO strategy, you’re going to want to check out SEMrush. SEMrush is one of our team’s favorite all-in-one digital marketing tools. This tool provides assistance in performing keyword research, position tracking, and identifying backlink opportunities. You can even use this tool to perform a comprehensive technical SEO audit. Additional features include content marketing, paid advertising, and social media marketing tools.

SEMrush offers free and paid subscriptions. With a free account, you are limited in your ability to pull data and use some of the tool’s advanced features. This is why we suggest starting out with a 14-day free trial to explore some of SEMrush’s popular functions.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is another SMA favorite all-in-one digital marketing tool. It offers a slew of tools aimed at increasing your site’s organic traffic.

Ahrefs offers a great selection of competitive analysis features which can be used to review what your competitor’s top pages and relevant keywords are, where their content ranks in the SERPs, and more. You can also use Ahrefs to run a full site audit to ensure your site isn’t impacted by any technical or on-page SEO issues.

Ahrefs offers a wide range of membership options. You can view their pricing plans here.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a great tool for all things necessary for executing a seamless inbound marketing strategy. At SMA, we use HubSpot as our CRM and CMS, as well as for, blogging, social media, and to build landing pages. HubSpot has a variety of automation features, most notably within its email marketing platform, which we use often.

If you’re looking to learn more about inbound marketing, HubSpot Academy offers a large collection of free certification courses that will teach you useful information to help you grow your marketing strategy.

Moz

Moz offers a great selection of both free and paid SEO tools. With the help of Moz, you can easily perform site audits, keyword research, and monitor your search engine rankings. We highly recommend using the MozBar Chrome plugin, which provides instant metrics while viewing any page or SERP.

SEO Tools

Screaming Frog SEO

Screaming Frog is an easy-to-use SEO crawling tool. This tool provides important SEO-related information about your site that you can download and keep on file for reference. Screaming Frog covers everything from basic on-page SEO elements to more high-level insights like HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

We like to use Screaming Frog to help identify any site errors that may be impacting SEO. You can link this tool with others like Moz or Google Analytics for even more information.

Schema.org Validator

If you’re leveraging structured data on your website, the Schema.org Validator is an absolute must. This free tool tests the structured data on any webpage. Use this tool to ensure your pages are properly marked up or gain some insight into the types of schema your competitors are using.

Detailed SEO Extension

If you’re looking for quick SEO insights on any webpage, the Detailed SEO Extension is a great option. This free Chrome extension generates important SEO data in seconds. Uncover any page’s title tags, meta descriptions, schema, and internal links to ensure your pages are optimized correctly or to gain insight into your competitor’s strategy.

WordLift

WordLift is a paid AI-powered SEO tool that has helped take our SEO strategy to the next level. We use WordLift to automate many of our SEO tasks, like structured data implementation and knowledge graph building. Though this is a rather advanced tool, it has great potential to help increase your organic traffic and scale your SEO efforts.

Data Tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an obvious choice for anyone in the digital marketing space. At first glance, this tool can seem a little advanced, but if you use it to its full capabilities, you will receive a ton of insight into how your users are engaging with your site.

If you’re looking to increase your understanding of Google Analytics, we recommend exploring the Google Analytics Academy. This is a collection of free courses that will help you learn everything there is to know about the platform so you can use it to its full potential.

Google Search Console

Search Console provides tools and reports to help measure your site’s search traffic and performance, address issues, and ensure your site is optimized for SEO. Whether you are new or experienced in digital marketing, Search Console is a must-have asset.

Content Marketing Tools

Frase

Frase is an awesome content optimization tool that every digital marketer needs in their back pocket. Frase uses AI to provide advanced content insights that can help boost your search visibility and your web traffic. Use Frase to optimize your existing content or help you write new and improved content.

Content research can take hours. Frase automatically provides an intelligent outline for almost every topic across the web. In seconds, Frase provides a list of related topics, headers, FAQs, statistics, recent news, and interesting facts that you can use to quickly build a powerful piece of content.

Frase is a paid tool, but they do offer a free trial so you can test it out before making a commitment.

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a research and monitoring tool that can help identify trends around specific topics. This tool can help you generate blog or social media ideas, create high-performing content, monitor your brand’s performance, and identify influencers you may want to consider partnering with. Though BuzzSumo is a paid tool, you can register for a free 7-day trial to test it out before committing to a subscription.

WordPress Plugins

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress with more than 13 million users. Yoast helps ensure your pages are optimized for pre-selected keywords and provides a wide variety of other useful SEO insights. This is a great option for beginners. You can use Yoast for free or opt for their paid Yoast Premium plan to access some of their more advanced features.

Image Source: https://yoast.com/features/seo-analysis/

Rank Math

Rank Math is another great Search Engine Optimization plugin option for WordPress. Rank Math makes it easy for users to optimize their content, easily index or no-index pages, and even implement structured data. Rank Math offers free and pro subscriptions.

Graphic Design Tools

Canva

Canva is a great tool for creating professional-looking graphics. No matter your design experience, you can easily use this tool to create social images, CTA buttons, and infographics for free. Canva offers a large selection of templates, clip art, and fonts to help you customize your project. This is the perfect tool for someone who doesn’t have access to more advanced design platforms like Photoshop or InDesign.

Paid Advertising Tools

Google Ads

If you’re interested in dabbling in paid ads (PPC), look no further than Google Ads. Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, makes it easy for you to reach customers on Google, YouTube, and across the web. Create custom ads and easily set a budget that works for you all within the platform. Google Ads offers a variety of resources and support to ensure your paid ads campaigns run smoothly. Google Ads is free to join but payment is required to begin running ads.

Digital Marketing that Drives Results

With such a large selection of digital marketing tools, it is important to know how each one will benefit you to help drive results. With the help of these tools, you can ensure digital success!

Need help improving your digital marketing efforts? Contact SMA Marketing today! As industry experts, we have the experience needed to take your digital marketing campaign to new heights.

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Amanda Fallace

Amanda brings a passion for results to her SEO Manager role, leading our forward-thinking strategies to improve organic search visibility.

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