• 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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CTAs: How a Call-To-Action Serves Your Visitors

CTAs How a Call-To-Action Serves Your Visitors

Too often we assume people will go to the web pages we want them to go naturally. We have to stop assuming and need to take action. In order to have our visitors go deeper into our site and convert we must give them clear direction.

A call-to-action(CTA) is a simple, yet direct way to lead your visitors in the right direction.

Make the Ask

Too often I run into business owners who are afraid to make the ask. They don’t want to come off as pushy so instead of leading their prospects to action, they just wait for them to make the move themselves. Unfortunately, that is not how it works.

When someone searches for an answer to a pain point they are experiencing and lands on a website, they want further direction. They want to have their pain resolved. If a website provides some information but does not share the next step for the prospect, they will leave and find the next step somewhere else.

“Ask and you shall receive.” If you have an action that you want your visitors to take, you must ask them. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to be outrageous and pushy, but you do need to make the expectations clear.

Many site owners have a “Buy Now” or a “Contact Us” button in the top right navigation of their site. This is a subtle and classy way to ensure that there is a clear next step for every person who visits your website. But this is only one type of call-to-action. To really optimize engagement, we need to leverage all the different types of CTA’s that are available to us.

Direct vs Transitional CTAs

The two main types of CTA’s are direct and transitional. They each serve a very specific purpose and work together towards driving our leads to the right page at the right time in their journey. It’s usually not enough to just ask once. In most cases, you will need to ask your visitors a few times before they click through.

Direct CTA

A direct call-to-action is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a button or link on your website that tells your visitors exactly what you want them to do.

People love clarity. Think about for a moment. I recently went online to purchase a power supply to an Xbox. When I landed on the page, was the next step vague for me? No! If it was, I would have left to find someone else who knew what I wanted and helped me make a purchase.

Right next to the product was a clear button that said: “add to cart.” Now you may not be in the e-commerce business, but my guess is that you do have something to sell, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. People want to know the next step. Don’t be passive and expect them to find out what to do next. Be direct and tell them.

Some examples of Direct CTA’s are:

  • Buy Now
  • Free Consultation
  • Register Today
  • Schedule an Appointment

Don’t just add these CTA’s to the top bar. Put them on your website’s core pages. A core page is any page that shares a service or product you offer to alleviate your personas’ pain points. Repetition is your friend. Put it on each core page a few times.

Transitional CTAs

Transitional CTAs are all about helping a visitor continue through the buyer’s journey. While some of your visitors are ready to “buy now”, a majority of them are very early in the discovery process.

A transitional CTA is designed to help someone who is in the early stage better understand their problem and the possible solutions for solving it.

At the end of each one of our blog posts we have a transitional CTA. It will be appropriate based on the content that was just read. For example, if we have a post on local SEO, the CTA at the end of the piece will point them to our Local SEO Checklist. This checklist is a great next step for someone interested in boosting their local visibility.

While they may not be ready to hire our agency, they will begin to see us as a trusted advisor and someone that is here to help them in their journey. This begins the relationship building process and now it’s up to us to nurture them through their process.

When that visitor came to our site, they were an anonymous seeker. After we offered them contextual appropriate content via a transitional CTA, they are now a lead who knows we care about their success.

Transitional CTAs have a ton of power in the services industry. The reason many don’t utilize them is that creating valuable offers is hard. But, if you invest in creating helpful content that your prospects will be willing to exchange information for, the time spent will be well worth it!

A few tips when creating a call-to-action:

  • Use a different color to stand out from the page. Think complimentary colors. Because they will stand out.
  • Use action-based text like “Click Here for More” or “Take Action.”
  • Make sure you link to the appropriate page. Nothing is more annoying to a user than being directed to a wrong page.

If you want your website visitors to take a specific action, you need to direct them. By creating both direct and transitional CTAs you help your visitors find the content they need. You also move them further through their buyer’s journey which allows you to qualify who is ready to buy. If you want your website to convert visitors into leads, start with creating compelling CTAs.

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