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          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.

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          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.

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          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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Finding the Right Tone for Your Blog

Beth Walker

October 3, 2018

Your website and blog are often the first opportunities you will have to connect with potential customers. Finding the right tone for your blog is an important part of developing a well-rounded content strategy because every piece of content that you publish is another chance to show your customers who you are, how you think, and how you conduct business.

A great blog article also has the potential to connect with readers and establish you as an industry resource. Attracting the right customers is an important part of inbound marketing. And, writing content with a consistent tone that resonates with your audience is essential. Ideally, every blog article or email will connect with your buyer persona and provide helpful information through their buyer’s journey.

Here are Three Things to Consider When Finding the Right Tone for Your Blog

Know Your Persona

Your Buyer’s Persona is a semi-fictional personality that represents your ideal customer. Having a clear picture of your persona is vital to your developing a cohesive brand.

These questions help to develop a picture of your ideal customer or persona and can help inform the best tone to attract them.

  • Are you writing to a colleague?
  • Is the intent of your writing instructional or conversational?
  • Is your persona blue collar or white collar?
  • What is the age range?
  • Is your audience predominately male or female?
  • What are their pain points?
  • Who else do they see as digital influencers?

Once you know who you are writing to you will have a better idea of the best tone with which to communicate.

It’s also important to remember to write as an audience member as opposed to writing as an outside observer who’s purpose is to tell your persona what to do. For example, if your company sells products to electricians, you don’t need to write articles explaining the responsibilities of electricians.

Writing content that informs someone about their job isn’t helpful and it isn’t educational. This content may tell the reader that your website does not contain information or product they need, or worse, may make the reader feel frustrated you are wasting their time. Either way, you are less likely to attract the right persona.

Many companies develop more than one persona. Your tone may adjust to best connect with each persona. For example, if you are writing to both electricians and homeowners about your products, the information you post will vary but how you present the information should stay consistent.

Reflect Your Brand

Part of branding involves deciding on a writing style and tone. Whether a customer sees an image, logo, or product they should quickly associate the content with your business. This includes written content as well.

Ask yourself how can you use your blog to set your brand apart? Rand Fishkin says “A blog’s tone – the style in which content is crafted – can’t be too impersonal or corporate-babble-y. The best blogs connect with people through their writing by creating a human bond – that’s basically the entire purpose behind blogging, rather than just issuing daily press releases on a website. If you want to call it a blog, give it a voice that has the power to compel, connect and engage.”

Building trust with potential customers includes providing a consistent message. The tone of your sales meetings should match that of your written content. Ideally, a potential customer will feel as if they already know a little bit about you and your business style before you speak in person or over the phone.

Variety is Good

Your blog is a great space to feature multiple voices within your company, especially if your customers will interact with those employees. Each author will have their own tone and writing style which will add interest to your blogs.

Still, every author should know who they are writing to and mirror their sales tone. Some may prefer a formal, detailed delivery of information while others connect with one that is less structured. Variety can be a great way to help a broader audience connect with your company.

Establishing a Tone

The best way I have found to establish a consistent tone is to create a scale that highlights descriptive words on a sliding scale.  For example, here are words that can be used to structure content tone:

Humor—–Serious

Factual——Educational

Conversational———Formal

Warm——Cold

Authoritative———Informational

A company that ranks their content as being completely serious and formal and not at all humorous or conversational is going to attract a different customer than a company that strives to balance their content as factual and educational but also leans more towards conversational than formal.

2 Scale
1 Scale

Finding the right tone for your blog is a subjective process that begins with developing a detailed buyer’s persona. The best tone is the one that speaks to your customers in a way that helps them learn more about your company and you, the author. This isn’t something that will happen without research and strategic planning, but it is worth your time and attention.

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Beth Walker

Beth Walker is a Content Manager who is passionate about storytelling. She leads our In-House writing team and works closely with clients and CSMs to ensure all the content SMA creates meets SEO best practices and tells each client's unique story.

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