• 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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What To Do When Your Marketing Campaign Isn’t Producing

Today’s small and mid-size business owners have flocked to the web looking for a miracle solution to their marketing woes. While digital marketing does at some level, level the playing field, it’s far from magical. In many industries, seeing results can take months or even years. So, what do you do, when you do not see the results you want? 

Marketing is all about creating a connection. If you can clearly and efficiently tell your brand’s story, you will have a greater likelihood that others will be drawn to you. Marketing isn’t a department or a set of tactics, it starts at the core of the business and moves outward to the world. Marketing tells others what you do and why you do it.

In the past, many marketing channels were just too expensive for smaller organizations to access. The internet changed that game. For the first time, millions of businesses could tell their story to the world at a very low cost. Today, having a digital presence is essential to nearly every business.

One of the many promises of digital marketing is the ability to drive fast results and prove ROI. While this is true in many cases, it’s really not that easy to claim. With billions of people online all trying to be heard, the internet is a very noisy place. Just subscribing to a set of tactics or purchasing some inbound software won’t necessarily translate into results.

Below are three recommendations I can give you if you’re currently stuck.

Just Keep Chuggin’

One of the main reasons people never see results from their online marketing is that they quit too soon. It can be hard to keep going when you don’t see the results you expected. This is why setting the right expectations and defining your KPIs is so important.

For the most part, it takes on average three to six months to see the needle move. But in some industries, it can take more than a year to see the payoff. Let me explain.

In 2015 I rebranded my agency and made it my full-time business. I knew that I needed to do a better job of marketing myself. I made a commitment to write and post content three times a week, build links, and make lead generation a priority. While each month I did see my numbers improve and had more engagement, I still didn’t see the revenue growth I anticipated.

There were a number of times when I wanted to quit. Let’s be honest; marketing takes hard work. I spent many late nights and early mornings writing, posting, engaging, and tweaking my work. After 13 months, I was paid back. My site now generates quality leads month after month, and we continue to grow our reach and community.  If I would have quit 6-months in, I would probably not be writing this post today.

The reason I was able to keep going was that I used a data-driven approach. I defined my KPIs and knew what to look for. The data helped me stay the course because it showed I was headed in the right direction.

Try Something New

Sometimes you just need to know when to quit. That’s a hard thing to realize, but it’s true. Making a pivot could be the difference between having long-term success or downright failure. Forcing a tactic like PPC or click funnels, could cost you money and return little or no results.

So how do you know when to pivot?  Again, this is where knowing what you are tracking and what success and progress look like are important. If you are running a PPC campaign and see no clicks and no conversions, you may need to revise your ads. If you see that you’ve had little results over six months, then it may be time to pivot.

The same goes for any other tactic. If you don’t see progress, you may need to stop what you are doing and reset. Don’t see a reset as giving up or quitting. Remember, you have the data to show what isn’t working and why. Now you know. Use that knowledge to inform your next move so that you can get results.

A Blended Approach

So what if you have mixed results? I see this all the time. We work with a client and notice that social is going great, but our SEO is behind. Or that search visibility is great, but we aren’t getting the clicks we want.

When you find yourself in one of these situations, again look at the data. See what is working and do more of that. Uncover what is not working and find out why then try to fix it.

Marketing is not an exact science. Run small experiments and track your results. Then apply what you’ve learned to your campaign as a whole.

Putting in the work and not getting a return right away is hard. Especially in today’s world when it seems like every week a new “overnight success” is being celebrated in the media. The key is to set realistic expectations and know what your goals are. None of the great successes ever happened overnight. They all were the result of hard work, pushing past excuses, making pivots and not being afraid to fail. If you find yourself wondering why you’re not getting results, I encourage you to keep doing the work that matters.

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