• 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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Trust in the Process: Partnering with a Marketing Agency

Jared Stanton

May 18, 2018

Well, you did it! You committed to partner with a marketing agency. It doesn’t matter if this is your first time working with an agency or if you just switched from one agency to another, you deserve to be congratulated. After all, this is a big step and a significant commitment. Sure, some people will tell you that it’s no big deal, but you know better. If you’re someone who has been burned by an agency in the past then deciding to try again takes a lot of courage, so be proud. However, for the partnership to be a success, you are going to need to have a certain amount of trust in the marketing process.

Too often we hear about bad relationships between small businesses and marketing agencies. Of course, sometimes this is because the agency is not a good fit for that particular company. However, there are also times when the company just was never able to let go and trust in the marketing process.

What it Means to Partner with a Marketing Agency

Before we can figure out why some agency partnerships don’t work out, we need to look at what it means to partner with an agency. So, what does it mean? When you partner with a marketing agency, you are announcing a few things to the world. First, you recognize that your business would benefit from increased marketing that you cannot fully support in-house. Secondly, you understand that a marketing agency will have the tools and knowledge needed to help you achieve your goals. Finally, you have a reached a point where your revenue stream can support the cost of marketing services.

Everyone understands that working with an agency is not cheap, but when it works out in all the ways you hoped it would, it’s worth every dime. So, when you work with an agency, you are committing to trusting someone else whom you are paying to help your business. This means that there are going to be times when the agency does things that you might not think to do, or you might not want to do. In these times it can be important to remind yourself why you decided to hire them and be prepared to place trust in things that may seem uncomfortable.

What it Doesn’t Mean to Partner with a Marketing Agency

Are we saying that you need to let someone represent your company publicly without you having any say? Absolutely not! Just because you need to trust the agency doesn’t mean that you need to agree to everything they want to do. I once worked for an agency that I will not name, that insisted that they ALWAYS knew what was best and that any clients that didn’t like what they were doing for them were wrong. This was a toxic way to do business and one of the reasons that I am grateful that I’m no longer working there. Sure, there are going to be many times when an agency will want to do something that you might feel unsure about. If the agency is worth anything, a majority of those times you will need to trust them; but that does not mean every time. Do not be bullied or forced into doing something that you perceive to be harmful but do be open to a discussion about it.

An agency might do the wrong thing because they simply don’t know you yet. Yes, you’ve gone through an onboarding process and yes they have a good feel for what you do, but that doesn’t mean they KNOW you how they would like to. A lot of the disagreements agencies and businesses have are solved over time by the simple process of working together. We encourage you to embrace the process of forming a real working relationship. It’s almost always worth the time it takes.

Some Parting Words

Let me leave you with some words of wisdom. Because even the best marketing campaign, even if done perfectly, can take a little time to pay off we encourage you to remain patient. Beware of marketing agencies that try to produce rapid results and flashy numbers by burning cash to start a campaign. They may be using their profits to purchase additional ads to enhance their results but this practice won’t last and the numbers you fell in love with will evaporate. These types of marketing tricks are never sustainable and can usually lead to less than desired results in the long run. It’s entirely acceptable to ask an agency for a realistic timeline.

Here is another great read you may also be interested in: How to be an Awesome Inbound Marketing Agency Client

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Jared Stanton

Jared Stanton joined the SMA team in April 2017. He has worn a lot of hats during his time at SMA but has found his permanent niche running the company’s paid-per-click advertising campaigns. PPC allows Jared to make data-driven decisions in the best interest of his clients.

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