• 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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Solving Our Web Design Problem: A Growth Driven Design Journey

Solving Our Web Design Problem A Growth Driven Design Journey

My agency has been designing and building websites for businesses in the Melbourne FL area since 2009. Needless to say a lot has changed over the years.  From the old days of building out each page by hand in Dreamweaver to embracing the power of WordPress, we’ve seen a lot change in the technical development of an average website. One thing hasn’t changed… The traditional website design process. In today’s fast paced business world there has to be a better process to designing and launching a website that minimizes risk and maximizes results. Thankfully, we stumbled upon that process, Growth Driven Design.

Looking to minimize risk and maximize your website’s performance with growth driven design? Download your free copy of “An Introduction to Growth Driven Design.”

Just 15 minutes into the “Intro to GGD for Agencies” webinar, I knew that what I was watching was going to shape the landscape of website design over the next few years. It also forced me to take a look at my current process and challenged the way I do website design. What I learned about my current website was surprising and convinced me that growth-driven design was something I needed to invest in.

Like many website designers, I wanted to show off my skills via my own site. I wanted to create a great user experience that had a lot of movement. My hope was that the more I had available, especially on my home page, the more interactions I would receive. I always received compliments on how “cool” my website was, but I wanted to see if it was working for my business, not my “coolness” factor. I used Hotjar, a powerful UX tool that allows you to see actually how your visitors are using your site, to see if my original hypothesis was true.

Not the Clicks I Was Hoping For

We all know it’s not just about driving traffic but driving traffic that converts. I was hoping to see that my visitors would interact with the many calls-to-action I made available on the homepage. Looking at the data, the results were less than impressive.

Website Redesign Melbourne FL

While the most clicks did go to my contact page, I had zero clicks in my slider CTA’s. This was pretty disappointing, considering I assumed my visitors would take action because the slider was interactive.  Also, note that the “request consultation” CTA in the top navigation received no actions as well. Again, another blow to my ego and my website’s effectiveness.

Getting Visitors To Move

Having an understanding of how a user is interacting with your site is powerful. It can unlock ways for you to improve your site to adapt to them. Looking at the user movement on my site again revealed a ton of information. Once again, the big area of disappointment was the slider. It was as if my visitors avoided this area altogether. I had put a lot of weight on this aspect of my site, placing it above the fold and adding important information and CTA’s.  I could quickly conclude that this is not something my users wanted to see.

Growth Driven Design - Melbourne FL Website Design

Most of the movement remained in the navigation and header. My visitors were looking for something in that area of my site and, based on the clicks report, were not finding it. The growth-driven design was starting to make more sense the more I investigated my current process.

The Long Scroll

As I stated before, my assumption was the more information I can get on my homepage, the better. I assumed my visitors would see the great layout and, based on that continue to engage with my content all the way down my page. I had spent hours writing the content and working to display it in a creative yet clear way to encourage my users to connect with me.

growth driven design - Web Design Melbourne FL

One look at this image, and you can clearly see how important above-the-fold content is. Only 25% of viewers actually saw all that I had to offer. If you compare this to the other images, the 25% that did see all of the content still didn’t interact at a high rate.

The Results Are In

So, with this information, I had a decision to make. Keep the site the way it is and hope that my users start to do what I want them to do or try something new.  I chose to fully embrace growth-driven design and create a site that grows around my users’ needs and experiences. Over the past month, I have been planning out my launch pad site. I compiled a list of over 75 items I wanted or believed my users were looking for and created a hierarchy to determine how important each item was and where it fits in the design process.  After deciding what was going to make the launch pad site, I began the development process. This was probably the most challenging. So many times, I found myself wanting to add extra things to the site that were not on the original list. This was definitely a lesson in self-control, as I had to over and over again force myself to break the old habits of traditional web design and stick to the plan.

Today we officially launch the first stage of our new growth-driven site and are excited to see the results. Over the next month, we will track each page on this new launch pad site and, at the end of the month, compile the research and make adjustments based on the user data. So make sure your sign up for blog updates to follow along with our progress.

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