• 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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Top 10 Website Security Plugins

SMA Marketing Team

June 1, 2018

    For small business owners, having a reliable security plugin for your WordPress website is essential. Over 40% of cybercrime attacks target small businesses. Without adequate security measures, your website is vulnerable to phishing, SQL injections, DDoS attacks, brute force attacks, and malware attacks, to name a few. A hacker can steal your data or bring down your site in a matter of minutes, leaving you to deal with the costly and time-consuming aftermath.

    Your website is a crucial part of your business. Not only does it fulfill an important part of your marketing plan, but it gathers data on its users that must be kept secure.

    The average cost for a small business to clean up a hack is between $84,000 and $148,000. Even more alarming is the fact that 60% of small businesses are unable to maintain their business within six months of a hack. By taking a few minutes to install a security plugin on your website, you can give yourself peace of mind so you can focus on what’s most important: your business. Check out our recommendations for the best WordPress security plugins below.

    The Top 10 Website Security Plugins

    1. iThemes Security

    iThemes’ job is to protect, detect, and obscure. This plugin offers 30+ ways to protect your site. Some of these ways include hiding common WordPress vulnerabilities, site monitoring, backups, and site scans for malware.

    2. All In One WP Security and Firewall

    This plugin is true to its name. It uses a security points grading system to tell you how well you are protecting your site. Its features are categorized into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Security scanning, backups, spam blocking, and brute force attack protection are just a few of the features offered. The best part of this plugin is that it’s entirely free, there’s no updating your plan to unlock more features.

    3. Cerber Security and Antispam

    This plugin focuses on anti-spam and login security. It can set a limit on the number of login attempts permitted in order to prevent brute force attacks. It detects and removes spam comments from your site and logs the activities of users, bots, and other suspicious activity. It also allows users to enable reCAPTCHA to protect against bots and spam. 81% of cyber attacks are based on stolen or weak passwords. Having a plugin that stresses login security can mean the difference between getting hacked or not.

    4. Jetpack 

    Jetpack is unique because it combines design, marketing, and security services. Its many features include site stats and analytics, SEO tools, malware scanning, backups, spam filtering, and hundreds of professional website themes.

    5. Sucuri Security

    Sucuri has an excellent reputation in the web security industry, making this plugin a reliable option for protecting your site’s security. The plugin scans your site for malware and suspicious files, monitors activity, and offers post-hack recovery. Specific plans provide SSL certificates and advanced DDoS protection. A DDoS, or distributed denial of service, attack is designed to overwhelm your site with traffic in order to bring it down.

    6. SecuPress

    SecuPress has an interface that’s easy to use, making it great for beginners. Some of its features include malware scans, blocked IPs, anti-brute force login, and a firewall. It also blocks visits from bad bots and protects your security keys. The SecuPress scanner checks for vulnerabilities in six areas: user and login, plugins and themes, WordPress core, sensitive data, malware scan, and firewall. After the scan is finished, you can indicate the issues you want fixed, and SecuPress will do the rest.

    7. Wordfence Security

    Wordfence is one of the most popular security plugins. It has a wide range of security features to help keep your site safe: a malware scanner, IP blacklist, login security tools, live traffic monitoring, a firewall, and more. It has an extensive network of known malware and hackers and uses this network to protect Wordfence users.

    8. WP Security Audit Log

    This plugin is designed to monitor and log activity on your site. It keeps track of changes made to the WordPress core, user profiles, plugins, settings, etc. You can see which users are logged in, what they are doing, and even log them off.

    9. Block Bad Queries (BBQ)

    BBQ is a plugin designed to protect your site against malicious URL requests. It scans all requests and blocks those containing malicious code like eval and base64; code commonly used by hackers to take over a site. This plugin also blocks SQL injections, a method used by hackers to inject SQL code into a website to gain access to the site’s database and add, change, or delete data. BBQ is a simple plugin that is great for beginners. Just install it, and you’re done.

    10. BulletProof Security 

    Bulletproof Security isn’t the most user-friendly, but it’s excellent for web security and tech experts. Its features include login security and monitoring, database backups, anti-spam tools, a malware scanner, a firewall, a Base64 decoder, and an anti-exploit guard.

    Choose the Best Plugin for Your Website

    Your website can never be too secure. Take the time to determine the level of security you need for your site and the plugin that best suits your needs. If you’re one of the 90% of small businesses that don’t use any data protection, now is the time to address your site’s security. 83% of data breaches aren’t discovered for weeks. Using a plugin can help prevent a hack from ever happening and alert you to any suspicious activity so you can deal with it before any information is stolen or your site is compromised.

    You may also be interested in: Has Your WordPress Site Been Hacked? Here’s What to do About It

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