• 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 Expect When Starting A Digital Marketing Campaign

The most common question I get from new or prospective digital marketing clients is “When am I going to start seeing results?” Unrealistic expectations will kill your momentum before it ever has a chance to take off. In a world that is obsessed with “overnight success” stories and outrageous company valuations, it’s easy to get distracted by all the noise. Setting clear and realistic expectations is essential when executing a new digital marketing campaign. 

I take at least one or two calls a week from other agencies or business owners wanting to know what our “secret sauce” is for fast growth. While I hate to be the bearer of bad news, there is no secret sauce. If you want results, you need to do the work. That means you need to research, plan, test, fail, learn, and do the process over and over again. Growth, real sustainable growth, is the by-product of thousands of little actions that eventually add up.

So When Will I See the Results?

The problem with this question is that there are so many variables at play. Things such as industry, competition, current marketing efforts, access to actionable data, your targeted personas, and more all have an impact on your results. While I completely understand wanting to see a quick return, pushing for them can often lead to poor execution and wasted time. It’s better to do the little things well and continue to build on your strategy than push everything out and hope something works. 

The question we should be asking is, “What steps am I taking toward my overall goal?” This will help you stay focused on your end goal but also allow you to break it down into actionable chunks that you can grow from. For example, say you want to grow your organic visibility by 20%. You realize you need more links to boost your site’s domain rank. Your hypothesis is that more links and a higher domain rank will increase your search exposure by 20%. 

You could go for the quick fix and buy a bunch of links off Fiverr. This could lead to a short-term increase in organic traffic, but in the long run, will end up hurting your website.  Or, you can create a user-focused SEO strategy that is based on creating great site content that attracts quality links to your site. This will result in increased search visibility over time. 

Many people are drawn to the first solution because it will deliver results now. But they fail to recognize that “strategy 1” will actually lead to long-term pain. While “strategy 2” may take a little longer to get off the ground, the payoff, in the long run, will be will worth it. Below is a graph of my organic traffic over time. As you can see, we started slow, but growth has continued to increase over time. 

I share this to show that growth takes time. Early in 2015, I made a choice to commit to creating new, user-focused, and optimized content at least twice a week. As you can see for the first 12 months, we didn’t see any “real growth.” Now looking just at this chart, it would be easy to say that the content wasn’t working. But, if you dig into the data you will see that users were engaging and that we were starting to see tracking in a number of keywords and phrases.

I also realized that the industry we are in (marketing) is very competitive and that if I was consistent, I would be able to drive results. As you can see that work has paid off. Posting great content on a consistent basis has led to increased results over time. This is scalable growth. Scalable growth beats quick wins every time.

Ok, Great Story but You Didn’t Answer My Questions 

So you just read about how I produced scalable growth in search results over time. But what about your business?  How long should you expect to have to invest in order to see results? Again the question is not so black and white. There are a number of factors to consider when launching or starting a digital marketing strategy. Typically, we say you will start to see the needle move within three to six months. This is because that’s usually the time it takes to do the research, plan a persona-centric strategy and begin to execute that strategy. Again, this is just an estimate. I’ve seen sites turn around in a week and others take years to produce lasting results. Budget is also another factor at play. Typically, if you pay more, more work can be done, and the results can be generated faster.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

Never sign a contract with an agency or company that promises ranking positions or a certain amount of users. These may look good on the surface, but most of the work you will get will be bad and possibly harm your website. Also steer clear of experts who are afraid to share examples of past work or what their “secret sauce” is.  If they have something to hide, that’s a huge red flag. 

Here are a few marketing ROI stats you may find helpful:

Typically when starting a digital marketing campaign, email is one of the best mediums to drive quick wins. But you need a good list of contacts that expect to hear from you. Using social media channels and getting connected in niche communities can also help drive quick wins. While doing all this, you should also invest in building an organic strategy that will produce even better results over time.

It can be frustrating to hear that results will take time and effort. That’s why it’s important that you find the right agency to partner with. By taking the time to find a company that will work within your budget, communicate with you in a timely manner, and answers your questions transparently you will find yourself less frustrated while your digital marketing campaign builds your reach.

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