• 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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Write Better Faster Blog Content

If we only needed to string words together to write a blog post I would agree with the meme “being a writer is 3% hard work and 97% not getting distracted by the internet.” But as we all know, there is much more to developing excellent marketing content than avoiding distraction. But, just because something takes skill and focused time doesn’t mean it needs to take hours to accomplish.

At SMA, we intentionally create content every day. We have high standards for each article we publish whether it is on our blog or a client’s site and we don’t stop there. Every email, landing page, special offer, and web page we write content for is researched, edited, proofread, and edited again before sending it for final approval. We also incorporate SEO best practices along the way.

These steps take time and attention to detail. I’ve learned that the best way to effectively execute content development is by continuing to improve my writing skills as well as implementing a few shortcut strategies when possible. But here’s the thing. I have high standards for my writing. I don’t want churn out words. So while “write fast hacks” are great, they alone will not help you to create excellent blog content consistently. That’s why you need to learn to write better content even if your goal is to write faster blog content.

Write Better Blog Content

Quality over quantity is a luxury a content writer cannot always afford. Blog articles, special offers, and emails all require word count totals to optimize search engines and Buyer Persona preferences. It is challenging to write a great blog article that is at least 800 words when you feel you’ve presented your point in 350. Including headers and bulleted lists will allow readers to skim and catch the main points you are making, (and are great for SEO) but you still need to consider what the data says about the benefits of longer blog articles when trying to implement strategies to help your content rank in search.

Under no circumstances should you add fluff to your post to hit a word count. Depending on the type of content you are writing you may need to consider broadening your topic or doing additional research to expand the number of points you present.

On the other hand, the challenge when writing emails is to convey your point in fewer words. By utilizing images, headers, hyperlinks, and bulleted lists you can market your message effectively with fewer words, but this makes the words you do include all the more important.

Regardless of the type of content you are writing, the best articles are those tailored to your Buyer’s Journey. Your blog should only include information relevant to your persona. Writing better blog content begins by knowing who your reader is and then developing clear and helpful articles focused on their needs and interests as related to your niche or business.

Finally, whatever the word goal you need to reach, implement the KISS method (Keep It Straight & Simple) to ensure your message is clear to your reader.

Write Faster Blog Content

Set Yourself Up for Success

Writing content faster begins with knowing your personal preferences. You need to arrange your calendar to accommodate productivity, so if you write best in the morning, you need to schedule client meetings for afternoons.

Distraction is an obstacle for everyone. If your surrounding tempts you to avoid writing, you need to eliminate the problem. Fortunately, removing distractions is easy. There are social media filters and apps that block other apps. While most writers I know prefer to type out content, I do know a few who write first drafts in longhand on paper and then transfer to a computer as they edit. Bottom line: figure out your top distractions and eliminate them.

Develop a Research Strategy

The quickest way to derail a writing groove happens when you have to stop to do additional research. The speed of my writing increased drastically by implementing a separate research task into my work day. For me, research is interesting and often inspires the direction of my article, but it can also lead me down a path of distraction as if I find a large variety of opinions on a subject.

You may be wondering how I know what research is required before I write. Well, that alone is an excellent reason to develop a content calendar. But our research at SMA is also tied to the information we gather about keyword rankings, Google trends, our buyer persona, and observing what topics our client’s competitors have featured.

The best thing you can do as a writer is to understand that research will always be necessary, so take some time and develop a strategy and then plan a time to execute it often.

Read more about my strategy in the blog article How to Always Have a Writing Topic Ready

Consider a Write it Better Strategy

It’s likely that someone else has already written something similar to the blog content you are developing. There are millions of websites, each with an index of pages. Sometimes, the best thing you can do to help your reader is to take an outdated blog post and write it better.

The great thing about this strategy is that you often have at least part of your outline started as well as some research, so you can sharpen the article and add additional information to make it current. To be clear, I am not suggesting you plagiarize. If you pull a quote from your inspiration blog article, you need to cite it accurately.

There is a wide gap between utilizing a published blog article to inspire content and taking credit for someone else’s work, but there is also a clear line. I suggest you look for content that presents older information, and either update it to reflect current trends or write a post with an evergreen slant on the same subject.

Another way to execute a write it better strategy effectively is to expound on someone else’s content. By writing a post that either agrees or disagrees with a blog article you can often develop thoughts that are in response to something rather than starting from a blank page.

By developing a content calendar that incorporates a few “write it better” articles throughout the quarter you can decrease the time it takes to write some of your blog articles. This can help you create margin for blog articles that take a little longer to complete.

Developing superb content marketing blog posts, emails, offers, and social media posts will set your website apart amongst all the internet noise, but it takes time to do well. By committing to writing better, and implementing a few strategies to help you write faster as well, you can continue to implement inbound marketing to support your business or niche goals.

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