There’s no shortage of amazing images online, but that doesn’t mean you’re always going to find the original. So many images you find on blogs and other websites originated from somewhere else. While it may not seem like a big deal, it seriously pays to know how to find the original.
Here’s how to find an image source quickly and easily.
Why It Is Important to Find Image Sources
It’s always handy to know how to find proper image sources online. It won’t just make your life easier when it comes to finding high-quality photos; it could also help you avoid legal trouble.
You Saw an Image and Want to Find It Again
Is there anything more annoying than seeing a cool image online, saving it to your desktop, and then forgetting where you found it in the first place? Worse still, you then have to waste hours trawling through your browser history to find it.
All of this wasted time and effort can be avoided when you know how to find image sources quickly.
You Want to Use an Image in Your Blog Post and Attribute It Properly
Images are vital when writing blog posts. Research shows articles with photos get 94 percent more views than those without them. That’s because nothing puts readers off more than huge blocks of text. Images help break your writing up, make points clearly and improve the reading experience.
However, you can’t just use any old photo you find on the internet in your blog. You have to make sure you are legally allowed to use it and that you can attribute it properly. You’ll need to find the original image source for both of these tasks.
Once you’ve found the image source, you’ll be able to work out whether you’re allowed to use the image (I help you with this below if you’re still not sure), and you can attribute it correctly if you need to.
While it’s very rare for small sites to get into legal trouble for using copyrighted images or not abiding by Creative Commons, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
You Need a High-Quality Version of an Image
Low-resolution images suck. They look bad on your blog, and they look even worse when you scale them up for printed marketing materials — but pixelated images are exactly what you’ll get if you don’t find the original image source.
Why? Because reposted images are usually shrunk to reduce the file size and increase website load times. This is great for the website in question, but it’s not great for you. The original image, on the other hand, is usually much larger in size. Whether you want to use an image in a piece of marketing collateral or edit it yourself, it pays to be able to find the source.
5 Ways to Find Image Sources
Finding an image source isn’t difficult. Here are five different ways you can use to find any image source today.
1. Use Google’s Image Search to Find Image Sources
Google Images Search is the de-facto place to find images online. You probably don’t need me to tell you that, though. What you may need me to explain, however, is how to use Google Images to find the source of an image.
You can do that easily using Reverse Image Search. Head over to image.google.com, but instead of typing in a keyword, upload your image. Google will show a link to every page on the web with that picture, and it shouldn’t be too hard to find the original.
You can even use Google’s Reverse Image Search on your iPhone by requesting the desktop version of the site in Safari.
2. Use Other Reverse Image Toolsto Find Image Sources
Ever found an image on Twitter or Facebook and wondered where to find the original image? While it sounds like a tall order, reverse image search tools actually make finding original sources using just the image far easier than you’d think.
All you need to do is upload or copy and paste the image into the tool, and the search engine will find every instance of that image online. In most cases, it won’t be hard to find the original image.
There are plenty of reverse image search tools out there, but here are a couple of my favorites.
TinEye
TinEye is a great reverse image search tool that helps locate an image source in seconds. You can search by uploading a URL if you have one or the image itself.
You can also use TinEye’s Chrome extension to right-click on any image while browsing and instantly get access to the platform’s data.
Search By Image
Search By Image is an Android app that lets you reverse search for images on Google TinEye or Yandex. Search by uploading images from your phone or opening images from Facebook, Twitter and other apps.
3. Look Up the Image MetaData to Find Image Sources
You can find a surprising amount of information about an image in the file’s metadata. Sometimes it will even include the image’s source.
You don’t need to be a technical whiz, either. First, download an image. For the purposes of this example, I’ll be downloading this image from the Good Housekeeping website.
On a mac, you can find the image’s metadata simply by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Get Info.” You’ll be served up a load of data that probably won’t make much sense, but you’ll clearly be able to see the image’s source.
On Windows, just right-click the image and select “Properties.”
4. Use the Chrome Browser to Find Image Sources
If you use Chrome, you don’t need to visit Google Images to do a reverse image search. Instead, right-click on the image when you find one you want to search and click “Search Google for Image.”
You’ll be shown the full reverse image search results as usual.
5. Use Visual Search by Bing to Find Image Sources
Bing has its own image search functionality called Visual Search that makes reverse image searches a breeze.
You can drag your saved image into the search bar or upload it, and Bing will show every location it can find it online. You’ll also get a pretty in-depth rundown of the image’s attributes and any text that Bing can find in the image.
How Do You Attribute Image Sources Correctly?
How you attribute images depends on the type of image and where you found it. Most sites will be very clear about what you need to do when it comes to attribution, but it can help to know the following terminology.
Creative Commons Images
This nonprofit organization allows the use and sharing of images and other creative materials through a series of licenses. Some won’t require attribution at all, some will let you edit images, and some will be incredibly strict.
Attribution is a legal requirement of Creative Commons images unless the image has been published under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. The Creative Commons outlines clearly what it classes an “appropriate credit” using the TASL method. You’ll need to include the following details:
title
author
source
license
Here’s an example from Creative Commons that shows exactly what they mean.
If you alter a Creative Commons image, you must include the changes in the attribution.
Public Domain Images
When work is listed in the public domain, it means the copyrights to it have expired. It is free to use, share, and edit. You don’t need to attribute the image at all or ever reference the original source.
Royalty-Free Images
Royalty-free images usually aren’t free. Rather, you have to pay a fee to use the image once, but are then free to use it again as many times as you like without paying royalties. That’s what the royalty-free part means.
Royalty-free images usually don’t require attribution, but be sure to check the licensing agreements of the site you downloaded them from. There may be other restrictions, too, like not using them for a certain purpose or in a certain niche.
5 Sites to Find Great Images
The costs of paying for images every time you use them quickly adds up for small businesses. It simply isn’t a sustainable practice. That doesn’t mean you have to go without images, however.
There are plenty of places online to find high-quality royalty-free images. Here are a few of my favorites.
Unsplash
Unsplash is probably the best stock photo platform in the world. You can use the images for free in almost any way you like.
Pexels
Pexels is another large, free stock photo platform like Unsplash. It has its own license that governs what you can and cannot do with photos.
Burst
Burst is Shopify’s stock photo platform. You can download photos for free without being a Shopify customer.
Flickr
Flickr is a fantastic image repository where you can find thousands of images to use for commercial purposes for free.
Canva
You may have used Canva to create a new logo or poster, but did you know it also has hundreds of free stock images you can use, too? You don’t even have to edit them to download them.
Conclusion
Finding an image source can seem like a lot of work, but it’s well worth it to find a high-quality image or protect your site from legal issues. Use any one of the five strategies I list above, and you’ll be sure to find the original source of just about any image you can find online.
If you ask ten marketers this question, you’ll likely get lots of similar answers: Google Ads, social media marketing, etc. What you’re asking is which platforms offer massive traffic and have strong conversion rates.
Now, imagine you’re a marketer for a local business. How do you maximize your exposure now? Those digital campaigns with tons of traffic aren’t necessarily the answer for a brick-and-mortar store trying to get their community through the door.
There are plenty of businesses that desperately need to expand their reach but haven’t had a breakthrough with digital. That’s why today, we’re going to take a look at the potential of audio ads. iHeartRadio AdBuilder offers some ease and functionality to the world of radio ads, and it just might be a solution for local business owners.
What Are iHeartRadio Ads?
One of the most significant issues small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have had with audio advertising is it’s not particularly intuitive. The idea behind iHeartRadio’s AdBuilder was to create a programmatic solution automating this process.
AdBuilder is a self-service platform designed to help marketers create and promote audio ads. Beyond buying ad space, AdBuilder supports SMBs by using algorithms to target specific audiences.
SMBs can decide how much they’re comfortable spending, which cities they’d like their ads to play in, and how to focus on well-defined target audiences. AdBuilder radio spots are professionally written and produced with on-staff voice talent.
How Much Do iHeartRadio Ads Cost?
There’s no fixed cost with iHeartRadio Ads. What you pay is entirely up to you based on a series of options for your weekly budget. Depending on the market you choose, you see a minimum budget and a series of recommendations. You can also enter a custom amount of up to $30,000.
These costs purchase impressions, which are tracked on your account. Your weekly cost won’t exceed your max weekly budget and, even after your campaign is booked, you can modify dates and the budget for your campaigns.
Why Should You Run an iHeartRadio Ad?
Some marketers are looking for massive $30,000 nationwide campaigns; some want to spend $10,000. Some marketers have audio scripts ready; others have never written an audio script in their lives. The level of customization offered by iHeartRadio AdBuilder is unique and makes it worth checking out.
Of course, maximizing exposure is more than just a local business problem. Digital brands that want a specific type of customer or client can benefit from a national presence. Increased exposure means increased sales and can lead to higher quality engagement.
Whether you’re marketing for a local business or a national company, iHeartRadio AdBuilder may have something for you.
How to Set Up Your iHeartRadio Ad Campaign
Not only is iHeartRadio flexible, but it does its best to keep things simple. Setting up your campaign with them can be done in three steps.
Provide Basic Information
Create an account and answer a few questions about your business and advertising goals. From there, you’ll determine your advertising goals, select target audiences, and pick a weekly budget. Their team of audio professionals produces a customized ad based on your goals and business.
Approve iHeartRadio’s Ad
After they’ve produced your custom ad, you can listen to and approve the message. If needed, it can be revised (sometimes at no cost to you) and then be scheduled to play across iHeartRadio stations nationwide or locally.
Your Ad Goes Live
Once your ad is approved, it goes live and starts airing. The iHeartRadio AdBuilder optimizes your ad budget to reach target audiences at particular times of day, using user data to target listeners via specific stations. You also have access to data reports once your campaign has ended.
5 Tips for an Effective iHeartRadio Ad Campaign
1. Understand the Medium
Savvy marketers take the time to learn about the perks and limitations of audio-only advertising.
One of the most compelling pros of audio advertising is its simplicity. You don’t need an expensive camera or someone to craft a heavily researched, complex article. Your iHeartRadio ad is meant to be consumed in 30 seconds, so minimalism is an absolute must here.
That said, the simplicity of these ads can feel limiting to marketers used to creating long-form content. If you’re struggling to wrap your head around what compelling audio content sounds like, there are a few stages to focus on: Capture, Excite, and Guide.
Breaking down the marketing process into these three stages can help clarify the audio marketing experience.
Capture
The Capture stage is about finding the memorable aspects of your brand and using them to disrupt your audience’s patterns. It’s not just about being controversial or unusual. Truly captivating moments properly and cleverly address your target audience’s pain points.
This moment is a reinterpretation of your elevator pitch, but there’s much more to it in the audio space.
The use of a particular sound effect, a unique jingle, and a specific style of voice actor can contribute to this aspect of advertiser storytelling. There’s a time for mentioning your brand and your unique selling point, but it’s not now. The script here should be more focused on creating mental images and bringing up emotions.
Excite
Now that you have your audience’s attention, it’s time to convince them your brand is worth considering. Be selective about the selling points you include.
Could you streamline five of your best- selling points and shove them into the 30-second ad? Probably. Should you? Not necessarily.
When you captured your audience, you tapped into their emotions and got them excited about your brand. If you start rattling off stats, you’re probably going to lose the excitement. Use one of your unique selling points to showcase what makes you different to keep the enthusiasm up.
Guide
When you guide your audience, you try to get them to follow through on the action you want them to take. Transitioning from excitement to sales is always tricky, but the right kind of call-to-action (CTA) can make this process much more manageable.
By streamlining the messaging and leading potential customers to more in-depth, comprehensive marketing (a landing page, for example), you can focus on making the iHeartRadio ad compelling instead of just informative.
2. Pick Your Target Audience Carefully
It may not be exciting, but ask any successful marketer, and they’ll tell you well-executed research is essential when developing a marketing strategy.
Over the years, the phrase “target market” has been used interchangeably with “target audience.”
A target market is broad (generation, income level, etc.) and tailored to particular groups due to interest, budget, access.
On the other hand, target audiences are specific groups within those target markets. If your target market is Millennials, your target audience may be post-college, female Millennials making at least $50,000 a year.
Good ad campaigns are for target markets. Great ad campaigns are for target audiences.
The specificity makes the research valuable, and knowing who your target audience is can help you make more relevant, compelling ads. With audio, you must understand which stations they listen to and what time of day they’re likely to listen. iHeart AdBuilder does this for you automatically.
3. Analyze Your Campaign Results Regularly
As your marketing campaign grows and evolves, you need to analyze its effectiveness properly.
One of the most valuable tools marketers can use is setting clear, strict deadlines and tangible goals for marketing initiatives.
Don’t just aim for an increased conversion rate; aim for specific numbers in a few metrics. Properly labeling your campaign goals like this sets your brand up for potential success with every new initiative.
If a new campaign performs well, you can identify which KPIs improved. If the new campaign doesn’t meet the projected goals, you can see which metrics underperformed and react accordingly.
4. A/B Test Different Campaigns
Marketers don’t live in a vacuum. More often than not, everyone brings their unique experience and perspective to the table. That human element can make advertising come to life, but it can also create a sort of cognitive bias we can’t always identify internally.
That’s why I recommend brands and marketers test two radically different marketing campaign approaches, especially if this is their first major campaign.
Maybe there’s a comedic iHeartRadio ad you’d like to make, but you’re worried it won’t resonate with your target audience. Perhaps you’re worried your simple iHeartRadio ad won’t stand out in a sea of dynamic competitor ads. This is the time to test out all those ideas.
As long as you’re setting clear, tangible goals and tracking the data, every experiment is a learning opportunity. Test every assumption your campaigns make. Collect more and more data to develop a clearer sense of what your audience responds to.
Once you’ve identified winning strategies, start to optimize.
5. Use Strong, Clear CTAs
Connecting with a target audience is hard enough, but turning connection into conversion is one of the biggest challenges marketers struggle with, iHeartRadio ad or otherwise.
When crafting a compelling CTA, your focus should be on words provoking emotion or enthusiasm. Simple things like adding an exclamation point can make a massive difference.
Pair your CTA with a compelling reason for taking the next step forward. Now, this demands a bit of awareness on your behalf. For example, are you moving this potential customer into the sales funnel or simply further down the marketing pipeline?
Find statements matching the commitment necessary to convert once potential customers reach the next stage. You’ll know you’re doing this right when you have a low bounce rate.
As for the actual language you’ll want to use, here are some options you can work into your ad:
iHeart AdBuilder was seemingly designed with this problem in mind, taking the confusion and guesswork out of radio ads and replacing it with something both accessible and effective.
If your business needs a local boost, or you’re looking for a new way to reach your target audience, AdBuilder just might be the tool you need.
Are you considering radio ads? What kind of audiences are you hoping to target?
Rare Edition | Full-time | Onsite (Los Angeles or Portland) or Remote | Apply by email: jobs@rareedition.com
Senior Backend or Full Stack Engineers
Product Managers
UI/UX Designers
Rare Edition is a stealth startup in the collectibles space that is built by lifelong collectors, impassioned technologists, and seasoned operators. With the support of Craft Ventures, Jason Calacanis, and other celebrity investors, we’ve mapped out a plan to truly rewrite the fabric of this industry. We’re starting first with sports and trading cards and rare coins, and we’ve carefully considered how to reimagine the entire collectible-lifecycle—from software to hardware solutions, physical to digital ownership, and first-time to professional collectors—leaving no stone unturned. We’re a team that values relentless execution, fearless accountability, leaving a lasting impact in this space, and exceeding our customer’s expectations. If you’re a collector-veteran or just want to join a company with all the cards stacked in its favor, come and drop us a line.
If you can get your client’s website to the top of user search, you’ll have a much easier time improving their ROI.
Of course, mastering SEO is no easy task.
There are so many things to consider, from on-page SEO to off-page SEO, copy, content, and even technical SEO.
A truly effective SEO strategy includes all of these strategies, plus regular optimization to ensure consistent returns.
This post dives deep into technical SEO and how you can use it to increase organic traffic, show up in search, and improve your overall site experience.
What Is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is an area of SEO that covers optimizations that improve search engine ranking by making your site easier for search engines to crawl. For example, improving site load time, checking robot.txt files, and making redirects work properly.
Essentially, it’s the process of ensuring your website can be seen, crawled, and ranked by search engines.
Search engines, such as Google, give preference to websites that meet their webmaster guidelines. The basic principles state your website content should be accurate, easy to access, and user-friendly.
If your website loads slowly, has an unresponsive design, or lacks a secure connection, your content will not meet these guidelines.
This is where technical SEO comes in, as it can help you improve the technical characteristics of your website to improve organic traffic.
Why Is Technical SEO Important?
Imagine you wrote the most amazing content in the world. It’s content that everyone should read.
People would pay buckets of money just to read it. Millions are eagerly waiting for the notification that you’ve posted this new, incredible content.
Then, the day finally comes, and the notification goes out. Customers excitedly click the link to read your article.
Then, it takes over 10 seconds for your web page to load. Readers are annoyed and they don’t want to wait.
For every second that it takes for your web page to load, you’re losing readers and increasing your bounce rate.
It doesn’t matter how great that piece of content is—your site isn’t functioning well, and you’re losing precious traffic.
That’s just one example of why technical SEO is so critical.
Without it, Google and other search engines are incapable of finding, crawling, and indexing your site.
Even if your site can be found, user experience issues, like page load times and confusing navigation, can still negatively impact SEO.
Other issues like mobile optimizations, duplicate content, and site security can cause search engines to rank your site lower.
Elements of Technical SEO
While crawling and indexing are important factors in SEO, there are many more aspects to consider when performing a technical SEO audit. These include:
mobile optimization
page load speed
link health
duplicate content
schemas
crawl errors
image issues
site security
URL structure
404 pages
301 redirects
canonical tags
XML sitemaps
site architecture
At a minimum, a technically sound website should be secure, quick to load, easy to crawl, have clear and actionable navigation, and not contain any duplicate links or content.
It should also have systems in place to engage users even if they do hit a dead end, such as content created for 404 errors and 301 redirect pages.
When conducting a technical SEO audit, be wary of over-optimizing your website. Too many improvements can work against your best intentions and actually damage your SEO rankings.
What Is an SEO Audit?
An SEO audit is the process of evaluating your website to see how well it is performing on search engines.
SEO audits are a great way to create actionable plans to outperform your competitors, identify opportunities within your website, find and fix exit points, and create better customer experiences.
You should perform technical SEO audits, on-page SEO audits, and off-page SEO audits regularly.
As you go through your audit, you’ll find places where you can improve or optimize your website performance to improve performance and keep site visitors happy.
You may not be able to fix every error at once, but you can figure out what’s going wrong and make a plan to fix it.
What Are the Key Elements of a Technical SEO Audit?
There are three key factors to look at during an SEO audit:
back-end factors, such as hosting and indexing
front-end factors, such as content, keywords, and metadata
link quality and outside references
Sometimes, you won’t have the time to address each pain point. So, when deciding which audit insights are worth taking action on, use the 80/20 rule.
The most important part of your site’s SEO is the part that your incoming traffic actually sees.
That’s all washed away if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, though.
With the introduction of the mobile-first index, you need to make sure you understand how your site performs on mobile to ensure proper placement on SERPs.
What does the mobile-first index mean?
Due to 52.2 percent of global web traffic coming through mobile, Google has adjusted its algorithm to crawl the mobile version of websites.
It boils down to this—if your site doesn’t perform well on mobile devices, you are not just losing traffic; your site also looks bad to Google. That can result in lower rankings, and even less traffic.
How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit
SEO guidelines are constantly changing. Every time a major search engine significantly updates its algorithm, SEO has to adapt.
The good news is the frequency of changes in technical SEO tends to be lower.
After all, it’s not like search engines or readers will suddenly decide they’re okay with slower speeds.
If anything, you will see the average acceptable speed continue to drop. Your site simply has to be faster if you want to keep up with SEO demands.
Your website has to be mobile-friendly. This is only going to become more important over time, too.
It has to work without errors, duplicate content, and poor images.
Search engines also have to be able to crawl it successfully.
These things are all crucial to your success on search engines and site visitors. If you want to prioritize your SEO efforts, make sure you tackle the technical aspects first.
Before you do anything else, start a crawl of your website. You can use Ubersuggest to make it a simple process. Here’s how you do it:
Step 1: Enter your URL and click “Search.”
Step 2: Click “Site Audit” in the left sidebar.
Step 3: Run the scan. Upon completion, you’ll see this:
Crawling is useful for identifying problems such as duplicate content, low word count, unlinked pagination pages, and excess redirects. Ubersuggest will even rank issues in order of importance, so you can focus on what matters most.
If you find anything here, click on it for more information and advice on how to fix it. For example, our website has 32 pages with a low word count.
You can then review these pages to determine if you need to add more content.
What does this all mean?
In short, it gives you a glimpse into how the Googlebot is crawling your site.
If you don’t use Ubersuggest for your technical SEO audit, you can also search your site manually. We’ll explain that below.
2. Perform a Manual Google Search
A few Google searches can tell you approximately how well your website is ranking. This will help you figure out where to start your technical SEO audit.
How many of your pages appear in relevant search results?
Does your site appear first when you search for it by name?
Overall, where does your site appear in the results?
To figure out which pages are actually being crawled, you can use a “site:rootdomain” search to see what shows up.
Here’s what this looks like in action:
Missing pages don’t automatically mean that your site is un-crawlable, but it’s useful to understand what’s happening behind the scenes.
Your website doesn’t need to be at the very top of your searches, either. By using the site search, it will show you only pages on your own site.
3. Make Sure Only One Version of Your Site Is Browseable
If your website has multiple “versions” of itself, you send search engines a mixed message about how to crawl your site.
Basically, the crawlers don’t know which one is the right one.
If search engines don’t even know how to show your site to prospective traffic, your site’s SEO ranking will be negatively impacted.
The impact of HTTP vs. HTTPS on a site’s SEO is debated in the SEO community. Some sites using AdSense saw a decrease in revenue after making the switch to HTTPS.
With this change from Google, it seems you will need to make sure that your website only uses “https.”
4. Conduct On-Page Technical SEO Checks
When evaluating your site and the results from your crawl, there are tons of things to check. Don’t get overwhelmed! Start by looking for duplicate pages, headers, and title tags.
If you’ve published a lot of content with similar themes, like me, some seemingly unrelated content will show up in your crawl.
That’s okay. You’re looking for duplicates of the same content.
You can use a tool like Copyscape to assess potential technical SEO problems arising from duplicate content.
From there, closely examine a few key criteria that Google evaluates in their rankings.
You’ll want to make sure these are relevant to the content on your page. The content should also answer the questions your users are asking as fast as possible.
Essentially, you want to make sure the placement of pages makes sense—all your service pages should be under your “services” tab, for example. Make sure users don’t have to click through four levels of pages to find best-selling products. The goal is to make it easy for Google —and users—to find the information or products they are looking for.
Keyword Placement
Every page on your site should have a focus keyword included in the first 100 words.
Overall, on-page SEO checks are incredibly important, but they are only one part of your overarching technical SEO strategy. There are also other SEO checks to consider.
5. Manage Your Internal and External Links
Sites with logical hierarchies have improved SEO rankings. That’s why it’s important to check your internal and external links—to make sure visitors can navigate your site intuitively.
Pages might be deleted or moved, which can result in broken links and annoyed site visitors.
Don’t worry; you don’t have to do this manually.
Integrity and Xenu Sleuth can help you identify your broken links on your site. (Note: Integrity only works for Mac.)
While both tools are straightforward to use, I’ll use Integrity as an example.
Once you download it, add your URL in the text bar at the top of the page and click “Go.”
Then the tool will begin testing all the links found on your site and provide you with the results.
In the top-left corner, you see a snapshot of links and how many are bad.
Depending on the size of your site and how many links you have, you might consider viewing the results by link, page, status, or flat view to understand the results.
You’ll want to change any links marked in red with the “404 not found” label. These dead ends can negatively impact your technical SEO.
There are three different aspects of SEO, and technical SEO is the most important of the three.
It won’t matter how amazing your on-page SEO is if you fail at technical SEO.
It also won’t matter how great you are at off-page SEO if you’re horrible at the technical stuff.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of it being “technical” or complex. Start with the big, critical aspects discussed above and tackle them one problem at a time.
How have you found success with technical SEO on your site?
Roger Penske took over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in January 2020, only to see the pandemic postpone the Indy 500 from May to August, without fans or fanfare. Now, “The Captain” is ready for his first May race as the boss.
It’s easy to find quick tips on how to increase credit score on your personal credit report. You won’t find as much about business credit score at all, let alone how to get a credit score increase. Many business owners do not even know a business can have its own credit score, while others think their business has one and in reality, it does not.
Build a Solid Business Credit Profile and Watch Your Credit Score Increase
A business credit score is very different from a personal credit score. The information a lender gets from it is similar, but it is related to the creditworthiness of the business separate from the owner. Your business credit accounts do not affect your personal credit score at all.
This protects your personal finances if your business doesn’t do well. Your personal credit will not suffer due to unpaid business accounts, and you can retain the ability to purchase things like a house or a car.
Beyond that, a strong business credit score gives you access to more funding for your business. This can help you be more successful, and help ensure your business can thrive. But, how do you even begin to build a business credit score, let alone get a credit score increase.
Hack #1: Proper Setup
Your personal credit score just kind of happens. You get credit, pay your bills on time, and the accounts report your payments to your credit report. If you handle your personal credit responsibly, you will have a good score. If not, you won’t.
A business credit profile is different. You have to work intentionally to establish it and build your score. Just because you have a card that says “business credit card” on it does not mean it is in your business name. It isn’t necessarily reporting to your business credit report. It could, and in fact probably is, reporting to your personal credit if you haven’t taken some steps to separate your business from yourself.
If your business is not set up to be a fundable entity separate from you the owner, you won’t have a business credit score at all. So, the first step is to increase it from non-existent into existence by setting up your business to be fundable. Here’s how.
Contact Information
The first step in setting up a foundation of fundability is to ensure your business has its own contact information. That doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line, or even a separate location. You can get a business phone number easily that will work over the internet instead of phone lines. In addition, the phone number will forward to any phone you want it too so you can simply use your personal cell phone or landline if you want. Whenever someone calls your business number it will ring straight to you.
You need a physical business address.A PO Box or an UPS Box will not work.
The next thing you need to do is get an EIN for your business. This is an identifying number for your business that works in a way similar to how your SSN works for you personally. You can get one for free from the IRS. You may still have to provide your SSN for identification purposes, but your EIN will designate your business as separate.
Incorporate
Incorporating your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation is necessary to fundability. It lends credence to your business as one that is legitimate. It also
offers some protection from liability.
Business Bank Account
You have to open a separate, dedicated business bank account. There are a few reasons for this. First, it will help you keep track of business finances. It will also help you keep them separate from personal finances for tax purposes, and some creditors require a separate account. Also, it is a requirement for a merchant account, which allows you to accept payments via credit card.
Hack #2: Add Accounts That Report
Here is another key way that your business credit profile is different from your personal credit profile. Pretty much all personal accounts report your payments, or lack thereof, to the credit reporting agencies (CRAs). In contrast, only about 7% of business creditors will report payment history to your business credit report. This makes finding accounts that will report to the business CRAs essential.
It’s easier said than done however. Creditors do not make this information easy to find. We have a hack that can help you find vendors that will report, so don’t stop reading.
Hack #3: Pay bills on time!
Okay, so if you made it this far and realize you may not have a business credit score at all, now you know how to fix it. However, if you do already have an established business credit profile, but need a credit score increase, this is the key.
It sounds like a no-brainer, and most asking the question of how to get a credit score increase are looking for a different answer. However, this is the absolute best way to raise your credit score.
In fact, it is much more important with business credit scores than with personal credit scores. That’s because there are a few different things that are used to calculate personal credit. Payment history is one of them, and the most important, but it is not the only one. Also, a payment isn’t really considered late for personal credit score purposes until it is over 30 days late.
When it comes to your business credit score however, payment history is virtually all that matters. Not only that, but a payment is reported as late when it is as little as one day late. So, late payments have a much larger impact on your business credit score. Do whatever you have to do to get those payments in on time.
Hack #4: Make Sure Your Personal Credit Score is on Track
Now here is a fun twist. Remember how I said your business credit accounts do not affect your personal credit score? The reverse is not exactly true. While personal accounts do not report to the business credit CRAs, your personal credit can be used in the calculation of your business credit score in some cases. So, one way you can potentially increase credit score for your business is to improve your credit score on your personal credit profile.
Hack #5: Work With a Business Credit Expert
Here is the number one hack if you are looking for a credit score increase. You absolutely need a business credit expert. It’s not hard to raise your personal
credit score. All accounts report, and paying on time and being otherwise responsible with your credit does the trick.
A business credit score is much more complicated. Establishing a profile isn’t so hard, but there is a lot more to fundability than that. In fact, there are over 100 factors that contribute to the fundability of a business. That means, you could pay your debt responsibly for years, and if you do not have accounts that report it will make no difference. Even worse, without some help, you may never know what is causing you to be denied funding.
A business credit expert can walk you through the process and help you navigate the complicated web of fundability. They can help you analyze it and figure out how to improve it if needed. Then, they know where to look and who to talk to to help you find accounts that report. In the end, a business credit expert is the best way to build credit score for your business.
Get a Credit Score Increase By Working With a Business Credit Expert
Technically you could give this a shot yourself now that you know what’s what. However, as you can see in the image above, it’s a lot. There is a secret sauce of sorts, and it pays to have a business credit expert help you. They know the secrets, and they can save you a lot of time. We all know time is money, and with all the tiny details, chances are if you try to do it alone something will be missed. An expert can walk alongside you and make sure you take the fastest, smoothest route possible to building a strong overall business credit profile.
Memorial Day means many things to many people. At its heart, it’s a day to commemorate the brave American soldiers who died fighting for this country. For many, the Memorial Day weekend also marks the start of summer and a chance to grab a deal in the annual holiday shopping event.
The shopping event is no longer the preserve of brick-and-mortar stores. Research by Namogoo shows e-commerce fashion sales soared over Memorial Day 2020, up 380 percent compared to the year before. Conversions increased by 335 percent, too.
These kinds of figures don’t happen by magic, however. Marketing plays a crucial role in your store’s success.
That’s why I’m going to show seven strategies to send your Memorial Day sales soaring.
7 Tips for E-Commerce Memorial Day Sales
A record-breaking Memorial Day doesn’t happen by luck. By using one or several of the following tips, you give your store a better chance of getting noticed, winning new customers, and having a great weekend.
1. Run a Paid Ad Campaign Showcasing Your Sales
Succeeding over the Memorial Day weekend is all about standing out. Big brands may do this with television commercials or billboards. Smaller brands often stick to social media. I recommend combining the two via a paid ad campaign on social media.
While few brands can afford to go all out on a TV ad, many e-commerce brands can afford a short paid ad campaign, especially if it’s optimized for conversions.
There are two crucial factors you need to get right: The channel you advertise on and the creative you use.
I recommend sticking to Facebook or Google for your paid ads. These platforms offer the greatest reach and the best targeting tools to help make sure your paid media budget goes the furthest.
When it comes to ad creative, it’s all about standing out. Using red, white, and blue, and an American flag are a given. But also consider including summer-related imagery that so many consumers relate to the holiday.
It’s essential to remember that, unlike Independence Day, this is a day of remembrance. Keep your tone respectful of the fallen and their loved ones, even if you’re focusing on summer fun. This ad from My Mind’s Eye does a great job of finding this balance: It’s eye-catching, positive, and still reminds viewers of the reason for the holiday.
Use Memorial Day hashtags on social media platforms, but be careful about the kind of content you post. Some people may be using these hashtags to search for information around the holiday itself and may be offended by overly promotional material.
2. Tease Your Sales on Social Media Without Revealing What They Are Until Memorial Day
Teasing your Memorial Day sales on social media is a fantastic way to drum up anticipation and build a potential customer base well before the big day. By running it on social channels, you have the chance to pick up thousands of new users who have never shopped with you before.
Get your social media calendar in place well ahead of the holiday. The more time you have to post, the more anticipation you can build. This is as true for your email marketing campaign as it is for your social media posts.
For example, The Pampered Iggy—an artist who makes outfits for Italian Greyhounds—teases their upcoming Memorial Day sales in this simple but effective image:
3. Run a Flash Sale
Unlike the winter holiday shopping season, Memorial Day sales last for a couple of days at most. This makes it ripe for flash sales.
These sales typically come with substantial discounts and are all about encouraging consumers to make impulse purchases. They’re also a great way to grab some press attention and make sure customers visit your store over your competitors.
Focusing on your new summer products is the best strategy here. Many consumers wait until Memorial Day weekend to make their spring and summer purchases, so they’re on the lookout for this season’s items. Make the discounts too good to avoid.
Getting the word out about your sales will be just as important. Consider using a paid ad campaign as I described above to promote your sales, but don’t forget about your email list or social media followers.
4. Sell Winter Items at a Deep Discount
Everyone loves a discount, especially on Memorial Day. Price drops between 20 percent and 90 percent are common. There’s no better time to get rid of leftover winter items while attracting new customers than to sell them cheap.
These sales can run alongside your standard Memorial Day sales events, or they can stand on their own. It all depends on what products you stock for summer. Brands that tend to do well during the summer months may prefer to emphasize their new line of products. On the other hand, winter sports stores may just want to make their steep discounts the center of attention.
5. Honor Veterans and Their Families
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers. This is why it’s essential to stay positive but not too celebratory about the unofficial start of summer.
Remembrance and relaxation both play important roles in our lives, but they should occupy separate spheres…When brands forget to respect that separation, and when executives who don’t understand the true meaning of Memorial Day are in control of a company’s marketing and social media outreach, insensitive—even offensive—things happen.
In particular, he recommends against potentially exploitative imagery of military funeral services, families in mourning, and so forth. Many companies juxtapose these images with messages of “FLASH SALE!” and “Happy Memorial Day!” which can ruffle feathers.
Not all veterans and families want to hear “thank you for your service” on Memorial Day and want the day focused on those who have been lost. That said, honoring veterans, active duty military, and their families can be done tastefully and well, without drawing focus away from the meaning of the day—chances are many of them have lost someone in the line of duty.
There are many ways you can honor veterans and active service people. One option is to give them early or preferential access to your sale. Another is to offer them discounts or special offers. You could even give away small items as gifts.
But a particularly special thing you can do to show your understanding and gratitude? Donate a portion of your proceeds from your Memorial Day sale to a charity supporting the families of fallen soldiers, like the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) or the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation. Mention this plan in your Memorial Day marketing materials, but keep the focus on those who need the help, not how awesome you are for doing this.
6. Contact Websites Running Sales Roundups to Get Your Store Featured
The Memorial Day weekend is a fantastic source of content for new publications, many of which include roundups of all the best sales. It’s not an accident when brands get included in these roundups. More often than not, it’s the result of a lot of outreach work.
Start by finding publications in your industry that have produced Memorial Day roundups in the past. If they did a roundup last year, there’s a good chance it will be on the editorial calendar this year.
You can also target bigger, broader publications that aren’t necessarily tied to one industry. Here are just a few websites that have created Memorial Day sales roundups in the past:
Next, draft an email to send to each of these publications. Personalize it a bit, but you can keep the bulk of it the same. Highlight what you have on sale over the Memorial Day weekend, the kind of discounts customers should expect, and why your deal is better than your competitors.
7. Set Up a Virtual Event With a Live Sale Segment
You don’t have to have a brick-and-mortar store to run a live sales event.
There are even some pretty significant benefits stores can realize by running virtual sales events. They are way more accessible for one. You’ll be able to accommodate significantly more attendees (which means more customers), and they’ll be able to tune in from anywhere in the world, too.
It will also be much cheaper to run a virtual sales event than an in-person one. Webinar software and a high-quality camera will cost a few hundred bucks at the most. That’s pretty much all you need. It will be much cheaper for customers who don’t have to travel to your store, too, meaning more money to spend on the sale.
You’ll want to make your sales event as fun and inclusive as possible. To this end, make sure to run games and activities and not just showcase your products. You could even run giveaways and competitions to give away some of your newest products for free.
Make sure that you devote a good chunk of time to your sales products, though. The whole point of running this kind of event is to increase sales, so it makes sense to spend at least the latter half of the event modeling your new clothing range or showing your new products in action.
After the pandemic, you may be facing more competition than usual when it comes to online events. It will pay to get the word out early and promote your virtual event as much as possible. Social media, email campaigns, and your website are all great places to start.
Memorial Day Sales FAQ
Which channels should I run paid ads on?
Facebook, Instagram, and Google are three of the best platforms to run paid ad campaigns on this Memorial Day weekend.
How long should my flash sale last?
It can last as little as a few hours, but don’t let it go on for longer than the weekend.
How can I avoid looking like I’m cashing in on an important holiday?
You can incorporate both summer and solemnity. Don’t overdo it on the joy, but keep the message positive. Consider donating proceeds to relevant organizations.
What should I include in my outreach email to publications?
Keep your email as short as possible, but try to stand out. State how much consumers can save, what products are on sale, and any other essential details.
Which platform should I choose for my virtual event?
Facebook or Zoom are two popular platforms that are relatively inexpensive (if not free) and stable to run events on.
Conclusion: How to Increase Memorial Day Sales
Memorial Day weekend is one of the biggest shopping events on the calendar. You can’t just launch a sale and expect customers to turn up, however, especially if you’re an e-commerce store.
Running ads, making the most of social media, and reaching out to online publications are vital to get the word out. Making sure your sale strikes the right tone with customers will be key to increasing conversions.
But don’t stop there. The best e-commerce stores use the Memorial Day weekend as a jumping-off point and do everything they can to keep holiday sales high after the Memorial Day spike.
Which tactics are you going to use this Memorial Day?
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A business credit profile is different. You have to work intentionally to establish it and build your score. Just because you have a card that says “business credit card” on it does not mean it is in your business name. It isn’t necessarily reporting to your business credit report. It could, and in fact probably is, reporting to your personal credit if you haven’t taken some steps to separate your business from yourself. 
Hack #2: Add Accounts That Report
