According to Buffer, almost 75% of marketers believe that their social media marketing efforts have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. Hubspot spoke about this back in 2013. They found that they …
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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 … Continue reading 5 Hacks to Get a Credit Score Increase for Your Business
Having multiple-location SEO enables businesses to attract website traffic from various states or countries across the globe.
It brings a lot of benefits to e-commerce businesses that offer worldwide or international shipping. If you have it in place, you can expand your customer base and quickly grow your business.
How to do multiple-location SEO? Here are some of the tips you need to know.
To attract locals from various locations, you probably need to adopt a local SEO strategy.
Imagine your business has franchises or branches in various cities or countries. You can serve multiple areas or ship products internationally or worldwide.
How do you attract traffic from consumers based on a particular location? The solution is multiple-location SEO.
Multiple-location SEO helps you improve your search traffic from various locations. This way, locals who make searches related to your niche or services can see your website at the top of search results.
For instance, a search for McDonald’s in New York leads to Google search results with information on nearby branches in the city.
If you were traveling to Las Vegas, you’d also find branches and website results about McDonald’s that are related to your location.
In short, multiple-location SEO lets search engines differentiate between multiple locations. Hence, local customers can get relevant information on the products and offerings available in nearby outlets.
If you want more in-depth information about how this works, check out my definitive guide to SEO.
What makes multiple-location SEO good for business? Here are some of the benefits you need to know.
Taking advantage of Google’s multi-location SEO features can boost your marketing efforts.
Google offers location-based data, such as drop pins on digital maps with information on your business’s exact address, opening hours, and other relevant information. First-time customers can also use the “Street View” function to find your outlet easily.
For example, when a tourist searches “Starbucks near me” on Google, you’ll get a map with information on nearby outlets, links to their website, and directions.
Of course, multiple-location SEO can attract more local customers within the vicinity of your outlet.
According to website design company Go Gulf, 46 percent of all Google search results pertain to local information. Also, 72 percent of consumers that conducted a local search visited a store within five miles from their current location.
These numbers show incorporating a multiple-location SEO strategy is good for business.
When customers search for a local establishment offering a specific product or service, the search results will present the local businesses that specialize in it.
Food enthusiasts based in Washington, D.C. looking for a restaurant can conduct a search for “restaurants Washington.” Popular restaurants in the area will be displayed in the search results.
Multiple-location SEO can raise awareness of your product or service by increasing traffic to product pages.
When customers use keywords related to your business’s offerings, your product pages could appear in the top search results.
Imagine a new resident browsing for items for his apartment in Washington, D.C. He conducts searches like “mattress Washington,” or “furniture Washington.” Businesses that are optimized for SEO within these locations will appear at the top of search results.
The bottom line is adopting a local SEO strategy can increase sales. Businesses who want to improve their visibility in a local area can improve their local presence.
More consumers have shifted to e-commerce because it is fast and convenient.
The unique advantage of e-commerce is its ability to cater to consumers from various locations, states, or countries.
Even if your e-commerce business is based in the U.S., your online shop will be viewable to consumers in countries like France, Italy, or Germany. All you need to do is enable international shipping, and you’re all set.
Sadly, international customers won’t be able to find your business if they can’t find you on the search engine. Hence, adopting a multiple-location SEO strategy is crucial for your business’s profits.
Multiple-location SEO is not merely about attracting traffic to your website. You can also use it to attract customers to your regional website and create unique pages and content for a particular location.
Let’s say you’re a clothing retailer catering to international customers.
Online stores in Singapore may offer different products compared with your e-commerce store based in the U.S. As a result, you can build a multiregional site to accommodate consumers within these locations.
An example is clothing retailer Uniqlo, which has an online website for Singapore.
It has a separate online store for US consumers.
With multiple-location SEO, Singaporean consumers will be redirected to your Singapore website. They’ll be able to view products which they can purchase and ship to their homes. Likewise, consumers based in the U.S. will also enjoy these same benefits.
Furthermore, you can adjust to local trends and create exclusive product lines that interest local consumers. When consumers search for these products, they’ll view them on your local website.
How can you optimize your store for multiple locations? Here are some tips you need to know.
The first step is to create pages based on your business’s or consumers’ location.
You can get this done by building a logical site structure to make it easy for search engines to find landing pages dedicated to a particular area.
For example, if your e-commerce store had various locations, then you can adopt the following URLs:
yourecommercestore.com/locations/newyork (for a specific state)
yourecommercestore.com/locations/newyork/manhattan (for a specific district)
Let’s say you have a store at East River Plaza in Manhattan. Then, you can use the following URL:
yourecommercestore.com/locations/manhattan/east-river-plaza
Google won’t know your page is for a specific location unless you make an effort to optimize it.
This involves including the location in your title tag and meta description. Consider this search result for restaurants in New York City. The title, URL, and description have the keywords “restaurant New York City,” which helped it earn a top spot in the search results.
Next, you’ll have to create localized content based on the products and services available in a particular location.
E-commerce stores with distinct products and services based in each region could consider creating the following landing pages:
These efforts ensure local customers will find information that is relevant to them when they check out your website and make a purchase.
Create a Google My Business account with listings for each location of your business.
You can check out my blog post on How to Optimize Google My Business to learn the basics about creating your listing.
A good listing should include basic business information, product photos, reviews, and social media pages. According to BrightLocal, 5 percent of Google My Business listing impressions lead to calls, clicks, or inquiries about the direction.
Take, for instance, this listing for Miyako Sushi based in Pennsylvania. The listing includes reviews from the web, popular times, website link, address, contact information, and any other pertinent facts to consumers.
This Google listing has all the information that consumers need to learn about the business. They can make an order, read reviews, and visit the website with the click of a button.
Consumers regularly search for reviews before considering a purchase from an online store.
According to the State of Online Reviews by Podium Market Research, 93 percent of consumers said online reviews could influence their buying decision.
A Bright Local study found transitioning from a 3-star to a 5-star average rating on Google can lead to 25 percent more clicks. Businesses that achieved a 5-star rating also took around 69 percent of clicks in the local search, beating other competitors by a large margin.
Customers can easily write a review by clicking on your Google My Business listing.
Let’s use the previous example on Miyako Sushi and look at the reviews.
Shortly after, you’ll be able to view a pop-up with an option to “Write a Review” in the upper-right corner.
To get more reviews, create an email asking customers to leave a review after making their purchase. You can also share reviews or testimonials to encourage customers to share their experiences with your business.
For better results, you could give customers a small incentive to leave a review, such as coupons or freebies.
Besides Google, you can create local business listings on sites like Yelp and Bing to improve your local search results.
Similar to Google My Business listings, this should include relevant business information such as location, hours, and directions.
Here’s an example of a listing on Yelp for the Atlanta Breakfast Club:
As you can see, there’s crucial business information, such as links to reviews, health and safety measures, website links, and contact info. This information will help you attract local customers or tourists researching breakfast restaurants in the area.
As we’ve mentioned previously, consumers love businesses with reviews, so ask consumers to leave a review on these listing websites. In case there are any negative reviews, be sure to respond so you can satisfy frustrated customers and increase your average review rating.
You can also add links to these listings on location-specific pages on your website. This way, customers will be able to get the information they need with the click of a button.
Backlinking is a crucial part of multiple SEO.
Businesses who want to improve their rank across multiple locations will need to build backlinks to individual pages for each location on their website.
You can get this done by reaching out to bloggers in your community.
If you own a restaurant, consider getting in touch with a food blogger so they can write a blog post or review about their experience. You can also get in touch with vloggers in your area to post video content about your restaurant online.
Host or participate in events within your community to get featured on local websites. Partner with organizations that can help you make an impact and build connections with locals. Network with journalists who can get you involved in newsworthy events and get you published in local publications.
The more backlinks you earn, the more likely you will boost your rankings in local search results.
Multi-location SEO can bring a lot of benefits to your business.
Not only does it provide you with an opportunity to increase brand awareness, but you’ll also attract local consumers. Since many people conduct local searches, you can even improve your customer acquisition results.
To reap the benefits of this SEO strategy, you’ll have to create a page for locations relevant to your business and optimize the page. Afterward, get reviews and create local business listings so customers will have a good evaluation of your business.
Follow the steps in this post, and you’ll be on your way to increasing local traffic to your website.
How will you do multiple-location SEO for your business?
It’s time to learn about Dun & Bradstreet reports.
But let’s start with some definitions and background on business credit.
This is credit in a business’s name. It does not tie to the owner’s creditworthiness. Instead, business credit scores depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically.
Also, there are no demands for a personal guarantee. You can quickly get business credit regardless of personal credit quality. Also, there is no personal credit reporting of business accounts. Business credit utilization won’t affect your consumer FICO score. Plus the business owner isn’t personally liable for the debt the business incurs.
Being accepted for business credit is not automatic. Building business credit requires some work. Some of the steps are intuitive,and some of them are not.
There are three chief credit bureaus for business: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax.
In the business world Equifax and Experian are up there, but it’s Dun & Bradstreet which is the major player.
D&B has more than 10 times the records of the next closest reporting agency. See dnb.com/about-us/company.html.
Do you have a copy of your Dun and Bradstreet report?
They are the oldest and largest credit reporting agency. You need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go to D&B’s website and look for your business, atdnb.com/duns-number. Can’t find it? Then get a free D-U-N-S number. You will always need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go here to get a D-U-N-S number and get into their system: dnb.com/duns-number/get-a-duns.html.
The main score is PAYDEX. But a business will not get a PAYDEX score, unless it has at least 3 trade lines reporting, and a D-U-N-S number. A business needs both to get a D&B score or report.
D&B offers database-generated reports. These help their clients decide if a business is a good credit risk. Companies use the reports to make informed business credit decisions and avoid bad debt.
Usually, when D&B does not have all of the information that they need, they say so in their reports. But missing data does not necessarily mean a company is a poor credit risk. Rather, the risk is unknown.
D&B’s database contains over 350 million companies around the world. It includes millions of active firms, and over 100 million companies which are out of business. But they keep these for historical purposes. This data goes into their reports.
D&B lists over a billion trade experiences. For as accurate a report as possible, give D&B your company’s current financial statements.
To see a sample Business Information Report, go to products.dandb.com/download/2019_BIR-Snapshot-Report.pdf
D&B takes historical information to try to predict future outcomes. This is to identify the risks inherent in a future decision. They take objective and statistically derived data, rather than subjective and intuitive judgments.
Here are the sections you could currently see in a typical Dun and Bradstreet business credit profile report.
The report starts with basic company information, such as number of employees, year the business was started, net worth, and sales.
This rating helps companies quickly assess a business’s size and composite credit appraisal. Dun & Bradstreet bases this rating on information in a company’s interim or fiscal balance sheet plus an overall evaluation of the firm’s creditworthiness. The scale goes from 5A to HH. Rating Classifications show company size based on worth or equity. D&B assigns such a rating only if a company has supplied a current financial statement.
The rating contains a Financial Strength Indicator. It is calculated using the Net Worth or Issued Capital of a company. Preference is to use Net Worth. D&B will show if a business is new or if they never got this information.
This section also adds a Composition Credit Appraisal. This number runs 1 through 4. Also, it reflects D&B’s overall rating of a business’s creditworthiness.
The scores mean:
A D&B rating might look like 3A4.
Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.
This part shows two gauges. One is an up to 24 month PAYDEX. There’s also an up to 3 month PAYDEX. Hence you can see recent history and a firm’s performance over time.
Both gauges have the same scores. A 1 means greater than 120 days slow (in paying bills). A score of 50 means 30 days slow. One great score is 80, which means prompt. Also, 100 means anticipates. A 100 is the best PAYDEX score you can get.
This is Dun & Bradstreet’s dollar-weighted numerical rating of how a company has paid the bills over the past year. D&B bases this score on trade experiences which various vendors report. The Score ranges from 1 to 100. Higher scores mean a better payment performance. PAYDEX scores reflect how well a company pays its bills.
This next section shows likelihood of business failure. It also shows how frequently a business is late in paying its financial obligations. These are comparative analyses, the Financial Stress Class, and the Credit Score Class.
Overall numbers range from 1 to 5. A 1 is businesses least likely to fail. Also, a 5 is firms most likely to fail. The Financial Stress Class measures likelihood of failure.
These more granular scores range from 1,001 to 1,875. A score of 1,001 represents the highest chance of business failure. Also an 1,875 shows the lowest chance of business failure.
The Credit Score Class measures how often a company is late paying its bills. Overall numbers range from 1 to 5. A 1 is businesses least likely to be late. 5 is firms most likely to be late making payments. More granular scores run from 101 to 670. 670 is the highest risk.
It shows a spectrum of risk. Your risk category can be low, moderate, or high. Risk is assessed using D&B’s scoring methodology. It is one factor used to create the recommended limits.
This section contains:
This part repeats the D&B Rating above. It includes financial strength, the composite credit appraisal, and payment activity.
This section contains information on ownership. It also shows where a corporation is filed (i.e. which state). This includes the type of corporation, and the incorporation date.
This section gives basic information on if a company works as a contractor for the government. It also shows the kind of business a company is in. It shows what the facilities are like, including general data on its location.
The section shows the business’s SIC and NAICS codes. It also shows where the branches and subsidiaries are. This list is just the first 25 branches, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, both domestic and international. D&B also offers a Global Family Linkage Link to view the full listing.
This section is for the financial statements D&B has on a business. It shows assets and liabilities, with specifics such as equipment, and even common stock offerings.
This part shows public records, like judgments, liens, lawsuits, and UCC filings.
This part also breaks down where filings are venued, like the court or the county recorder of deeds office. It shows if judgments were satisfied (paid). It also shows which equipment is subject to UCC filings.
This part shows the Credit Score Class again. It also shows a comparison of the incidence of delinquent payments. It also includes key factors to help anyone reading the report interpret these findings. Also, it explains what the numbers mean.
Here, D&B compares a company to others on the basis of region, industry, number of employees and time in business.
This section shows a Financial Stress Class and a Financial Stress Score Percentile. The Financial Stress Class runs from 1-5, with 5 being the worst score.
The Financial Stress Score Norms calculate an average score and percentile for similar firms. The norms benchmark where a business stands. This is in relation to its closest business peers.
It is a comparison to other businesses. The percentile contains a Financial Stress National Percentile. The Financial Stress National Percentile reflects the relative ranking of a company among all scorable companies in D&B’s file. It also contains a Financial Stress Score. The report shows the chance of failure with a particular score.
Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.
The idea behind this score is to predict how likely it is a business will fail over the next 12 months. The Financial Stress Class shows a firm shares some of the same business and financial characteristics of other companies with this classification. It does not mean the firm will necessarily experience financial stress. The chance of failure shows the percentage of firms in a given percentile that discontinue operations with loss to creditors.
The average chance of failure comes from businesses in D&B’s database. It is provided for comparative purposes. The Financial Stress National Percentile reflects the relative ranking of a company among all scorable companies in D&B’s file. The Financial Stress Score offers a more precise measure of the level of risk than the Financial Stress Class and Percentile. It is meant for customers using a scorecard approach to determining overall business performance.
This section repeats the 24 month and 3 month PAYDEX gauges. It also includes a repeat of the Credit Limit Recommendation. There is also a PAYDEX Yearly Trend. It shows the PAYDEX scores of a business compared to the Primary Industry from each of the last four quarters.
The PAYDEX Yearly Trend is a graph. It includes detailed payment history. with payment habits and a payment summary. This helps show if a business pays its bigger bills first or last.
Get your report from D&B at www.dnb.com/about-us/our-data.html. Update the relevant information if there are mistakes or the information is incomplete. At D&B, you can do this at: dnb.com/duns-number/view-update-company-credit-file.html.
Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.
None of the different business bureaus will change your scores without proof. They are also starting to accept more and more online disputes. Include proofs of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and also cancelled checks.
Fixing credit report errors also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute as crystal clear as possible. If you need to snail mail anything in, then use certified mail. This is so you will have proof that you sent in your dispute.
Be specific about the concerns with your report. D&B wants you to go through their Customer Service. You can also go through D&B Customer Service to add payment experiences. D&B’s Customer Service contact number can be found at dandb.com/glossary/paydex.
Business credit reports are not always perfectly correct. All of the major CRAs are committed to accuracy. But you won’t know there are errors unless you monitor your business credit reports.
For D&B only, you can monitor your reports via CreditMonitor. It currently costs $39/month. See dnb.com/products/small-business/credit-monitor.html.
You can monitor your business credit at D&B, Equifax, and Experian through Credit Suite, for considerable savings over what it would cost you at those different credit bureaus. And all in one place! Credit Suite offers monitoring through the Business Finance Suite (through Nav). See what credit issuers and lenders see. So you can directly improve your scores and get the business credit and funding you need. See suitelogin.com and also creditsuite.com/monitoring.
Dun & Bradstreet reports sport an impressive level of detail. The idea is to make it easier to decide if it’s a good idea to extend credit to another business. Also, your own company’s report can help show you where you can improve payment history. Also, you can see how your firm compares to similar businesses.
D&B is the largest business CRA. A D-U-N-S number is an absolute necessity for business credit building.
Monitoring all of your reports is expensive. But you can save 90% by monitoring your D&B, Experian, and Equifax scores through Credit Suite.
The post Learn About Dun & Bradstreet Reports appeared first on Credit Suite.
Are you looking for credit cards for bad credit?
We researched lots of company credit cards for you. So, here are our choices.
Per the SBA, business credit card limits are a whopping 10 – 100 times that of personal credit cards!
This shows you can get a lot more money with company credit cards.
And you will not need collateral, cash flow, or financials to get small business credit.
Benefits can vary. So, make sure to pick the benefit you would prefer from this selection of alternatives.
And always check rates on the appropriate website to get current specifics.
Look into the Brex Card for Startups. It has no yearly fee.
You will not need to provide your Social Security number to apply. And you will not need to supply a personal guarantee. They will take your EIN.
Nevertheless, they do not accept every industry.
Likewise, there are some industries they will not work with, as well as others where they want more paperwork. For a list, go here: https://brex.com/legal/prohibited_activities/.
To determine creditworthiness, Brex checks a company’s cash balance, spending patterns, and investors.
You can get 7x points on rideshare. Get 4x on travel. Likewise, get triple points on restaurants. And get double points on recurring software payments. Get 1x points on everything else.
You can have bad credit (even a 300 FICO) and still qualify.
Find it here: https://brex.com/lp/startups-higher-limits/
Have a look at the Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business. It has no annual fee. There is no introductory APR offer. The regular APR is a variable 26.99%. You can earn unlimited 1% cash back on every purchase for your company, without any minimum to redeem.
While this card is within reach if you have average credit scores, beware of the annual percentage rate. However if you can pay on schedule, and in full, then it’s a bargain.
Find it here: https://www.capitalone.com/small-business/credit-cards/spark-classic/
Score the best business credit cards for your business. Check out our professional research.
You can get gas cards via our Business Credit Builder.
Our Business Credit Builder is full of amazing business credit cards. And that includes gas cards! These cards are starter vendors. We know they report to business credit reporting agencies. Whether you’re new to business credit building, or have been at it for a while, it pays to get these cards.
Marathon Petroleum Company provides transportation fuels, asphalt, and specialty products, throughout the United States. Their comprehensive product line supports commercial, industrial, and retail operations. This card reports to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. Before applying for multiple accounts with WEX Fleet cards, make sure to have enough time in between applying so they don’t red-flag your account for fraud.
Your Social Security Number is necessary for informational purposes. If concerned they will pull your personal credit talk to their credit department before applying. You can give a $500 deposit instead of using a personal guarantee, if in business less than a year. Apply online. Terms are Net 15.
In order to qualify, you need:
Get it here: marathonbrand.com.
76 is owned by Phillips 66 Company. They sell gas in more than 1,800 retail fuel sites in the United States. This card reports to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. And it can be used at any P66, 76, or Conoco fueling location.
Your Social Security Number is necessary for informational purposes. If concerned they will pull your personal credit, talk to their credit department before applying. If not approved based on business credit history or been in business less than 1 year, then a $500 deposit is needed or a personal guarantee (PG). Apply online or over the phone. Terms are Net 15.
In order to qualify, you need:
Get it here: 76fleet.com.
Score the best business credit cards for your business. Check out our professional research.
Wrights Express (WEX Card) offers universal fleet cards, heavy truck cards, and universally accepted business fleet cards. These cards have features that support small business, including a rewards program.
Before applying for multiple accounts with WEX Fleet cards, make sure to have enough time in between applying. This way, they won’t red flag your account for fraud. This card reports to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax.
If you’re not approved based on business credit history, or been in business a 1 year, then a $500 deposit is needed or a personal guarantee. Apply online or over the phone. Terms are Net 15 for a WEX Fleet Card, Net 26, and Revolving for a WEX Flex Card.
In order to qualify, you need:
Get it here: wexinc.com/solutions/fleet-management
All forms of business credit can help you build good business credit scores, as business credit is mainly based on your payment history. As a result, fleet credit can help your business eventually get funding, such as loans and other forms of financing.
Score the best business credit cards for your business. Check out our professional research.
Your straight-out ideal company credit cards depend upon your credit history and scores.
Just you can choose which features you want and need. So, to do your research. What is outstanding for you could be disastrous for another person.
And, as always, make sure to develop credit in the recommended order for the best, speediest benefits.
The post Do You Need Business Credit Cards for Bad Credit? appeared first on Credit Suite.