Internal Site Search is Killing Your Conversion Rate (Here’s How to Fix It)

How Site Search is Killing Your Conversion Rate (And How to Fix It)

An internal site search is a must-have. However, it’s often viewed as an afterthought rather than a true conversion optimization tool – and that could be killing your conversion rate.

So what should you know about improving your site search? Here are a few tips on making the most of site searches.

What is Internal Site Search and Why Does it Matter?

Internal site search is a search bar many site users add to their website which allows users to search for news, topics, or products. It’s crucial for eCommerce sites, but can be incredibly useful for content-based sites as well.

Many sites feature their site search front and center at the top of their homepage, as Home Depot does:

internal site search example from home depot

How Site Search Drives Conversions

Adding internal site search to your website helps users find what they are looking for. However, it can also impact your bottom line.

Site Searchers Much More Likely to Convert

According to research by eConsultancy, on-site searchers are 1.8 percent more likely to convert than regular users.

What’s more, Screen Pages found the average revenue from site search was significantly higher than regular users.

Despite the benefits of site search, a vast majority of sites don’t optimize their site search feature.

If you don’t have a site search–or if you aren’t making the most of it–you could be missing out on revenue.

How to Drive Conversions With Internal Site Search

If customers aren’t getting the results they expect from your site search (or worse, getting links to your competitor’s sites), they’ll simply go elsewhere.

That’s why it’s vital to start paying attention to your internal search engine – and making changes that can improved results and drive conversions. Here’s how to do it.

Target the “Spearfishers”

According to Forrester Research, which did an in-depth report on the importance of site search for retail, businesses should focus on “spearfishers” – those users who come to a site searching for a specific product. They found 43 percent of visitors go immediately to a search box, and searchers are two to three times more likely to convert.

That means we need to make it push-button simple for users to do a search right away. You can thank sites like Amazon and Google for making a prominent search box the first thing users see.

Include Autocomplete

swarovski internal site search example with suggestions

Going to the Swarovski.com website without a specific product in mind will instantly lead the user to suggestions. I typed in “blue” and got 10 product suggestions right away.

Kohl’s website goes even further to recommend (and show) specific products based on a basic search before the user ever hits enter:

kohls internal site search example with product recommendations

By suggesting specific products (or even showing top results), you’re guiding the user along the path you want them to take before they even make a conscious decision to continue. Essentially, you’re planting product suggestion seeds and allowing them to branch out from there – putting your user one step closer to a conversion.

Allow Users to Filter Internal Site Search Results

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a million search results and having to sift through the clutter. U.K. site DIY.com helps users filter results search pages by offering a number of filters, including price, availability, and category. This lets users narrow down to precisely what they want and when they want it by.

Create Dedicated Landing Pages

Based on the data you collect from your site search engine, you may want to elevate certain products to get more exposure or demote others that may not be as popular. For products getting the bulk of the hits, consider creating a dedicated landing page to help it stand out from among a sea of similar items.

L.L. Bean has custom landing pages for many of its products which include not just the product details, but the best weather/activity levels, additional features, and even the technology behind the item:

ll-bean landing page for site search items

Offer Relevant Recommendations

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, products go out of stock or are discontinued. What happens when a user ends up on those pages? Sending them to a “product not available” page is a sure path to site abandonment. Instead, take a page out of Amazon’s book by offering users related suggestions and recommendations.

Bonus points if you can bundle products in a ‘Frequently Bought Together” option.

Improve Mobile Search

Don’t forget about mobile users. According to Statista, more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Typing on a mobile device can be cumbersome at best, and misspellings often lead users to “Not Found” pages even if the product is available.

Test out your site search in a variety of devices for ease of use and fast loading. No mobile user is going to wait forever to see 1,000+ products load up on a results page. Consider limiting the number of suggestions and making sure your search bar is easy to use on mobile devices.

Internal Site Search Tools

Now you know what users expect from a high-performing site search and how to use it to drive conversion. So, how do you implement it? There are plenty of free site search engines available – but here is one area where you definitely don’t want to skimp on features.

Here are a few of the more promising site search platforms available.

Doofinder

Doofinder created a cutting-edge site search tool that has been proven to increase conversions and boost sales on e-commerce sites. Combining artificial intelligence and machine learning, Doofinder is able to provide a fast, seamless, and effective search experience for users while helping sites sell more.

To make Doofinder even more exciting for users is that they offer both a free trial and a freemium version, making it easier for both small and large e-commerce sites to benefit from their impactful site search tool.

Swiftype

Swiftype integrates into many popular platforms including WordPress, Zendesk, Magento, and Shopify. With intelligent sorting, filters, spell check and autocomplete, it’s a solid search engine with fast indexing and fantastic relevance. Pricing starts at $79/month with a trial available if you’d like to test the waters.

SearchNode

SearchNode is made for e-commerce sites and integrates with common shopping cart platforms such as OSCommerce, Woo Commerce, OpenCart, and many more. It can be up and running in as little as five minutes with a JS code snippet. One of the main benefits that set SearchNode apart is the ability to use their site search tool in multiple languages.

SearchSpring

SearchSpring is an enterprise-grade site search platform that combines search and merchandising tools into one package. It offers common features like auto-complete, product recommendations, and even product quizzes/product finders to help users find the right product for their needs by answering a few simple questions.

They also offer a ton of other eCommerce tools, including navigation, personalization, and advanced reporting tools. Pricing starts at $499.

Internal Site Search Frequently Asked Questions

What is internal site search?

Internal site search, sometimes called site search, is a search engine function on a specific website that allows users to search for content or products on that specific page.

What are the benefits of adding site search to my website?

Site search makes it easier for users to find content or products on a specific site. It can help drive conversions and provide site owners with data about the types of products users are interested in.

Is adding a search bar to my site good for SEO?

Search bars don’t have a specific SEO benefit. However, they improve the user experience and keep users on your site, which is beneficial to SEO.

Is Google Site Search a good tool?

Google’s Site Search feature was sunset in 2018 and is no longer available. However, there are several other options, including SearchSpring and SearchWP.

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Internal Site Search Conclusion

Site search is definitely not something you’ll want to overlook when it comes to new ideas to improve your conversion rate. By implementing a few simple steps to give users more control over their results, you’ll likely start to see conversions and revenue soar as customers find precisely what they need quickly and easily.

Search site doesn’t have direct SEO benefits, but it does improve user experience, which can indirectly impact the effectiveness of all your marketing efforts.

Do you use site search extensively on your site? What do you believe makes a good site search engine? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

When The Most Successful Companies Look for Fleet and Vehicle Financing … Here’s What They Do …

The Perfect Business Credit Portfolio Includes Vehicle Financing

Does your business need vehicles to get the work done? This can be any number of kinds of vehicles, such as trucks for deliveries and hauling, sprinter vans, company cars, and even vans to facilitate commuting for your employees. Vehicle financing can be a smart way to afford all of them.

Vehicle Financing in a Nutshell

Much like you probably didn’t buy your personal vehicle outright, financing is a great way to go in order to get a vehicle now, without having to wait until you can just pay cash and drive it off the lot. With a car for personal use, your choices are usually buying or leasing. Providers include banks like Bank of America or the financing arm of the manufacturer, such as Chrysler Capital.

Commercial vehicle funding has certain parameters. Whether a vehicle is purchased new or used will affect the number of years you can finance the vehicle and the rates you will pay. If a vehicle is used, then the number of miles on it will also affect terms. Plus, business owners may be required to personally guarantee vehicle loans. If you are a co-borrower the loan will most likely report to your personal credit report. Some loans have a prepayment penalty and charge you for paying ahead.

In general, the following will eliminate the need to provide a personal guarantee for this type of financing: good business credit, a decent amount of time in business or good personal credit. And much like with any other kind of business borrowing, the more assurances you can give the lender, the better.

Basic Terms and Qualifying

You need to establish the amount of money you have for a down payment, and the vehicle you need. Plus, you must establish the costs associated with buying the vehicle.

You’ll need to provide documentation that proves you are the owner of a business. This includes business licenses, partnership agreements, LLC documents, and articles of incorporation (if applicable), listing you as having at least a 20% stake in the business.

You may also have to provide personal documentation like personal credit score and credit history. If you are a sole proprietor and the business is under your Social Security number, you are the borrower and guarantor. Hence you are personally liable for repaying the loan. It is also a good idea to have a loan proposal. A loan proposal should detail your business, loan needs, and financial statements.

Good Business Credit Can Help

If your company needs vehicles for operation build your business credit. This, way you will be able to qualify with no PG. Having this ability can give you the freedom to grow your fleet, and without your signature. More on this later. First, let’s look at those four keys to financing.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Vehicle Financing Key #1: Using Business Credit for Vehicle Financing

You can even finance a vehicle purchase or lease through our Business Credit Builder. These offers are in Tier 4, so these lenders will have certain requirements that business credit neophytes just won’t be able to meet. Lenders will want to see that you have the income to support the purchase.

As an example, consider Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing.

Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing Through Credit Suite

Ford offers several commercial funding options. These include loans, lines, and leases to actual business entities. This is not for sole proprietorships. You can get a loan or a lease.

Ford may ask for a Personal Guarantee (PG) if you don’t get an approval on the merit of your application. Apply at the dealership. Ford will report to D&B, Experian, and Equifax.

Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing: Terms and Qualifying

To qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable) and a business bank account

You will need to have a strong business credit history. And you must have a good Experian business credit score.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Ally Car Financing Through Credit Suite

Ally provides personal financing. But Ally will also report to business credit bureaus. If your business qualifies for financing without the owner’s guarantee, you can get financing in the business name only. Ally will report to D&B, Experian, and Equifax

Ally Car Financing: Terms and Qualifying

For Ally Commercial Line of Credit, to qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable)
And a business bank account
Bank reference
Fleet financing references

If you use a personal guarantee, Ally will not report to the personal credit bureaus unless the account defaults.

With Ally Commercial Vehicle Financing, you can get a lease or a loan. To qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable)
And a business bank account

There is no minimum time in business requirement. Apply in person only, dealer will advise if approval or Personal Guarantee (PG) needed.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Vehicle Financing Key #2: Credit Line Hybrid

Yet another potential form of vehicle financing is through the Credit Suite Credit Line Hybrid. A credit line hybrid is a form of unsecured funding. Our credit line hybrid has an even better interest rate than a secured loan. Get some of the highest loan amounts and credit lines for businesses. Get 0% business credit cards with stated income. These report to business CRAs. So you can build business credit at the same time. This will get you access to even more cash with no personal guarantee.

Credit Line Hybrid: Terms and Qualifying

You need a good credit score or a guarantor with good credit to get an approval (a FICO score of at least 680). No financials are necessary. You can often get a loan of five times the amount of current highest revolving credit limit account. This is up to $150,000.

Vehicle Financing Key #3: 401(k) Financing

Another option for vehicle financing is using your 401(k) as collateral. This is not a loan. You will not have to pay an early withdrawal fee or a tax penalty. You put the money back by contributing, just like with any 401(k) program. This means you won’t lose your retirement funds. This is a 401(k) Rollover for Working Capital program. The IRS calls it a Rollover for Business Startups (ROBS).

Per the IRS, a ROBS qualified plan is a separate entity with its own set of requirements. The plan, through its company stock investments, rather than the individual owns the trade or business. Therefore, some filing exceptions for individuals may not apply to such a plan. This type of financing isn’t a loan against, your 401(k), so there’s no interest to pay. It does not use the 401(k) or stocks as collateral. Instead, this is simply a movement or change of custodian.

401(k) Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Pay low rates, often less than 5%. Your 401(k) will need to have more than $35,000 in it. You can usually get up to 100% of what’s “rollable” within your 401(k) . The lender will want to see a copy of your two most recent 401(k) statements.

You can get 401(k) financing even with severely challenged personal credit. The 401(k) you use cannot be from a business where you are currently employed. So it will need to be from older employment. You cannot be currently contributing to it.

Vehicle Financing Key #4: SBA 504 Loans

The SBA 504 loan can be used to purchase “Long-term machinery and equipment”. As a result, it’s not a standard car loan. But you can purchase a truck with it. You can use an SBA 504 loan when the vehicles being purchased qualify as heavy equipment.

Some examples of trucks as ‘heavy equipment’ can include:

Cement trucks
Dump trucks
Custom-build heavy trucks fit for specific purposes (loading/unloading septic tanks, for instance)
Semis and tanker trailer trucks

If your vehicle needs run in this direction, then an SBA loan could be perfect for your needs.

SBA 504 Loans and Credit Suite

Did you know that you can get SBA loans through Credit Suite? Established businesses with tax returns that show good revenues and profitability can get very large sums of funding with Secured Small Business Loans. If you have positive business tax returns, you should apply for secured government-backed SBA program loans from $250,000 up to $12,000,000. Approval amounts will vary based on the collateral your business has, and the amount of net profit reflected on your tax returns.

The total time to close these loans is about 2-4 months. SBA loans offer some of the longest payback terms available for business financing. Get loan terms for 10, 15, or even 25 years with the SBA. Interest will total approximately 3% of the debt. The rate may be financed with the loan.

Get approved for up to $12 million. Your credit will have to be of good quality. Your collateral will need to equal 50% of the loan amount. Financials will be necessary.

SBA 504 Loans Through Credit Suite: Documentation

The SBA will require certain documentation to qualify including:

Business and personal financials
Resume and background information
Personal and business credit reports
Your business plan
Bank statements
Collateral and any other documentation relevant to the transaction

Vehicle Financing: Takeaways

Getting vehicle funding involves variables like whether the vehicle is new or used. Heavy vehicles like dump trucks can be paid for with SBA 504 loans. There is a possibility that you would have to provide a personal guarantee to get a loan or lease. Credit Suite offers financing that you can use to purchase vehicles, and we offer even more options through our Business Finance Suite. There are four keys to open the door to affording vehicles for your business. And there are a lot of options. Let’s explore them together.

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When The Most Successful Companies Look for Fleet and Vehicle Financing … Here’s What They Do …

The Perfect Business Credit Portfolio Includes Vehicle Financing

Vehicle Financing in a Nutshell

Basic Terms and Qualifying

You need to establish the amount of money you have for a down payment, and the vehicle you need. Plus, you must establish the costs associated with buying the vehicle.

Good Business Credit Can Help

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Vehicle Financing Key #1: Using Business Credit for Vehicle Financing

As an example, consider Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing.

Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing Through Credit Suite

Ford offers several commercial funding options. These include loans, lines, and leases to actual business entities. This is not for sole proprietorships. You can get a loan or a lease.

Ford may ask for a Personal Guarantee (PG) if you don’t get an approval on the merit of your application. Apply at the dealership. Ford will report to D&B, Experian, and Equifax.

Ford Commercial Vehicle Financing: Terms and Qualifying

To qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable) and a business bank account

You will need to have a strong business credit history. And you must have a good Experian business credit score.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Ally Car Financing Through Credit Suite

Ally Car Financing: Terms and Qualifying

For Ally Commercial Line of Credit, to qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable)
And a business bank account
Bank reference
Fleet financing references

If you use a personal guarantee, Ally will not report to the personal credit bureaus unless the account defaults.

With Ally Commercial Vehicle Financing, you can get a lease or a loan. To qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable)
And a business bank account

There is no minimum time in business requirement. Apply in person only, dealer will advise if approval or Personal Guarantee (PG) needed.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Vehicle Financing Key #2: Credit Line Hybrid

Credit Line Hybrid: Terms and Qualifying

Vehicle Financing Key #3: 401(k) Financing

401(k) Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Vehicle Financing Key #4: SBA 504 Loans

Some examples of trucks as ‘heavy equipment’ can include:

Cement trucks
Dump trucks
Custom-build heavy trucks fit for specific purposes (loading/unloading septic tanks, for instance)
Semis and tanker trailer trucks

If your vehicle needs run in this direction, then an SBA loan could be perfect for your needs.

SBA 504 Loans and Credit Suite

Get approved for up to $12 million. Your credit will have to be of good quality. Your collateral will need to equal 50% of the loan amount. Financials will be necessary.

SBA 504 Loans Through Credit Suite: Documentation

The SBA will require certain documentation to qualify including:

Business and personal financials
Resume and background information
Personal and business credit reports
Your business plan
Bank statements
Collateral and any other documentation relevant to the transaction

Vehicle Financing: Takeaways

The post When The Most Successful Companies Look for Fleet and Vehicle Financing … Here’s What They Do … appeared first on Credit Suite.

SMS Marketing Doesn’t Suck: Here’s How to Use it To Generate Revenue

Did you know the average person checks their phone 160 times a day?

Which is just one of the reasons SMS marketing no longer sucks.

Forty-six percent of people say they check their phones before they even get out of bed.

The point is that people keep their phones handy and are always ready to use them to find information or check the latest social media updates.

Plus, open rates for texts vastly surpass email — 98 percent versus just 20 percent for email.

Mobile advertising works, but only if your message makes it to the consumer’s inbox, and only if your ad is mobile-optimized.

It’s the only way to steer clear of the noise and get a positive return on investment.

Most online marketers laugh at the idea of SMS marketing because they think it’s more regulated than email marketing. But that’s a myth.

Watered-down, mobile-targeting tactics are costing you conversions, clients, and revenue.

Meanwhile, SMS marketing is lurking in the background, waiting for you to capitalize on it.

Here’s why (and how) you should revisit SMS marketing to generate revenue.

The Many Advantages of SMS Marketing

Do you think Instagram has good engagement numbers?

Wait until you see what text messages get.

SMS Marketing Advantage #1. Texting Has The Best Engagement Rate of Any Marketing Medium

Emails can sit unread for days, phone calls can go unanswered, but text messages are almost always read immediately after they’re sent.

We already talked about the comparatively dismal open rates for email. The average CTR for PPC ads is even worse at 2%.

The point is that SMS marketing is underrated and underappreciated.

But nothing great comes without its catch.

It’s neither ethical nor legal to send unsolicited messages with text-message marketing.

You need a written opt-in.

sms marketing example of unsolicited message

Fortunately, customers have an easy way to opt themselves in — or out — straight from their mobile phones with most text-marketing services.

Using Attentive’s patent-pending “two-tap” technology, customers can opt-in to a brand’s text messaging subscriber list seamlessly from their mobile website, social media, or other digital channels.

With one tap, a message will populate in their message inbox. They simply press send on the pre-populated text message to opt-in and receive a welcome message.

Here are some of the advantages of mobile text messaging.

SMS Marketing Advantage #2. It’s Trackable

There are countless texting platforms that allow you to manage your campaign all from your desktop.

Find a solution that will give you access to detailed analytics that lets you track each step in the conversion process, starting with the initial delivery and opening.

SMS Marketing Advantage #3. You Can Leverage Interactive Content

Mobile messaging makes it possible to get feedback from your recipients quickly via a quick tap on the ‘reply’ button or a click on your link.

You can deliver quick, simple messages that direct subscribers back to your site.

For example, Chipotle excels at using mobile messaging to drive sales.

It’s short and sweet. It gets straight to the point with “free chips and guac” if you play their game.

Not a bad deal, right?

Especially since they have queso now, too.

Get creative with your text-marketing campaigns and take a page out of the Chipotle playbook.

SMS Marketing Advantage #4. Immediate Delivery

Overall, mobile marketing is fast. Once you press “send,” your message goes out instantly.

You can set up a campaign and have hundreds of clicks within minutes.

SMS Marketing Advantage #5. Add a Personal Touch

Sending a text message via your mobile device gives you an informal opportunity to personalize the message.

For example, the Banana Republic often sends text messages that include words like “friends” and “your.”

Using words like “you” and “I” is one of my favorite techniques for driving engagement.

The Banana Republic also does an excellent job of tapping into local events that are relevant to the recipient.

See? The opportunities with SMS are endless.

You can personalize your message, direct users to fun games where they can win coupons, and track every step of the conversion process.

Here’s how it works.

The Basic Components of SMS Marketing

The two basic components of a typical SMS-marketing campaign are the keyword and the shortcode. Here’s an example:

Text “POPCORN” to 555555 for our weekly list of flavors!

“POPCORN” is the keyword that gets placed in the body of the message.

“555555” is the shortcode that gets put in the recipient box.

When a customer sends that message, they’re “opting in” to your campaign. It’s as easy as that.

From there you can do a few different things.

Go ahead and send them a single, automated response to follow up and let them know what to expect next. Or you can just add them to a list that will send additional texts over time.

There are other ways to get customers to opt-in. Let them check a box on an order form or submit their phone numbers online.

Numbers received this last way have to be confirmed, however, since a customer could always enter a number incorrectly.

So before you add them to a campaign, you’ll have to confirm their participation with another message.

For example, you could send. “Text ‘YES’ to receive weekly coupons.”

Once they’ve opted in, customers can also respond to your messages with sub-keywords.

For example, sending the phrase “Hours” could trigger an automated text to send business hours, and “Stop” could remove the subscriber from the list.

Allowing customers to use sub-keywords gives them a way to interact with your business. It also enables them to opt-out of your campaign if they wish to stop receiving messages.

Once you’ve got the basics down, you can tap into creative ideas — like Chipotle’s game, which we covered earlier.

SMS Marketing Strategies to Try

Mobile texting tactics are diverse.

However, they should be pretty familiar if you’ve already run social promotions and contests.

For example, you can send coupons, drive traffic, or engage people through fun, simple games.

Here are some of the best potential uses for SMS marketing.

SMS Marketing Tip #1. Coupons and Exclusive Deals

Start by creating uniquely-generated coupon codes to prevent non-subscribers from taking advantage of your deal.

That way, people have to subscribe to save.

Check out this example from Redbox:

Redbox also takes advantage of “add to wallet.”

It’s giving you a simple one-click option to hook up your phone’s payment system with its offer.

Plus, the subscriber gets an extra incentive for taking this additional step. Customers don’t have to take an extra step to pay when they want to rent movies.

SMS Marketing Tip #2. Use Drip Campaigns

Drip campaigns are automated messages sent based on specific factors, such as how long someone has been a customer.

Think of this as just another form of marketing automation.

You can create triggers or tailored responses depending on each individual’s status.

In the context of coupons, for example, you could send a 5 percent off coupon right after the subscriber signs up, a 10 percent coupon after three weeks, and a 20 percent off coupon after two months.

The longer they stick around, the bigger the potential bonus. So you’re incentivizing the action you want.

Best of all, you can schedule these to run automatically.

One will be sent as soon as a customer signs up or opts in. That way, you don’t need to keep sending individual messages.

SMS Marketing Tip #3. Poll Your Customers

Polls let your customers text different keywords to cast a vote.

With most services, you can run polls to collect responses over a period of time and graph the responses from your online dashboard.

These are relatively simple when you think about it.

However, they offer an interesting content piece.

You can use the results internally to improve your operations.

Or you can reuse the results in both blog and social content to leverage your unique, proprietary information.

The people who left an answer will also be more eager to find out what the eventual results were and even help you share them.

SMS Marketing Tip #4. Run a Sweepstakes Contest

You can have customers sign themselves up for sweepstakes by texting a particular keyword.

Once again, this is a standard promotion tactic.

You can select some winners from everyone who opts in. Or you can also give away a smaller prize to every person who texts your keyword.

You can even use it as an opportunity for cross-promotions.

Sterling Vineyards and Uber did that to give away free rides to Sterling’s customer base.

SMS Marketing Tip #5. Send Photos and Videos

In addition to actual text SMS messaging, you can also send photos and videos.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you wanted to send an eBook preview or another image-style CTA.

Check out this example I created to see what’s possible with just a few minutes worth of work.

Sms marketing tip send photos and videos

Want to create this type of marketing message? I’ll show you how a bit later in this piece.

Use Facebook to Grow Your SMS List

Instead of putting all of your eggs in one basket, use multiple channels to segment subscribers.

SMS and Facebook Ads are excellent on their own. But they can be even better when you use them together.

I recommend checking out Facebook’s lead ads to integrate with your SMS campaigns.

Lead ads are great for collecting data and information to build up a large subscriber base.

Here’s how to get started.

Head to the Facebook Ads Manager and create a new ad, selecting lead generation as your objective.

sms marketing choose a goal in facebook ads

After you’ve set your target audience, budget, and placements, head down to the lead form option to set up your ad and collect phone numbers.

Here’s what the finished product should look like.

Now you get a multi-step form that doesn’t bombard the user with an instant information grab.

Instead, it uses multiple steps to warm them up to your offer.

Pretty cool, right?

Here’s what the second step of the form looks like.

Once you’ve configured your settings, you’ve got a simple way to collect phone numbers immediately.

That means you’re almost ready to start getting your first SMS campaign off the ground.

How to Automate SMS Marketing

Since we’re into the idea of working smarter and not harder, I suggest automating the SMSM marketing process.

Let’s face it: Marketing automation saves precious time you can spend growing your business.

For example, you don’t have to manually export and import lead data. Instead, you can use a tool like Zapier to quickly build out an automated process.

Zapier connects with just about every marketing software you can think of, including MailChimp, Gmail, Facebook Ads, Slack, and many of the biggest CRMs on the market.

So if you get a few people submitting phone numbers in your Facebook lead ads, you can send them directly to your CRM, your messaging platform, and even various SMS marketing platforms. All at the same time!

Here’s a few of the texting apps they work with, or you can search here.

Let’s dive straight in, shall we?

First, select Facebook Lead Ads from the workflow ideas list.

Next, select it as your trigger.

sms marketing connect fb lead ads and zapier step 2

So whenever a lead fills out your lead capture form, it will trigger the following action that you want to set.

I’ll show you how to set that up in one second. But it could be anything from sending that lead form information to your CRM to connecting it to your SMS marketing software.

Now, let’s select this action once you’ve connected your Facebook account to Zapier’s workflow.

The action determines what happens with the data from your lead forms.

SMS marketing zapier and FB lead ads step 3

For example, you can instantly add a new lead to your SMS app of choice. Then you can even automate the first message that will go out to them after they’re added.

All of this automation saves you countless hours of manually transferring data and information.

Conclusion

Let’s be honest: SMS marketing can be kinda spammy.

It has evolved a lot over the past few years, though.

People are attached to their phones more than ever, and SMS marketing allows you to get direct access to your customers.

If you can get them to opt-in, they’re never going to miss an update or offer from your company ever again.

Especially if your SMS are personalized for the recipient!

Find an SMS app and start sending coupons, polling your customers, running sweepstakes, sending photos, and driving sales. The options are limitless.

Get creative with your text offers and watch your ROI grow fast.

Have you received any SMS marketing messages that you just had to respond to?

The post SMS Marketing Doesn’t Suck: Here’s How to Use it To Generate Revenue appeared first on Neil Patel.

Get a Recession Business Credit Line – Here’s How

It’s Probably True: You Need a Recession Business Credit Line

As a small business owner, you probably can’t put your hand on enough capital, at least not immediately. And if you are new, then it’s even harder. There will always be more ramp up costs than you think. So if you have ever wondered where to establish business credit, and how to actually get a credit line, it comes from really two areas. Those are business credit cards and loans. Your business needs a recession business credit line: here is how to get one (or more!)

For both types of credit line, it helps to have good business credit. And if you do not have what is considered a good business credit score, or if your company is new and has not yet established its own credit, then creditors will look at your personal credit score.

You want them looking at your business credit score.

But let’s start with recession-era funding.

Recession Period Financing

The number of US financial institutions as well as thrifts has been decreasing slowly for 25 years. This is coming from consolidation in the market in addition to deregulation in the 1990s, reducing barriers to interstate banking. See: https://www.fundera.com/blog/happened-americas-small-businesses-financial-crisis-six-years-start-crisis-look-back-10-charts

Assets concentrated in ever‐larger banks is problematic for local business owners. Big financial institutions are much less likely to make small loans. Economic downturns imply financial institutions end up being a lot more careful with lending. Luckily, business credit does not rely on financial institutions.

Let’s go over credit lines.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line – But What Are Credit Lines?

A credit line, or line of credit (LOC), is an agreement between a borrower and a bank or private investor that establishes a maximum loan balance which a borrower can access.

A borrower can access funds from their line of credit anytime, so long as they don’t go over the maximum set in the arrangement, and as long as they meet any other conditions of the financial institution or investor like making prompt payments.

Advantages

Your business needs a credit line because credit lines deliver many distinct advantages to borrowers including versatility. Borrowers can apply their line of credit and only pay interest on what they use, in contrast to loans where they pay interest on the sum total borrowed. Credit lines can be reused, so as you acquire a balance and pay that balance off, you can use that accessible credit again, and again.

Details

Credit lines are revolving accounts similar to credit cards, and contrast other forms of funding like installment loans. In many cases, lines of credit are unsecured, much the same as credit cards are. There are some credit lines which are secured, and thus easier to get approval for

Credit lines are the most frequently sought after loan type in the business world even though they are popular, true credit lines are unusual, and hard to find. Many are also very difficult to qualify for requiring good credit, good time in business, and good financials. But there are various other credit cards and lines which few know about that are attainable for startup companies, poor credit, or even if you have absolutely no financials.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from The SBA

The majority of credit line varieties that most entrepreneurs imagine come from standard banks and conventional banks use SBA loans as their principal loan product for small business owners. This is because SBA guarantees as much as 90% of the loan in the event of a default. These credit lines are the hardest to get approval for because you must qualify with SBA and the bank.

SBA Loans

There are two fundamental sorts of SBA loans you can normally obtain. One type is CAPLines. There are in fact 4 types of CAPLines that can work for your small business.

You can also get a smaller loan amount more quickly using the SBA Express program. The majority of these programs offer BOTH loans and revolving lines of credit.

From the SBA … “CAPLines is the umbrella program under which SBA helps business owners meet short-term and cyclical working capital needs”. Loan amounts are offered up to $5 million. Loan qualification criteria are the same as with other SBA programs.

Seasonal Line

This one advances against foreseen inventory and accounts receivables. It was designed to assist seasonal businesses. Loan or revolving are on offer.

Contract Line

This one finances the direct labor and material costs of performing assignable contracts. Loan or revolving types are available.

Builders Line

This one was made for general contractors or builders constructing or renovating industrial or residential buildings. This line is for fund direct labor-and material costs, where the building project functions as the collateral. Loan or revolving types are on offer.

Working Capital

Borrowers must use the loan proceeds for short term working capital/operating needs. If the proceeds are used to acquire fixed assets, lender must refinance the portion of the line used to acquire the fixed asset into an appropriate term facility no later than 90 days after lender discovers the line was used to finance a fixed asset.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from SBA Express

You can get approval for as much as $350,000. Interest rates vary, with SBA allowing banks to charge as much as 6.5% over their base rate. Loans in excess of $25,000 will need collateral.

Approval Details

To get approval you’ll need great personal and company credit. Plus the SBA says you should not have any blemishes on your report. An acceptable bank score demands you have at least $10,000 in your account over the most recent 90 days.

You’ll also need a resume showing you have business sector experience and a well put together business plan. You will need three years of company and personal tax returns, and your business returns should show a profit. And, you’ll need a recent balance sheet and income statement, thereby showing you have the cash to pay back the loan.

Collateral

To get approval you’ll need account receivables, but just if you have them. As for the collateral to offset the risk, often all company assets will function as collateral, and some personal assets which also include your home. It’s not unheard of to need collateral equivalent to 50% or more of the loan amount. You also need articles of incorporation, business licenses, and contracts with all third parties, and your lease.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Private Investors and Alternative Lenders

Private investors and alternative lenders also offer credit lines. These are easier to qualify for than conventional SBA loans. They also necessitate much less documentation for approval. These alternative SBA credit lines ordinarily require good personal credit for approval.

Unlike with SBA, many of them don’t require good bank or business credit approval. Most of these sorts of programs call for two years’ of tax returns. Tax returns have to show a profit. Rates can vary from 7% or greater and loan amounts range from $25,000 into the millions.

Loan amounts are normally based on the revenues and/or profits on tax returns. In some cases lenders may ask for other financials such as a profit and loss statement, balance sheets, and income statements.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Merchant Cash Advances

Merchant cash advances have rapidly become the most popular way to get financing, in large part because of the simple qualification process. Businesses with $10,000 in revenue can get approval, with the business owner having scores as low as 500.

Some sources have now even begun to offer credit lines that accompany their loans. You must have at least $10,000 in revenue for approval. You should be in business for at least one year, however three years is better. Lenders usually want to see a credit score of 650 or better for approval.

Details

Loan amounts are usually about $20,000. Lenders routinely do pull your business credit, so you ought to have some credit already and sometimes lenders will want to see tax returns.

Rates differ, due to the risk for this program, and there aren’t a lot of funding sources who offer it.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Securities as Collateral for Financing

You can get financing despite personal credit if you have some form of stocks or bonds. You can also get approval if you have somebody intending to use their stocks or bonds as collateral for financing.

Personal credit quality doesn’t matter as there are no consumer credit criteria for approval. You can get approval for as much as 90% of the value of your stocks or bonds. Rates are commonly lower than 2%, making this one of the lowest rate credit lines you’ll ever see. You can still earn interest as you typically do on your stocks and bonds.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Credit Cards and Lines are Very Similar

Credit cards typically offer 0% intro rates for up to two years. This is also very useful for startups especially. And credit lines let you take out more cash at a more affordable rate than do cards. These are the main two differences that will have an effect on you between credit cards and credit line.

Investopedia even says that “lines of credit are potentially useful hybrids of credit cards.”

Both cards and lines are revolving credit. Credit lines are more difficult to qualify for as card approvals are typically very fast, many times automated, while at the same time line require an in-depth underwriting review. Lines usually offer lower rates, according to Bankrate card rates average 13% while lines average 4%.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Unsecured Business Credit Cards

The majority of these cards report to the consumer credit reporting agencies. They all demand a personal guarantee from you. You can get approval typically for one card max as they stop approving you when you have two or more inquiries on your report.

Most credit card providers furnish business credit cards including Capital One, Chase, and American Express. These have rates similar to consumer rates and limits are also similar.

Some of them report to the consumer reporting agencies, some report to the business bureaus. Approval requirements resemble consumer credit card accounts.

Inquiries

Often, when you apply for a credit card you put an inquiry on your consumer report. When other lenders see these, they will not approve you for more credit since they have no idea how much other new credit you have lately obtained.

So they’ll only approve you if you have no more than two inquiries on your report within the most recent six months. Any more will get you refused.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Our Credit Line Hybrid

With this form of business financing, you work with a lender who concentrates on securing business credit cards. This is a very unusual, very little know of program that few lending sources offer. They can usually get you three to five times the approvals that you can get on your own.

This is because they are familiar with the sources to apply for, the order to apply, and can time their applications so the card issuers won’t reject you for the other card inquiries. Individual approvals oftentimes range from $2,000 – 50,000.

The end result of their services is that you oftentimes get up to five cards that mimic the credit limits of your highest limit accounts now. Multiple cards create competition, and this means they will raise your limits, frequently within 6 months or fewer of first approval.

Approvals

Approvals can go up to $150,000 per entity like a corporation. With a hybrid credit line they actually get you three to five business credit cards which report just to the business credit reporting agencies. This is significant, something most lenders don’t offer or advertise. Not only will you get funds, but you build your business credit as well so in three to four months, you can then use your new corporate credit to get even more money.

Rates

The lender can also get you low introductory rates, often 0% for 6-18 months. You’ll then pay normal rates after that, typically 5-21% APR with 20-25% APR for cash advances. And they’ll also get you the very best cards for points. So this means you get the very best rewards.

Just like with just about anything, there are HUGE benefits in dealing with a source who specializes in this area. The results will be much better than if you try to go at it alone.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Qualifications

You must have excellent personal credit right now, preferably 685 or better scores, the same as with all business credit cards. You shouldn’t have any negative credit on your report to get approval. And you must also have open revolving credit on your consumer reports now and you’ll need to have five inquiries or fewer in the most recent six months reported.

Fees

All lenders within this space charge a 9-15% success based fee and you only pay the cost off of what you secure. Bear in mind, you get a ton of extra advantages and about three to five times more cash in this program than you could get on your own, which is why there’s a fee, the same as all other lending programs.

You can get approval making use of a guarantor and you can even use a number of guarantors to get even more money. There are likewise other cards you can get utilizing this very same program but these cards only report to the consumer reporting agencies, not the business reporting agencies. They are consumer credit cards versus business credit cards.

Benefits

They furnish similar benefits which include 0% intro annual percentage rates and five times the amount of approval of a single card but they’re a lot easier to get approval for.

You can get approval with a 650 score and seven inquiries (or fewer) in the most recent six months and you can have a bankruptcy on your credit and other negative items. These are a lot easier to get approval for than unsecured corporate credit cards.

With all previous cards above, you have to have good consumer credit to get approval but what happens if your personal credit is not good, and you do not have a guarantor?

This is the time when building corporate credit makes a great deal of sense even when you have good personal credit, setting up your company credit helps you get even more money, and without having a personal guarantee.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line But You Can’t Get One? Then Start Building Better Business Credit

As with personal credit, it seems as if the companies which don’t need credit are the ones which are more likely to get it. But that is banks and creditors doing better and more responsible business for themselves – if your company is at risk of defaulting, they either want to give you more expensive terms, or not extend any credit at all.

Here are a few tips on building and improving better business credit.

Separate Your Company Credit From Your Personal Credit

One way is to change your business entity. That is, to either incorporate or become a limited liability company (LLC). Get a separate identification number from the IRS, too, in order to really demonstrate there is a difference.

Get a D-U-N-S Number from Dun & Bradstreet

A D-U-N-S number is necessary in order for D&B to start tracking your business’s credit. Dun & Bradstreet requires that you register on their site before they will give you a D-U-N-S number. Registration is simple and, once you have said yes to the Terms and Conditions, then the next screen is a dashboard. This is where you either ask for a D-U-N-S number or you can look up to see if your business is already in the listings. If your company is already in the listings, then click on your business name to make any needed changes.

Business Credit with a Personal Guarantee

Another means of establishing business credit is by going to your bank and establishing business credit lines or cards with personal guarantees. This means you are personally responsible in case the business defaults or any loans or bills go into collections. Hence if your company is in a high risk business or a seasonal one, you might find your car on the line.

Make sure when you get these kinds of business credit cards, they have the personal guarantee removal feature built right in. Keep your credit utilization at one third of your credit ceiling or less (that is, don’t use more than about one third of your total available credit). Make certain to pay on time every time.

Apply for Third Party Guaranteed Lending

You can use an SBA loan for funding. Repaying this kind of a loan will help you build your business credit score. Or you can apply for a business credit card from a specific store. Often, these store credit cards do not need a personal guarantee. Make sure to choose a store where your business makes a lot of purchases. And don’t forget about those timely payments!

Business Credit Cards and Loans

If your business credit score is good (or if it has improved), then go to your local bank and ask for a credit line. And if you use a particular bank for payroll, you can try that one. If not (or maybe you’re a one-person shop and you don’t really have payroll at all), then you can also take your request to the bank where you do all your personal banking.

Because they already know you, and if they have seen you pay your credit cards on time and keep a good balance in your accounts, they may be more interested in giving your small business a line of credit even without guarantees or a serious credit check. No matter which kind of lending institution you try, go in with good credit as that will make your terms more favorable and it can generally mean the difference between any credit line and none.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line – Takeaways

Your business can get credit cards and financing, if you know where to look. Learn more here and get started toward establishing business credit. Keep your small business afloat with a credit line.

The post Get a Recession Business Credit Line – Here’s How appeared first on Credit Suite.

The post Get a Recession Business Credit Line – Here’s How appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Get a Recession Business Credit Line – Here’s How

It’s Probably True: You Need a Recession Business Credit Line

You want them looking at your business credit score.

But let’s start with recession-era funding.

Recession Period Financing

Let’s go over credit lines.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line – But What Are Credit Lines?

A credit line, or line of credit (LOC), is an agreement between a borrower and a bank or private investor that establishes a maximum loan balance which a borrower can access.

Advantages

Details

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from The SBA

SBA Loans

There are two fundamental sorts of SBA loans you can normally obtain. One type is CAPLines. There are in fact 4 types of CAPLines that can work for your small business.

You can also get a smaller loan amount more quickly using the SBA Express program. The majority of these programs offer BOTH loans and revolving lines of credit.

Seasonal Line

This one advances against foreseen inventory and accounts receivables. It was designed to assist seasonal businesses. Loan or revolving are on offer.

Contract Line

This one finances the direct labor and material costs of performing assignable contracts. Loan or revolving types are available.

Builders Line

Working Capital

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from SBA Express

You can get approval for as much as $350,000. Interest rates vary, with SBA allowing banks to charge as much as 6.5% over their base rate. Loans in excess of $25,000 will need collateral.

Approval Details

Collateral

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Private Investors and Alternative Lenders

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Merchant Cash Advances

Details

Loan amounts are usually about $20,000. Lenders routinely do pull your business credit, so you ought to have some credit already and sometimes lenders will want to see tax returns.

Rates differ, due to the risk for this program, and there aren’t a lot of funding sources who offer it.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Securities as Collateral for Financing

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Credit Cards and Lines are Very Similar

Investopedia even says that “lines of credit are potentially useful hybrids of credit cards.”

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Unsecured Business Credit Cards

Most credit card providers furnish business credit cards including Capital One, Chase, and American Express. These have rates similar to consumer rates and limits are also similar.

Some of them report to the consumer reporting agencies, some report to the business bureaus. Approval requirements resemble consumer credit card accounts.

Inquiries

So they’ll only approve you if you have no more than two inquiries on your report within the most recent six months. Any more will get you refused.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line from Our Credit Line Hybrid

Approvals

Rates

Just like with just about anything, there are HUGE benefits in dealing with a source who specializes in this area. The results will be much better than if you try to go at it alone.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Qualifications

Fees

Benefits

They furnish similar benefits which include 0% intro annual percentage rates and five times the amount of approval of a single card but they’re a lot easier to get approval for.

With all previous cards above, you have to have good consumer credit to get approval but what happens if your personal credit is not good, and you do not have a guarantor?

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line But You Can’t Get One? Then Start Building Better Business Credit

Here are a few tips on building and improving better business credit.

Separate Your Company Credit From Your Personal Credit

Get a D-U-N-S Number from Dun & Bradstreet

Business Credit with a Personal Guarantee

Apply for Third Party Guaranteed Lending

Business Credit Cards and Loans

Your Business Needs a Recession Business Credit Line – Takeaways

Your business can get credit cards and financing, if you know where to look. Learn more here and get started toward establishing business credit. Keep your small business afloat with a credit line.

The post Get a Recession Business Credit Line – Here’s How appeared first on Credit Suite.

Here’s a Quick Way to Build Business Credit

COVID-19 turned the economy on its head. Now, with things starting to open back up, businesses are wondering if they are even going to be able to make it. Most are starting to see they need to have business credit if they don’t already. But, is there a quick way to build business credit before it’s too late?

Find Out How To Get Funds Fast While Utilizing this Quick Way to Build Business Credit

The truth is, you can’t snap your fingers. It’s a process, and you have to work through it. However, knowing why you need business credit and how to work that process helps. While it may not be a quick way to build business credit in the terms of a great score magically appearing overnight, it is definitely quicker than not following the process at all.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: Business Credit vs Personal Credit

The simplest way to explain it is that business credit is like your personal credit, but it is in the name of your business. That’s not to say there are no other differences, but that is the gist. Basically, if you do things right, you have a totally separate business credit report that is in the name of your business, not your name personally. Your personal accounts do not show up on this report, and your business accounts, that are on this report, do not show up on your personal credit report.

Business credit reports come from Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Business. When there is a problem with your business credit, it does not affect your ability to get funding based on your personal credit. Conversely, problems on your personal credit do not affect your ability to get funding for your business based solely on your business credit.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: Why Is Business Credit Necessary?

Business credit is necessary for a number of reasons. The most obvious is to help you get funding for your business. However, it also helps protect your personal credit. If your business accounts are reporting to your personal credit report, you are going to see some debt-credit ratio issues. This is the ratio of your debt in relation to your available credit. Since business expenses are generally higher than personal expenses, you’re likely to run balances at or near your limits consistently, which will have a negative affect on your personal credit score.

Business credit typically makes you eligible for higher limit cards that are better suited for large business expenditures. It also keeps these large expenditures off your personal cards and personal credit report.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: There Are No Magic Beans

So, now you understand why you need business credit, but you need to know how to build it in a crazy economy, and fast. The thing is, there are no magic beans when it comes to a quick way to build business credit. Remember what I said. A great business credit score will not appear magically overnight like a beanstalk. You do have to actually work all the way through the process. However, there are a few shortcuts you can try once your business is set up properly. More on how to do that later.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: How to Make it Faster

Okay, so let’s assume for a minute that you already have your business set up in a way that it is a separate entity from yourself. This is how you get accounts reporting to your business credit report rather than your personal report. If you’ve done that, there are a few things you can do to get the ball rolling, and give it a little push even.

Ask Current Vendors for Credit

The first step is to ask those vendors with which you already have a relationship to extend credit. Since you are already working with them, they may be more willing to do so without requiring a credit check. Be sure to ask if they will report payments to the business credit reporting agencies. If they will not, then it won’t matter if they give you credit or not. Accounts not reported do not help build your credit score.

Ask Utilities to Report

You already pay things like rent, telephone, internet, electricity, and water bills on a regular basis. You can ask providers to report those payments to the business credit reporting agencies. They do not have to do it. However, they might, and it can only help build your score faster.

Establish Tradelines With Starter Vendors

After those two things, the next step is to open tradelines with starter vendors. These are vendors that offer net 30 invoices without any type of credit check, and then they will report your payments on those invoices to the business credit reporting agencies.

The kicker is starter vendors do not usually market themselves as such. This makes them a little hard to find without some expert guidance. As a general rule, you need to have 3 to 5 vendor tradelines reporting to get a good solid start to your business credit score. Here are a few of the easiest to get started with.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession.

Crown Office Supplies

Crown Office Supplies offers paper and other office supplies. They report to all three of the major business credit reporting agencies, which of course include D & B, Experian, and Equifax. It can be hard to find vendors which report to Equifax, so getting credit with Crown is a good move.

To qualify, you will need to be an entity in good standing with Secretary of State and an EIN number with IRS. A business address that matches everywhere (both online and offline), a D-U-N-S number, a business license (if applicable), as well as a business bank account are all necessary. Your business must be at least 60 days old. There is also a membership fee of $99 annually upon approval.

Uline

Uline sells shipping, packing, and industrial supplies. They report to Dun & Bradstreet as well. This means, you guessed it, you have to have a D-U-N-S number.

In addition, they ask for 2 references and a bank reference. The first few orders might need to be paid in advance to get approval for Net 30 terms.

Grainger Industrial Supply

Grainger sells power tools, pumps, hardware and other things. In addition, they can handle maintenance of your auto fleet. You need a business license and EIN to quality, as well as a D-U-N-S number.

After you pay on several tradeline accounts that report for a while, you should have a solid foundation to start applying for other types of business credit. Store cards are the easiest to get first and continue building your score. Next are fleet cards, and then finally, the regular cards that are not limited by where they can be used or what they can be used to purchase.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: What to Do In the Meantime?

So, let’s say you start this process, but you need funds right now. What can you do? The credit line hybrid may be just the answer. You can get approval with personal credit that is lower than what most traditional lenders require, and if you are set up properly it will report to the business credit reporting agencies and help build your business credit even faster.

It allows you to fund your business without putting up collateral, and you only pay back what you use.

Credit Line Hybrid: Qualifications?

What does it take to qualify? I’m going to tell you, but don’t stop reading if you don’t meet all of the requirements. There are ways around some of them.

First, your personal credit score should be at least 685. Also, you can’t have any liens, judgments, bankruptcies or late payments. Furthermore, in the past 6 months you should have less than 5 credit inquiries, and you should have less than a 45% balance on all business and personal credit cards. It is preferred that you already have established business credit, but not necessarily required.

Are you thinking there is no way you qualify? Stop thinking that. If you do not meet all of the requirements, you can take on a credit partner that does. Many business owners work with a friend or relative to fund their business. If a relative or a friend meets all of these requirements, they can partner with you to allow you access funding, but you still get the benefits.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: Credit Line Hybrid Benefits

There are many benefits to using a credit line hybrid. First, it is unsecured, meaning you do not have to have any collateral to put up. Next, you don’t have to provide any bank statements or financials.

Even better, typical approval is up to 5x that of the highest credit limit on the personal credit report, and often you can get interest rates as low as 0% for the first few months. This allows you to put that savings back into your business.

The process is pretty fast, especially with a qualified expert to walk you through it. Also, with the approval for multiple credit cards, competition is created. This makes it easier, and likely even if you handle the credit responsibly, that you can get interest rates lowered and limits raised every few months.

The credit line hybrid is a fast way to get cash while working on a quick way to build business credit.

Quick Way to Build Business Credit: What’s This About Setting Up?

Remember how I said earlier all of this only works if your business is set up properly. That’s because unless your business is set up to be an entity separate from you as the owner that is fundable all on its own, your accounts will report to your personal credit. There will be no separate business credit. How do you accomplish this separation?

Separate Contact Information

The first step is to make sure your business has its own phone number, fax number, and address. That doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line, or even a separate location. You do not even have to have a fax machine. You can get a business number that will ring to your personal phone and a virtual address online quickly and easily.

Apply for an EIN

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 Have to 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 and offers some protection from liability. It also solidifies your business as a separate entity from yourself.

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. The big one for building business credit is, you got it, it separates your business from you as the owner.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession.

Licenses

If a business does not have all the necessary licenses it needs to run, red flags are going to fly up all over the place. Do the research you need to do to ensure you have all of the licenses necessary to legitimately run your business at the federal, state, and local levels.

Website

These days, you do not exist if you do not have a website. However, having a poorly put together website can be even worse. It is the first impression you make on a lot of people. Spend the time and money necessary to ensure your website is professionally designed and works well. Pay for hosting too. Don’t use a free hosting service. Furthermore, your business needs a dedicated business email address. Make sure it has the same URL as your website. Don’t use a free service such as Yahoo or Gmail.

D-U-N-S Number

Lastly, you have to have a D-U-N-S Number. It’s imperative. Dun & Bradstreet is hands down the largest and most commonly used business credit reporting agency. You cannot have a score with them if you do not have a D-U-N-S number. It’s free on their website.

Remember Business Credit Is Just One Piece of Fundability

There is so much more to fundability than business credit. It is a tangled web indeed. If you are looking for a quick way to build business credit, keep this in mind. Furthermore, if your business isn’t set up properly, nothing else you do to build fundability or business credit will matter. Get that done today.

The post Here’s a Quick Way to Build Business Credit appeared first on Credit Suite.

Here’s What You Should Do When Your Search Rankings Drop

If you’ve ever done SEO, you know how good it feels to see your rankings go up.

You put a ton of hard work into moving up in the SERPs and it finally pays off.

But then the unexpected happens. Your rankings drop.

Few things in SEO are more discouraging than a fall in the rankings. It makes you feel like everything you did was useless.

You wonder what went wrong or if you made a mistake. You beat yourself up for not doing it right.

You’re back to square one again, and you have to start all over.

Or do you?

In my experience, that’s not always the case.

My rankings have dropped more times than I can count. At first, I panicked.

As I learned more, I found out that it’s not the end of the world if you go down a position or two. It’s obviously not ideal, but there’s a lot you can do to fix it.

That’s what I’m going to show you today. Even if your rankings are where you want them to be, you need to be aware of how to bring them back up when they drop (because they will).

Analyze the drop

Before you take action to raise your rankings, you need to track your rankings, ideally on a daily basis so you can see if they are increasing or decreasing.

The reason you want to track your rankings on a daily basis is that Google makes 3200 algorithm changes per year, which is a bit more than 8 algorithm changes per day.

Hence you don’t really have a choice but to track your rankings daily.

So how do you do that?

First, you’ll want to head to the Ubersuggest dashboard and click on “Add Your First Project”.

It’s as simple as adding in your URL.

Then select the locations you do business in and want traffic from.

Then add in the keywords you currently rank for or want to go after.

And of course, set up your traffic preferences. Make sure you select “daily” rank tracking and you turn on mobile rank tracking.

And then you’ll be good to go.

Then you will be notified via email when your rankings go down (or up) as there is no way you are going to have the time to manually check every day.

Or when you log into your Ubersuggest dashboard you’ll see an updated view of your site:

And then when you drill down into your rankings you’ll see a report of what is increasing or decreasing.

Now when looking at your rankings it is normal for them to fluctuate a few spots here or there… but if you see all of your rankings all of a sudden drop, then you know you need to do something.

Did you get penalized?

In most cases, your site has not been penalized and you don’t need to worry about this.

If you didn’t do anything fishy like “buying links” you don’t really need to worry about a penalty.

If you are unsure, read through this list and ask yourself if your site is guilty of any of these SEO sins. If so, identify the problems and take steps to fix them.

Even if you haven’t done anything on that list, you could still have gotten a penalty. Google’s algorithms are updated frequently, and they’re incredibly complex.

They take hundreds of factors into account when considering ranking. One day, your site might not deserve a penalty, and the next, it might.

It’s important to understand the types of penalties: manual and algorithmic.

Source: Slideshare.net

Manual penalties are given out by Google’s webspam team when they get alerted of suspicious activity.

This could be the result of having unnatural links, or someone could have filed a spam report against you.

If you’ve received a manual penalty, you should have gotten a notification in Google Webmaster Tools. Here’s an example of a message about unnatural links:

The other type of penalty is an algorithmic penalty.

These penalties are harder to track because there’s no definitive way of knowing you received one.

To determine if you’ve gotten an algorithmic penalty, you have to understand how Google’s algorithms work.

If you find that you’re doing something an algorithm doesn’t like, there’s a good chance you’ve gotten a penalty. But you also have to think about new penalties.

If your rankings dropped randomly, check Moz’s handy directory of Google’s algorithm updates to see if there’s a new one at work.

A new algorithm could be the reason why you’re seeing lower rankings. If that happens, research the algorithm and find out what it’s penalizing.

One cool way to keep track of new penalties (and a bunch of other Google-related stuff) is to follow Gary Illyes, John Mueller, and Google Webmasters on Twitter.

Gary and John, in particular, give out a ton of awesome advice, and you can often find them talking with other Twitter users.

You can even ask them a question directly and get it answered… you may not get a response, but it is worth a shot.

Do you have link problems?

This is a big one.

Think of links as the currency of SEO. It’s essentially how you “gain” authority.

So it’s no surprise that a strong link profile is correlated with high rankings.

The flipside is that a weak link profile is correlated with low rankings.

I spend lots of time working with clients on SEO, and I’ve seen lots of sites that have numerous link problems.

Usually, the business isn’t aware.

That’s because weak links are the silent killer of SEO. That’s why you need to make sure your link profile is robust.

First, conduct a link audit of your site. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do that.

For the short version, use a backlink analysis tool like SEMrush Backlink Checker to see where your bad links are.

When you find bad links, contact those sites and nicely ask them to remove the link. If that doesn’t work, use Google’s Disavow tool as a last resort.

However, I’ve found that about 90% of the time, conducting a backlink audit will help you find bad links.

But there’s a problem here. Often, the reasons behind link problems aren’t so obvious.

If your link profile looks okay after an audit, there could still be problems. Here are a few of the issues your link profile could be facing.

Losing links

Did you know you can lose links? Both internal and external links?

It could be the cause of your ranking drop as well.

Yep, you can lose internal links even if it’s to content you already own.

Let’s talk about those first.

If you often relaunch, rebrand, or redesign your site, you may lose some links along the way.

Why does this happen?

It has to do with redirects and transitioning your site over smoothly.

Let’s talk about site transitions first. If you deleted an old blog post, then links to that post aren’t going to work. In turn, this will weaken the internal linking structure of your site and compromise your SEO.

You’ll have one less link, which is removing a part of your internal linking network.

This isn’t optimal because it means two things:

You’ll have to fix the link
You’ll have less content on your site to link to. That’s why I recommend not deleting content unless you absolutely have to. You can always update it.

That’s just one example of a lost link.

Another reason you could lose an internal link is a faulty redirect.

This often happens with 301 redirects. I’ve talked about 301s before, but there’s a unique issue you need to be aware of.

Because a 301 is called a permanent redirect, lots of people assume that the redirect will always work.

But it doesn’t.

Here’s precisely how a 301 redirect works:

If you just set up a new site, you can 301 from the old domain to the new one without a hitch. The issue is when you revamp your site more than once.

That’s because redirects from older versions of a site are rarely passed on to newer ones.

On top of that, if you get a new domain and an older domain expires, it could cause a significant loss in traffic because the 301s will no longer work.

It’s messy.

If you discover a bad 301 giving you problems, you need to fix that.

First, you need to find the target links your 301s are trying to go to.

If those links are dead, you’ll most likely need to remove the link.

You could also put the old content back up or create new content to keep the link on your page. This is a good idea if the page in question gets a lot of traffic.

You need to do what’s best for your visitors. If they’ll miss out on great, comprehensive content, you should make sure that content is still on your site.

You should also check for broken links. You can use a tool like deadlinkchecker.com to do this:

Ideally, you want to see no errors:

But if you do see errors, you’ll be able to see the URLs that aren’t behaving correctly:

But what about outbound links? If you find an outbound link that no longer works, just remove it and replace it by linking to another authority site.

Finally, let’s talk about backlinks you’ve gotten from other sites.

Go here and type in your URL.

If you see your link chart going up and to the right, you are fine. If it is going down, then we have to fix it. For example, using Ubersuggest you can see which sites don’t link to your anymore.

And for those sites, you can use a template like this one to get those links back:

Hi [Name of site owner],

I hope you’re doing well!

You linked to my site a while back, and I want to thank you for that. However, it looks like the link is actually gone.

The link appeared in your [piece of content/page here], but it seems that it’s not there anymore.

Here’s the page on my site you linked to: [Link URL here]

If you could put the link back up, I’d really appreciate it. I’m a big fan of your site, and it’d be my pleasure to return the favor if I can.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

Most people will ignore you, but a percentage of the people you email will link back.

Polish up your site

If all else fails, you might need to spend some time improving your site.

I’m talking about design, user experience, and speed. Each of these is integral to a site that performs and ranks well.

I’ll go over each category briefly:

Design

Having a mobile-friendly design is important as there are more searches on mobile devices using Google than there are for desktop.

If you’re not considering mobile users first, you need to start doing that.

Having a mobile-optimized site isn’t as simple as making sure your site is responsive. That’s definitely important, and you should do that, but it’s not enough by itself.

Think about making all of your content mobile-friendly.

There’s one big reason you should focus on this. Google has a mobile-first index. That alone should be more than enough to persuade you to focus on mobile-first design.

You might want to read my article on mobile usability for more information on this.

User experience (UX)

This is another reason why a responsive design is so important.

Your mobile users should have a great experience that’s designed for mobile devices. Similarly, your desktop users should have a great experience that’s designed for desktops.

If your UX is bad either way, you will lose visitors.

If you take a look at the most popular sites in your niche, you’ll notice that 9 times out of 10, they’ll have great UX.

Say you’re in SaaS. Without a doubt, Salesforce is one of the biggest SaaS players in the niche.

And sure enough, their desktop and mobile UX is fantastic.

Desktop:

Mobile:

This is what you should strive for when polishing your own site.

Speed

Search engines (and people) love fast-loading pages. In fact, 47% of customers expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less.

So if your site speed is longer than 2 seconds, you could lose traffic.

Yikes.

Making your site faster is a long-term strategy. You have to monitor your site and make sure nothing’s dragging it down.

Start by adding compression.

Next, make sure your server has adequate speed. It should be no longer than 200 milliseconds.

You can test your site speed by using Ubersuggest’s “Site Audit” feature. Type in your URL and click “Search.”

From there, click “Site Audit” in the left sidebar and scroll down to “Site Speed.” Here’s what you’ll see:

There are tons of factors that can cause slow site speed, so the best way to prevent slowness is to keep your site as lightweight as possible. And Ubersuggest will break down how to do that and what to fix.

As a rule of thumb, if you have anything unnecessary on your site, remove it so your speed is the best it can be.

Don’t forget about content

Through Ubersuggest we track millions of popular sites around the world to get better data insights on algorithm changes.

We know for certain that 641 sites we track are updating old content on a daily basis.

Can you guess how many of them saw a search traffic dip of 10% or more from the last algorithm update?

Only 38! That’s 5.92%, which is extremely low.

What’s crazy, though, is that 187 sites saw an increase in their search traffic of 10% or more.

So make sure you are keeping your old content up to date. Because why would Google want to rank old, stale content, when they can rank something fresh and useful for people?

Another strategy I love to deploy is to expand my content that is already ranking well.

For example, lets say you rank for the term “digital marketing”.

You’ll want to head to Ubersuggest and type in the phrase “digital marketing”. You’ll see a report that looks like this:

From there in the left navigation bar, click on “keyword ideas”.

You should now see a report that looks like:

This will give you a list of keywords that are similar, longer tail terms that also are searched frequently.

If you rank for the main term, it is easy to also rank for the longer tail terms. So make sure you add the relevant ones to your content.

It may seem tedious, but go through 100s if not 1000s of keywords in the keyword ideas report as it will allow you to get quick traffic gains.

When adding in the new keywords into your content, don’t just stuff them in there. It has to flow naturally and make sense for your website visitor.

And if you can’t make it make sense for a particular keyword, don’t do it… put the user first. Remember you are writing for humans, not Google.

Now the strategy I broke down here may seem simple and silly, but it’s one of the big reasons on why I am getting roughly 9 million visitors a month.

Conclusion

Going down a position or two in the rankings happens to the best of us.

It’s even happened to me.

If this happens, don’t panic.

Almost every client I’ve had who’s experienced a loss of rankings got really scared when it happened.

You probably felt this way too. But you don’t need to worry.

You can easily bounce back from a ranking drop.

Don’t believe me? Give these strategies a try. These aren’t just little tips. They’re tried-and-true methods that will help you reclaim your spot on Google.

No one deserves to lose ranking when they have an amazing site that users love. What’s more, it’s easy to fix.

Don’t let the initial shock stop you from getting your ranking back.

So, when was the last time your rankings dropped?

The post Here’s What You Should Do When Your Search Rankings Drop appeared first on Neil Patel.