Looking for an Online Lender? We Have a List of 12 to Get You Started

Online lenders can be the perfect option for a business loan. This is especially true if your credit isn’t the best. An online lender is likely to have more relaxed terms and lower interest rates. Good ones can be hard to find however. We’ve done the research so you can get a head start on the game.

Need a Business Loan? Try These Top 12 Picks for an Online Lender

When looking for an online lender, it’s important that you find one that will work for your specific needs. They all have different requirements, terms and rates. Which one will work best for you will depend on a number of factors. For example, what do you need to funds for? How much do you need? What does your credit score look like? Consider the following options.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.

Fundbox

If you start with a search for an online lender, Fundbox is going to be one of the first to pop up. It is a line of credit rather than a loan, but it is a great funding option because there is no minimum credit score requirement.

They offer an automated process that is super-fast. Repayments are automatic, meaning they draft them electronically, and they occur on a weekly basis. One thing to remember is that you could have a repayment as high as 5 to 7% of the amount you have drawn currently, as the repayment period is comparatively short. This means you need to be sure you have enough funds in whatever account you connect them to so that it can cover your payment each week.

Loan amounts come as low as $100 and as high as up to $100,000, but the max initial draw is $50,000. Though there is no minimum credit score requirement, they do require at least 3 months in business, $50,000 or more in annual revenue, and a business checking account with a minimum balance of $500.

BlueVine

You will find with most any online lender, they often offer options more similar to invoice factoring and lines of credit. This is because these present fewer risks than straight term loans.

The minimum loan amount available from BlueVine is $5,000 and the maximum is $100,000. Annual revenue must be $120,000 or more and the borrower must be in business for at least 6 months. Your personal credit score has to be 600 or above. It is important to note also, that BlueVine does not offer a line of credit in all states. You can find out more in our Bluevine review.

Upstart

Upstart is an online lender that uses a completely innovative platform for loans. The company itself questions the ability of financial information and FICO on their own to truly determine the risk of lending to a specific borrower. They choose to use a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to gather alternative data instead. They then use this data to help them make credit decisions.

This alternative data can include such things as mobile phone bills, rent, deposits, withdrawals, and even other information less directly tied to finances. The software they use learns and improves on its own. You can use their online quote tool to play with different amounts and terms to see the various interest rate possibilities. Typically, business loans are available ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. Interest rates vary greatly, ranging from 7.5% to 35.99%. Repayment terms can be either 3 -year or 5-year.

To be eligible for a loan with Upstart, you must meet the following qualifications:

Credit score of 620+
No bankruptcies or negative public records
No delinquent accounts
Meet debt to income standards (they only note they will check this ratio, not what their standards are.)
Have fewer than 6 inquiries in the past 6 months on your credit report, not including those related to student loans, vehicle loans, or mortgages

These are the requirements they list on their website. One independent review said that the requirement for the debt to income ratio is a maximum of 45%. It also says that the minimum annual income has to be at least $12,000. For more information visit our Upstart review.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.

Fora Financial

Founded in 2008 by college roommates, online lender Fora Financial now funds more than $1.3 million in working capital around the United States. There is no minimum credit score, and there is an early repayment discount if you qualify.

The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000. The business must be at least 6 months in operation and the monthly revenue has to be $12,000 or more. There can be no open bankruptcies.

OnDeck

Obtaining financing from OnDeck is quick and easy. First, you apply online and receive your decision once application processing is complete. If you receive approval, your loan funds will go directly to your bank account. The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000.

Just like any other online lender, they do have certain requirements to qualify for a loan. For example, a personal credit score of 600 or more. Also, you must be in business for at least one year. Annual revenue must be at or exceed $100,000. In addition, there can be no bankruptcy on file in the past 2 years and no unresolved liens or judgements.

Bond Street

Offering term loans of $10,000 to $1 million, Bond Street terms are for up to 1 to 3 years. Bond Street will ask for both EIN and SSN.

The offer arrives within 3 days. Bond Street will only do a soft credit pull, and 640 or better credit score is likely to get you a loan. However, Bond Street will look at other factors too. For example, they require 2 years in business and annual revenue of at least $200,000.

Rates start at 6% and go up to 22%. APR works out to 8 to 25%, and there is a 3 to 5 % origination fee.

Advantages are the soft credit pull and the fact that they will look at factors other than your personal credit if your FICO score is low. Another benefit is that Bond Street can offer very large loans if you qualify. Disadvantages are the longer time in business requirement and high APR.

Lending Club

Popular online lender Lending Club offers term loans. Business loans from $5,000 to $300,000. Loan terms are 1 to 5 years.

Get a quote in less than 5 minutes. Funds are available in as little as 48 hours if approved. There are no prepayment penalties.

Annual Revenue must be $75,000 or more. You must be in business for 2 years or more. Personal FICO score of 620 or better is required.

Rates of 5.99% to 29.99%. Total annualized rates starting at 8%.

Advantages are that the annual revenue requirement isn’t too high. Funds are available quickly. Disadvantages include high maximum rates.

Quarter Spot

Quarter Spot is an online lender that offers short term loans. $5,000 to $150,000 is available. The terms are 9 to 18 months. Quarter Spot will only do a soft credit check when you apply. They confirmed this information when we asked.

Your company must have annual revenue of $200,000 or more. You have to have a personal FICO Score of 550 or better. There is no fee to apply.

The minimum time in business is 12 months. You must have a minimum average bank balance of $20,000. You must also show a minimum of $16,000 in monthly sales.

The borrower must own at least 50% of the business. Their rates are 25% to 40%.

Advantages are that the personal FICO score requirement is relatively low. Minimum average bank balance requirement is also fairly low. Disadvantages are that maximum rates are rather high.

Rapid Advance

Rapid Advance offers standard, select, and preferred loans. For standard loans, $5,000 to $1 million is available. Their terms are 4 to 12 months.

Your company must have annual revenue of $120,000 or more. You must have a personal FICO Score of 580 or better. The minimum time in business is 2 years. There is a 1.16 to 1.30 factor rate.

For select loans, $15,000 to $1 million is available. Their terms are 6 to 15 months. You must have annual revenue of $240,000 or more and a personal FICO Score of 620 or better. The minimum time in business is 3 years. 1.12 to 1.31 factor rate.

For preferred loans with Rapid Advance, $15,000 to $200,000 is available. Their terms are 9 to 18 months. You must have annual revenue of $240,000 or more. You must have a personal FICO Score of 660 or better.

The minimum time in business is 6 years. You must have a minimum bank balance of $10,000 or more. Borrowers must have at least 10 deposits from 5 different sources every month. There is a 1.11 to 1.25 factor rate.

The advantages are a few choices for loan types. And the maximum available amounts are high. Disadvantages are minimum bank balance requirements are fairly high. Their annual revenue requirements are also high.

Kiva

Kiva is an online lender that is a little different. For example, the interest rate is 0%, so even though you have to pay it back it is absolutely free money. They don’t even check your credit. However, there is one catch. You have to get at least 5 family members or friends to throw some money in the pot as well. In addition, you have to pitch in a $25 loan to another business on the platform.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.

Accion

If your personal credit is okay, Accion may be a good fit for small business startup loans bad credit. It is a microlender, a nonprofit, that offers installment loans to both startups and already existing businesses. The minimum credit score is 575. In some places they will go as low as 500. You don’t have to already be in business, but if you are not, you must have less than $500 in past due debt. In addition, your business needs to be home or incubator based.

Loans are from 6 to 60 months and interest rates range from 7% to 34%. A personal guarantee, and sometimes specific collateral, is necessary in most circumstances.

Credibly is a Great Online Lender

Credibly is also a good option for business loans for startups if you are already generating some revenue. They offer short term loans for both business expansion and working capital. You must be in business for at least 6 months to qualify, and they will approve loans to those with credit scores as low as 500.

Why Choose an Online Lender?

It is very possible you are reading this thinking to yourself, why would I choose an online lender over a traditional lender. There are actually a few reasons. First, it is often easier to get funding from an online lender. This is especially true if your personal credit score is not up to par.

Even if you have great business credit, most term loans and many lines of credit require a personal credit check. They may take your business credit into account, but if your personal credit stinks, it won’t help you much. Online lenders tend to have lower minimum personal credit score requirements than traditional lenders.

Next, an online lender will typically send you the funds faster. Sometimes you can have the money in as little as a few days, with approval coming in as little as 24 hours. The traditional lending process can take months.

An Online Lender Could be the Answer to Your Funding Needs

If you can go with a traditional lender, great. They often have better rates and terms. However, if you, like many business owners, do not have that option, an online lender may be the perfect solution. Approval requirements allow many more borrowers to get their funds quickly and easily. Take into account the following factors:

How much do you need?
What do you need the funds for?
What is your credit score?
How much of a payment/ interest rate can your budget handle?

It’s also important to note, there are a lot of predatory lenders online. You have to be careful. The list above is a great starting point, but don’t stop there. There are a lot of options, so take the time necessary to do your research.

The post Looking for an Online Lender? We Have a List of 12 to Get You Started appeared first on Credit Suite.

Make Your List and Check It Twice: Building Business Credit Step by Step

Building business credit, step by step, is not as hard as it may seem at first glance. It is, however, a process. There are specific steps that must be taken. These steps must be taken in order. You can’t wrap a gift before you buy it, or even buy it before you know who you are buying for. During holiday seasons, you have to make a gift list. Then you work from that list marking items or people off as you go. The same is true for business credit. You must take specific credit building steps, in order. What are the steps?

10 Steps for Building Business Credit Step by Step

When making your holiday gift list, you not only need to know who to put on the list, but a little something about each one. You have to know something about what they like, dislike, what size they wear, and more to have any inkling of what might make a nice gift for them.

Similarly, before you start working through building business credit step by step, you need to understand what business credit is and why you need it. For example, small business credit is credit in a company’s name. It doesn’t link to an entrepreneur’s personal credit. This means, a business owner’s business and consumer credit scores can be very different.

Why do you need it? Why is personal credit not enough? There are a few reasons. First, because company credit is distinct from personal, it helps to protect a small business owner’s personal assets in the event of legal action or business bankruptcy.

In addition, consumer credit scores depend on payments, but also various other elements like credit utilization percentages. That means if your balances hover close to your limits on a regular basis, your score will suffer regardless of whether you make the payments you are supposed to. Business expenses are higher by nature, meaning if you use personal credit for them your balances are naturally going to be higher. The result will likely be a higher credit utilization ratio and lower personal credit score.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.

Now that you know what business credit is and why you need it, it’s time to start making your list so you know what steps to take, and in what order.

Step 1 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Separate Contact Information

It is tempting for new business owners to simply use their own contact information. It’s easy and its free. However, this will not work for business credit building purposes. If you get credit accounts in your business name, but they have your personal contact information, those accounts are going to report information to your personal credit report. Your business needs its own phone number and business address.

Don’t worry, even if you run your business from your home or your home computer, you do not have to buy another building or even a separate phone. There are a ton of online options for VoIP phone numbers that will forward to an existing number. There are even virtual offices that offer a physical mailing address along with other, optional features. These may include messaging services, live receptionist services, meeting facilities, and more.

Be sure to list business information in the 411-business directory. Do that here.

Step 2 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Get an EIN

If you apply for credit using your SSN, those accounts will report to your personal credit regardless of what name, address, or telephone number you use. You can get an EIN from the IRS that works the same way an SSN does, but for your business. Use your EIN to apply for credit in your business name instead of your SSN.

Step 3 In Building Business Credit Step by Step: Formally Incorporate

You have to incorporate. There are many reasons to do this. However, the main purpose when building business credit is to create a definitive separation between yourself and your business. There are a few options.

C Corp

This is the most complicated and expensive option. Before choosing it, be certain there are reasons other than establishing business credit that it needs to be done. If it isn’t necessary for some other reason, there are other less complicated and less costly options.

S Corp

This option basically offers the same separation as the C Corp, but taxes are paid at the personal level, rather than requiring the business to be taxed as well. That avoids the double taxation that corporations have. It is also cheaper than incorporating as a C Corp. If you aren’t required to file as a C corp, this is a good alternative.

Forming a Limited Liability Corporation results in less liability, but still offers enough separation to serve the purpose of establishing business credit. If you are not required to be a C Corp or S Corp, this is the easiest and most cost-effective way to create the separation of business and personal credit needed.

Step 4 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Get a D-U-N-S Number

Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) is the largest and most widely used business credit reporting agency. You have to have the number to have a file with D&B. To have business credit, you definitely need a file with them. The number is free on the Dun & Bradstreet website, but they will try to upsell you. Stay strong and just get the number.

Step 5 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Open a Separate Business Bank Account

Open up a separate, dedicated business bank account and use it exclusively for business transaction. Intermingling business and personal finances can cause a host of problems. Having a separate business bank account will help you keep things separate for tax purposes. It will also help creditors recognize your business as a separate entity from you as the owner.

Step 6 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Professional Website and Email Address

You might think there is no way this should matter when it comes to the steps to building business credit. However, if you do not have a website in today’s business world, you might as well not exist. Just having a website isn’t enough though. It has to be professionally designed and put together. Don’t use free hosting either. Pay for hosting with a company like GoDaddy. Free hosting is not professional.

The email address goes along with the other contact information. Don’t share your personal address with your business, but don’t use a free email service either. Your business email address needs to have the same URL as your website.

Step 7 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Establish Tradelines in the Vendor Credit Tier

Also known as starter vendors, these are the businesses from which you purchase the things you use day to day in your business. It may be inventory, raw materials, office supplies, or any number of things. They offer net 30 terms on invoices. After you pay, they report those payments to the business credit reporting agencies. This is how you get accounts initially reporting to your business credit report and start building your score.

Step 8 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Apply for Cards in the Retail Credit Tier

Once there are 5 to 8 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, you can start to apply for cards in the retail credit tier. These are cards from stores like Office Depot and Staples. In this tier, you can only use the cards in the stores that issue them.

There are several options that report to various credit reporting agencies. For example, Lowe’s reports to D&B, Equifax and Business Experian. They want to see a D-U-N-S and a PAYDEX score of 78 or more. If you have handled your vendor credit properly, this will be no problem.

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Step 9 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: Move on to The Fleet Credit Tier

After there are 10 or so of these accounts reporting you can apply for cards in the fleet credit tier. These come from companies like BP and Conoco. They are limited to use for fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses.

Shell is another example of a company in this tier. They report to D&B and Business Experian. You need a PAYDEX Score of 78 or more and a 411-business phone listing. They sometimes want a certain amount of time in business or minimum revenue. However, if you already have enough credit, that won’t be necessary. If you follow these steps in order and handle your credit responsibly, you will have the credit you need to get approval.

Step 10 in Building Business Credit Step by Step: The Bow on Top is The Cash Credit Tier

At this point, if you have used your credit wisely, you can apply for cards in the cash credit tier. They include cards from Visa, Discover, MasterCard and others that are not limited by location or type of expense. Typically, they have higher limits and lower interest rates.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Monitor Your Business Credit

Your business credit can continue to help you run and grow your business indefinitely. However, you are going to want to keep an eye on it. Make sure it is being reported and fix any mistakes as soon as possible. Not only that, but monitoring your credit reports is the only way to know when you have enough accounts reporting to move on to the next credit tier.

We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for 90% less than it would cost you at the CRAs. See: www.creditsuite.com/monitoring.

You can also monitor through the CRAs, but it will cost significantly more. For example, at D&B you can monitor at: www.dandb.com/credit-builder. At Experian, go here:www.smartbusinessreports.com/Landing/1217/.

Monitor your account with Equifax here: www.equifax.com/business/business-credit-monitor-small-business. Experian and Equifax cost about $19.99; D&B ranges from $49.99 to $99.99.

Update Your Records

If you see something missing or out of date, be sure to update the information. At D&B, you can do this at: https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/viewiUpdateHome.htm. With Experian, go here: www.experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.jsp. For Equifax, go here: www.equifax.com/business/small-business.

Correct Mistakes

You didn’t go through the trouble of building business credit step by step for nothing. Don’t let simple mistakes ruin all your hard work. Errors in your credit report(s) can be taken care of. There is a particular way each reporting agency wants it done however.

Disputing credit report mistakes usually means you mail a paper letter with copies of any proof of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never mail the original copies. Always mail copies and retain the originals.

Fixing credit report mistakes requires that you precisely detail any charges you challenge. Make your dispute letter as clear as possible. Be specific about the problems with your report. Use certified mail to have proof that you sent in your dispute.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.

Dispute an Equifax report by following the directions here: www.equifax.com/small-business-faqs/#Dispute-FAQs.

You can dispute inaccuracies on your or your business’s Experian report by following the directions here: www.experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.jsp.

And D&B’s PAYDEX Customer Service phone number is here: www.dandb.com/glossary/paydex.

You Made Your List, Now Check it Twice

Now that you have a list of the steps you need to take to build business credit, you can start checking items off. A lot of this you may have already taken care of. Some of it you may have thought it was too late to accomplish. For example, maybe you thought it was too late to worry about an address or phone number if you are already in operation using your own.

While many of these steps are easier to take while you are initially setting up your business, it is never too late to start building business credit step by step. Start making that list and checking things off today. The sooner you start, the sooner you will have access to the business funding you need.

The post Make Your List and Check It Twice: Building Business Credit Step by Step appeared first on Credit Suite.

Business Experian: A Comprehensive List of Everything You Need to Know

Many business owners do not understand their business credit score. What is it? How is it generated? What can I do to make it higher? Individual consumers normally find that much of their lending life rests on the FICO score, but what about businesses? Which scores do business owners need to worry about?

There are many options for business credit reports. Why worry about Experian? Business Experian is one of the main three busing credit reporting agencies. The other two are Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax.

Everything You Need to Know About Business Experian: From Profile to Improving Your Score

You need to know what your business Experian reports say. Honestly, knowing what information lenders are getting from this report is necessary to help you determine your business fundability. To understand completely, you need to know where the information on the report comes from, of course. But that’s not all. You also need to know how they calculate the business credit score.

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Business Experian: How Do They Get Your Information?

Experian keeps business credit profiles on 99.9% of all United States businesses. According to them, they hold the credit industry’s most inclusive database on small businesses. As a result, if your business is already operating, it probably already has a business Experian file.

Their information comes from third party sourcing. Consequently, you cannot add anything to your business credit profile yourself. You can, however, still review your profile. Then, you can tell them about any mistakes and have those mistakes corrected.

Business Owner Profile

For smaller companies, Experian will add a business owner profile. This is to show the relationships between you and your business. Experian’s Business Owner Link automatically links the credit history of more than 5 million business owners to their business credit history. This makes things easier for creditors to find a Business Owner Profile on small business accounts. It also makes it easier for them to determine overall creditworthiness.

What’s on Your Business Experian Report?

Experian sells different products and reports that keep track of a business’s credit.

Business Credit Advantage Plan

This is presently $149 monthly and incorporates mobile-friendly alerts and score improvement pointers.

Profile Plus Report

This report is currently priced at $49.95 and it includes financial payment details and predictive information on payment behavior.

Credit Score Report

The least costly of the available reports, it is currently $39.95. This fundamental report features detailed company and credit information. It also shows summary financial payment information.

Valuation Report

At $99, this report is a middle of the road option in terms of cost. It shows the value of your business and features Key Performance Indicators. It also shows the fair market value of the business.

Premium Corporate Profiles

For an additional charge, Experian also offers premium corporate profiles. They enhance these profiles by adding extra information. Additional data includes sales figures, size, contact details, products and operations, credit summary, any Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings, fictitious business names, plus payment and collections history. In addition, these premium profiles have information on credit inquiries made in the last nine months. UCC specifics and financial details from Standard & Poor’s round out the information on this report.

What Does Your Business Experian Report Tell Lenders?

A business Experian report is set up in several different sections. We break it down below.

Identifying Information

This report is split within itself. First, you get the standard identifying data and details of ownership. This area also lists major personnel, company type, and length of time in business. Number of employees and annual sales are on this report as well.

Payment Information at a Glance

After that, there is a section noting delinquent payments. It also shows those payments they expect to go delinquent. Additionally, you can see the lowest and highest balances for the past six months and the current balance. By showing the highest credit limits, there is an idea of the highest credit utilization rate.

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In addition, this segment contains the number of tradelines a business holds. Also, it has the number of credit inquiries in the past. Uniform Commercial Code filings are on this list too.

Next, there is a relative percentage showing the percent of businesses doing worse than the one in the report. Lastly, you can see the number of bankruptcies, liens, and judgments.

Credit Summary

After that is the credit summary. This shows the company’s Experian credit score. It also has links to information about what enters into the score and tips on exactly how to improve it.

Payment Summary

The next area is the payment summary. It shows line graphs for monthly and quarterly payment trends. It also shows where those numbers originated from. The monthly payment trend is even graphed against the industry average.

Just below this pair of graphs are three bar charts showing continuous payment trends. The first includes tradelines that have been reported for over 6 months. The next includes tradelines that have been reporting for 6 months. At the end, there is a chart that shows these payment trends in combination.

Trade Payment Information

How has the business done with making payments? This section will tell you. It breaks payments into credit card and leasing accounts. Then, it further breaks them down by supplier category. Lastly, payment trends are at the bottom.

Inquiries

This part is pretty self-explanatory. This is where the inquiries into the company’s credit are listed.

Collection Filings

If a business has any collection filings, they’ll be in this section in date order. It will also list collection agency name, status, amounts contested and collected, and the closed date.

Commercial Banking, Insurance, Leasing

This portion shows what Experian knows about your company in relation to banking, insurance, and leasing. For example, what was credit extended for? How much credit was extended? When did the loan start? Is there any remaining balance? If so, how much?

Judgment Filings

Next the report shows basic legal information. For example, the court where a judgment was filed, the day, and what amount it was for.

Tax Lien Filings

Tax lien filing data is similar to judgment filings, except that there is a listing for a filing location, rather than a court.

UCC Filings

This only displays the date, filing number, jurisdiction, name of the secured party, and activity on the filing.

Business Experian Credit Monitoring

Obviously, you can register for business credit alerts. Experian’s Business Credit Advantage program operates as a self-monitoring service. You get unrestricted access to your company’s business credit report and score. You can use this resource for proactively managing your company credit. Alerts are sent for:

Company address changes
Changes in your business credit score
Credit inquiries on your business profile
Newly-opened credit tradelines
Any kind of USS filings
Collection filings and
Any public record filings, such as liens, bankruptcies, and judgments

However, we can help you monitor your credit with business Experian for a fraction of the cost. Go here to find out more.

Business Experian: Intelliscore Plus

You need to understand this score and how it works. You may not be able to change it much, but by understanding the score, what it tells lenders, and how it is calculated, you can work to mitigate any negative issues with positivity.

What is the Intelliscore Plus Credit Score?

The Intelliscore Plus credit score is credit-risk analysis. The primary function of Intelliscore Plus is to help businesses, investors, and prospective lenders make well educated judgments about who they should or should not do business with.

Intelliscore Plus Credit Score Range

The Intelliscore scores range from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the lower the risk class. In contrast, the lower the score, the higher the risk class. It breaks down like this:

Score Range Risk Class

76 – 100 Low
51 – 75 Low – Medium
26 – 50 Medium
11 – 25 High – Medium
1 – 10 High

How Does Business Experian Calculate Intelliscore Plus?

In the credit world, Intelliscore Plus is regarded as one of the most reliable tools for determining credit risk. Here’s why. They use over 800 variables to calculate the score. That’s a lot, but they all fit into these three general categories.

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Payment History

This features the number of times accounts have become delinquent, the percent of accounts that are currently delinquent, and your overall trade balance.

Frequency

Frequency is related to payment history. It takes into account how many times your accounts have been sent to collections, liens and judgements, and any bankruptcies on both business and personal accounts.

This also relates to payment patterns. Were you regularly slow or late with payment? Did you begin by paying bills late but now you are doing better? This is all taken into account.

Monetary

This detail focuses on how you make use of credit. For example, how much of your available credit is currently being used? Do you have a high ratio of delinquent balances in relation to your credit limits?

If you’re about to start a small business or are relatively new to this game, the list above may seem a bit overwhelming. Furthermore, how will you rate if you have a short time in business?

This is where the blended model comes into play. This means that they take your personal credit score into consideration when calculating your business’s credit score.

Can You Do Anything to Improve Your Business Experian Score?

While you may not be able to do anything to make a big score increase happen all at once, you can definitely do some things that will make a positive difference over time.

Pay on Time

This is number one. Over time, paying your bills punctually will help establish your company as one that satisfies their debts. This will definitely help push your score up and show other firms that you are a low credit risk.

Make Wise Credit Choices

The more debt you have on your plate, the more monthly bills you have. Consequently, the less disposable income you have. If your overall debt is close to or even over your income, your business with appear to be a high credit risk.

Keep your debts in check and consistently pay them down or off. So this is to keep a healthy balance between what you make and what you owe.

Use the Credit You Have

Keeping your debts low remains solid advice. But you have to make use of the business credit accounts you have. You have to be making payments on accounts for your score to grow. Having a ton of credit and not using it at all doesn’t really help. This, again, is where balance comes into play.

There is no need to buy things you do not need however. Even if you can pay cash, use credit for the things you would be buying regularly for your business anyway. Then, use the cash to pay the credit account.

Watch Your Personal Credit

By now, you’re aware that personal credit is fair game when it comes to your Intelliscore Plus score. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your personal credit doesn’t matter. If it is bad, there are options for working around it. However, it is much better to just keep it healthy. Making certain you stay on top of your monthly bills is the number one way to keep your personal score strong. Avoid unneeded credit inquiries, and refrain from compromising your personal credit for business demands.

Make Use of Monitoring Options

No matter what your credit score is, it is crucial that you continue to be diligent. Sod review your personal and business credit reports. This can help you spot possible errors and stay educated on your own credit profile.

Business Experian Credit Scores Make a Difference When it Comes to Funding

It’s important to understand your business Experian score. It can affect your ability to get funding. So you need to know what it is, what it tells lenders, and what affects it. Once you know these things, you can work from your end to keep it as high as possible. In turn, this will greatly improve your ability to fund your business.

The post Business Experian: A Comprehensive List of Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Credit Suite.

The Ultimate List of Free SEO Tools

Who says you have to spend money to get more traffic?

For today’s blog post, I thought it would be fun to break down all of the free SEO tools. Sure you may know of some, like Ubersuggest, but there are many more options than just my own tool.

Now before I dive into the tools, I’ve broken them down into
the following categories:

Keyword Research
Content Marketing
Rank Tracking
Link Building
Technical SEO

So, are you ready to dive in? Let’s get started!

Keyword Research

All of the tools in this category will help you find more
keywords. Many of them have different ways of coming up with keyword
suggestions, so you may want to check them all out.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest
has many different keyword research options. First of all, it shows you how
many searches a keyword has had over the last 12 months so you can see if there
is any seasonality.

In addition to that, it pulls keywords from a few different sources such as Google Suggest and its own database, it shows you all of the keywords your competition ranks for, and it provides keyword suggestions based on questions, comparisons, and prepositions.

My favorite feature of Ubersuggest’s keyword research capabilities is that it not only can you see how competitive a term is, but it also tells you how many links the average ranking website contains.

That way you know how many links you need to build to rank
well.

What’s also unique about Ubersuggest is that it provides
local keyword suggestions. This is great if you are trying to do local SEO.

Answer The Public

Answer The Public
leverages Google Suggest to find all of the questions people may have related
to any industry or keyword.

Just type in a keyword and it will give you a laundry list
of questions people are searching for related to that keyword.

Similar to Ubersuggest it also shows you comparison and
preposition related keywords.

What I like about the tool is compared to any competing tool, it represents the data in nice visuals.

KeywordTool.io

SEO doesn’t just exist on Google. You can also rank higher on Amazon, YouTube, Bing, and tons of other sites.

KeywordTool.io uses
the same concept of Google Suggest, but for a handful of sites like Amazon,
Play Store, and YouTube.

If you are performing SEO on sites other than Google, you
should check out KeywordTool.io.

FAQfox

FAQfox is a neat little tool that finds you questions people want to be answered based on any specific site you want information from.

For example, you can type in the word “cat” and quora.com as the URL and it will show you category based questions people are asking on Quora.

You can do this for Reddit or any other site you want
keyword ideas from.

Google Keyword Planner

Of course, the search giant, Google, has its own keyword
research tool.

Google
Keyword Planner gives you suggestions as well as CPC data and click
estimates.

You’ll also notice that a lot of other keyword tools have CPC data, but chances are they are pulling it from Google Keyword Planner.

When you are using Keyword Planner, look for terms with a high CPC as they tend to convert well when you rank for them organically.

Google Trends

Out of all the tools on the list, I probably use Google Trends 3 to 4 times a week. That’s
how much I love it.

What I love about Trends is that it shows you what is hot right now. In addition to that, it tells you if an industry is getting less search volume or more over time.

You can also filter your data based on a specific country or
you can look at the data from a global perspective.

Soovle

Soovle takes the concept of Google Suggest (autocomplete) but for a lot of the popular sites around the web.

Soovle pulls all of the popular keywords on Google, YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, Bing, Yahoo, and Answers.com.

AdWords and SEO Permutation Generator

The AdWords and SEO
Permutation Generator is a super simple tool that helps you get creative
with your keyword research.

You enter in a handful of terms you want to target and it will combine them to make different variations for you.

Not all of the keywords will be popular when it comes to search volume, but it will give you a sense of how you can go after long-tail variations within your site.

Keyworddit

Reddit has a ton of categories (subreddits) and Keyworddit helps you find all of the keywords within that subreddit.

What’s neat is it even breaks down the volume for each of
those keywords. That way you can quickly see if any are worth going after.

Generally speaking, you’ll want to use tools like this as it
will give you a new perspective on keyword research.

Pulling results from Google is something that all SEOs already do. Because of that, you need to use other sources if you want to get a leg up on your competition.

Bulk Keyword Generator

The Bulk
Keyword Generator by Higher Visibility does keyword research a bit
differently than most of the keyword tools out there.

First, you pick a business category. Then you select the type of business you have and enter in any locations you are targeting.

You’ll then be given a list of keywords that you can
potentially target.

What I like about this tool is that it makes things super
simple, especially if you are new to SEO.

WordTracker Scout

WordTracker
Scout is a browser extension that gives you a list of keyword ideas from
any web page.

Just browse any site or check out your competition, click a button and boom, you are given ideas on keywords that other people are using.

It breaks the keywords down by relevance and volume.

SearchVolume.io

When you are doing keyword research, how do you know a keyword is getting enough searches?

SearchVolume.io lets you bulk upload up to 800 keywords and it tells you how popular each keyword is.

The tool also works for a handful of other regions, such as Brazil, France, and Italy.

Google Location Changer

Serps has a neat tool that works well if you are doing
international SEO.

Their Google Location Changer
allows you to search Google in any country or city. Just type in a keyword and
you’ll see who ranks.

Using this tool in combination with WordTracker Scout can
give you unique keyword suggestions.

Content Marketing

Content is the one thing we all have to create if we want more search traffic.

Here are free content marketing tools that can help you get
the most out of your search traffic.

Animalz Revive

Have you noticed that your rankings decrease over time?

It’s not just because of Google algorithm updates. In most
cases, your old content won’t perform as well because it’s old.

Animalz Revive shows you which content pieces are dying over time.

That way you know what to focus on. Just look at the ones that have declined the most and then spruce them up so you can get more rankings.

What’s cool about this tool is it will save you a lot of
time. For example, my team updates 90 pieces of content a month. The last thing
you want to do is waste a ton of time on content that never had much traffic.

Google Search Console

Most people use Google Search Console to see which keywords are driving them traffic.

My favorite way of using Search Console is to see which one of my blog posts are getting a lot of search impressions but have less than a 4% click-through rate.

I then go in and modify each of those pages to include the right keywords in my meta tags. Then I look to see which keywords I am ranking for but not really targeting yet, and then either create new content around those terms or modify existing content to also target them.

Content Ideas

Ubersuggest
has a feature similar to Buzzsumo but it is 100% free. It’s called Content
Ideas.

All you have to do is enter in a keyword or phrase and it
will show you all of the popular blog posts that contain that term.

The blog posts are then sorted by social shares, backlinks,
and search traffic.

This helps you create content around topics people want to
read, which means more traffic.

Hreflang Tag Generator

One of my biggest traffic gains has come from translating my
content.

A lot of people ask me if they would be penalized from duplicating
and translation their content.

The answer is no.

All you need to do is use the Hreflang
Tag Generator.

This tool creates tags for you to place in your HTML code so
Google knows you are targeting specific languages and countries with certain content
pages.

Portent Title Generator

For every 10 people that see your headline, only 2 on average will continue to read your content.

In other words, content marketing is all about the headline.

If you are struggling to create headlines, check out the Portent Title Generator.

Just insert a keyword or phrase and it will generate dozens
of suggestions for you.

Title Capitalization Tool

Not sure which words in your title should be capitalized?

This Title
Capitalization tool will take care of that for you.

It may not sound important to you, but if your titles look off, people may not click through from SERP results to read your content, which can decrease your rankings over time.

Grammarly

Every SEO should be using Grammarly.

Which do you think Google prefers? Ranking a blog post that reads well or one that contains a lot of spelling and grammar errors?

Grammarly helps you avoid spelling mistakes. This is really important if you want to rank on Google.

Google SERP Tool

Have you noticed that some listings on Google get cut off because the title is too long?

A big misconception is Google uses character counts for meta tags. In reality, they count pixels.

Google
SERP Tool will tell you how many pixels your meta tags contain and if they
will get cut off by Google.

It also shows you a preview of what your web pages will look
like on Google.

Rank Tracking

Google Analytics is a great tool to show you your overall
traffic, but it doesn’t tell you where you rank.

If you want to track your rankings, you’ll need to use some
tools.

Google Search Console

I know I mentioned this tool above, but Google Search Console is the most unique rank tracking tool out there.

Because this tool is from Google, they can tell you your
average ranking for any one of your pages per country.

And because the data comes from them, they average it out to give you accurate information.

You can also go back 16 months and see how your rankings
have changed over time.

Ubersuggest

Again, I know I also mentioned Ubersuggest above, but it now has a free rank tracking feature.

It provides the same features as those paid rank trackers. You can track your rankings daily for any keyword or groups of keywords for any country, city, or county.

It also saves your data for you so you can go back as far as
you want to see if your rankings have been increasing or decreasing.

Search Latte

If you want to track your rankings manually, you can do so with
Search Latte.

Just put in a keyword and select the language and country so you can see all of the sites that rank in the top 100.

You can then manually find your site and keep track to see
if you are improving or declining.

You may want to use Search Latte in combination with Excel as you can create a daily log of your rankings.

Link Building

You used to have to pay for tools if you wanted link data,
but that’s not the case anymore. Here are the free link tools you can use.

MozBar

This is probably my favorite link tool that I use.

Even though Google doesn’t use domain authority, in general, the higher the authority of a site that is linking to you, the better off you are.

MozBar
shows you the domain authority and page authority of every page on the web.

If you are going to build links, focus on the sites with the highest authority.

SEOgadget for Excel

If you are like me, you probably love using Excel when you
are building links.

SEOgadget
for Excel makes it really easy to pull in data from Majestic and Moz.

If you haven’t tried this yet, you should consider it. It
will make it easier for you to find new insights and run your own calculations.

Backlinks

Backlinks is
a free tool that shows you all of your backlinks. There are no limits in row
count or anything like that… you can just see everyone who links to you.

You can see if any of your links are dofollow or nofollow as
well as the anchor text.

You can filter the results to find backlink opportunities when researching competitors and you have the option to look up link data on a domain, subdomain, or a specific URL.

It will also show when a link was first found and last
crawled and the authority of each link.

Bulk Metrics Checker

Tired of looking up the domain and page authority manually
on each of your pages or sites?

Bulk
Metrics Checker solves that for you.

Just upload a list of URLs and within seconds you’ll have a
list of your page authority per URL. You can also do the same for domains and
upload dozens of domains at once.

Technical SEO

SEO has changed. You no longer can do just a few things and expect your site to rank well. You have to do everything if you expect to beat your competition.

And when I mean everything, that includes technical SEO.

SEO Analyzer

If you haven’t already, try running your URL through my SEO Analyzer.

It will tell you what’s wrong with each of your web pages.

From duplicate meta tags and redirect errors to sitemaps and much more… it pretty much looks at every major factor when it comes to SEO.

It will even tell you your overall site speed and what you need to fix in which order to get the maximum results.

And if you register for a free account, it automatically checks for errors each week on your behalf.

Google Analytics Referrer Spam Killer

When you are doing SEO, there is a good chance that your Google Analytics gets messed up by referral spam.

Google
Analytics Referrer Spam Killer solves that problem by connecting with your
Google Analytics account and blocking off the most common referral spam.

Once you connect it, you’ll find that your data is much more
accurate so you can make better SEO decisions.

Pagespeed Insights

Speed is everything. The faster your site loads the better
you will rank, especially when it comes to Google’s mobile index.

Pagespeed Insights
tells you what you need to fix for your site to load fast on any device.

It doesn’t matter if you are optimizing for tablet devices, desktop, or mobile… it will tell you what to fix.

Pingdom

Fixing your code is one thing, but you’ll also want to make
sure your site loads fast overall.

Your overall load time is affected by things like your
server and CDN.

Pingdom tells you
your actual load time.

With Pingdom, you can pick which location to test your load speed from and it tells you what code on your site is causing the biggest slowdown.

Website Penalty Checker

With over 3,200 algorithm updates each year to Google, how do you know if you have been affected by an update?

Is it related to a core update, your content, or link
building?

Website Penalty
Checker tells you that.

In a nice graph, it shows your traffic over time and tells you if a Google update has caused your traffic to go up or down.

Structured Data Markup Helper

A simple way to increase your search traffic is to use
schema markup.

But there is one big issue, schema markup is a bit complicated to implement. Because of that, Google created a Structured Data Markup Helper to guide you.

All you have to do is select what kind of markup you want to use, type in your URL, and go through the walkthrough wizard.

And at the end, you’ll be given code that you just paste within HTML.

Woorank

Looking for a simple SEO analysis? Woorank shows you a simple report of what’s
wrong with your web page.

All you have to do is type in your domain and within a minute you’ll see a thorough report of what you need to fix.

What I love about Woorank is that it is a great tool for beginners because of their easy-to-use interface.

SEOptimer

Just like Woorank, SEOptimer is a simple tool that gives you a technical overview of your on-page SEO as well as your content.

It breaks down things like page speed as well in addition to showing you how your website loads for both desktop and mobile devices.

You can even see social sharing data.

Varvy

Varvy provides a detailed
technical checklist of all things related to your SEO.

From your Robots.txt file and your sitemap to security settings and even your links, it covers all the bases.

If you don’t have a technical background, Varvy might be a bit complex unless you take the time to read each of their articles that outline what each tip/recommendation means.

301 Redirect Code Generator

When you are doing SEO long enough, eventually you find
yourself changing your older URLs.

But if you don’t add a 301 redirect, you’ll lose your rankings.

301
Redirect Code Generator creates the code you’ll need to tell search engines
your URLs have changed.

Panguin Tool

This tool is similar to the Website Penalty Checker but it is more accurate because it connects directly with your Analytics account.

If you think you have been hit with a Google penalty, use
the Panguin Tool.

Now if you want to see if your competition has also been
hit, this tool won’t work, but the Website Penalty Checker will.

None-the-less, they are both great tools.

Google Search Console

I have to include this tool again. Why? Because if there is something wrong with your site, such as it getting hacked, it will notify you.

It even tells you the pages that were indexed and which ones aren’t.

One thing that you have to do within your Search Console is to submit an XML sitemap.

XML Sitemaps

XML Sitemaps generates a sitemap for you that you can submit to Google Search Console.

You’ll need to do this so you can get more of your content indexed.

Submitting a sitemap doesn’t guarantee that Google will index your content, but it does help… mainly for sites with low domain authority.

Conclusion

Tools don’t have to cost money. I got into SEO because it
was the free traffic source I could leverage to compete with the big companies.

If you want to grow your search rankings, you can leverage
one of the free SEO tools above.

Sure, there are amazing paid tools as well, but why not start with the free stuff?

What other free SEO tools do you use?

The post The Ultimate List of Free SEO Tools appeared first on Neil Patel.

Email List Building: How To Get Started Building Your Own Email Mailing List

Email listing structure is a typical advertising and marketing technique these days. There are really couple of companies that you can go right into these days that do not ask for your e-mail address or ask if you desire to authorize up for unique deals or updates with your e-mail.

These days, with every person asking for e-mail addresses with the quantity of spam on the net, it is obtaining harder and also harder for you to be able to obtain an individual’s e-mail address from them for your e-mail listing structure data source. If you are an in-store private asking for an e-mail address for developing your e-mail checklist, attempt aiming out the advantages, like e-newsletters, promos or various other advantages they could obtain by having their e-mail address on your e-mail checklist. For those of us with web sites, including an easy kind for e-mail collection is normally the ideal method to go regarding e-mail listing structure.

If you currently have an e-mail checklist, attempt this e-mail checklist structure choice. A 3rd choice in the e-mail checklist structure procedure is outbound telemarketing. In this procedure, you construct your e-mail checklist by speaking to clients over the phone and also allowing them understand they might possibly stay clear of the phone call if they authorized up for the e-mail solution.

When trying to do email listing structure, attempt to utilize as several of these as you can. This will certainly aid you to develop a huge e-mail address base.

These days, with everybody asking for e-mail addresses with the quantity of spam on the net, it is obtaining harder as well as harder for you to be able to obtain an individual’s e-mail address from them for your e-mail checklist structure data source. If you are an in-store private asking for an e-mail address for constructing your e-mail checklist, attempt aiming out the advantages, like e-newsletters, promos or various other advantages they could obtain by having their e-mail address on your e-mail listing. For those of us with internet sites, including a basic kind for e-mail collection is generally the finest method to go regarding e-mail checklist structure. If you currently have an e-mail checklist, attempt this e-mail listing structure choice.

The post Email List Building: How To Get Started Building Your Own Email Mailing List appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.