To be fair no AI tool is perfect yet as technology isn’t there yet.
And to give you perspective the AI wrote this post and then I had to modify it and add specific sections and steps.
When I look back and did an analysis, AI wrote roughly 25% of this post.
That’s not too bad. Sure, I had to write 75%, but the hardest part about writing isn’t putting words on a paper it’s coming up with the ideas and the overall format.
So today I am going to show you how to write a blog post using AI… keep in mind over time it will get better as technology improves.
But first, something you should know…
Don’t worry about duplicate content
Google doesn’t penalize for duplicate content and even if they did this AI tools makes 100% unique content for you.
So, you won’t have duplicative or plagiarism issues.
It’s not just mixing words around it is trying to understand what you are trying to write your article on, do research, and come up with words that encompass everything you are trying to get across.
First, enter in the keyword you want an article on. For this example, I chose the term “digital marketing” as my blog is on digital marketing.
Then you will want to select a title from the list provided. You don’t always have to use it at the very end but a lot of the titles are based on what people are searching for.
Next, you will want to choose a meta description.
Similar to the above, meta description is also based on keywords that are popular from a traffic perspective.
After you select your meta description you will want to select a few headings.
Keep in mind headings are like book chapters. Pick the ones that work the best, and again keep in mind you can always adjust the text later on.
The last step is, that Ubersuggest will take all of the data and spit out content for you.
By no means is the content perfect and I wouldn’t recommend publishing it or any AI content written by any tool for that matter.
More so use it as a starting ground.
So how do you modify the article?
Well, the AI tool won’t always be contextually accurate, but most of the time it is.
More so the way you make the AI piece amazing is by getting more detailed.
So for example in the digital marketing above, in the “create an online presence” section I would go in-depth on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest on how you can use them for marketing.
As for Google + it doesn’t exist, so I would delete that part and expand the other platforms and give step-by-step instructions on how to leverage them.
I would also include screenshots so each step is clear.
Under the “promote your brand” section I would discuss ads and other ways to promote your brand such as running promotions, sales during holidays, or even doing webinars.
I would give examples of other successful ones that businesses have run and give examples of failed campaigns that have been run and break down what you can learn from them.
The “grow your audience” section already talks about what to do if you have no followers. They are all good tips that the AI tool wrote, but the tips are too surface level. I would dive deep into each one.
From how you should think about commenting on other profiles and blogs to what email templates to use to convince people to collaborate with you.
And the measuring success section was cut off from the above screenshot but it mentions Google Analytics. I would go more in-depth on how to set up goals in Google Analytics and tie in revenue.
Conclusion
The Ubersuggest AI tool isn’t meant to replace humans or for it to perfectly write your content for you.
It’s meant to give you a start.
You have experienced writer’s block and we all hate it. The tool solves that part plus it gives you a head start.
It not only gives you title and meta description ideas, but it writes some of the content for you as well as gives you popular headings based on keyword search volume.
All you have to do is adjust and fill in the rest.
Well, if you’re hoping to reach local consumers, then you need to ensure they can find your business online. You need to propel your content to the top of relevant local Google search rankings.
One way to do this is by embracing the power of link building; specifically, link building for local SEO.
Let me show you how local link building works, why it matters, and how you can start building your own link profile.
What Is Link Building for Local SEO?
Link building refers to acquiring links from other websites back to yours. These links are known as “backlinks,” “inbound links,” or “incoming links,” and they help to drive traffic to your website.
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website to attract customers from a specific region.
Link building for local SEO, then, is the process of securing backlinks from local businesses with two goals in mind:
boosting your visibility in organic local searches
drawing more traffic from local customers most likely to purchase from you
Why Link Building for Local SEO Matters
There are three major reasons local link building matters.
First, Google considers the number of backlinks you have when determining your page rank. The higher the number of quality backlinks you have, the better your chances of securing a page one ranking. Over 67 percent of clicks go to the first five organic search results!
Second, link building for local SEO helps you drive specific, highly targeted search engine traffic to your website. By targeting the right traffic, you’re more likely to draw people who are serious about making a purchase.
Finally, link building for local SEO is a great way to build your brand’s visibility organically. It takes, on average, seven brand impressions before someone takes action (the marketing “Rule of 7” as it’s colloquially known). Better brand visibility helps you nurture prospects.
Link Building for Local SEO Strategies
Are you ready to get started on building your backlinks? Here are my top six strategies.
1. Get Links From Travel and Local Review Websites
In other words, you need positive reviews, and you want them from websites that can help you with your local link building goals. For example, here’s a rundown of nine great new restaurants in Kansas City:
Each listing includes a backlink and contact details:
Kansas City magazine reps visited restaurants based on existing customer reviews rather than accepting cold pitches.
Make it easy for customers to leave reviews on Google, Yelp, and other popular platforms.
Offer incentives e.g., a kayak business might offer a discounted kayaking session for reviewers.
Highlight customer testimonials on your social media platforms—they make great User Generated Content, and often encourage others to leave their thoughts.
Link building for local SEO often means doing some manual outreach, so you can of course pitch local websites and see if they’ll list your business.
Just make sure you send a professional pitch, include relevant business information, and provide links to any customer reviews (if available.)
2. Hold Special Events and Promotions to Get PR Links
Want to build your local presence and increase brand awareness, all while sourcing local link building opportunities?
Consider holding special events or campaigns.
If you need some event inspiration, you might:
sponsor a local sports team
host a charity fundraiser
run a workshop
hold a contest
Or, you could offer promotions like a free product demo or seasonal discounts. It all depends on what makes the most sense for your business model.
Once you’ve chosen an event or promotion, you need to advertise it.
Do some online research to find your local news outlets such as local papers, radio channels, Facebook community groups, etc.
Decide which outlets to target based on your consumer demographic. 96 percent of 18 to 25-year-olds and 87 percent of 55 to 66-year-olds check social media daily, so online platforms are a good place to start.
Draft a short press release. Include key events details and a URL for the backlink.
Don’t forget to include keywords in your press release, too. Ubersuggest can help you find relevant keywords.
3. Get Listed in Local Business Directories
According to research, 94 percent of consumers have turned to a business directory at least once in the last year to learn more about a new company.
For local link building opportunities, target directories and get your company listed. Popular business directories include:
Bing
Facebook
Foursquare
Google
Yelp
Want to find more local or niche directories? Google is your friend. For example, if you search “local small business directory Colorado,” the first link is to the Colorado Business Directory:
When you’re ready to pitch a local directory, follow their instructions closely. Set out your key details like your website and opening times, and include a short description of your business.
Every detail helps a directory verify your business which could improve your chances of acceptance (and acquiring a backlink.)
4. Create a Blog Covering Local Topics
Do you have a blog yet? If not, start one and focus on covering local topics. Sure, this step requires more effort on your part, but here’s why blogging is worth it to build links for local SEO.
Blogging lets you showcase your knowledge and expertise which increases consumer trust and, ultimately, encourages them to choose your brand over competitors.
According to a Demand Gen Report, 60 percent of buyers read blog posts in the early stages of the purchase process.
Blog content is easy to share on social media. Over time, more shares mean more visibility for your brand which draws more traffic.
Once you’re ready to start your local blog, here’s how to get backlinks to your posts.
Backlinks begin with great content. Spend time researching what your audience wants and craft articles to meet their needs. If readers find your content useful, they’ll link back to it.
Pitch your content to link roundups. Roundups highlight great new content in a specific niche, and since the authors are always looking for content to feature, there’s a good chance they could offer a listing and backlink.
Highlight your posts on social media. The more people share your content, the more likely it is you’ll reach bloggers looking for content to link to.
Be active on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Build business relationships, establish yourself as a local expert, and you’ll acquire backlinks naturally.
5. Use an SEO Tool Like Ubersuggest to Find and Target Competitor Backlinks
Why should you care where competitors get their backlinks?
It’s simple.
These are the types of places likely to link back to you, too, so it’s worth doing some competitor research to find websites to target for local link building opportunities.
Here’s how to use Ubersuggest to target competitor backlinks if you’re link building for local SEO.
Say you run a bakery in Denver. If we run a Google search, we can see one of the highest-ranking local bakeries is Azucar Bakery:
Enter their website domain into Ubersuggest and click “Search” to get started:
From the main screen, go to the left-hand column, scroll down to Backlinks, and click “Backlinks Overview:”
Enter the domain name again and hit “Search” to load the results:
On the next screen, scroll down to the “Backlinks” results. You’ll see a list of the domains that link back to Azucar Bakery:
Once you know the type of websites linking to your competitors, you can target them yourself.
How you use these backlinks depends on your marketing strategy and business goals; in this case, you might make sure you’re listed on Foursquare and also target websites for product reviews.
6. Find Unlinked Mentions of Your Brand and Ask for Links
Unlinked brand mentions can present golden opportunities to secure backlinks from high-quality, authoritative websites.
For one thing, it’s easier to send outreach emails to the relevant contact if they already know your brand.
If they’re discussing your products or services, then it’s reasonable to think you might ask for a backlink, right?
There’s no need to pursue every brand reference, though, especially if it’s on a low-quality website that won’t boost your rankings—so here’s how you might find backlinks worth pursuing.
First, scan the internet for unlinked brand mentions. You can do this by using a tool such as BrandMentions.
Then, identify the relevant contact to send an outreach email. The contact could be the website owner or someone from the marketing department. You can usually find these details using tools like LinkedIn or social media such as Twitter.
Finally, send your outreach email. Compliment their company, and thank them for mentioning your brand. Politely explain why adding a backlink could benefit their company and consider offering them a link in return.
Don’t neglect those unlinked brand mentions. Instead, seek them out, build relationships with other website owners, and convert them into useful backlinks.
Link Building for Local SEO Frequently Asked Questions
How important are links for local SEO?
Links are hugely important for local SEO because they help to boost your local search ranking. With a higher ranking, you’re more visible in search results and customers are more likely to visit your page.
Should I use an agency for help with my local SEO link building strategy?
You might find a digital marketing agency partnership helpful if you lack the time or resources to dedicate to marketing, but it’s absolutely possible to create your own strategy by following the tips I’ve outlined above.
How can I get reviewed by local publications to get backlinks for my business?
Link building for local SEO means liaising with local businesses. You could contact local publications directly, host an event and invite their representatives, sponsor a contest, or even reach out to and sponsor local influencers. It all depends on your marketing budget and what’s most likely to appeal to your target audience.
Is a blog a good way to build local SEO backlinks?
Yes! Blogging is a great way to build links naturally in the long term, so prioritize writing useful, engaging content on a regular basis. Don’t forget to optimize your articles for local keywords.
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Conclusion: Link Building for Local SEO
Local link building is a great way to improve your SEO, boost search engine visibility, and draw relevant traffic to your website.
You won’t see results overnight, no, but you should consider link building as a key part of your longer-term marketing strategy.
While you don’t need to try all the tips I’ve suggested, start with the strategies that make the most sense for your business and, in the meantime, focus on producing regular, high-quality blog content to build your brand’s trustworthiness.
If you need any extra help with link building for local SEO, check out my consulting services to see how I can help you boost your local rankings.
Have you tried any of these local link building strategies? How are they working out for you? Let me know below!
Credit is a complicated creature. The second you think you have it figured out, it turns on you. Truly, if you don’t handle it just right, it can morph from powerful ally to mortal enemy in a flash. This is especially true if you are trying to run a business. Thankfully, the Business Credit Builder can help in a big way.
3 Major Credit Blunders and How the Business Credit Builder Can Help
Across the ages, one major problem business owners face is funding. Funding is an issue that cuts across all industries, all owner experience levels, and all business entity types.
One reason business owners may have trouble finding funding is, they do not realize there are actually two types of credit. Not only is there personal credit, but there is also business credit. Once this simple revelation comes to light, the trajectory of the business can begin to change for the better. Personal finances do not have to suffer.
What is Business Credit?
Business credit is credit in the name of your business only. It is based on how likely the business is to repay bills, not the owner.
As a result, business credit accounts do not show up on your personal credit report. In fact, they do not affect your personal credit score at all. In addition, the business is responsible for repayment, not the owner.
Why Do You Need Business Credit?
Few business owners understand all the benefits of business credit.
Some of these include:
Liability protection
Lower debt-to-credit ratio on your personal report
And higher credit limits
How the Business Credit Builder Can Help
So, how do you build business credit? How do you get accounts that are not connected to your personal credit? With the Business Credit Builder of course! It sounds simple, but here is the thing. While building business credit is not necessarily hard, there are a lot of steps. It can be overwhelming without guidance.
This is where the business credit builder comes in. It can help guide you through the process. Even better, it can help you avoid these three major credit blunders, among others.
Blunder 1: Ruining Personal Credit with Business Debt
This is a huge problem. So many business owners do not know that they canget business credit without a personal guarantee. These are credit accounts that will not affect your personal credit profile should your business not be able to pay.
Of course, being personally on the line for business debt can cause a lot of issues. For an extreme example, consider the case of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice. He personally guaranteed over $700 million in loans for his coal company, Bluestone Resources. The loans were through Greensill Capital, which is now defunct. The downfall is due to an insurance carrier choosing to no longer underwrite funds for the popular finance company. As you can imagine, the domino effect is vast and far reaching.
Currently the impact on the Governor’s personal finances remains to be seen. However, it’s not hard to imagine the devastation something like this could wreak on a small business owner. Fortunately, working to build business credit with the Business Credit Builder can help you avoid this type of credit blunder and protect your personal finances.
Blunder 2: Ignoring Fundability Factors
Fundability is the overall ability of a business to get funding. There are over 100 factors that affect it. That makes it difficult for the average small business owner to navigate and assess the fundability of their business on their own.
The first part of this is what you will work through in Step 1 of the Business Credit Builder. It walks you through the process of building a foundation of fundability. After all, you wouldn’t build a house on a shaky foundation. You shouldn’t try to build business credit without a strong, fundable foundation either.
Honestly, this is tricky. With consumer credit, pretty much all accounts report payment history to your personal credit report. In contrast, only about 7% of companies that issue business credit report payments to business credit reports. Without this payment history, you do not have a business credit score.
What makes it harder is the fact that most companies that do report do not make that fact common knowledge. In fact, the only way to build business credit payment history on your own is through trial and error. You have to guess at which vendors will report your payments. And of course, there is the fact that you have to get accounts that will not only report, but that will extend business credit before you actually have a business credit score so that you can get started.
How the Business Credit Builder Helps You Get Accounts Reporting
Step 2 helps you establish your initial business credit profile, so that accounts have something to actually report to.
Then, in Step 3 of the Business Credit Builder, you will get exclusive access to starter vendors that will issue net invoices without checking credit. Then, they report your payments on those invoices to the business credit reporting agencies. We remove the need for trial and error and show you the exact accounts you can get to get the business credit score process going.
After enough of these types of accounts are reporting payments, you will qualify for more types of accounts.
Step 4 addresses this by showing you how to get copies of your business credit reports and see which accounts are reporting. You will also have the opportunity to review these reports with one of our expert advisors to learn more about what it says and how to address issues and mistakes.
How do you know when you have enough accounts reporting? How do you know which accounts to apply for next? Fortunately, the Business Credit Builder can guide you. In fact, this is your all-in-one tool for business business credit.
Steps 5-7 take you through the process of adding accounts to continue to build credit. As you gain enough accounts in each step, you will unlock access to vendors that will both approve you at your current step in the process and report your payments.
Other Benefits of the Business Credit Builder
In addition to all of this, there are a number of other benefits to the program. For example, you will get free, unlimited use of a business valuation tool. This will allow you to see what your business is worth right now, and monitor its growth into the future.
You’ll also have the opportunity to save up to 90% on business credit monitoring, and have access to expert help. You’ll get a whole year of business advisor support and 5 years of finance officer support, all included!
Are You Ready to Get Started?
Honestly, the best way to start is get a free consultation with a business credit expert. This is someone who can help you determine where your business stands now, help you find financing, and help you determine if the Business Credit Builder is right for you.
When you initially get started on a net advertising endeavor, it’s flawlessly regular to be bewildered. There is so much to discover, so lots of various points you can do to market a service online, as well as so numerous “specialists” that declare they’ve obtained the “secret” to making cash online.
What’s the trick to net advertising as well as making cash online? There are lots of techniques for numerous kinds of net advertising and marketing strategies and also what jobs fantastic for one company, may not function at all for an additional.
Instead than attempting to “grasp the art” of net advertising and marketing, it is best to obtain a fast review of web advertising strategies, determine which one (or 2) you desire to attempt initially, obtain the understanding as well as ability you require to draw off the strategy, as well as see just how it functions. Naturally you require to do some research study to determine your target audience as well as produce an advertising and marketing strategy, yet your web marketing strategy does not need to be substantial and also does not need to be uncompromising from the first day. You can examine your statistics, see what is functioning and also what isn’t, as well as fine-tune your online marketing project as you accompany to reinforce it and also make it extra reliable.
When you begin in online marketing, it is excellent to have an understanding of different sorts of web marketing strategies, yet the key ones to focus on initially are internet search engine advertising and marketing and also pay-per-click online search engine advertising. Usually, over 80% of the web traffic that involves a site locates the internet site via the online search engine, so online search engine listings are crucial to online marketing.
Online search engine advertising and marketing is composed mainly of enhancing your internet site utilizing targeted key phrases, loading it with pertinent material, developing appropriate inbound web links, as well as sending the website to the internet search engine. With pay-per-click online search engine advertising and marketing, the procedure of web marketing via the online search engine is streamlined a little bit due to the fact that you bid on search phrases that will certainly give outcomes for your specific site and also your online search engine ranking is based mostly on your proposal as opposed to depending only on website optimization which can be rather tough.
As opposed to concentrating on a selection of online marketing strategies at the same time, you’ll locate it is a lot more efficient to go after online marketing choices one by one. After developing one method, you can go on to the following, continuously reinforcing your online marketing initiatives.
There are bunches of methods for numerous kinds of web advertising methods as well as what jobs wonderful for one service, could not function at all for an additional.
Instead than attempting to “grasp the art” of net advertising and marketing, it is best to obtain a fast introduction of web advertising methods, choose which one (or 2) you desire to attempt initially, acquire the understanding as well as ability you require to draw off the method, and also see just how it functions. Of program you require to do some study to determine your target market as well as develop an advertising and marketing strategy, however your net advertising and marketing strategy does not have to be comprehensive as well as does not have actually to be established in rock from day one.
Funding for businesses is needed now more than ever. Funding that does not have to be repaid is always in high demand, as is funding that does not require a stellar credit score. In the eyes of most, and rightly so, that is exactly what crowdfunding is. That is not the crowdfunding definition however. There is so much more to the whole crowdfunding scene.
Crowdfunding Definition: What It Is, What It Is Not, and What Your Other Options Are
According to Dictionary.com, the crowdfunding definition is:
“the activity or process of raising money from a large number of people, typically through a website, as for a project or small business.”
It sounds like a great plan, right? It is, until you know that the average success rate of crowdfunding campaigns is 50%. That said, 78% of crowdfunding campaigns reach their goal. Of course, that sounds better. Still, reaching your goal doesn’t guarantee success.
Check out our trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. Conquer any recession!
Crowdfunding Definition: What Crowdfunding Is
The thing is, crowdfunding is definitely a viable option, but it is too risky to depend upon as your sole source of funding. For some, it works out to where you can get a whole business off the ground without any other funding source. For most, crowdfunding simply reduces the amount of debt you must take on. Yet, for many, there are not even enough funds raised from such campaigns to get started.
Crowdfunding Definition: What Crowdfunding is Not
Whether crowdfunding for startups or for an already existing business, it is not a legitimate only option. There needs to be a backup plan for either supplemental funds or full funding. If your credit score is good, there is no worry here as financing options abound. However, a not so great credit score can make a backup plan more difficult.
Crowdfunding Definition: Crowdfunding Platforms
While not an exhaustive list, these are some of the most popular crowdfunding platforms.
Kickckstarter
Indiegogo
RocketHub
CircleUp
GoGetFunding
Crowdfunder
Fundable
Fundly
Whichever platform you choose, whether one of these or one not on this list, remember there are a number of crowdfunding resources available to help you on this journey. You just have to look for them.
Crowdfunding Definition: Behind the Scenes
Now, the best way to find out about crowdfunding is to take a look at some actual campaigns. Here are some of the most notable, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Pebble SmartWatch
Pebble actually has several of the top 10 campaigns ever on Kickstarter. Their 2nd campaign is the highest funded campaign to date, reaching over $20,000,000. That’s not too shabby for a goal of only $500,000. They blew it out of the water!
Are they still successful? Well, yeah, but not in the way you may think. They actually sold to FitBit.
FlowHive
This one is not one that most would expect to explode onto the scene the way it did. The FlowHive Indiegogo campaign definitely generated some major buzz. The idea was to find a way to get the honey from bees without harming the bees.
Traditionally, hives are simply broken open to obtain the honey. This process can kill the bees. FlowHive developed a fake hive of sorts, made from reusable plastic. Bees make honey in it, and the honey flows through a spout out into the world. The bees are safe and fresh honey is ours for the taking.
Apparently, beekeeping is growing in interest. This campaign raised $14,000,000. Though they won’t disclose exact numbers, the queen bees claim they are still buzzing and in the black.
CoolestCooler
The coolest cooler was a super cool Kickstarter campaign that came in at over $13.000,000 raised. The cooler boasted bluetooth and a blender among other things. Investors received a cooler for their donation toward the cause.
This one had some trouble when it wasn’t able to deliver investment rewards as quickly as promised and there was actually a lawsuit. In the end, everything worked out and everyone got their rewards.
BauBox Travel Jacket
This jacket has 10 different elements, including a drink holder and a neck pillow. They raised over $11,000,000 across 2 campaigns. It was a bumpy start, partially because the jacket was available on retail sites before investors even got theirs, but it is still selling today.
As you can see, while mostly successful, even these top campaigns had some pretty serious bumps along the way. You need to be prepared for the same, even if you reach your fundraising goals.
Crowdfunding Definition: The Backup Plan
Here are some options for financing. The one that will work best for your business will depend on your credit score, your business fundability, and how much you are able to raise through crowdfunding and other debt-free options.
Check out our trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. Conquer any recession!
Traditional/ SBA Loans
These are lumped together because they each require working with a traditional lender and a decent credit score. However, it is important to remember that SBA loans typically require a lower credit score, although still good, as they are government backed business loans. A few examples of SBA loans that work great for starting a business include:
7(a) Loans
This one offers federally funded term loans of up to $5 million. Funds can be used for expansion, purchasing equipment, and working capital, in addition to startup. Banks, credit unions, and other specialized institutions, in partnership with the SBA, process these loans and disburse the funds.
504 Loans
The funds work well to purchase machinery, facilities, or land. They are generally used for expansion. Private sector lenders or nonprofits process and disburse funds. They are also good for commercial real estate purchases especially.
There is also a requirement you be in business at least 2 years, or that management has equivalent experience if the business is a startup.
Microloans
Microloans work for starting a business, purchasing equipment, buying inventory, or for working capital. Community based non-profits administer microloan programs as intermediaries. Financing comes directly from the Small Business Administration.
Credit Line Hybrid
A credit line hybrid is a form of unsecured business funding. With it, you can fund your business without putting up collateral. You only pay back what you use.
It is not as hard to qualify as you may think. Your personal credit needs to be good, as in at least 680. In addition, you can’t have any liens, judgments, bankruptcies or late payments. Furthermore, in the past 6 months you should have no more than 4 inquiries, and you should have less than a 45% balance on all business and personal credit cards. It’s also preferred that you have established business credit as well as personal credit.
However, if you do not meet all of the requirements, the credit line hybrid is still accessible. You can take on a credit partner that meets each of these requirements. 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 to tap into their credit to access funding. This makes a credit line hybrid an excellent option for bad credit business funding.
Credit Line Hybrid Benefits
There are many benefits to using a credit line hybrid. For example, it is unsecured, meaning you do not have to have any collateral to put up. Next, it is no-doc funding. This means you don’t have to provide any bank statements or financials.
Not only that, but typical approval is up to 5x that of the highest credit limit on the personal credit report. Also, it is possible to get interest rates as low as 0% for the first few months. That allows you to put that savings back into your business.
The process is usually fast, especially with a qualified expert to walk you through it. One other benefit is this. 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.
Alternative Lenders
These are also an option if your credit score is lacking. Remember, lenders change details such as requirements and rates frequently. Be sure to check with the specific lender for the most up to date information.
BlueVine
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.
Upstart
Upstart is an online lender unlike any other. It 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. Instead, they use a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to gather alternative data. Then, they 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. 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.
Check out our trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. Conquer any recession!
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 3 years. 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.
Crowdfunding Definition: The Down and Dirty Truth
Knowing the crowdfunding definition is just the first step. As with most else in the world, a definition isn’t enough. Once you know the crowdfunding definition, the hard part starts. You have to figure out if it is right for you and your business. It may work great, or it may not. Plan for the best and hope for the worst is a great motto to live by here. Do your research on how to run a great campaign, and spend the time necessary to thoroughly research platforms and determine which one will work best for your needs.
Then formulate your backup plan. Do you need loans, a credit line hybrid, or some combination? The time to figure that out is on the front end, before you need it. By the time you see the need is a reality, it could be too late.
The SERPs (search engine results pages) are the listings you see whenever you type a query into a search engine. For most of us (63%, plus 90% of mobile searches), that search engine will be Google, so if your website does well in Google’s SERPs, you’re going to see a lot of organic traffic. When …
The SERPs (search engine results pages) are the listings you see whenever you type a query into a search engine.
For most of us (63%, plus 90% of mobile searches), that search engine will be Google, so if your website does well in Google’s SERPs, you’re going to see a lot of organic traffic.
When it comes to digital marketing, organic traffic is something of a Holy Grail. Why? Because as opposed to paid advertising, where you pay to get eyes on your content, organic clicks = free clicks.
However, the SERPs aren’t as straightforward as they once were, and there are several ways they can influence the amount of organic traffic you get.
So, let’s take a look at some of the different forms of traffic, how the SERPs affect them, and how you can get your website noticed in SERPs.
What Types of SERP Results Are There?
When you look at a Google SERP or any other search engine results page, you will see two types of results: organic and paid.
The results in the red box are paid listings, and all the green ones are organic listings. Each has its positives and negatives, and its influence on the SERPs.
Paid Search Results
Google AdWords allows websites to show up at the top of the SERPs for their chosen keywords, and they pay Google every time someone clicks their ad.
These results display at the top and bottom of the SERP and have “Ad” written in bold letters next to the URL.
Our example search term of “CRM software” shown above shows the variety of ways a site can earn organic traffic from the SERPs.
We’re all used to the traditional organic listing of a meta title and description, but Google has added more SERP features in recent years. These features, such as the Featured Snippet and Knowledge Pack that you see in the example, can significantly impact organic traffic.
Whereas paid ads are a quick way to the top of the results pages (the highest bidders will generally win), competition for organic results is fierce and more complicated.;
The SERP is where the vast majority of an SEO’s hard work plays out. SEO is responsible for ensuring that your website shows up in the SERPS, gets its fair share of clicks, and ensures users find what they are looking for once they click-through to your website.
The SERPs and SEO are intrinsically linked. The steps you take in this area are the keys to building organic traffic and achieving your traffic goals.
You can reach the top positions in the SERPs, and you can build a significant volume of organic traffic; you’ve just got to be consistent with your SEO and follow the right steps.
Small Changes in the SERP Results Make a Big Difference to Your Traffic
Google and the other search engines’ primary objective is to provide the user with the perfect search query results. To do this, Google uses algorithms that employ hundreds of different factors to determine each person’s best possible search results.
This level of personalization means the SERPs can vary greatly. Here are some of the key aspects of the SERPs that can largely impact your organic traffic.
Ranking on Page One
When you get to a results page, do you ever make it to page two? Or do you skim the top handful of results to see which will help you?
On a rare occasion, we might click to the second page to see what’s there, but most of us choose from the top results, which is why there’s a massive drop off in traffic between page one and page two of the SERPs.
On page one, listings earn 88.7% of all clicks, leaving all the other pages to fight it out for the remaining 11.3%. This difference just goes to show the importance of ranking on page one — most people never make it to page two.
Not All Positions are Created the Same
So you are thinking, “That’s great, if I make it to page one, then I’ve got everything sorted.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
Although getting to page one of the SERP is a great start, it’s only part of the challenge. There’s a massive variance between the click-through rate (CTR = number of clicks divided by the number of times your listing is shown) for the top three results and the CTR for ones lower down. These positions influence your organic traffic.
You may have reached page one, but there’s clearly a huge incentive to get to the top.
What Aspects of the SERP Can Hold Your Organic Traffic Back?
In the last section, we mentioned that 88.7% of clicks go to page one results, but this doesn’t mean that 88.7% of all searches go to organic listings.
What are the major obstacles to getting more organic traffic?
Paid Traffic
Paid ads feature prominently in the SERPs, so it’s no surprise that they attract plenty of clicks. This traffic is significant, but it only actually makes up around 3.58% of all clicks.
The reason for this is that paid ads don’t appear for every search term.
Generally, there are three types of searches: informational, navigational, and transactional. Advertisers pay for every click and want a good return on their investment, so they tend to focus on transactional search terms with the highest buyer intent.
While it’s still possible to get organic clicks for these transactional search terms, it’s a good idea to use Ubersuggest to figure out which search terms are more likely to have a high share of paid clicks.
If you look at the cost per click (CPC) of your keyword, you can see which keywords are likely to be dominated by ads. As you can see in the results below, “CRM tools” has a high CPC, which means there are likely lots of people competing for it, and a higher likelihood you’re going to be competing with ads.
You can still gain organic clicks from these search terms, but you risk being pushed down the page by paid ads.
This search for “how to use CRM software” is a prime example. There are no organic results before the fold other than a video, meaning you have to scroll down before seeing even one traditional organic listing.
To do well in SERPs, you’ve got to be very focused on your keyword research to find the search terms with a realistic shot of gaining a prominent position in the SERP.
No-Click Searches
Google and the other search engines are always working to create a better search experience for their users. One way they have done this by introducing SERP features such as Featured Snippets and Knowledge Panels, giving people quick access to basic information.
In this search for “why use CRM,” we can see the power of the featured snippet.
With the Featured Snippet, Google gave the user a cursory answer without having to click on a link. That means that even though Salesforce has won the snippet, and SuperOffice has the first traditional organic listing, neither got the click. It’s a no-click search because the user can read the Snippet.
Of course, lots of people are going to be curious enough to click to Salesforce or SuperOffice to find out more, but some users’ curiosity is going to be satisfied by the Featured Snippet. No-click searches account for 49% of all searches.
How Can You Use the SERP to Get More Organic Traffic?
Despite the competition with paid ads and the numbers of no-click searches, there’s still more than enough organic traffic to go around. However, you’ve got to know how to use the SERPs to your advantage.
Every SERP has its leader of the pack, and these folks put a lot of work into maintaining that position, so you’ve got to work hard to unseat them.
So, how do you do that?
The great thing about SEO is you’re in complete control of the content you put out and how you appear in the SERP. If you use this wisely, you can significantly boost your CTR and positively influence your organic traffic. Here’s how.
Produce High-Quality, Relevant Content
Google wants to provide users with the most relevant answers to their search query. To rank higher, your page has to accomplish two critical things. First, it has to be relevant for the search query, and second, it has to be high-quality content.
If you’re not achieving these two goals, then Google has no incentive to put you on page one because you’re not helping searchers achieve their goals.
This element is where your keyword research comes in handy to help you figure out precisely what your audience wants to see. When you know what your target audience is looking for, then you can provide the hyper-relevant content that attracts people to your website.
The more people who click to your site and engage with the content, the more the search engines will reward you for helping them do their job.
Make Your Listing Stand Out
You have complete control over what your listing looks like in the SERP. You can edit your title, meta description, and use other aspects like structured data, so use this opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
If you’re ranked number three for a search term, then the top listing has an advantage over you. But you can turn that around by crafting a more engaging, more relevant title and description. (Google usually uses the page’s chosen title and description but does occasionally modify it.) Your listing is out there competing for clicks, so treat it like an advert and work to entice users.
Get Those SERP Features
Google will keep using those “extra” SERP features, so you might as well embrace it and make sure your website is featuring in them.
The SERP features might lead to a higher percentage of no-click searches, but they can also lead to much higher CTRs when you win them. Hubspot found that sites that land featured snippets have a dramatically higher click-through rate.
Featured Snippets, Knowledge Panels, Local Packs, Shopping Results: they all stand out and draw in users. If you can snag those features, you’ve got an excellent opportunity to boost your organic traffic.
A SERP is simply the results page users see when they type a query into Google or any other search engine, but it has the power to help you unlock the full potential of your website.
While they might seem complicated, there are tangible steps you can take to rank well in the SERPs and bring in the organic traffic you crave. While the search engines are always changing the SERPs, SEO and high-quality, relevant content can help you stay on top.
Now that you’ve got a good understanding of what the SERP is, it’s time to start optimizing your SEO to help your website achieve its goals.
What goals will more organic traffic help you reach?
I’m going to make a bet with you that if you follow the 3 steps below, and you really follow them, you can get 10,000 visitors from Google.
I promise it won’t be hard, but it will take time.
And if you follow my steps and don’t get the results, hit me up and I will personally help you with your marketing.
All I ask is you do it for 3 months straight. You may not get to 10,000 visitors from Google in 3 months as some niches are really tiny, but most of you should get there or be well on your way.
Again, if you prove to me that you followed everything below and you don’t achieve the results, you can get in touch and I will personally help you with your marketing for free.
Ready?
Step #1: Finding the right keywords
If you pick the wrong keywords, you’ll find yourself with little to no traffic and, even worse, you’ll find yourself with little to no sales.
So, before we get you on your way to more search traffic,
let’s find you the right keywords.
I want you to head to Ubersuggest and type in your
competitor’s domain name.
Now, I want you to click on the “Keywords” navigational
option in the sidebar.
This report will show you all of the keywords that your competition is ranking for.
If you don’t see a list of thousands of keywords, that means you didn’t type in a big enough competitor. And if you don’t know who a big competitor is, just do a Google search for any major term related to your industry. The sites at the top are your major competitors.
I want you to go through the list of keywords and look for all of the keywords that are related to your business and have an SEO Difficulty (SD) score of 40 or less. The higher the number, the harder the keyword is to rank for. The lower the number, the easier it is to rank for.
In addition to an SD score of 40 or lower, I want you to look for keywords that have a volume of 500 or more.
Volume means the number of people that search for the keyword on a monthly basis. The higher the number, the more potential visitors that term will drive once you rank for it.
Next up, I want you to click on “Top Pages” in the
navigation.
This will bring you to a report that looks like this:
This report shows you the most popular pages on your
competitor’s site.
Now, under the Est. Visits (Estimated Visits) column, I want you to click on “view all” for the first few results.
Every time you do that it shows you all of the keywords that
drive traffic to that page.
Just like you did with the keywords report, I want you to look at the keywords that have an SD of 40 or lower and a volume of 500 or more.
The one difference though, is that I want you to check out some of the URLs on the Top Pages report.
Click on over to the site so you can see the type of content they are writing. This is important because it will give you an idea of the types of content that Google likes to rank.
When you create similar pages (I will teach you how to do this shortly), it will allow you to get similar results to your competition over time.
Now that you have a handful of keywords, I want you to expand the list and find other related keywords.
In the navigation menu, click on “Keyword Ideas.”
When you type in one of the keywords you are thinking of going after in this report, it will give you a big list of other similar keywords.
This is important because it will show you all of the
closely related terms.
For example, let’s say you came up with a list of keywords of a handful of keywords, such as:
Dog food
Cat food
Dog bed
How to clean your cat
What do birds eat
You can’t just take all of those keywords and write one article and shove all the keywords in because they aren’t similar to each other. Someone looking for “dog beds” is probably not interested in reading about what birds eat.
So by typing in a keyword into the Keyword Ideas report, it will show you all of the other similar keywords that you can include in a single article.
When you are on the Keyword Ideas report you’ll notice some tabs: Suggestions, Related, Questions, Prepositions, and Comparisons.
I want you to go through each of those tabs. They will show you a different group of similar keywords that you may be able to include in your article (we will go over how to write the article in step 2).
Just take a look at the Questions tab:
You can see the keywords are drastically different than the Related tab:
Again, you’ll want to look for all keywords that have an SD score of 40 or lower. But this report looks for keywords that have a volume above 200.
I know 200 may seem like a small number, but if you find 100
good keywords that all have a volume of 200 or more, that adds up to 20,000
potential visitors per month. Or better yet, 240,000 per year.
Now it’s rare that you are going to get all of those people
to come to your site, but you can get a portion of them. Even 10% would add up…
especially if you did this with a handful of articles.
Your goal should be to have a list of at least 100 keywords that are very similar. You’ll want to do this at least five times. For example, remember that list of five keywords I mentioned above wasn’t too similar to each other…
Dog food
Cat food
Dog bed
How to clean your cat
What do birds eat
You’ll want to make sure that for each main keyword you use the Keyword Ideas report to find another 100 that can accompany each keyword.
Step #2: Write content
At this point, you should have a list of keywords. If your list of keywords isn’t at least 100 keywords per group, go back to step 1 and keep at it.
It’s not that hard to get to 100 similar keywords that you can include in one article. It just takes some time to continually search and find them.
In general, as a rule of thumb, I can find 100 keywords in
less than 8 minutes. It may take you a bit longer than me at first, but once
you get the hang of it, it’ll be easy.
With your newly found keywords, I want you to write an article.
All you have to do is follow this tutorial step-by-step to write your first article.
Or, if you prefer a video tutorial, watch this:
As for your keywords, naturally place them into the article when it makes sense.
What you’ll quickly learn is that you probably won’t be able
to “naturally” include all 100 keywords within your article. And that’s fine.
The last thing you want to do is stuff in keywords because you aren’t writing this article for just search engines, you are writing it for people… and the secondary benefit is that search engines will rank it because it contains the right keywords.
Before you make your article live on your site, I want you
to keep a few things in mind:
Keep your URLs short – Google prefers shorter URLs.
Include your main keyword in your headline – by having your main keyword in your headline, you’ll be more likely to rank higher.
Include your three main keywords in your meta tags – whether it is your title tag or meta description, include at least three main keywords in them. You won’t fit as many in your title tag, and that’s fine, but you should be able to within your meta description tag.
There are a lot of other things you can do to optimize your articles for SEO, but my goal is to keep this simple. Again, if you just follow these three steps, you’ll hit the 10,000-visitor mark.
So, for now, let’s just keep things simple and once you hit
your goal, then you can get into the advanced stuff.
Step #3: Promoting your content
Writing content is only half the battle. Even if you include the right keywords in your article, if you don’t promote, it’s unlikely that it would be read or rank on Google.
So how do you make sure your content is read and ranks well?
Well, first you need to get social shares, and second, you need to get backlinks.
Yes, search engines don’t necessarily rank pages higher when
they get more Facebook shares or tweets, but the more eyeballs that see your
page the more likely you are to get backlinks.
And the more backlinks you get, generally, the higher you will rank.
So here’s how you get social shares…
First, I want you to go to Twitter and search for keywords related
to your article.
As you scroll down, you’ll see thousands of people tweeting about stuff related to your keywords. Some of them will just be general updates but look for the members sharing articles.
And…
Now what I want you to do is click on their profile and see if they mention their contact information or their website. If they mention their email you are good to go. If they mention their website, head to it, and try to find their contact information.
You won’t be able to find everyone’s contact information,
but for the people you do, I want you to send them this email:
Subject: [insert the keyword you searched for on Twitter]
Hey [insert their first name],
I saw that you tweeted out [insert the title of the article they tweeted]. I actually have an article that I recently released on that subject.
But mine covers [talk about what your article covers and how it is unique].
[insert link to your article]
If you like it, feel free to share it.
Cheers,
[insert your name]
PS: Let me know if you want me to share anything for you on Twitter or any other social network.
What you’ll find is a large percentage of the people will be willing to share your content because they already are sharing related content and, of course, you offered to share their content, which helps out too.
If you send out 30 to 40 emails like this, you’ll start
getting traction on the social web.
Now that you have social shares, it’s time to build backlinks. Instead of giving you tons of link building methods as there are many that work, I am just going to start you off with one that works very well.
I want you to head back to the Keyword Ideas report on
Ubersuggest.
Once you get there, type in some of the keywords that you are trying to go after.
On the right side of the report, you’ll see a list of sites that rank and the number of backlinks that each of the ranking URLs has.
Click on the “Links” number. For each result, it will take you to the Backlinks report, which looks something like this:
This will give you a list of all the sites linking to your
competitor’s article.
I want you to go to each of those URLs, find the site owner’s contact information, and shoot them an email that looks like this:
Subject: [name of their website]
Hey [insert their name],
I noticed something off with your website.
You linked to [insert your competitor that they linked to] on this page [insert the page on their site that they are linking to them from].
Now you may not see anything wrong with that, but the article you linked to isn’t helping out your website readers that much because it doesn’t cover:
[insert a few bullet points on how your article is better and different]
You should check out [insert your article] because it will provide a better experience for your readers.
If you enjoyed it, feel free to link to it.
Cheers,
[insert your name]
PS: If I can ever do anything to help you out, please let me know.
I want you to send out 100 of those emails for each article
you write.
Conclusion
Yes, it takes work to get 10,000 visitors but once you do it you’ll continually generate traffic and, more importantly, sales.
To achieve 10,000 visitors, I want you to do the steps above five times. In other words, you will be writing five pieces of new content following the steps above.
It’s actually not that bad because you can just do 1 a week.
So, within 5 weeks you would have done your job.
So, are you going to accept the challenge? If you do everything and don’t see the results over time, you can hit me up and I’ll help.
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