Have you heard the line ‘ if you build it, they will come’? In case you don’t know, it’s from the late 80s Kevin Costner movie ‘Field of Dreams.’
It’s an inspiring quote, but when local business owners set up their websites, it doesn’t really hold true. They believe once they’re set up online, prospects start flocking to their doors wanting quotes, making orders, or signing up for their mailing lists. However, that isn’t the case for many people.
According to the same survey, 42.85 percent believe that Google favors larger brands. Now, don’t get me wrong. High-profile businesses do tend to perform better online simply because more people are looking for them. However, that doesn’t mean your local company website can’t compete for local keywords.
All it takes is some careful local keyword research and a detailed local SEO strategy, and that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about today.
Why Is Local SEO Important?
Local SEO is valuable because it helps small companies reach potential customers who are looking for products or services in their area.
For example, if you own a home repair business, you would want to target people in your local area who may need your services. In other words, local keyword research targets potential customers who are already interested in what you have to offer.
When done correctly, local keyword research:
Generates more leads and sales.
Helps you rank higher in local search results, increasing website traffic.
Makes it easier for searchers to find you when they’re searching for local businesses on their mobile devices.
Builds trust and credibility with potential customers through reviews.
Research also supports the importance of local SEO. According to Statista, 35 percent of consumers go online multiple times weekly to find local businesses.
That’s not all, though. The research shows that 21 percent of consumers use the internet daily to find local businesses.
These stats demonstrate that as a local business, you need to be visible online, but perhaps you need some more evidence? Okay, here goes.
There are plenty of case studies showing how small businesses can benefit from local keyword research and SEO optimization. Just search for ‘local SEO case studies’, and you can see what I mean.
What Makes Local Keyword Research Unique
As I’ve already detailed, the main focus of local SEO and local keyword research is attracting more leads and gaining more customers.
However, aside from using local SEO to target a particular geographic area, there’s plenty more that makes local SEO different.
The most obvious is Google’s ranking factors. With local searches, the search engine giant considers several vital areas, such as:
The searcher’s location
The sentiment and keywords in online reviews
Name, address, and phone number quotations
A Google My Business profile and relevant keywords
Verify your location, to help improve visibility in local search.
Keep your opening hours up to date, especially around holiday times. This lets local consumers know you’re open, so they don’t have a wasted visit.
Manage/respond to reviews, to show you appreciate and act on feedback. Review management is also essential as positive reviews inspire consumer confidence, and can enhance business visibility.
Add photos and in-store listings. Images showcase your store and products, to give customers a deeper understanding of what you’re selling and whether the products are right for them.
Google also considers relevance, distance, and prominence (your overall web presence), including content, backlinks, and directory listings.
Another factor that makes local keyword research unique is the emphasis on modifiers. The search terms you integrate into writing must be super specific to your location. For example, if you’re a business in Austin, Texas, you would want to use keywords like ‘Austin restaurants’ rather than just ‘restaurants.’
Additionally, voice search is essential to local SEO. Research shows that 74 percent of people use voice search at least weekly to find local businesses, while 76 percent of voice search users choose smart speakers at least once a week, with most searching daily.
The above graphic also includes some useful tips you can introduce into your local keyword research strategy.
How To Find The Best Local Keywords
You know the importance of local keyword research, but how do you discover the best ones to use? Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as it may seem. Just follow these tips.
Find Industry-Related Local Keywords
To do this, first, consider what you offer and what services or products you want to promote; then brainstorm a list of keywords related to your business.
Alternatively, a simple way to find local-based keywords is using Google search results. Type in your main keyword and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you’ll see a section called ‘related searches.’ For example, a small business located in Miami could target the keyword ‘Miami dentist.’
Then:
Once you have a list of keywords, do online research to see how popular they are. You can use tools like Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, or Google Trends to get this information. You could also use tools like Ubersuggest to analyze competitor keywords and see if it’s feasible to overtake them in the rankings.
Another way is to type a keyword into the Google search bar and watch as the autocomplete suggestions appear, giving you some great ideas for related local keywords.
Use Keyword Modifiers
Using keyword modifiers lets you focus your efforts on specific areas or types of searches for targeted traffic and better results from your local SEO efforts.
These modifiers can include location-based terms like ‘near me,’ ‘in my area,’ or ‘local.’ Or you might use ‘car mechanic Cincinnati’ or ‘local mechanic Cincinnati.’
Again, use Autosuggest, related search, or competitive keyword research to see the terms others are using.
Consider Keyword Intent
What are your prospects looking for? Are they looking to buy a product or service, find out more information, or just browsing? Once you know the searcher’s intent, you can better target your keywords and content to meet their needs. Use the same techniques, like Autosuggest, to get an idea of the keywords users are typing in.
When you do a geographical search by entering a location in the search bar, you get a ‘pick list,’ which includes places and likely search terms.
Once you have a list of keywords, it’s essential to analyze them and determine which ones are the best fit for your business.
Implicit Vs. Explicit Local Keywords
When doing local keyword research, there are two main ways to target your audience: implicit and explicit.
Implicit targeting is when a user searches for a term like ‘hardware store’ or ‘DIY.’ but doesn’t include specifics like location.
In simple terms, Google basically guesses what you’re looking for and offers your location-based results.
To find out what implicit local keywords might be important to your business, do some research online and talk to your customers. Ask them how they would search for a company like yours if they were looking for one in their area.
On the other hand, explicit local keyword targeting involves search terms that people use when looking for your product or service. For example, ‘Dentist in Santa Barbara’ or ‘Hairdresser in Venice Beach.’
How To Use Your Competition In Your Local Keyword Research
Can you really steal your competitors’ keywords? Absolutely! Just use a tool to conduct competitive research to find out what keywords they’re using.
There are a few ways to assess and use your competition in your local keyword research:
1. Look at the keywords they are targeting and see if there are any that you’re also targeting. Chances are, if your competitors are targeting a keyword, it’s because it’s profitable and has a lot of search volume.
2. See what their website looks like and how they rank for their target keywords. This can give you ideas on how to improve your website and rank higher for your target keywords. For less competition, you could take the opposite approach and target keywords your rivals aren’t using. Just make sure they’ve got a worthwhile search volume.
3. Review what content they are creating around their target keywords.
4. Look at the SERPs and pay attention to keywords. These terms are usually in bold.
Now let’s look at some tools to make your local keyword research easier.
The Best Local SEO Keyword Research Tools
I’ve already referenced my tool. Ubersuggest, but it’s worthy of another mention here. It’s an easy-to-use tool that delivers:
SERPStat to help you further analyze your competition and for SEO purposes.
Ultimately, the best way to find the right keywords for your business is to experiment with different tools and techniques and analyze what works for you.
FAQs
What is Local Keyword Research?
Local keyword research aims to identify relevant keywords that people are likely to use when searching for businesses like yours online.
How do I research keywords for local SEO?
Using the right tools is essential. After all, if potential customers can’t find you in your area, you’re missing out on a lot of business. Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, and Moz’s Keyword Planner all get you off to a great start. Then there’s competitive analysis, viewing the SERPs to see what’s ranking, and using autocomplete.
How do I find the best local keywords?
When it comes to doing local keyword research, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Consider what your customers might search for when they want to find your business and brainstorm. Then, conduct local keyword research with tools like Ubersuggest, Google’s Autosuggest, or People Also Ask. You can also view the SERPs and look for keywords.
By understanding the keywords people in your area are searching for, you can create content and advertising that speaks to them directly, and by using the right tools like Ubersuggest, it’s easy to find out what those keywords are.
Search intent is also a vital part of online visibility, so don’t overlook that area if you want local customers to discover you online.
Do you use local keyword research? Share how you got your business on the map below.
Is your content not getting the results it deserves?
Unfortunately, in today’s ultra-competitive, crowded SERPs, creating great content isn’t enough. You need to optimize it effectively if you want it to rank and sell.
That doesn’t just mean optimizing content for Google. You also need to optimize your content for readability and for conversions.
Confused? This is the guide for you. I’ll show you a step-by-step guide for optimizing your content. We’ll cover:
what content optimization is
why you need content optimization
how to optimize your content for SEO
how to optimize your content for readability and style
how to optimize your content for conversions
common optimization mistakes
Ready? Let’s begin.
What Is Content Optimization?
Content optimization is the practice of updating and improving your content so it has the best possible chance of achieving its goals. That goal could be ranking in Google, but it could also be converting readers into customers or acquiring backlinks. In many cases, it’s a combination of several of these metrics.
Why Do You Need Content Optimization?
From an SEO standpoint, content optimization is essential if you want to rank. You might have written the best article in the world from a reader’s perspective. But if you don’t optimize content for Google, it won’t rank.
Getting your content to rank in Google has many additional benefits. These include:
earning backlinks
growing your audience
increasing leads
building trust
Optimizing your content for readability improves audience engagement and helps your brand to build trust with readers. It can also help to position your brand as an authority. It’s a lot easier to trust a brand that clearly puts time into content creation compared to one that puts out barely legible content.
Optimizing content for conversions is critical if you want to squeeze as much money out of your efforts as possible. You’ll never write the best-converting piece of copy the first time around, which is why tweaking your headings, targeting new keywords, and improving your CTA is vital. In addition, goals for conversion may change over time, and you want to make sure your content adapts with them.
How To Optimize Content For SEO
Improving your content’s rankings is the primary reason for content optimization. So let’s start by looking at how to optimize content for SEO.
Keyword Research
Optimizing content for SEO starts with keyword research. You need to make sure you’re targeting a keyword that
has traffic potential
you can rank for
Ubersuggest is one of the best ways to find suitable keywords. Use the Keyword Ideas tool to enter a seed keyword and get a list of relevant keywords along with their potential volume and SEO difficulty.
You’ll want to choose the keyword that best represents your content, but also has a decent amount of traffic and a realistic keyword difficulty. If your site is new, there’s little point optimizing for a term with an SEO difficulty in excess of 50. You’re fighting an uphill battle from the start.
You can also use this tool to find semantically related keywords that you should also use in your content. The more of these topics you include, the easier it will be for search engines to understand what your content is about.
Competitor Research
Once you have your keywords, it’s time to see what’s currently ranking on Google. In particular, you need to make sure your content aligns with what users are searching for. Luckily, that’s pretty easy to understand by analyzing each of the top-ranking results. Open them up and look at:
The page type: is it a blog post, an e-commerce page, or something else?
The format: is it a listicle, a how-to guide, or a review?
The content: Do the top pages write about the same thing? Do they all come at the topic in a similar way?
Don’t try to be unique here. If Google is prioritizing blog posts over e-commerce pages for a certain query, then you need to create a blog post. The same goes for the content’s format and angle. Understand what Google wants and then deliver it.
Don’t just create cookie-cutter content, however. By analyzing the content for each page, you can see what’s missing and find places to add your own perspective.
Integrate Keywords Into Your Content:
At the same time, you’re editing your content to align with Google’s preferred format, make sure you’re integrating your keywords into your content.
You should include keywords in the page’s:
title
meta description
H1 tag
image alt tags
You should also naturally include your main and related keywords throughout your copy. Be careful of keyword stuffing, however. Keyword stuffing is when you fill a webpage with a specific term. Not only does this provide a terrible user experience for your readers — who have to trip over the phrase every other sentence — but it will also get your site penalized by Google.
“Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.”
Add Internal and External Links
Internal linking is criminally overlooked when it comes to content optimization. The more internal links you have on your site, the easier search bots can crawl it, and the more link authority will be passed between pages.
Internal linking also makes it easier for humans to navigate your site.
When optimizing a page, list all related pages on your site and find a way to link to them naturally in the copy. Then go to each of these pages and make sure there is a link back to the page you’re optimizing.
How To Optimize Content For Style and Readability
Next, let’s look at how to improve your content from a human perspective. There’s no point in having an article that ranks well if users aren’t going to spend time reading it. At the same time, the more readers engage with your content, the better your rankings will be.
Improve Your Content’s Structure
Does your content look like a stream of consciousness, or is it carefully structured and easy to scan? If it’s more the former than the latter, then you’re going to need to reassess your content’s structure.
Luckily, improving your content’s structure and increasing visual comprehension is easily done:
Add a table of contents at the start of the post
Use bullet points to break up paragraphs
Use headings and subheadings
Add a takeaway sentence at the end of section
Add Images and Other Media
Another way to improve your content’s structure is to add images and videos to your content. Make sure the images are relevant and add to the content — in other words, limit the use of stock photos.
When you add images, improve your SEO by adding keyword-rich,descriptive titles and alt tags to all of them. But again, be careful of keyword-stuffing.
Imagine I’m writing an article about choosing the right sized moving truck and I want to include the following image:
Here’s a bad example of a title and description for this image.
Title: truck.png
Alt text: moving truck
Neither are particularly descriptive, despite including the keyword.
Here’s another bad example:
Title: moving truck.png
Alt text: moving truck image to find the right sized moving truck
This is a classic example of keyword-stuffing. The alt text has too many keywords that it becomes unreadable.
Here’s what the title and alt text should look lke
Title: loading-moving-truck.png
Alt text: Loading a moving truck with black crates
Both the title and alt text accurately describe the image and include a relevant keyword once. Were someone to use a screen reader on this image, they’d be able to imagine what it looks like fairly easily.
Optimize for Readability
If your users are spending their valuable time reading your content, make sure it’s a great experience.
There are lots of ways to improve your writing:
Use a spellchecker to eliminate errors.
Eliminate fluff like cliches and words like “that.”
Use short sentences and write as you speak.
Vary sentence length, so your copy isn’t monotonous.
Write in an engaging tone.
Tools like Hemingway, Grammarly, and Writer are fantastic additions to your arsenal when it comes to improving your content’s readability.
Grammarly and Writer are writing assistants that will improve your spelling, grammar, and clarity. Think of them as spellcheckers on steroids.
So not only will they highlight spelling mistakes and suggest places to add an Oxford comma, they’ll also offer style and tone suggestions.
In the example below, for instance, Grammarly suggests you replace “very helpful” with “constructive” because it’s a stronger and more concise alternative.
Both platforms have their own app and can be integrated into common writing tools. Writer, for instance, offers add-ons for Chrome, Microsoft Word and Figma. Grammarly can be integrated into an even wider range of tools, including Gmail, Outlook, Slack, LinkedIn, Notion, Google Docs and even Salesforce.
Hemingway can also improve your grammar, but it excels in suggesting ways to make your copy bolder, more concise, and more engaging.
For instance, it highlights hard-to-read sentences, suggests simpler phrases, and gives your content a readability score. It won’t turn you into Heminway, but it can certainly help you write with more style.
Choosing the right topic is the first step to driving sales with content. Just as you did when optimizing for SEO, make sure the keyword you’re targeting has a high user intent. You can use Ubersuggest to analyze keywords, but the following sources are also a great way to find suitable topics:
Reddit
Quora
Alexa
Buzzsumo
Bonus points if your product or service is relevant to the keywords. For instance, we can use the related questions tab on Quora to find a great list of blog topics for a company that sells kitchen knives.
“Is a good chef knife worth it?” and “what is the best type of kitchen knife?” are great high-intent information-based topics that may be easier to rank for than a more general keyword like “best kitchen kife”.
Be Persuasive
There are several persuasive strategies you can use to make your copy much more enticing. These include:
Add social proof to show real people love your product.
Write in a friendly tone to get on your reader’s good side.
Show your product works through case studies.
If you can combine several of these points in a single piece of content, even better. Take this blog post about e-commerce website security by BigCommerce as an example:
In a section about fraud protection, they include a quote from a store owner explaining how a specific app on the BigCommerce platform helped them reduce chargebacks after losing thousands of dollars in merchandise.
Not only does it show BigCommerce apps work, it also proves they are used by real retailers.
Improve your CTA
Every piece of high-converting content features at least one call-to-action. CTAs can take many forms. You could:
promote a free trial
encourage email sign ups
add links to relevant products
CTAs typically come at the end of a landing page or blog post, but they doen’t have to. Buffer, for instance, include an email signup CTA in the middle of their blog post.
Note how hard it is to miss and how far down it is on the page. That’s on purpose. If you’ve read this far, there’s a good chance you enjoy the content and will want to be updated whenever a new post goes live. This CTA wouldn’t be half as effective if it was used at the start of the article.
What Are Common Content Optimization Mistakes?
Now that we’ve looked at the three major methods you can use to optimize your content, let’s cover the most common content optimization mistakes I see time and again.
Not aligning content with search intent. Don’t just optimize your content for a specific keyword, optimize for the intent behind that keyword. If it’s an informational query, like “how to groom my puppy” make sure you write a how-to guide and don’t just sell your grooming tool.
Failing to improve the reader experience. Many site owners spend ages improving their content’s SEO, but give no thought to the reader experience. The result is a lot of traffic but a huge bounce rate and no conversions.
Not adding internal links. Internal links are an easy way to optimize a number of pages at once, yet they are criminally underused.
Not improving the content. Content optimization isn’t just about adding keywords. You also need to make sure you cover a topic in its totality to rank well.
Not deleting irrelevant content. At the same time, you should delete content that’s outdated.
Over-optimizing content. It’s possible to go too far and stuff your content full of keywords. Avoid this at all costs. Not only will Google penalize your site, but it will also create a poor user experience.
FAQs
What is content optimization?
Content optimization is the process of improving your content so that it ranks better on Google and is more digestible to human readers.
How do I optimize my content?
There are several ways to optimize your content. You can improve your content’s SEO so that it ranks better in Google. You can improve its structure and readability so that it’s more engaging. And you can improve its sales elements like the CTA so that it converts more readers.
Why is content optimization important?
Content optimization offers a ton of benefits. It can bring better rankings, a larger audience, more backlinks and help you build trust.
Conclusion
Optimizing your content is essential if you want it to be read and drive conversions.. A well-optimized mediocre article will always perform better than a poorly optimized but well-written article.
So make sure you optimize your content for the right keywords, use tools like Grammarly and Hemingway to improve your copy and, and think about ways you can improve your copy’s conversion rate.
Do all three, and you’ll have a killer piece of content that ranks well, engages readers, and sells.
If you want your blog posts to perform well, one simple way is to achieve this is by writing magnetic headlines. By playing around with your title after publishing a post, you may significantly increase the post’s conversion rate.
Traffic to your post will vary depending on the power of your headline. If you fail to make it impactful and clickable, every other marketing step that you take will be a total waste of time.
Step #1: Use Specific Numbers and Data in Your Headline
Integrating specific numbers and data into your headline is an effective way to make your article more enticing to readers. Several research studies have shown that headlines with numbers tend to generate more social shares and engagement.
According to Debra Jason, one of the reasons why using numbers works in your headlines is because numbers are like “brain candy.” They are addictive, and our minds can’t get enough of them.
Additionally, it’s very important to understand the science behind odd numbers in particular. Often, you find viral blog posts with seemingly random numbers in the headlines and you may have stopped to wonder why the authors didn’t use even numbers in their list post. For example, from Buzzfeed.com:
According to the Content Marketing Institute, the brain seems to believe odd numbers more than even numbers. Odd numbers help people digest and recall information more easily.
What’s more, when they tested their hypothesis and tweaked their headline to include the number 7, click-through rates increased by 20%.
We’ve also found that instead of using the word “seven,” you should always replace it with the numeral “7” in headlines. Meaning instead of writing “Seven Steps To Start A Home Business,” use “7 Steps To Start a Home-Based Business” to appeal to the number-craving side of our minds.
We’ll also let you in on another secret. If you’re writing a step-by-step guide, don’t include more than nine steps, because the human brain typically finds it difficult to process more than nine items at a time. However, if you’re writing about tools or different ways to do a thing, there is no limit to the number you can use.
Step #2: Utilize a Unique Rationale
I’ve used unique rationales to write great headlines (if I say so myself) that went viral. The word “rationale” simply means “an underlying reason why something should be done.” If you want people to read your content, do you have a good reason why they should?
With 59% of people sharing content without reading it first, we need to make sure our headlines appeal to people who will. To avoid wasting time on content, give people a strong reason why they should click, read and above all: share your content.Businesses that have a blog experience twice as much email traffic as businesses who don’t.
Some of the rationales that you can include in your headlines are:
Tips ✅
Reasons ✅
Lessons ✅
Tricks ✅
Ideas ✅
Ways ✅
Principles ✅
Facts ✅
Secrets ✅
Strategies ✅
Here are some examples of our rationale in action:
5 Tips to Write Blog Introductions Like a Pro
15 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way as a 3-Year-Old Blogger
8 Principles for Designing a Perfect Landing Page
17 Facts About Content Marketing That You Didn’t Know
6 Insights to the Future of Search Engine Optimization
3 Secrets to Make Your List Post Sing
4 Headline Writing Tips to Make Your Titles Soar
Step #3: Call for Attention
The purpose of the headline is to get your viewer to read the first sentence. Every headline should call for attention. “Attention” simply means mental focus and serious concentration on a given task.
If you’re a small business owner, one of the ways to acquire and retain customers is by engaging them with great content.
After all, great content always starts with a headline that captures your reader’s attention.
You’ve got to convince your customers and prospects to keep reading. The headline can build that momentum for you.
So, instead of putting all your time and energy into getting email subscribers and making sales, start focusing on using headlines to get people to read the first sentence.
That should be your headline’s true purpose. If you accomplish that goal, the introduction, the subtitles, the bullet points, and the storytelling will take care of the rest and convert the reader into a customer.
Before I show you some simple ways to write headlines that will call for attention, here are four rules to follow. They’re considered the “4 Us” of writing attention-driven headlines:
The four Us are:
make the headline unique
be ultra-specific
convey a sense of urgency
provide something useful
1) Make the Headline Unique
A blogger friend of mine once told me that anytime he finds a compelling headline while reading, he will tweak it and make it unique for his audience.
“Unique” means being “one of a kind.” In other words, your headline has to be different from others.
But, how do you test for uniqueness?
Simple: plug it into Google and enclose the headline in double quotation marks. Here’s an example:
Note: You’ve got to use the double quotation marks in order to get the exact result you want. In the above Google search results, the headline has “no results found.”
Of course, thousands of people may be targeting the same keyword (conversion rate optimization), but your goal is to write a headline that no one else has.
2) Be Ultra-Specific With Your Headlines
The second rule for writing a headline that calls for attention is: be ultra-specific.
Your content’s headline drives every piece that you put out there, no matter what format or platform you use to publish it.
Your prospects have questions and they want answers. If you can provide them with an ultra-specific headline and the answer to their questions, you can convert them into loyal readers and customers.
The more precise you can be, the more authority you’ll command in your industry and the easier you’ll find it to build a strong connection with customers.
There are times when you might want to mask the content’s real purpose from your target audience and use click triggers, such as power words and strong adjectives in your headline.
There’s nothing wrong with this, exactly. However, headlines that are ultra-specific give the reader a sense of what they should expect, when they click to read the content.
Whether you’re an established content marketer or a beginner, you need to set specific and realistic objectives. Don’t confuse your readers with your headline. Avoid vagueness. Get straight to the point.
If you’re sharing five steps to achieve something, go ahead and make it known in the headline. This is another reason why you need to choose your niche carefully.
Unless your blog is about “everything technology,” you don’t have to write headlines on different topics the way Mashable and TechCrunch do.
Know your audience and write headlines that indicate your posts will about topics that meet their needs.
So, how do you write such ultra-specific headlines?
Let’s assume that your target keyword is “small business plan.” Here are specific headline variations that would work:
3 Simple Steps to Write a Small Business Plan for Beginners
Top 10 Small Business Plan Templates That Succeeded
Learn How to Write a Small Business Plan From Scratch
Step-by-Step Process for Writing a Small Business Plan in 30 Minutes
Do you see how specific the above headlines are? The bolded portions contain phrases that make the entire headline ultra-specific (directed at something). Admittedly, they may not be unique – it’s very difficult to achieve both uniqueness and specificity in a single headline.
Steve Kamb, of NerdFitness.com, writes specific headlines about meals that help you stay fit and healthy.
I’ve studied Peep Laja’s headline styles for a long time, as well. He uses only specific titles that help his conversion rate optimization community. Here’s an example:
3) Convey a Sense Of Urgency: Don’t miss out!
Derek Christian, founder of Cleaning Business Today, once said that “effective marketing boils down to creating a fear of losing out on an amazing deal.”
Unless you infuse your headline with urgency, your readers are likely to put off reading your content or possibly bookmark it and never come back to it again. The purpose is to get readers to click your headline now.
Your own case may not be health-related, but we’re all in the same boat. Everybody is looking for the propelling force that will nudge them to do something right now and not put it off until tomorrow or next year. That’s what urgency does, when you use it in your headline writing.
A sense of urgency is not only applicable to content marketing. It cuts across your personal life and productivity as well. Hyatt simplifies it:
Copywriters usually improve conversion rates when they strategically use a sense of urgency in their copy. Potential customers tend to respond quickly, because their psychology is wired to persuade them to buy based on emotions, but to justify that decision based on logic.
Scarcity and urgency are two powerful copy elements that usually go together to produce outstanding results.
Ecommerce sites use urgency and scarcity a lot. This is how Amazon uses both elements, to sell more physical products, especially in the electronics and gadgets category:
Urgency-based headlines will always grab attention, because it makes the reader anticipate what comes next. Consider Upworthy’s well-known headlines:
Ideally, you want to tailor your message to where your customers are in the decision process.
They’re not going to ignore your headline, because they don’t want to miss out on what’s on the other side of the headline. The only way that they can find their answers is to click and read.
4) Provide Something Useful
The last rule that you should definitely follow, if you want your headlines to grab attention and get the job done, is to make them useful. The above three rules – uniqueness, ultra-specific and urgency – all correlate with usefulness.
If your headline and content aren’t useful, no matter how much urgency you employ, it will fail. In fact, there is no way to write a specific and unique piece of content, without it being useful at the same time.
Useful can mean several things – practical, helpful, valuable, informative, worthwhile, beneficial, advantageous and so on. The bottom line is to help the readers experience hope, knowing that their problem can still be solved.
Just remember: Don’t forget to include plenty of data in your blog posts, capture screenshots and write in-depth posts, because studies show that content length affects search rankings and conversions. Adding data creates credibility, traffic and above all: usefulness.
Do you understand 4 Us of writing attention-grabbing headlines? Are you ready to put them into action?
It’s time to look at the various ways you can write powerful headlines that generate qualified clicks and leads for your business.
1) State the Obvious in Your Headline:
Write headlines that are easy to understand. The moment a potential reader stumbles on your web page from anywhere, they shouldn’t need any help to figure out what you’re talking about.
I have to point out here that most headlines with a sense of urgency usually lack clarity of purpose. The purpose of the headline is to get people to click, so that you can earn a better ROI. The purpose is not to appear clever or educated.
Another way to confuse readers is to use words and phrases that aren’t common. Readers don’t want to know which university you attended or your academic status (unless you run an educational blog, of course).
Instead, demonstrate your cleverness through your ability to explain complicated issues and make them simpler for the ordinary person.
Use simple words to express yourself and convey your message. If your readers are hungry for useful information, don’t ask if they’re famished. Both words mean the same thing. But one is more commonly used than the other (and it’s great for SEO!)
Examples of confusing headlines that you should avoid are:
Don’t use: 12 Meticulous Savings Tips For The Financial Amateur
Instead use: 12 Effective Saving Tips For Those Who Want Extra Cash
Never use: How to Annihilate Inflammation of Skin Due to Unfavorable Weather
But use: How to Get Rid of Acne and Other Annoying Skin Conditions
Never ever use: Top 10 Ubiquitous Places to Find Ravishing Blog Post Theses
Feel free to use: Top 10 Places to Find Useful Blog Post Ideas
Sure, you’ve got to raise the bar in your content. But, always use common words and adjectives that people can relate to. That’s how you can encourage fellow internet marketers, content marketers and bloggers to share your content, especially on LinkedIn.
Now take a look at the screenshot below. You’ll notice that this article appears in the Harvard Business Review, but the headline is a bit confusing. Let’s see if we can make it better:
Quick problem: The above headline could be written much more clearly. Let’s do it:
How To Move Up And Not Get Stuck In Your Boss’s Shadow
How You Can Move Up Easily in Your Workplace
A typical landing page headline, with both clarity and simplicity, is this one, from Rainmaker.fm:
Digital Photography School, a popular content-rich site that was founded by Darren Rowse, has some clear and clickable headlines. Even though the photography niche/industry has some technical terms, the authors ensure they don’t confuse readers.
2) Use Interesting Adjectives in Your Headlines
Adjectives are important in both spoken and written English language.
Adjectives are great for emotive writing and pulling your audience along with you on a story, keeping them engaged and interested.
As a content writer, you can use adjectives to give your headline a boost and make it super-attractive to your audience’s needs.
Jeff Goins provided some examples of interesting adjectives that you can use to create your headline:
Fun
Painstaking
Free
Strange
Incredible
Effortless
Absolute
Essential
And so much more…
Here are some headline examples that use the adjectives:
Fun headline:
“Incredible” headline, at DPS.com:
And, here is the “free” headline:
3) Flag the Reader in Your Headlines
Dan Kennedy once introduced the “flagging technique” and it’s a powerful way to write headlines for both copy and blog posts. You already know one of the basic techniques, which involves addressing the readers as “you.”
Personally, I use “you” in a lot of my headlines. I discovered that for every headline that contains ‘you,’ the engagement is very high. The word “you” connects and captivates your readers, on a personal level.
Since the majority of your competitors are also using content to reach and attract customers, you’ve got to reach your prospects on their level, whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer.
Beyond that, address your readers and write headlines specifically for them. I’ve used this approach several times and it works. Here are examples:
For Clickbank Affiliates Only: Double Your Affiliate Commission in 15 Minutes a Day
WordPress Fashion Bloggers: 4 Ways to Secure Your Blog Against Hackers
Struggling Bloggers: Create an Endless Stream of Content Ideas With This 1 Website
Calling All Struggling Bloggers: Use These 3 Strategies to Get More Blog Visitors
4) Use Emotional Words in Your Headlines
All words are not created equal. Some words have the power to prompt change, while others simply reaffirm the status quo. Some words can make people cry, while others can evoke joy.
Emotionally impactful words are popularly referred to as “power words.” Here are some emotional power words that you can use to give your readers a pep talk and spur them into action:
Here are a few examples of unique headlines that use some of the power words:
How to Conquer Writer’s Block in 6 Simple Steps
Case Study: How Courage Helped Me to Build a 6 Figure Online Business
The Best Way to Write From Your Heart and Connect With Customers
Audacity of Content Marketing: 3 Secrets to Outsmart Your Competitors
Note: You can use one or more power words in your headline. But, make sure that they’re useful for the user and read naturally, so you don’t get a Google penalty for “keyword-bombing”.
Be warned, there are people who use emotional words in the wrong way – to deceive and manipulate consumers, or even create “clickbait”– that’s not what we’re trying to do here.
Your purpose is to use power words in the right manner – to increase the conversion rate for your emails, blog posts, copy and adverts. Words have power, so use them wisely.
Appealing to your customer’s emotions should increase your sales and social shares in a significant manner.
Once you understand that, you’ll quit pushing sales messages to them all of the time. Instead, focus on answering their questions. Legit marketing is about building relationships, not chasing customers away.
What makes a headline good is it’s structure – aka “the formula.” Every authority blogger and content marketer has one or more formulas for writing headlines.
I have mine and, sometimes, I tweak and test different headlines, before deciding which one works best. When using formulas, make sure to include power words that will get people to buy your product or join your waiting list.
Some bloggers prefer to write their content first, before crafting the headline. I don’t do that. However, there is no hard and fast rule. What works for me may not be the right approach for you.
We’ve addressed some ways to write a powerful headline. But, I also love the way that Bronn outlines a simple approach to make your headlines stand out, using the acronym “SHINE“:
S – Specificity
H – Helpfulness
I – Immediacy
N – Newsworthiness
E – Entertainment value
To make it easier for you, consider adopting the headline formula used by many fitness experts. They first identify the problem, then offer a solution and then make a promise.
That’s not all. There are plenty of easy solutions to powerful headlines, such as:
1) The “Little Known Ways” Formula
How many times have you used this formula to write a catchy headline? Each of the words in the formula is emotionally driven. These types of headlines usually pop into people’s minds, even well after they’ve seen them.
People like simplicity and appreciate when little things build up to something significant. Big Data is the by-product of little data, collected over time, eventually becoming a giant database of data.
Here are a few “little known ways” headlines digital marketers are likely to use:
3 Little-Known Steps to Monetize a Brand New Blog Successfully
How These 5 Little Known Secrets Increased My Search Traffic by 54%
17 Little-Known Ways to Increase Conversion Rate
2) The “Get Rid of [Problem] Once and For All” Formula
Who wouldn’t want to permanently get rid of an annoying problem that they’re faced with on a daily basis? When you write your headlines with this strategy in mind, you’ll captivate your audience from start to finish, because they want to know the secret, too.
This headline formula is mostly applicable in the health industry, where people are looking to treat, cure, remedy or alleviate a physical problem – e.g., acne, skin scars, high blood pressure, eczema, bad breath, etc.
This is quite similar to the formula introduced by Sherice Jacob, known as “How to Survive Your First [put the topic here].” Headlines that promise to help the reader get rid of a particular problem will persuade the reader to take three steps:
Click the headline
Read the first paragraph to determine if you truly have the answer
Read through to the end or scroll down and take action
Even though the “Get rid of” headline formula is mostly used in healthcare niches, you can reverse-engineer it and still use it in online marketing topics, such as blogging, CRO, affiliate marketing, self-publishing, SEO, social media, web traffic and so on.
Here are examples:
How to Get Rid of Content Marketing Failure and Drive Search Traffic
Stop Wasting Time: Get Rid of Flashy Social Media Tools and Get More Done
7 Smart Ways to Get Rid of Affiliate Marketing Struggle and Make More Money
The “get rid of” headline formula usually goes viral, especially when promoted strategically by the author.
3) The “Who Else Wants” Formula
This headline style works because it asks a question and the right question usually generates the right answer.
The formula brings your target audience into the discussion and makes them feel comfortable; it’s like you are there having a conversation with them. Copywriters often ask several questions in their copy, just to get the targeted customer to pause and consider the product; the same principles apply to headlines, too.
Just like finding and sharing timely content and including at least one image in your post, simply asking the right question can increase your social shares and engagement level.
Here are some examples of the “who else wants” headline formula:
Some of the headlines that you can tweak, to appeal to your target audience are:
Who Else Wants to Learn About Conversion Rate Optimization [Step-by-Step]?
Who Else Wants the 6 Steps to Master A/B Split Testing?
Who Else Want to Raise Capital for a New Startup?
Step #5: Measure Your Headline’s Success
People love to share articles that are lengthy (usually 2000+ words). But, as a smart marketer, you wouldn’t simply assume that longer posts would work for you. The best way to make your own decision is to write a similar, in-depth article and see how it goes.
What’s the benefit of using a headline formula or rule that doesn’t produce results for you?
It’s essential for you to measure your headline success. You want to make sure that your time isn’t wasted – or your money, if you hired a professional to write the content.
You can measure content and headline success through:
i). Client/customer inquiries: Within a period of 2 – 3 months, did your content generate any client inquiries? It doesn’t have to be much. But, the very fact that you got a handful of clients is a sure signal that your headline style is working. All you’ve got to do is just optimize and improve it.
ii). Social media stats: Are people commenting, liking, and sharing your content? Most social media platforms provide engagement statistics at the click of a button, and it’s important to keep your eye on what your audience enjoys the most.
By making social sharing buttons visible you can increase engagement by 7x, especially when the post is insightful.
iii) Other forms of digital statistics: Another thing that you may want to measure is the amount of inbound links that you generate through your powerful headlines and content.
Editorial links are the best kinds of links to get, because you don’t ask for them. And, they mainly appear within content, thus passing significant SEO value to your web pages and improving your search rankings.
iv) Measure direct responses: A lot of content producers prefer to turn comments off, but really they can be a brilliant way of generating and following up on leads, engaging with your audience and seeing which articles are working and which aren’t.
Figure out what’s delivering your success, and repeat it. Maximize your powerful headlines.
Powerful Headlines Frequently Asked Questions
Why are powerful headlines important?
The average person has an 8 second attention span, and you need to pull your audience in from the second they start reading – you can do this by following our 5 step headline guide.
How can I get more people to see my article?
It often involves a combination of marketing techniques including SEO and “being in the right place at the right time”. One easy life-hack to improve conversion rates is using emotive language or numerals in your headlines.
What makes an article interesting for a user?
It’s often as simple as using the 4 Us detailed in this article. Uniqueness, ultra-specific copy, conveying a sense of urgency and above all: providing something useful to your readers.
The average person has an 8 second attention span, and you need to pull your audience in from the second they start reading – you can do this by following our 5 step headline guide.
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How to Write Headlines Conclusion
With new and emerging content marketing strategies emerging everyday, it’s becoming difficult to focus on what works. This is why smart digital marketers are disciplined. They understand the importance of great content and whether it generates search traffic and leads.
It’s a given that the headline is an integral element of your content, no matter what format the content may take. Then, you can focus on making the introduction, subtitles, bullet points, and call to action equally important.
Your overall focus should be to educate prospects and customers, by teaching them new things. It’s not enough that they click your headline. They need to read the information you’ve provided them in the body of your content, as well.
The best approach is to use storytelling and data-driven content to build your authority, while solving their problem. Above all, be consistent and keep learning new ways to turn a good headline into a catchy headline that begs to be shared.
Do you have any other headline writing tips? What’s been most helpful for you in producing great headlines?
You’ve probably heard about them from a friend, a textbook, or even at school.
I know it sounds like a boring topic that’s common sense, but there is more to it than meets the eye.
And no, it’s not just for large companies… the smaller you are, the more important for you it is to leverage the 4 Ps.
So before we dive into it, let’s first break down what they are…
What are the 4 Ps of marketing?
The 4 Ps of marketing is a famous concept that summarizes the 4 basic pillars of any marketing strategy: product, price, place, and promotion.
It sounds simple and it really is (the harder part is implementing it, which we will get into later).
The idea behind the theory is that if you implement them, you will generate more sales. But sadly nothing is that easy. :/
The origin of the concept, also known as marketing mix, goes back to 1960 when McCarthy introduced it in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.
I know that’s ages ago, but it is just as valid today.
Let’s dive into each P…
Product
The product is what the company sells.
It might be a product like a soft drink in the beverage industry or dresses in a clothing store. Or these days it may even be software like Ubersuggest.
It could also be services, such as consulting or a paid speaking gig or even a therapy session.
In short, the product is everything that is made available to the consumer.
In the 4 Ps strategy, defining this means understanding what your offer needs in order to stand apart from competitors and win over customers.
In other words, what makes your product so great or unique? Because if you don’t stand out it’s going to be hard to thrive.
For example, you may know about my product Ubersuggest, but you probably already know about a handful of my competitors?
So what’s the big thing that makes my product stand out from everyone else?
I don’t focus on features… I don’t have 100s of reports… instead, I focus on usability. My goal is to make Ubersuggest really easy to use, especially if you are new to marketing.
On the flip side, my competitors focus on ad agencies and really advanced marketers. I built something for a different target market, even though I am in a crowded market place.
How to create an amazing product that your customers love
I want you to do something simple… go to Hotjar, signup for a free account, and run a poll. Just like the one below.
I’ve been running polls for a while now, but if you are starting off I would ask open-ended questions like:
What’s the biggest problem I can help you solve? (This will give you an idea on what your product needs to do)
What’s your favorite marketing product and why? (You’ll want to replace the word “marketing” with whatever industry you are in… this question gives you an idea about who your competition is and what they are doing right)
Why did you come here today? (This will tell you why people come to your site and what they are looking for)
How can we make our product better? (This is great if you already have a product up as you will get real feedback)
What don’t you like about COMPETITOR ABC? (Replace competitor ABC with your competition’s name… this question tells you where there is an opportunity)
I want you to pay special attention to the last question. It really helps you identify how you can differentiate yourself from the competition.
Now, before you go and build a product (or make yours better if you already have one), don’t invest too much time and money without getting feedback.
For example, if I were to add a new feature to Ubersuggest, I wouldn’t just build it. I would get it designed, show you first, get feedback, and then adjust from there.
That way I won’t waste months’ worth of time building a product you don’t want to use.
Price
Price is simple, it refers to how much you charge for your product (or service).
And although it’s simple to understand, it’s really hard to come up with the “right” price. The one that doesn’t just drive the most amount of sales but also drives the most profit.
The real question is, how do you want to be perceived?
Amazon wants to be the place where you can get the best-valued products from A to Z. And of course, delivered at a fast pace so it’s convenient for you.
My buddies’ company, Imperia Caviar offers high-end caviar at low prices. He’s able to get the same caviar that big brands charge thousands of dollars.
You would think that by having a cheap price he is cheapening his brand, but instead, he is bringing transparency to the market and educating people on how caviar isn’t really expensive… it’s actually just a marketing ploy.
I take a similar approach to Ubersuggest. I don’t think marketing software and education should be so expensive. So I give a lot away for free or super cheap.
Do you think that has cheapened my brand or hurt it? Well, let’s look at the data:
I guess not. 🙂
But on the flip side, would Ferrari be Ferrari if their cars were selling for $10,000? Probably not.
How to pick the right price for your product
By no means am I a pricing expert so I don’t want to tell you what to price your product at. But I will tell you to read the Price Intelligently blog. Those guys know to price like the back of their hand and they have dozens of articles that will teach you exactly how to price your product.
It’s important to think about pricing, especially if you are in a crowded space. My rule of thumb is: If you are in a new space or already a leader, you can charge a premium amount.
On the flip side, if your space is saturated and you are late to the market, you’ll want to consider having a cheaper price (if not the cheapest price).
Some questions you should ask yourself are:
What would be the lowest price you are willing to sell your product?
What would be the highest price that consumers would be willing to pay?
How sensitive to price are your customers?
What prices do current leaders in your niche charge?
How does your price compare to the competition?
Place
“Place” is another word for location.
As they say in marketing, it’s all about the… location, location, location.
I once ran a tech conference in Los Angeles called Twiistup.
It was a cool event with LA vibes and celebrities. I didn’t create the event, I bought it out years ago.
But you know what? It failed.
It wasn’t because the event wasn’t good, it was more so that I moved it to a terrible location.
I moved it from Santa Monica, which is the heart of the Los Angeles tech scene, to the valley, which is an hour drive from where all the tech companies are located.
In other words… location, location, location.
You have to pick a location where your customers are. Don’t expect them to come to you, you have to go to them.
How to pick the right place
The web is this virtual world. And although the location (place) may seem irrelevant, it really isn’t.
Just think of it this way… if I put my company all over Tiktok, what do you think would happen?
Well, I wouldn’t generate any new clients for my ad agency because none of my ideal customers are on Tiktok.
Do you think a bunch of 16 to 24-year-olds are looking for marketing services? If we offered services where we helped you get more social followers, sure… but we don’t offer that.
Think of the platforms and places your ideal customers are and be there.
That could be a specific site like Google or even an offline venue like conferences. Don’t try to bring your customers to you, go to where your customers are… it’s much easier.
Here are some simple questions to ask yourself so you can find the right place.
Where is your customer?
Which outlets (online and offline) sell your product?
Which distribution channels are currently working for you?
Do you sell directly to businesses or consumers?
Do you sell directly to your end customer or do you have to go through middlemen?
Where are your competitors?
The customer should always be at the center of your decision, but it’s important to also include aspects of the other Ps that we discussed.
Promotion
My favorite P… and the one I tend to blog about the most.
Promotion!
Once you’ve optimized the previous 3 Ps, it’s time to promote your offer.
And to be clear, when I talk about promotion I am not just talking about getting your brand out there… I am talking about generating revenue.
What’s the point of promotion if you can’t drive sales?
But with all of the channels out there on the web, which ones do you start with first?
Well, I want you to go here and put in your competitor’s URL.
If they are big, you’ll see data on how much traffic they are generating… which keywords they rank for on Google… the sites that link to them and talk about them… and even how many social shares they are generating.
If they are small, you won’t see any data. You’ll have to put in a bigger competitor.
Another site that you should use is Similar Web. Put in your competitor’s URL and you’ll see tons of data on how they promote themselves.
What’s cool about the web today, versus when I first got into online marketing, is that there are tons of tools that make your life easy. So use them to your advantage. 😉
How do you promote well?
I want you to start off by asking yourself the following questions:
Which channels does your audience use the most to consume information?
What kind of message tends to be more effective when promoting your solutions?
What is the ideal period for promoting your product?
Is there any concern about seasonality?
How do your competitors plan and carry out their promotion?
Again, you can use the tools I mentioned above to get a jump start. Another thing I would highly recommend is that you look at Facebook’s ad library.
It will show you the ads that your competition runs and, more importantly, the messaging that they use.
Now, I won’t bore you to death about promotion tips as I already have tons of blog posts on that. But I would start off with these:
Building business credit is entirely different from building personal credit. With personal credit, it simply builds passively as you use credit throughout the course of your life. Business credit is a different story. You have to actively take steps to ensure that your business transactions are reported on your business credit report, not your personal credit report.
How Do I Build Business Credit? 3 Definitive Steps for Building Business Credit
When you ask yourself how do I build business credit, you have to understand that business credit works differently than personal credit. For example, unlike personal credit, there are at least 3 distinct steps you need to take to build business credit. However, it can be helpful to first understand the relationship between business credit and fundability. This will provide much needed perspective as you work through each step.
Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.
How Do I Build Business Credit? The Relationship Between Fundability and Business Credit
Business credit is important to the fundability of your business. However, it is not the sole source of your business fundability. A foundation of fundability is necessary for business credit, and business credit is necessary for fundability. If you have poor business credit, your business cannot be fundable. Likewise, if your business is not set up to be fundable, you will not be able to build business credit. So, now you are really asking yourself, how do I build business credit?
How Do I Build Business Credit Step 1: The Foundation of Fundability
If you ever want your business to be fundable on its own, apart from you, it must be set up in this way. That’s not to say that your personal credit will not ever affect fundability, but if you do not set your business up to be a separate entity, business credit will never even be on the table.
Like any foundation, it is best to start at the beginning. It will be faster and easier if you do. However, if your business is already up and running, you may not have that option. That’s okay. It’s never too late to start, but start now. The longer you wait the harder it will be, for several reasons. How do you set up a fundable foundation?
Separate Contact Information
The first answer to the question of how do I build business credit, is to separate your business from yourself. One step in this process is to make sure you and your business have separate contact information. Your business needs its own phone number, fax number, and address. That doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line, or even a separate location. You can still run your business from your home. You don’t even have to have a fax machine.
In fact, you can easily get a business phone number and fax number that will work over the internet instead of phone lines. Even better, the phone number will forward to any phone you want it too so you can simply use your personal cell phone or landline. Whenever someone calls your business number it will ring straight to you.
Faxes can be sent to an online fax service, if anyone ever happens to actually fax you. This part may seem outdated, but it does help with appearances.
You can use a virtual office for a business address. This isn’t what you may think. it is a business that offers a physical address for a fee, and sometimes they even offer mail service and live receptionist services. Also, there are some that offer meeting spaces for those times you may need to meet a client or customer in person if you do not have a place.
Get an EIN
The next thing you need to do is get an EIN for your business. This is an identifying number that works in a way similar to how your SSN works for you personally. Some business owners use their SSN for their business. However, it really doesn’t look professional to lenders, and it can cause your personal and business credit to get all mixed up. When you want to work on fundability and business credit, you need to apply for and use an EIN. You can get one for free from the IRS.
Make Sure You Incorporate
Incorporating your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation is necessary to both fundability and business credit. It lends credence to your business as one that is legitimate. It also offers some protection from liability.
Which option you choose does not matter as much for fundability as it does for your budget and needs for liability protection. The best thing to do is talk to your attorney or a tax professional. What is going to happen is that you are going to lose the time in business that you have. When you incorporate, you become a new entity. You basically have to start over. You’ll also lose any positive payment history you may have accumulated..
This is why you have to incorporate as soon as possible. Not only is it necessary for fundability and for building business credit, but so is time in business. The longer you have been in business the more fundable you appear to be. That starts on the date of incorporation, even if you were in business before that time.
Open a Business Bank Account
You have to open a separate, dedicated business bank account. There are a few reasons for this. First, it will help you keep track of business finances. It will also help you keep them separate from personal finances for tax purposes.
Also, there are several types of funding you cannot if you do not have a business bank account. Many lenders and credit cards want to see one with a minimum average balance. In addition, you cannot get a merchant account without one. That means, you cannot take credit cards payments. Studies show consumers typically spend more when they can pay by credit card.
Pay Attention to Licensing Requirements
For a business to be legitimate it has to have all of the necessary licenses it needs to run. If it doesn’t, red flags are going to fly up all over the place. Do the research you need to do to ensure you have all of the licenses necessary to legitimately run your business.
Make Sure Your Website is Professional
How can a business website can affect you ability to get funding? These days, you do not exist if you do not have a website. However, having a poorly put together website can be even worse. It is the first impression you make on many, and if it appears to be unprofessional it will not bode well for you with consumers or potential lenders.
Spend the time and money necessary to ensure your website is professionally designed and works well. Pay for hosting too. Don’t use a free hosting service. Along these same lines, your business needs a dedicated business email address. Make sure it has the same URL as your Website. Don’t use a free service such as Yahoo or Gmail.
How Do I Build Business Credit Step 2: Get Accounts Reporting
This is the part that a lot of business owners miss the boat on. It isn’t easy to get credit in the name of your business when you don’t have credit to begin with. There are a few tips that can help you jump over this hurdle however. Once you break this wall down, you can work your way up through the credit tiers.
Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.
The other part that is missed by many is that you have to have a D-U-N-S number for this to work. Dun & Bradstreet is the largest and most commonly used business credit reporting agency, and if you do not have a D-U-N-S number, you do not have a file with them. If payments are reporting to them and there is no corresponding D-U-N-S, the payments will not be counted. To build business credit you absolutely have to have this number. Find out more about building business credit with D&B here.
Tip 1: Ask Current Vendors to Report Payments to Credit Agencies
Vendors you already have a relationship with may be willing to extend credit without a credit check. If not, they may offer net 30 terms on invoices. They don’t have to, so you will have to ask. The worst that can happen is they say no. If they say yes, ask them to report the payments to the business credit agencies.
Tip 2: Ask Utility Providers to Report Payments
You pay things like utilities, rent, and internet each month anyway. Ask those providers to report your payments to the business credit reporting agencies. If they say yes, make sure your accounts are set up in your business name with your business contact information. Again, the worst they can say is no.
Tip 3: Work with Starter Vendors in the Vendor Credit Tier
How do I build business credit? Starter vendors are the business credit building secret that most business owners are unaware of. There are certain vendors, known in the business credit building world, as starter vendors. These are part of what we like to call the vendor credit tier. They are certain retailers that will extend Net 30 terms in your business name without a credit check. Then, after you pay, they will report those payments to the business credit report agencies (CRAs).
This is how you can get the ball rolling with business credit. Since they do not check your credit score, it doesn’t matter than you do not have one. Of course, they do have other risk reducing techniques in place. These vary by vendor. Here are a few such starter vendors to help you get started. When you ask yourself how do I build business credit, starter vendors are a huge part of the answer.
Quill Office Supplies
Quill sells office supplies as well as cleaning and packaging supplies. Products range from office furniture and printer ink to snacks and coffee.
They report to D&B. If you do not already have a PAYDEX score, you will have to place an initial order first. Generally speaking, they establish a 90-day prepay schedule, and if you order each month for three months, they will most often approve you for a Net 30 account.
Grainger sells power tools, pumps, hardware and other things. In addition, they can handle maintenance of your auto fleet. You need a business license and EIN to quality, as well as a D-U-N-S number.
You can apply by fax or over the phone. If you need less than $1,000 in credit, you only need a business license for approval. For over $1,000, you will need trade and bank references.
If you are just starting out and do not have references, the $1,000 is plenty to get you started building your business credit. Check them out here.
Behalf.com
Behalf is way of getting paid through an app, but they also offer funding. The more you have your customers pay you through Behalf, the more likely Behalf is to offer you favorable terms when it comes to funding.
Funding can be through purchase financing or a virtual Mastercard option. Terms run from Net 30 to 180 days, and they report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. This fact alone, that they report to all the major credit reporting agencies, makes them an extremely valuable tool in building business credit.
After you have 8 or so of these types of accounts reporting payments to your business credit report, you should have a strong enough score to move on to the next tier. We call this the retail credit tier. They are retailers as well, but offer more traditional credit. These are credit cards for use at specific stores such as Office Depot or Lowes. This is also sometimes referred to as store credit.
After you have several of these store credit account reporting, you can apply for cards in the fleet credit tier. These are gas cards with companies such as Shell and Fuelman. They can be used for fuel and auto repair and maintenance only.
Lastly, with accounts reporting from all these tiers, you should have a score strong enough to apply for cards from what we call the cash credit tier. Of course, that is only if you have been making payments consistently on time.
These are traditional credit cards that are not attached to a specific store or tied down to certain types of purchases. They can be used for anything and everything. In addition, they often have better interest rates and nice rewards programs.
How Do I Build Business Credit Step 3: Credit Monitoring
The last step in building business credit sounds kind of passive, but it is in fact very active and very important. You must actively monitor your business credit reports for a number of reasons. First, you need to see that all accounts are reporting. Not only that, but you need to see how many you have reporting so you know when to move on to the next tier.
Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.
Other than that, you have to monitor your report to ensure you get any mistakes corrected and that all information is updated as needed. You must request corrections in writing, and send copies of supporting documentation. You can monitor with the CRAs directly, but we can help you monitor with D&B and Experian here for a fraction of the cost.
How Do I Build Business Credit? One Step at a Time
Business credit is built through a very specific process. It isn’t hard, but it isn’t passive either. It does take effort. You have to ensure your business is set up to be fundable. In addition, you have to know where to go to get accounts reporting initially. After that, it’s all about making wise decisions and managing your credit responsibly.
Don’t forget, business credit is just one part of overall fundability. Learn more about what else can affect fundability here.
There are a lot of tools out there and a ton of SEO reports.
But when you use them, what happens?
You get lost, right?
Don’t worry, that’s normal (sadly). And maybe one day I will
be able to fix that.
But for now, the next best thing I can do is teach you how to grow your SEO traffic using Ubersuggest. This way, you know exactly what to do, even if you have never done any SEO.
Once you do that, I want you to click on “Add Your First Project.”
Next, add your URL and the name of your website.
Then pick the main country or city that you do business in. If you are a national business, then type in the country you are in. If you are a local business, type in your city and click “Next.”
If you do business in multiple countries or cities, you can type them in one at a time and select each country or city.
Assuming you have your site connected to Google Search Console, you’ll see a list of keywords that you can automatically track on the left-hand side. Aside from tracking any of those, you can track others as well. Just type in the keywords you want to track in the box and hit the “Enter” key.
After hitting the “Next” button, you will be taken to your dashboard. It may take a minute but your dashboard will look something like this:
Click on the “Tracked Keywords” box and load your website profile.
What’s cool about this report is that you can see your rankings
over time both on mobile and desktop devices. This is important because Google
has a mobile index, which means your rankings are probably slightly different
on mobile devices than desktop.
If you want to see how you are ranking on Google’s mobile index, you just have to click the “Mobile” icon.
The report is self-explanatory. It shows your rankings over time for any keyword you are tracking. You can always add more keywords and even switch between locations.
For example, as of writing this blog post, I rank number 4 on desktop devices for the term “SEO” in the United States. In the United Kingdom, though, I rank number 16. Looks like I need to work on that. 😉
What’s cool about this report is you can drill down on any
keyword and track your rankings over time. For example, here’s what my site
looks like now…
The purpose of this report is to track your SEO progress. If you are heading in the right direction, your rankings should be going up over time.
Sure, some weeks your rankings will be up and other weeks it
will be down, but over time you should see them climb.
Step #2: Fixing your SEO errors
Once you have created your first project, it’s time to improve your rankings.
Let’s first start off by going to the “Site Audit” report. In the navigation, click on the “Site Audit” button.
Once you are there, type in your URL and click the “Search” button.
It can take a few minutes to run the report, but once it is
done it will look something like this.
Your goal is to optimize your site for as high as an SEO score as possible. Ideally, you want to be reaching for 90 or higher.
Keep in mind that as you add more pages to your site and it gets bigger, it will be increasingly harder to achieve a 90+ score. So, for sites that have more than a few hundred pages, shoot for a score that is at least 80.
As you can see above, I’m getting close to the 80 mark, so I’ll have to get my team to go in and fix some of my errors and warnings.
When looking at this report, you’ll want to fix your critical errors first, then your warnings if you have time. Eventually, you want to consider fixing the recommendations as well.
Click on “Critical Errors” if you have any. If not, click on the Warnings” option. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
Your errors are probably going to be different than mine, but your report will look similar.
Click through on the first issue on the report and work your way down. The report sorts the results based on impact. The ones at the top should be fixed first as they will have the highest chance of making an impact on your traffic.
If you aren’t sure of what to do or how to fix the issue, just click on the “What Is This” and “How Do I Fix It” prompts.
Again, you will want to do this for all of your critical
errors and warnings.
Once you do that, go back to the “Site Audit” report and scroll down to where you see your site speed results.
Your goal should be to get an “Excellent” ranking for both mobile and desktop devices. If you are struggling to do this, check out Pagespeed Insights by Google as it will give you a detailed explanation of what to fix.
If you are like me, you probably will need someone to help
you out with this. You can always find a developer from Upwork and pay them 50 to 100 dollars to fix
your issues.
After you fix your errors, you’ll want to double-check to make sure you did them right. Click on the “Recrawl Website” button to have Ubersuggest recrawl your site and double-check that the errors were fixed correctly.
It will take a bit for Ubersuggest to recrawl your website
as it is going through all of your code again.
Step #3: Competitor analysis
By now you have probably heard the saying that “content is king.”
In theory, the more content you have, the more keywords you will have on your site and the higher the chance that you’ll rank on Google for more terms.
Of course, the content needs to be of high quality and people have to be interested in that topic. If you write about stuff that no one wants to read about, then you won’t get any traffic.
Now, I want you to go to the “Traffic Analyzer Overview” report.
Put in a competitor’s URL and you will see a report that
looks something like this.
This report shows the estimated monthly visitors your competition is receiving from search engines, how many keywords they are ranking for on page 1 of Google, their top pages, every major keyword they rank for, and the estimated traffic each keyword drives to their site.
I want you to go to the “Top Pages” section and click the button that says “View The Pages That Drive Traffic To This Domain.”
You’ll be taken to the “Top Pages” report.
Here, you will see a list of pages that your competition has on their site. The ones at top are their most popular pages and as you go down the list you’ll find pages that get less and less traffic.
Now I want you to click “View All” under “Estimated Visits” for the top page on your competition’s site.
These are the keywords that the page ranks for.
And you’ll also want to click “View All” under links to see who links to your competition.
Save that list by exporting the results (just click the export button) or by copying them.
I want you to repeat this process for the top 10 to 20 pages for each of your main competitors. It will give you an idea of the keywords that they are going after that drive them traffic.
Next, I want you to click on the “Keywords” navigation link under the “Traffic Analyzer” heading.
You’ll see a list of all of the keywords your competitor ranks for and how much traffic they are getting for those keywords.
This list will give you an idea of the keywords that your
competition is targeting.
Now, by combining the data you saw from the “Top Pages” report and the data you got from the “Keywords” report, you’ll now have a good understanding of the type of keywords that are driving your competition traffic.
I want you to take some of those keywords and come up with
your own blog post ideas.
Step #4: Come up with blog post ideas
You can come up with ideas to blog on using a few simple
reports in Ubersuggest.
The first is the “Content Ideas” report. In the navigation bar, click on the “Content Ideas” button.
I want you to type in one of the keywords your competition
is ranking for that you also want to rank for.
For example, I rank for “SEO tips.” If you want to rank for that term, you would type that into the content ideas report and hit the “Search” button.
You’ll then see a list of blog posts that have done well on that topic based on social shares, backlinks, and estimated visits.
It takes some digging to find good topics because ideally, a post should have all 3: social shares, backlinks, and estimated visits.
When you find a good one, click “View All” under “Estimated Visits” to see the keywords that the post ranks for.
If you write a similar post, you’ll want to make sure you include these keywords.
And you’ll want to click “View All” under links to see who links to your competition. Keep track of this as you will use it later. You can do this by copying the list or by clicking on the export button.
You can also get more ideas by going to the keyword ideas report. So, in the navigation bar, click on the “Keyword Ideas” button.
From there, type in keywords related to what your competition ranks for and you will see a list of long-tail suggestions that are similar.
You can also click on the “Related” link in that report to see a bigger list of related keywords.
And you can click on “Questions,” “Prepositions,” and “Comparisons” to see even more keyword and blog post ideas.
Typically, the more search volume a keyword has the more
traffic you’ll get when you write about it.
Now that you have a list of keywords and topic ideas, it’s time for you to write and publish your content.
If you are new to writing blog posts, watch the video below. It breaks down my writing process.
Step #5: Promotion
I wish SEO was as simple as fixing errors and writing content based on popular keywords but it isn’t.
Remember how I had you create a list of sites that link to your competition?
You know, the ones you got from the “Top Pages” and “Content Ideas” reports.
I want you to start emailing each of the sites linking to your competition and ask them to link to you. See if someone else is linking to your competition. If they are, it shows you that they don’t mind linking to sites in your space. This means that there is a good chance you can convince them to link to you as well.
You’ll have to browse around their site to find their email. But once you do, send off a personal message explaining why your content will provide value to their readers and how it is different/better than what they are currently linking to.
In addition to that, I want you to go to the “Backlinks” report. In the navigation bar, click on the “Backlinks” option.
In this report, I want you to type in your competitor’s domain. You’ll see a report that looks like this:
You’ll be able to see their total link count, link growth over time, and, most importantly, a list of sites linking to your competition.
Now type in a URL of a blog post that your competition has written and that you know is popular (do this in the search bar). Next to it, in the search bar, change the drop-down to “URL” and click the “Search” button.
Once the report is done loading, you’ll see a new list of links pointing to that specific URL on your competition’s site.
I want you to do the same thing. Reach out to all of those
URLs and ask for a link as well.
When doing this, you’ll find that a lot of people will ignore you but you need to think of it as sales. You need to follow up and try to convince people. The more links you get, the higher your rankings will climb in the long run.
Even if you only convince 5 people out of 100 that you
email, it is still not bad as something is better than nothing.
Conclusion
My goal with Ubersuggest wasn’t to create too many reports, but instead, make the tool easy to use so you can generate more search traffic.
And as your rankings and traffic climb, you’ll see within your Ubersuggest dashboard how things are going.
What’s beautiful about this is that it will crawl your site automatically once you create a project. This way, when new SEO errors appear, Ubersuggest will notify you.
So, are you ready to improve your SEO traffic? Go to Ubersuggest and create a project.
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