Technical SEO Audits: Tips For Successful Implementation

According to BrightEdge, 68 percent of all online experiences start with a search engine, and 53 percent of website traffic corgomes from organic search.

Yet, only 0.78 percent of these searchers click results on the second page of Google.

That means if you’re not showing up on the front page of the SERPs, you aren’t getting traffic.

It’s clear why SEO is a top priority for marketers. In fact, 61 percent say it’s their main focus when it comes to inbound marketing.

If you can get your client’s website to the top of user search, you’ll have a much easier time improving their ROI.

Of course, mastering SEO is no easy task.

There are so many things to consider, from on-page SEO to off-pag e SEO, copy, content, and even technical SEO.

A truly effective SEO strategy includes all of these strategies, plus regular optimization to ensure consistent returns.

This post dives deep into technical SEO and how you can use it to increase organic traffic, show up in search, and improve your overall site experience.

What Is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO is an area of SEO that covers optimizations that improve search engine ranking by making your site easier for search engines to crawl. For example, improving site load time, checking robot.txt files, and making redirects work properly.

Essentially, it’s the process of ensuring your website can be seen, crawled, and ranked by search engines.

Search engines, such as Google, give preference to websites that meet their webmaster guidelines. The basic principles state your website content should be accurate, easy to access, and user-friendly.

If your website loads slowly, has an unresponsive design, or lacks a secure connection, your content will not meet these guidelines.

This is where technical SEO comes in, as it can help you improve the technical characteristics of your website to improve organic traffic.

Why Is Technical SEO Important?

Imagine you wrote the most amazing content in the world. It’s content that everyone should read.

People would pay buckets of money just to read it. Millions are eagerly waiting for the notification that you’ve posted this new, incredible content.

Then, the day finally comes, and the notification goes out. Customers excitedly click the link to read your article.

Then, it takes over 10 seconds for your web page to load. Readers are annoyed and they don’t want to wait.

For every second that it takes for your web page to load, you’re losing readers and increasing your bounce rate.

It doesn’t matter how great that piece of content is—your site isn’t functioning well, and you’re losing precious traffic.

That’s just one example of why technical SEO is so critical.

Without it, Google and other search engines are incapable of finding, crawling, and indexing your site.

If search engines can’t access your site, you can’t rank and you become one of the 90.63 percent of websites that get no organic search traffic from Google. Yikes.

Even if your site can be found, user experience issues, like page load times and confusing navigation, can still negatively impact SEO.

Other issues like mobile optimizations, duplicate content, and site security can cause search engines to rank your site lower.

Elements of Technical SEO

While crawling and indexing are important factors in SEO, there are many more aspects to consider when performing a technical SEO audit. These include:

mobile optimization
page load speed
link health
duplicate content
schemas
crawl errors
image issues
site security
URL structure
404 pages
301 redirects
canonical tags
XML sitemaps
site architecture

At a minimum, a technically sound website should be secure, quick to load, easy to crawl, have clear and actionable navigation, and not contain any duplicate links or content.

It should also have systems in place to engage users even if they do hit a dead end, such as content created for 404 errors and 301 redirect pages.

Finally, a site should have structured data to help search engines understand the content. This can come in the form of schema graphs and XML sitemaps.

When conducting a technical SEO audit, be wary of over-optimizing your website. Too many improvements can work against your best intentions and actually damage your SEO rankings.

What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is the process of evaluating your website to see how well it is performing on search engines.

SEO audits are a great way to create actionable plans to outperform your competitors, identify opportunities within your website, find and fix exit points, and create better customer experiences.

You should perform technical SEO audits, on-page SEO audits, and off-page SEO audits regularly.

As you go through your audit, you’ll find places where you can improve or optimize your website performance to improve performance and keep site visitors happy.

You may not be able to fix every error at once, but you can figure out what’s going wrong and make a plan to fix it.

What Are the Key Elements of a Technical SEO Audit?

There are three key factors to look at during an SEO audit:

back-end factors, such as hosting and indexing
front-end factors, such as content, keywords, and metadata
link quality and outside references

Sometimes, you won’t have the time to address each pain point. So, when deciding which audit insights are worth taking action on, use the 80/20 rule.

The most important part of your site’s SEO is the part that your incoming traffic actually sees.

That’s all washed away if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, though.

With the introduction of the mobile-first index, you need to make sure you understand how your site performs on mobile to ensure proper placement on SERPs.

What does the mobile-first index mean?

Due to 52.2 percent of global web traffic coming through mobile, Google has adjusted its algorithm to crawl the mobile version of websites.

technical seo - mobile first indexing example

It boils down to this—if your site doesn’t perform well on mobile devices, you are not just losing traffic; your site also looks bad to Google. That can result in lower rankings, and even less traffic.

How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit

SEO guidelines are constantly changing. Every time a major search engine significantly updates its algorithm, SEO has to adapt.

The good news is the frequency of changes in technical SEO tends to be lower.

After all, it’s not like search engines or readers will suddenly decide they’re okay with slower speeds.

If anything, you will see the average acceptable speed continue to drop. Your site simply has to be faster if you want to keep up with SEO demands.

Your website has to be mobile-friendly. This is only going to become more important over time, too.

It has to work without errors, duplicate content, and poor images.

Search engines also have to be able to crawl it successfully.

These things are all crucial to your success on search engines and site visitors. If you want to prioritize your SEO efforts, make sure you tackle the technical aspects first.

1. Crawl Your Website

The most important part of the SEO audit is the crawl.

Before you do anything else, start a crawl of your website. You can use Ubersuggest to make it a simple process. Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Enter your URL and click “Search.”
Step 2: Click “Site Audit” in the left sidebar.

Step 3: Run the scan. Upon completion, you’ll see this:

technical seo - Ubersuggest audit page crawl

Crawling is useful for identifying problems such as duplicate content, low word count, unlinked pagination pages, and excess redirects. Ubersuggest will even rank issues in order of importance, so you can focus on what matters most.

If you find anything here, click on it for more information and advice on how to fix it. For example, our website has 32 pages with a low word count.

You can then review these pages to determine if you need to add more content.

What does this all mean?

In short, it gives you a glimpse into how the Googlebot is crawling your site.

If you don’t use Ubersuggest for your technical SEO audit, you can also search your site manually. We’ll explain that below.

2. Perform a Manual Google Search

A few Google searches can tell you approximately how well your website is ranking. This will help you figure out where to start your technical SEO audit.

How many of your pages appear in relevant search results?

Does your site appear first when you search for it by name?

Overall, where does your site appear in the results?

To figure out which pages are actually being crawled, you can use a “site:rootdomain” search to see what shows up.

Here’s what this looks like in action:

technical seo audit - root domain search

Missing pages don’t automatically mean that your site is un-crawlable, but it’s useful to understand what’s happening behind the scenes.

Your website doesn’t need to be at the very top of your searches, either. By using the site search, it will show you only pages on your own site.

3. Make Sure Only One Version of Your Site Is Browseable

If your website has multiple “versions” of itself, you send search engines a mixed message about how to crawl your site.

Basically, the crawlers don’t know which one is the right one.

If search engines don’t even know how to show your site to prospective traffic, your site’s SEO ranking will be negatively impacted.

This could be a mobile and desktop version warring with each other, or a duplicate “https” version and a non-”https” version.

The impact of HTTP vs. HTTPS on a site’s SEO is debated in the SEO community. Some sites using AdSense saw a decrease in revenue after making the switch to HTTPS.

For example, Crunchify’s revenue decreased 10 percent after switching to an HTTPS site.

However, it seems that websites without SSL protection are being deprecated on Google SEO moving forward.

Google is even taking steps to make it more known which sites have SSL protection and which do not. Chrome is marking pages as “Not secure” to make it clearer.

With this change from Google, it seems you will need to make sure that your website only uses “https.”

4. Conduct On-Page Technical SEO Checks

When evaluating your site and the results from your crawl, there are tons of things to check. Don’t get overwhelmed! Start by looking for duplicate pages, headers, and title tags.

If you’ve published a lot of content with similar themes, like me, some seemingly unrelated content will show up in your crawl.

That’s okay. You’re looking for duplicates of the same content.

You can use a tool like Copyscape to assess potential technical SEO problems arising from duplicate content.

From there, closely examine a few key criteria that Google evaluates in their rankings.

Page Titles and Title Tags

A title tag is an HTML code that tells search engines the title of a page. This information will be displayed on SERPs.

It looks something like this:

You’ll want to make sure these are relevant to the content on your page. The content should also answer the questions your users are asking as fast as possible.

The optimal length for title tags is between 56-60 characters. You can use a pixel width checker to make sure that your title isn’t truncated.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions don’t directly impact ranking; but they are still incredibly important because it’s the first thing a user sees in the SERPs.

Meta descriptions should be compelling, engaging, and give a taste of what the user will find on the page.

Google recently expanded the limit for descriptions from 160 to 320, which provides even more real estate to draw in a click.

Clear Hierarchy

You’ll want to make sure your content is organized, with a clear hierarchy on the page.

This makes it easy for Google to analyze your site and index it for search.

Essentially, you want to make sure the placement of pages makes sense—all your service pages should be under your “services” tab, for example. Make sure users don’t have to click through four levels of pages to find best-selling products. The goal is to make it easy for Google —and users—to find the information or products they are looking for.

Keyword Placement

Every page on your site should have a focus keyword included in the first 100 words.

For example, in this post about social proof, it’s included twice in the first 100 words.

This helps Google understand what the post focuses on—but don’t stop there.

While keyword stuffing will penalize you, you should be strategic about keyword placement.

Include them, when possible:

title
alt tags
URL
subheadings (h2, h3, etc.)
meta description

Overall, on-page SEO checks are incredibly important, but they are only one part of your overarching technical SEO strategy. There are also other SEO checks to consider.

5. Manage Your Internal and External Links

Sites with logical hierarchies have improved SEO rankings. That’s why it’s important to check your internal and external links—to make sure visitors can navigate your site intuitively.

Pages might be deleted or moved, which can result in broken links and annoyed site visitors.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to do this manually.

Integrity and Xenu Sleuth can help you identify your broken links on your site. (Note: Integrity only works for Mac.)

While both tools are straightforward to use, I’ll use Integrity as an example.

Once you download it, add your URL in the text bar at the top of the page and click “Go.”

Then the tool will begin testing all the links found on your site and provide you with the results.

In the top-left corner, you see a snapshot of links and how many are bad.

Depending on the size of your site and how many links you have, you might consider viewing the results by link, page, status, or flat view to understand the results.

You’ll want to change any links marked in red with the “404 not found” label. These dead ends can negatively impact your technical SEO.

Google does score clicks from internal and external links differently, although both have their purpose in improving your SEO.

6. Check Your Site Speed

People are impatient. Google knows this.

Your customers don’t want to wait around. The longer your page takes to load, the higher the chance your customer will bounce.

You need to check your site speed, and Ubersuggest can help. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Enter your URL and click “Search.”
Step 2: Click “Site Audit” in the left sidebar.
Step 3: Scroll down to “Site Speed.”

Ubersuggest displays loading time for both desktop and mobile devices. The results above show my site is in the “excellent” range for both.

In addition to loading time, it also tests:

First Contentful Paint
Speed Index
Time to Interactive
First Meaningful Paint
First CPU Idle
Est. Input Latency

Take action if your website scores less than excellent or good.

You might need to optimize your images, minify JavaScript, leverage browser caching, or more.

Ubersuggest will outline just what you need to do to improve site speed.

7. Leverage Your Analytics and Compare Site Metrics

This step determines whether your analytics service (e.g., Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, etc.) is reporting live metric data.

If it is, your code is installed correctly.

If not, your code is not installed correctly and needs to be fixed.

If you’re using Google Analytics, you want the tracker code to be placed above the header of each web page.

Once you have an analytics service up and running, compare the metric data to the results of your earlier “site:rootdomain” search.

The number of pages showing in your metric data should be comparatively similar to the number of pages from the “site:rootdomain” search.

If not, certain pages aren’t properly accepting crawl requests.

Check Your Bounce Rate

Google Analytics can be helpful when assessing your page’s bounce rate.

A high bounce rate means that people aren’t finding what they are looking for on your site. This means you might have to go back and make sure the content is optimized for your audience.

You can check your bounce rate by logging into your Google Analytics account and clicking on Audiences > Overview.

Compare Metrics With the MozBar

In addition, you can use Moz’s tool called The Mozbar to benchmark between pages.

The MozBar is a tool that provides various SEO details of any web page or search engine results page.

The toolbar adds an overlay to your browser and offers a number of features.

For example, MozBar can be used to highlight different types of links that you view.

This is useful on its own, but it also lets you compare link metrics on or between pages.

It also comes with robust search tools to make your life easy.

With it, you can create custom searches by location, down to the city.

Page Authority is also supported by the MozBar.

It ranks each specific page from 1 to 100 in terms of how well it will rank on search engine results pages.

When doing a technical SEO audit, tools like this help you quickly take the temperature of your site’s relationship with search engines.

The less guesswork you have to do, the better quality your SEO audit will be.

8. Check Your Off-Site SEO and Perform a Backlink Audit

Backlinks are critical for SEO success.

This way, Google and other search engines will know that your page is particularly relevant and that other users will find it useful.

Remember that hyperlinks are not the only thing crawlers look for in off-site SEO.

Your site is also crawled for brand mentions. This is why it’s crucial to pay attention to what’s happening both on and off your site.

Perform Your Backlink Audit

Use a tool such as Ubersuggest to perform a backlink audit and assess the kind of backlinks pointing to your site. Here’s how:

Step 1: Enter your URL and click “Search.”
Step 2: Click “Backlinks” in the left sidebar.
Step 3: Review the report.

technical seo audit new and lost backlinks

Backlink audits are helpful because:

You can assess your current link profile and see how it is affecting your site.
You can identify areas where you can focus on getting more high-value links.
You can assess your competitors’ number of backlinks and work to outperform them.

Don’t just stop with your site’s backlink audit—you’ll also want to see what the competition is up to.

Analyze Competitor Keywords

Your competitors were busy upping their SEO capability while you were sleeping. Now, they rank higher for your most important search terms.

Ubersuggest can also help with this.

It allows you to see what keywords other sites are ranking for. It also shows what backlinks are going to those sites.

Basically, you want to explore your competitors’ backlinks and see how they compare to your own. Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Enter your competitor’s URL and click “Search.”
Step 2: Click “Keywords” in the left sidebar.
Step 3: Review the results.

technical seo keywords list — ubersuggest technical SEO audit

This provides a clear overview of what your competitor’s site is ranking for. In addition to a list of keywords, you can review:

Volume: the average number of monthly searches for the keyword
Position: position the URL is ranked in Google search
Estimated Visits: estimated monthly traffic the webpage gets for the keyword
SD: estimated competition in organic search, the higher the number, the more competitive the term is

Engage on Social Media

Social media is a conduit for consistent backlinks and engagement. You can use it to support your technical SEO efforts.

You want to figure out which additional social media platforms are frequented by your target audience.

Simply put, social media can improve your SEO by:

Increasing the number of your backlinks. Those who discover your content on social media might be more likely to link to it.
Increasing brand awareness, which can help with search queries including your brand’s name.

Social media is an opportunity to increase traffic and mentions beyond what people are searching for on a search engine.

Social media saturation is also simpler than putting together a link-building campaign.

Use the Facebook Sharing Debugger to see what your web content looks like when shared on Facebook.

This tool also allows you to check your Open Graph tags.

Technical SEO: Final Thoughts

There are three different aspects of SEO, and technical SEO is the most important of the three.

It won’t matter how amazing your on-page SEO is if you fail at technical SEO.

It also won’t matter how great you are at off-page SEO if you’re horrible at the technical stuff.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of it being “technical” or complex. Start with the big, critical aspects discussed above and tackle them one problem at a time.

How have you found success with technical SEO on your site?

How to Block Bots From Coming to Your Website: Tools & Tips

If you have a website, you need to know what bots are and how they can find your site, as well as what they can do (either intentionally or indirectly) to cause frustration to your online marketing efforts. Blocking bots may be a necessity to protect your site’s speed, users, and security.

Let’s talk about what bots are and how you can put up some defenses to start protecting your website.

What Are Bots, and How Can They Be Bad?

Before we dive into the details of what they can do and how you can stop them, we need to take a step back and explore what a bot is.

A bot is a software script that performs a data task over and over again. It’s that repetition and data interaction that makes them a fellow member of the online world we interact with.

Some of the other names you hear bots associated with help explain what bots are and how they work. Think of terms like spiders, crawlers, or web bots.

Are They All Bad?

There are a couple of misconceptions we can set aside right away.

Even though the term is short for robots, bots are not robots in the form of metal, gears, and computers. They are bits of script, as we discussed, that run continuously over the data of websites or other online platforms.

Also, they are not necessarily maliciously driven by a hacker or person with ill intent. Sometimes they’re neutral or even useful, such as bots used by search engines to index websites.

How Do Bots Work?

As we mentioned above, bots are generally bits of software script that repeat a task over and over again. An outside person, either friend or foe, may deploy these to accomplish a specific task.

However, bots are getting “smarter,” so to speak, and some are created with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning technology. Some examples of these are chatbots for e-commerce that brands can use to learn from human interaction and deliver a better customer

service experience for their audience.

Here’s an example of an e-commerce chatbot on the ModCloth website:

What Do Bots Do?

As we’ve said, bots can be useful, such as indexing for a search engine or improving customer experiences.

They can also be malicious and cause trouble for your website or other web presence. Some bots are intended to crawl websites and steal data like passwords, identifiable information, or personal data. They can also deploy malicious attacks on websites, computers, and other places. Some get sophisticated, unfurling a series of steps to cause chaos for another user or organization.

They can also be used to surge interactions online. This may come in the form of flooding a page or forum with comments, driving up purchases or popularity of something to stir up interest, bumping up social media interaction to improve views, or other ways to “game the system.”

These are often the ways you may start to see bot activity on your website.

How Can You Tell If Your Website Has Bot Traffic?

Do you need to block bots on your website? Here are some signs and how to check.

Red Flags You May Need to Block Bots

There are some signs that bots have been to your website, and those may be the first place to start. Here are a few to look for:

excess commenting in your blog or other pages
comments that don’t seem readable or human-generated
comments with excessive linking or obvious spam
excessively or suddenly high bounce rates on a particular page
a sudden surge of sign-ups for your newsletter or other forms
email sign-ups that don’t seem human-generated
log-in attempts from unknown sources
any other activity that appears fishy

Where Can You Check to Block Bots?

If you have a gut reaction that you need a bot blocker, you can do a deeper dive to determine whether bots are a problem for your website and whether it’s worth investing time to block bots.

Here are a few places to explore:

Google Analytics to investigate traffic on your site
A service like Copyscape to check if your content was plagiarized somewhere else
your web server logs to learn more about where people are coming from

10 Steps to Block Bots From Coming to Your Website

Trying to block bots from coming to your website can feel a little like trying to put up an invisible shield around your site to ward off invaders.

While it’s not quite so fanciful, taking steps to keep bots from invading and causing chaos on your website is about being proactive and putting processes into place ahead of any problems.

It starts with understanding the enemy, removing any current problems, and then preparing for future attacks. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Identify the Weight of the Problem

If you’re reading this far, you probably have some concerns about bots and want to know more about how to block website bots. Before jumping in, though, it’s always good to consider what’s happening on your website.

Are you having a significant problem with bots, or are you just noticing some increased activity?

Further, consider what the impact has been or could be on your online marketing efforts. As we mentioned above, some bots are good, and some are bad. Some are just neutral.

For instance, you might have a bump in activity on your website on a given day or a given page for no apparent reason. You can’t link them to a specific marketing campaign that promoted that page and caused a spike. The surge in activity may have come from a bot.

If the surge was short-lived and you haven’t seen any other issues, it may be worth looking into but may not warrant extreme or rushed reactions.

On the other hand, if you’ve found your e-commerce site was hacked, or if parts of your website have been infected and are no longer functioning properly, you probably want to act quickly to batten up the hatches and clean up your website. If that’s the case, you may want to jump to the later steps here and start taking immediate action.

2. Understand the Source

Once you realize that web bots have been bothering your website, you’ll need to go on a bit of an investigation to find out where they’re coming from.

I listed above some places that can help you explore whether bots are attacking your website. They can also help you figure out the origin of those bots.

For example, in Google Analytics, your web server access logs, or any log-in attempt emails, you may be able to see data related to those visiting your site. You can check for a pattern or a series of the same IP address repeatedly.

3. Make a Plan

Now it’s time to decide what to do.

If you’ve already suffered an attack, you’ll need to take steps to clean up the problem and patch any vulnerabilities in your site to avoid further problems.

If you’ve been seeing bot activity but haven’t been attacked, you should focus your plan on looking for vulnerabilities that could be exploited in the future and tighten them up now.

4. Stay Up to Date

Keep your website and all its integrations up to date with the latest releases. Whichever website CRM provider you use, ensure you’re staying current with that platform’s releases. For instance, if you use WordPress, you need to ensure that your theme and plugins have the latest updates.

Staying up to date has its advantages. First, bots may use older versions to gain access. Further, platforms are motivated to provide secure products to their customers. The latest updates may come with increased security features and bot blocker options.

5. Add CAPTCHA Tools

One way to block bots from interacting with parts of your websites (such as sign-ups, contact pages, and purchase options) is to ensure that only humans can perform those actions.

CAPTCHA forces the user to perform a challenge or other action to prove they’re not a bot. Unless a bot has the correct action written into their script, they won’t finish this task and move on.

Here is an example of a CAPTCHA you’ve probably seen before:

Block Bots From Coming to Your Website - Add CAPTCHA Tools

6. Check Your APIs and Other Connections

Especially if your website is a few years old, you may have installed many API integrations and other connections to other web platforms. If you’ve permitted that integration to connect with and share data with your website, APIs could be an area of vulnerability.

Conduct an audit of every API, plugin, connection, or other integration:

Do you use them all? Remove the obsolete ones.
Are you using the latest versions? If not, update them.
Are you using quality products? If they don’t have security measures in place, consider replacing them.

If you have questions, reach out to the platform owner and make sure they are secure.

7. Block Older Browser Versions

This is not foolproof, but another way to close up some ways bots can access your website is by blocking older versions of browsers from accessing your website. You might achieve this by requiring users to use new versions of browsers to view your website.

TechRepublic encourages using this method as most human users will be forced to update to a newer browser version.

This requires accessing and updating the .htaccess file of your website, so unless you are experienced with coding, we recommend engaging with a web developer for this.

8. Patch It

If you’re struggling to stay up to date with the bots coming to your website or feel like the problem may be bigger than you want to control, you can turn to a professional to start digging deeper into bots that may be heading to your website.

If you notice a specific bot that keeps arriving at your website and causing problems, such as offensive comments or attempts to gain unauthorized access, you can block that IP address from gaining access to your website in the future.

Many web hosts, such as GoDaddy, provide detailed information about how to accomplish this task. However, you should know that this is only a patch. It can stop a rather insidious attack in its tracks, but many hackers or malicious bot launchers have ways of coming in from other IP addresses, so the solution may not hold long-term.

Also, Hubspot reminds us that blocking an IP address means blocking all access from any person or bot from that IP address, so weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.

9. Keep Up With It

For a long-term solution, you may choose to pay for a bot blocker service. Although there are many different options, they all promise you a bit of peace of mind as their integrated solution stays on your website, comparing visitors with their information to watch for and alert you of any problems. A few options include:

DataDome
Cloudflare
Radware Bot Manager
ClickGUARD
Google ReCAPTCHA

10. Ongoing Monitoring

Bot blocking isn’t a one-and-done situation. You will need to continue to monitor your website for any problems.

You can watch for any of the problems discussed above and take steps to close up any holes. You may want to add this to your calendar to check in monthly or quarterly.

You can also keep an ear out for public data breaches. If you hear of any wide-scale attacks, take a look at your website and look for signs of any bot activity.

Conclusion

As AI in marketing continues to grow, our discussion of blocking bots, as well as adding them to our marketing stack, will likely increase as well. Bots can be helpful in our digital work and can support our digital marketing strategy.

They can also be malicious and attack your website at any time. The best way to block bots is to stay vigilant and keep your web presence up to date and cleaned up.

Don’t let vulnerabilities like outdated plugins or open access ports linger, inviting opportunistic bots. Monitor as you go and consider hiring an outside third party if the problem or the risks start getting bigger than you want to handle.

What’s the first step you’re going to take to block bots?

How to Decide on a Business Name: Tools, Tips, and Strategies

There are dozens of considerations entrepreneurs have to keep in mind when launching a new company, from the logo to the product to the packaging. The business name, however, may be the most important of all.

There are over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., according to the U.S Small Business Administration. That means you have to go above and beyond to stand out. The right name can help you do just that.

If you’re stuck on what to call your business or just want to make sure your chosen name ticks all the right boxes, I’m here to help.

In this article, I’ll cover my top tips for picking a winning business name, show some examples of what a great business name looks like, and even let you in on a sneaky way to get a load of business name ideas fast.

10 Tips to Pick a Business Name

Your business name can be almost anything you want it to be. As long as it’s legal and isn’t already in use, you’re good to go. However, there are several best practices most legal and marketing experts agree on.

I recommend the following tips to make sure your business gets off to the best start possible.

1. Ensure the Business Name Is Not Copyrighted or Trademarked

The first step in picking a business name is to make sure it doesn’t infringe any copyrights or trademarks. You can search copyright records and trademark records online.

I’d recommend going one step further and make sure it’s possible to trademark your brand name. You never know what the future will bring, after all. Even if you plan to keep your business small, I strongly recommend making sure it’s possible to copyright and trademark your brand.

Not doing so could land you in hot water years down the line. Just look at Apple. When Steve Jobs started the company, he chose Apple’s name because he was a fan of the Beatles (their recording label was called Apple Records).

There wasn’t any conflict initially because the two companies operated in completely separated industries. That was until Apple launched the iPod and the iTunes store, however. When they started operating in the same industry, Jobs quickly found himself saddled with a lawsuit.

2. Ensure the Business Name Isn’t Already Taken

This is a no-brainer, but it’s important to mention. Ideally, your business name will be unique and not used by any other business in existence. At the very least, it shouldn’t be used in any way by other companies operating in your industry.

A quick Google search can help you out here. If any results or domains come up that suggest another company is already using your name, either as a business name or as the name of one of their products, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

3. Ensure the Business Name Is Descriptive

You want customers to have an idea of what your business does just by hearing your name. You don’t have to know anything about TripAdvisor to know it is in the travel industry or that Burger King sells burgers.

Don’t be so descriptive that your name is downright boring, however. Seattle Plumber Inc. isn’t exactly inspiring and doesn’t separate your brand from any other plumbers in the city. First Call Plumbing is much catchier and easier to remember.

4. Make Sure the Matching Domain Name Is Available

Coming up with a brilliant business name is just the start. Before you can commit to it completely, make sure a matching domain name is available.

If it is, buy it.

If not, consider coming up with another business name. Having a domain name that is the exact match of your brand can be a real boost, particularly when it comes to SEO.

If your heart is set on a specific name, then all is not lost. There are several strategies you can use if your domain name is unavailable. Adding extra words or extending the name of your brand in your URL is becoming increasingly common.

5. Get Creative

This is your chance to embrace your inner copywriter and let your imagination and creativity run wild. Don’t be afraid to make something up. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of the best brand names use made-up words or acronyms.

There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, existing words already mean something to many of your potential customers. You’ll need to decide whether this is a good or bad thing. Second, competitors may well be using the same or similar words.

6. Don’t Choose a Business Name That Is Hard to Pronounce or Spell

You’ll want your brand name to be accessible for everyone. That means no words that are impossible to pronounce when written down or easy to misspell.

While mixing up the letters or removing vowels from common words may look cool, it doesn’t help your customers find your business online. If customers can’t easily search for your business after hearing your name phonetically, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on leads. You’ll also spend a lot of time spelling out your URL for customers.

7. Complete a Secretary of State Search

One way to make sure your business name is different from everyone else operating in your area is to complete a Secretary of State Search. Most states have a way to do this easily online, so it’s simply a matter of visiting your state’s website and typing in your proposed name.

If in doubt, ask your attorney for help. I’d also recommend searching in Delaware, even if you don’t live in that state. Delaware is a haven for company registrations, and so searching there helps ensure no businesses anywhere else in the country have similar names.

8. Get Feedback on the Business Name Before Making It Official

Test your business name out on your friends and family and get their feedback before committing to it. While you may think you’ve looked at your name from every angle, there’s a chance you’ve missed something.

If you’re not sure about a business name yet, give people a shortlist of your ideas and ask them to pick their favorite. If everyone agrees on the same one, you may just have found your new name.

9. Choose a Business Name That Isn’t Accidentally Offensive

Make sure your business name doesn’t mean something offensive in another language or as a slang term.

No self-respecting business owner would want to insult potential customers. Yet dozens of businesses do this without knowing it because of their business name.

Just because your business name isn’t offensive in your own country doesn’t mean it’s inoffensive everywhere. Any language or cultural issues can spell bad news for companies wanting to expand abroad.

Luckily, it’s never been easier to check whether your business name is offensive or not. Just head over to WordSafety.com and enter your proposed name. The site will quickly find whether there are any potential issues.

10. Keep It Simple and Easy to Remember

Long, complicated business names are bad news. The shorter, catchier, and more memorable your name is, the better. Try to keep it under 20 characters for the sake of your URL and avoid combining more than three different words.

Examples of Great Business Names

Tips and guidelines aren’t always enough to get the creative juices flowing. That’s why I’ve compiled five examples of great business names below, along with a description of what makes them so good.

Hopefully, these will give you a jumping-off point.

Google

In a parallel universe, someone is currently searching for something on BackRub. That’s the name Google was initially called because of the backlinks it used to rank websites. Eventually, they settled on Googol, a mathematical term for a number with a million zeros in it. The final brand name of Google was the result of a spelling error by an employee.

In the end, it worked out brilliantly. The name is catchy, creative, and random. “Google” is also easier to spell, remember and pronounce than Googol too.

Whole Foods Market

Examples of Great Business Names - Whole Foods

Whole Foods Market is the most descriptive name on this list, and that is part of the reason it’s so effective. It sends subtle signals that attract the brand’s target audience.

Choosing the word market rather than grocer or store was a stroke of genius in this regard. Market conjures up images of farmer’s markets and suggests the kind of well-off consumer Whole Foods’ targets.

Lego

Lego is a simplified portmanteau of the Danish words leg godt meaning “play well.” Brilliantly, Lego also means “I put together,” so the name works on two levels.

Not only is the name descriptive for the native Danish market, but it also sounds great in other languages and doesn’t have any additional meanings.

Pepsi

Caleb Davis Bradham, the inventor of Pepsi, originally called his concoction Brad’s Drink. Thankfully, he rebranded three years later. Pepsi is derived from the word dyspepsia, which means indigestion as Bradham believed the drink aided digestion.

Pepsi is way more creative and memorable than Brad’s Drink. Perhaps most importantly, the new name in no way infringed on Coca-Cola, created just a handful of years earlier.

Verizon

Verizon was formed in 2000 by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. The business name combines the Latin word for truth, veritas, and horizon to signify the new company’s honest and forward-thinking nature. It’s creative, it has meaning, and it’s definitely memorable!

Use a Business Name Generator to Find Your Perfect Name

If you’re still stuck, help is at hand in the form of business name generators. There are plenty of software tools to help entrepreneurs quickly brainstorm business names.

Here are some to try:

Shopify

Shopify is famous for helping small business owners thrive. Coming up with a brand name is no different. Enter a keyword into the search bar, and Shopify will instantly spit out 100 business names you can create a store from today.

Freshbooks

Bookkeeping software Freshbooks has a pretty comprehensive business name generator that tailors recommendations based on your industry.

Start your search by choosing whether you operate in creative and marketing, legal or business services, trade, and home services, or IT. Enter a keyword, and Freshbooks will serve up three suggestions. You can ask for more suggestions or change your keyword to get a different batch of names.

Namelix

Namelix is a free AI-powered business name generator. Enter one or several keywords to get started, then filter suggestions by name, length, and style. There are hundreds of names to scroll through and a mix of basic and premium names. Premium recommendations come with a logo and domain name attached to make building a brand easier.

Conclusion

The right name can impact your SEO, branding, and customer perception. Would Google be where it is now if it was called Backrub? I don’t think so.

The business landscape is becoming more competitive every day, and a great business name can help your brand stand out.

Take inspiration from some of the great business names already out there, and use a business name generator if necessary. Just make sure your business name sets you up for long-term growth.

What are you going to call your new business? Let me know in the comments!

10 Tips for Creating Real Estate Video Ads

Did you know that 73 percent of sellers prefer working with agencies that use real estate video marketing? Whether it’s a walkthrough of the property or a Q&A session, sellers expect their agents to use video marketing to reach the right buyers and sell their properties.

For real estate agents, this demand presents a few challenges. How do you make an engaging real estate video to impress both sellers and buyers alike, and how do you track a video’s performance for your marketing purposes?

Luckily it is not as hard as it might seem. Although real estate videos serve a unique purpose, they’re similar to regular marketing videos in many ways, so don’t be intimidated by them.

Let’s take a closer look at why real estate videos are worth the effort and how you fit them into your overall video marketing strategy.

Why Should You Create Real Estate Video Ads?

Real estate videos do two things: they attract buyers to your listing, and they encourage prospective sellers to choose your agency over your competitors.

Are they worth the effort, though, when you could create social media ads or optimize your listings? Maybe with the current market, you think it will be a waste of resources. Let’s look at what the numbers say.

46 percent of buyers think video tours are the most influential content on an agency’s website.
Listings with embedded videos are 53 times more likely to rank highly on Google than listings without embedded video.
Real estate videos attract up to 403 percent more traffic than other content.
You’ll earn around 60 percent more qualified leads through real estate videos.
A caring personality is one of the top reasons sellers choose a particular agent or agency, and that’s easier to share in a video than, say, a picture or article.

What’s more, 84 percent of video marketers feel they’ve generated more leads thanks to video marketing, and 94 percent of us use videos to learn more about the products we’re buying.

The takeaway? To draw traffic to your listings and impress your sellers, try out real estate video marketing.

Before we dig into strategies, let’s cover the basics.

What Equipment Do You Need to Create Real Estate Video Ads?

There’s no need to spend a fortune on top-of-the-range lighting, props, or cameras. However, you’ll still need some recording equipment before you shoot your first real estate video. How much you spend depends on your marketing budget, but let’s break down the basics.

First, you’ll need a camera capable of shooting in 4K or HD to make sure the videos are high quality and not blurry or pixelated. A smartphone works, too.

If you opt for a camera, make sure it’s capable of capturing both high-quality video and images. Practice shooting with the camera before filming day to ensure you get the most from the equipment.

Using a smartphone? Clip on a wide-angle camera lens. This allows you to shoot larger scenes while minimizing glare and improving image quality. Here’s what the lens looks like:

What Equipment Do You Need to Create Real Estate Video Ads

Lenses like this one shown above are cost-effective and widely available, so shop around.

Want to go all-out? You can always buy a drone for 360 aerial footage. However, you’ll probably need a permit to fly a drone in most areas, so keep that in mind.

Next, you’ll need lighting filters. Use a neutral density filter for shooting outside, and get a pocket-sized LED light you can attach to the camera (or smartphone) for filming in poorly-lit areas.

Got the lighting sorted? Now you’ll need a microphone. You can either buy a mic attachment for your smartphone, or a portable mic for attaching to any camera device.

You’ll also need editing software. Check out tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X for professional editing support. You’ll likely pay for a subscription, but they’re easy enough to master, and you’ll produce the sharpest, most professional videos this way. Alternatively, you could outsource editing to a freelancer.

Finally, you’ll probably need a stabilizer like a selfie stick or a gimbal. These tools keep your camera steady and minimize shaking while you walk around a property.

10 Tips for Successful Real Estate Video Ads

A real estate video is all about setting a great first impression. You want to bring the property to life, connect with potential buyers, and ultimately set yourself apart from other realtors with your professional marketing skills.

To help ensure your content achieves these goals, here are ten tips to produce the highest-quality real estate video ads.

1. Know Your Real Estate Video Ad Budget

Be clear about what you can afford to spend on video marketing. Unsure how to allocate your budget? Let me give you a few pointers.

First, consider your target audience. It’s worth watching real estate videos in your listing’s price range to see how your efforts compare to your competitors’ video ads.

Next, think about how much you’ll spend on actually promoting your videos. From social media ads to targeted email marketing, the costs can eventually add up. To keep things more cost-effective, repurpose your real estate videos into digital ads so you can double your content output without spending more.

Also, take the time to research paid ad strategies, or hire a digital marketing consultant to take care of the budget, targeting, and testing.

2. Plan Your Angle in Advance

A great real estate video doesn’t just happen. It takes planning. Remember, you’re trying to tell a story, so you need to spend time thinking about what story you want to tell.

For example, determine what equipment you’ll need, whether you’ll hire actors to play any roles, and what time of day or night you plan on filming. Do you want to sell your own real estate skills or help a buyer fall in love with an unusual property?

Depending on the seller, you might also need their approval before you start filming or sending the video out to prospects, so factor in time for adjusting your angle and making changes as required.

3. Keep Your Real Estate Video Ad Short and Sweet

The length of your real estate video depends on where you’re marketing it. For example, according to HubSpot, popular Twitter videos average around 43 seconds, while popular YouTube videos run a little longer at two minutes.

A real estate video can be as long as six minutes, but it’s not always wise to fill this time. Why? People have short attention spans. Don’t risk losing a potential buyer’s attention just because you’ve added 30 or 40 seconds of filler to your video.

For example, here’s a video for a property listed by Douglas Elliman. It’s just over 90 seconds long, but it’s visually engaging and covers every angle a potential buyer needs to see without extra fluff:

4. Script the Video

Great real estate videos typically follow a three-act story structure, according to research by Vimeo.

Act one: Give a clear, frontal view of the property and a few clips of the neighborhood.
Act two: This part focuses on showcasing each room. Start with the main feature rooms before moving on to the smaller rooms.
Act three: End the video ad with an exterior view of the property. If you’re using drone footage, place it here.

Remember, you’re telling a story, so following a traditional story structure works!

5. Provide an Engaging House Tour

If you want to ensure a prospect watches your video the whole way through, keep it engaging. Be enthusiastic. Show people why you’re excited about the property, and inspire potential buyers to envision themselves living in the property.

Focus on the possibilities. What could make this property truly special for the right buyer? How might the property be flexible over time? For example, a first-floor bedroom can be an office now and a bedroom for an aging parent or partner later. A basement can be a game room, an in-law suite, or an at-home gym. Drive home how the property can meet their needs over time.

6. Focus on Special or Unique Features

No matter the price range, every property boasts a special, unique, or at least intriguing feature.

Maybe there’s cool history attached to the building, or there’s a custom marble countertop in the kitchen. Or, maybe it’s just the first house to come to market in the area for a long time.

To identify unique features, ask the buyer what changes they’ve made since they bought the house, and if it’s an older property, identify if they kept any key features like original wooden flooring.

Special features can be anything from dual sinks to fully-landscaped gardens, so look for those little quirks that make the property unique compared to similar properties.

For example, this property in Montecito has a wine rack:

Tips for Successful Real Estate Video Ads - Focus on Special or Unique Features

Plus, it boasts a hot tub:

Tips for Successful Real Estate Video Ads - Montecito property example

Capturing these features in the video highlights the unique aspects of this home.

7. Show Off the Neighborhood

It’s great to show off a property, but what’s going on around it? Include a few clips of the surrounding area, even if you just zoom out to capture the apartment block and a couple of nearby amenities. Make sure to include any famous landmarks, fun events, schools, and even sidewalks.

Is the neighborhood a little rundown or potentially off-putting? An aerial view might work best, so you don’t focus too much on the finer details.

8. Sell the Lifestyle

When you’re looking for a property, it’s not just about the unit. It’s about the life the buyer will lead when they live there. For example, if you’re near the beach or a park, talk up the family-friendly vibes. Are you close to the buzz of shops, restaurants, and cafes? Highlight the walkable, cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Use the property to sell the lifestyle, too. For example, going back to the Montecito property, the landscaping gives off seriously chilled, secluded vibes:

Tips for Successful Real Estate Video Ads - Sell the Lifestyle

9. Interview Neighbors

People make neighborhoods. After all, who better to tell you what a neighborhood is really like than the residents? Try to get a testimonial or two to add some authenticity and personality to your real estate videos.

Unless it’s a new neighborhood, try to find residents who’ve lived there a few years. Otherwise, potential buyers might wonder why people don’t stay there very long!

10. Use Interactive Elements

From CTA buttons to clickable links, interactive elements help bring your videos to life. Use your editing software to add a CTA inviting people to book a showing, or include a link to a page where buyers can learn more about the listing and the services you offer.

Remember, real estate videos are a marketing tool. Use them effectively and treat them as you would, say, a YouTube video or digital ad.

Measuring the Success of Your Real Estate Video Ads

You’ve filmed your real estate video and launched some ads. How do you know if it’s working for you? The answer’s in your metrics. Here are five key metrics to track if you’re trying to measure your success rate.

View count: Your view count tells you, well, how many people watched your video!
Engagement: Video engagement levels tell whether people watch your video all the way through or stop watching.
Click-through rate: Want to know if people interact with your video and click those links and buttons? Check the click-through rate.
Conversions: Your conversions tell you if people are taking the desired actions, such as booking a showing or signing up for a newsletter.
Social media shares: Are people sharing your videos across social media? It’s a good sign if they are, so track your social media shares.

To get this data, either integrate your videos with your usual marketing platform to track metrics, or use a dedicated video analytics platform like Vidyard.

Conclusion

Video ads bring a whole new dimension to real estate marketing. With the right editing tools, a sharp eye for detail, and some enthusiasm, you can bring your property to life or show possible clients why you are the best choice.

There’s one final point to remember. You can shoot a clear, engaging, and professional real estate video with little more than a smartphone.

Don’t feel like you need to splurge to create successful video ads unless it’s within your budget to do so!

Need any more help with marketing? Check out my consulting services.

Have you made a real estate video ad for a listing yet? How did it go?

Landing Page: What is it, Examples, Tips & Best Practices

A well-designed landing page can greatly increase conversions for your PPC or email marketing campaigns.

Rather than directing visitors from those sources to your general website (where they may have a hard time finding what they’re looking for), you can direct them to a specifically designed landing page that steers them in exactly the right direction.

Creating effective landing pages isn’t the same as crafting a successful website or email newsletter. There are certain guidelines you should adhere to in order to maximize your page’s success.

Here is what you need to know to create an effective landing page.

Set a Goal For Your Landing Page

Landing pages, like any other part of your online marketing strategy, need goals. Without concrete, specific goals, there’s no way to create an effective page. Your goal should be clear before you begin designing your page.

For example, your page might be designed to encourage:

sales
email list sign-ups
white paper downloads
software trials
webinar sign-ups

You also need specific expectations for your landing page, on which to gauge its success. These expectations can be based on previous experience, anecdotal evidence, or simply wishful thinking.

It’s helpful to have a specific number to compare your actual results with. This could be the total number of conversions, or the number of people who make it past your landing page, or some other number, based on your own goals.

A Clear Call to Action is Vital

Once you know what your goal for the page is, you need to come up with a clear call to action. This is possibly the single most important part of any landing page.

Your call to action should be specifically tied to your goal and should be supported by everything else on your page, from headline and body copy to images and overall layout.

37 signals backpack landing page example

The Backpack landing page has a very clear call to action, though they opt to first direct visitors to more information about their plans and pricing, rather than going straight for the signup.

Keep Copy Clear and Concise

Your copy should be clear and concise. It should be persuasive, too. Landing pages are not the place to show off your creativity, unless that creativity is clear, concise, and persuasive. Leave the creative turns-of-phrase for your blog.

It’s pretty safe to assume that most of the people who visit your page are already interested in what you have to say, because they’ve likely clicked through from a PPC ad or email. But just because they’re interested when they arrive doesn’t mean they’ll stay interested if you don’t get to the point.

Every single sentence and word on your landing page should serve a purpose, and that purpose should be to support your call to action. If it doesn’t do that, cut it. Be ruthless in editing your copy. Tell your visitors what they want to know in as few words as possible, and get them to respond to your call to action as quickly as possible.

The VideoWizard example has a simple design with clear copy that has definite goals.

Keep Your Landing Page Form Simple

If your page includes a form, make sure it’s only asking for the most vital information. If you’re trying to get visitors to sign up for an email newsletter, make sure you’re just asking them for their email address. Anything more than that decreases the chances that they’ll finish and submit the form.

If you’re asking them to make a purchase, keep it simple. Just ask for the vitals: billing and shipping information, plus a confirmation screen before placing their order. Wait to ask them for additional information until after their order has been placed.

This form only asks for name and email address, neither of which are likely to deter sign-ups.

This form, on the other hand, has too many fields. Do they really need a phone number and company name? And wouldn’t it make more sense to just ask for a name in one field, rather than two?

Remove Navigation Elements

The major difference between your normal website and your landing pages is your landing pages shouldn’t include the usual site navigation. Instead, the only clickable links should be your call to action, and possibly a link to more information for those who are undecided.

Linking your logo to your regular home page can also be a good idea.

This example shows just the vital links, without a ton of extraneous navigation.

Forget about links to everything else. All they do is clutter up the page and increase the likelihood that your visitors will abandon your landing page (and ultimately, your site) without converting.

Simplify Your Normal Site Design

Your landing page should still echo the design of your regular website, though, to reinforce your branding. This can be done through the graphics, general look and feel, or your color scheme and font choices.

This is important for branding and lets users know they are on the right page.

Choose Long Page or Series of Pages

There are some questions about whether it’s better to use a single page for your landing page that requires scrolling, or if visitors respond better to a series of short pages (sometimes referred to as a “mini-site”).

Mini sites generally have multiple pages with short content that funnel visitors from one step to the next along the conversion process. This has the advantage of getting users in the habit of moving from one page to the next, which can help get them in the right psychological frame of mind to convert.

The downside to mini sites is that they work best for conversion funnels that need a lot of content.

Landing pages, on the other hand, are perfectly suited to shorter content. They also only have to load once, which can be a big consideration for companies targeting people in rural areas or developing nations, where bandwidth and connection speeds could be an issue.

The downside is a lot of content can get overwhelming and can come across as spammy if not well-designed.

The CameraPlus page is quite long, with all the information you need about the app. (The image above is split, as the entire page would be several thousand pixels long.)

Compare this page, which barely fills a single screen, and uses multiple steps to gather information.

Pay Attention to the Fold

While there’s a lot of debate as to the importance of “the fold” in web design, landing pages are one area where the fold is crucial. Make sure that your call to action is located near the top of the page, where someone can click it without having to scroll.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that your visitors won’t scroll down the page to read more information. Hopefully, at least some percentage of your visitors will be ready to buy as soon as they arrive on your landing page, either because the email or link that brought them there already persuaded them, or because it’s not their first time visiting the page.

Putting a call to action right near the top of the page makes things easier on these visitors. (Plus, it can increase your conversion rates.)

The most important navigation elements are located just above the fold, with the call to action well above the fold.

The signup button is well above the fold here, too.

Below-The-Fold Calls to Action

That doesn’t mean you should neglect those users who scroll. Make sure calls to action appear at regular intervals on your page, tied into the page’s copy.

This becomes more and more important as your pages get longer. Make sure that your users have to do minimal scrolling once they decide to convert.

FreshBooks includes links to a free trial or tour throughout their landing page.

Use Minimal Images and Larger Fonts

Your landing pages should use only one or, at most, two images. You want to avoid visual clutter on the page, or anything that detracts from the message and call to action.

Larger font sizes are also a good idea to keep visitor’s eyes focuses on what matters and reduce eye strain. Just don’t go overboard and put everything in a headline-size font.

The ideal line length for copy readability is 39 characters, so size your font (and column width) accordingly.

The typography becomes a major part of the visuals of this landing page, minimizing the need for graphics.

Start With a Centered, Single-Column Design

Studies show that centered, single-column landing pages convert best. Yet, there are still plenty of marketers out there who are opting for two-column designs.

Make sure that you test single-column versions against any two-column versions prior to committing to a design.

This is a great example of a centered page that makes great use of the available space.

Match the Look and Feel of Your Campaign

If your page is tied to an email campaign or PPC campaign, make sure the landing page echoes the look and feel of the ad or email.

If the designs of the two are wildly different, your visitors may wonder if they’ve ended up in the right place. The easiest way to do this is to carry over fonts, images, and colors from your campaign to your landing page. This is especially important for paid ads, as it can increase your quality score.

Use the Landing Page Tools to Get it Right

If you don’t want to have to use a web designer for your landing pages, there are options for creating great pages without any technical knowledge.

Unbounce is one of the easiest to use and lets you create landing pages without any IT experience. They have best-practices templates available that you can customize (or design your own page entirely from scratch), and flexible pricing (including a free plan for sites with limited traffic). Unbounce also integrates with Google Analytics for tracking your traffic, and Qualaroo for gathering user input.

Don’t Forget To Test Your Landing Page

Creating effective landing pages isn’t a one-size-fits-all project. What works for one site might not work so well for another. Finding the most effective page design is a matter of trial and error.

It’s important to test the different versions of your landing page (called A/B testing)to find the one that works the best for your particular situation. Without doing so, you might be leaving a lot of potential conversions on the table.

A few features to consider testing include:

headline
CTA
button size and placement
number of form fields
images
right, left, or center column design
colors

Just remember to test each variant one at a time — if you change five different elements, you won’t know which impacted conversions.

Landing Page Guide

A well-designed landing page can greatly increase conversions for your PPC or email marketing campaigns. Here’s how to do it.

Set a Goal For Your Landing Page
Without concrete, specific goals, there’s no way to create an effective page. Your goal should be clear before you begin designing your page.
A Clear Call to Action is Vital
Your call to action should be specifically tied to your goal, and should be supported by everything else on your landing page, from headline and body copy to images and overall layout.
Keep Copy Clear and Concise
Landing pages are not the place to show off your creativity, unless that creativity is clear, concise, and persuasive. Leave the creative turns-of-phrase for your blog.
Keep Your Landing Page Form Simple
If your landing page includes a form, make sure it’s only asking for the most vital information.
Remove Navigation Elements
Your landing pages shouldn’t have your usual site navigation. Instead, the only clickable links should be your call to action, and possibly a link to more information for those who are undecided.
Simplify Your Normal Site Design
Your landing page should still echo the design of your regular website, though, to reinforce your branding.
Pay Attention To The Fold
Make sure that your call to action is located near the top of the page, where someone can click it without having to scroll.
Use Minimal Images and Larger Fonts
Your landing pages should use only one or, at most, two images. You want to avoid visual clutter on the page, or anything that detracts from the message and call to action.
Start With a Centered, Single-Column Design
Studies show centered, single-column landing pages convert best, so test that version first.
Match the Look and Feel of Your Campaign
If your landing page is tied to an email campaign, make sure that the landing page echoes the look and feel of the email.
Use the Landing Page Tools to Get it Right
You don’t need a masters in computer science to design a landing page. Instead, use tools like Unbounce to create great looking landing pages.
Don’t Forget To Test Your Landing Page
Creating effective landing pages isn’t a one-size-fits-all project. What works for one site might not work so well for another. Finding the most effective page design is a matter of trial and error.

Conclusion

Landing pages are website pages designed with one goal in mind — conversions. Following the tips above will help you create a powerful page that drives users towards your business.

Just make sure to keep it simple. This is because landing pages have very specific goals and shouldn’t include any extraneous information that might distract your visitors and prevent them from converting.

Are you considering creating a landing page? What is your landing page goal?

7 Tips for Creating International PPC Ads

Have you ever thought a struggling ad campaign would perform better outside of the country? International PPC campaigns work best when you understand your target audience and appeal to the local culture.

Here are seven top tips for running international PPC ads to give you the knowledge necessary to succeed anywhere on the planet.

International PPC Ad Strategies

There are many reasons a marketer or company would want to run international PPC ads in another country. For example, you want to earn more revenue, or your product or service caters to another culture. Or, perhaps you are doing well in your current country but are ready to expand your market.

If you’re not entirely sure but want to give it a shot, running ads outside of the country might prove to be lucrative if you can get past the hurdles to developing a successful ad campaign.

This article guides you through setting up your first international PPC campaign. After reading these seven tips, you’ll have the knowledge and understanding necessary to put together a strategic ad campaign to target a unique audience.

1. Decide Which Countries to Target With Your International PPC Ads

Before you start diving into targeted ads in specific countries, you’ll want to determine which countries will respond to your ad.

One of the most important first steps you can take is to throw all of your biases out the window. Even if you think you know everything about a country and a culture, it might not be not as cut and dry as you think.

You’ll want to research the market in the country, see what types of advertising guidelines they have, and start to understand what the economics are like in the country.

Pay attention to purchasing and spending habits. Before you advertise a specific product somewhere, make sure the country spends money in a way that aligns with whatever it is you’re selling.

For example, certain products are impulse buys, where others require a day or two to decide. Impulse buying comes naturally to many Americans. Approximately 54 percent of US shoppers admit to spending more than $100 on something without even thinking about it.

That might not be true in other countries, so if your product requires shoppers to make a quick decision, look for countries that share a love for impulse buying.

2. Create International PPC Ads That Appeal to Local Culture

As advertisers, we want our ads to stand out. When someone scrolls through a Google search or flips through posts on Instagram, we want our ad to be the one they recognize. However, we don’t want our ads to stand out in the wrong way.

Having a buyer persona doesn’t end at the border. You still need to create ads to appeal to the local culture and address concerns or issues.

To do this, you need to research the local culture and understand their unique interests. This could be as simple as finding what colors and images appeal to them.

The tone of your ad is also essential because certain cultures relate to language differently than others. Take weight-loss products, for example. Weight loss products are very popular in the United States but may not resonate well with other cultures. Talking about something like weight may even offend some.

Another great example would be thinking about a typical workday. In the US, a 9-5 workday is common. Many people work from Monday to Friday, and they might not convert during that time.

As a result, we may want to advertise specific products and services later in the day and on the weekend when we find most people are browsing the internet and social media.

In Southern and Eastern Asian countries, work hours there are much longer. It’s not uncommon for them to work as many as 80 hours in one week. This poses unique challenges for advertisers, but it could also be advantageous for advertising something to help people work less or relax more.

3. Optimize Your Budget by Country

Your cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition will vary from country to country. The only way to know for sure will be to experiment by stretching your audience out wide and narrowing it down as you learn which country is receiving your ad the best.

To get an idea of how much to budget for specific countries, use a tool like Ahrefs or SEMRush. If we go into Ahrefs, you can input a particular keyword and see what the traffic looks like in another country.

If there’s a lot of traffic for a low competition keyword, you may want to give the keyword a try by allotting a larger amount of your budget to that word.

If we continue with the weight loss example and try “best weight loss pills” in the United States, we see a ton of search volume, and it’s super competitive.

It would be tough to rank organically for this keyword, and the CPC is $1.10, which is high.

When we switch the audience to India, the search volume drops dramatically to 150 and a CPC of $0.35. We may not want to advertise this keyword to this audience, but if we do, we don’t need to budget as much as in the United States.

4. Advertise Where the Locals Are

You’ll want to understand how different countries use search engines and other platforms. Targeting Google will ensure you cover most of the world and exclude as few people as possible, but what about when you narrow down to a more specific audience?

There might be a high concentration of people using a different search engine in that country, and now your CPC has gone way up because you didn’t do your research.

As expected, Google carries the entire planet with a 92.41 percent market share of worldwide internet usage. If you’re starting a campaign and want to see which countries respond best, advertising on Google sounds like the right way to go.

search engine for international ppc in Russia

Look what happens when we narrow it down to Russia: 44.54 percent of users use Yandex. In this case, advertising on Google would exclude nearly half of the people in the country because they wouldn’t see your ad.

Google provides many resources to help advertisers, and statcounter.com is a great way to get data about foreign, unfamiliar countries.

5. Organize and Keep Tabs on Your Campaigns

The organization is an overlooked but crucial aspect of managing international PPC ads. It’s even more important because if you’re not keeping individual tabs on each country, you’ll have a harder time determining which ads are converting—and which aren’t.

If you aren’t careful, countries with low CPCs and high volume will use all of your ad spend even though they’ll never convert. While this is happening, countries that might have a higher CPC, but also higher conversion rates could be left behind.

So make sure you have a robust tracking program in place before you launch.

You’ll also want to track varying time zones. If you put two countries on opposite sides of the globe into the same campaign, you’ll need to keep in mind that raising or lowering the bids during certain times will do the same for the country on the other side of the planet.

A better choice is to separate campaigns by country and stay on top of your stats more than usual.

6. Take Advantage of Localized Concerns

Another reason to keep each campaign unique to a region is that you shouldn’t use the same ad copy across the board. Even when you start with a broad ad, you’ll still want to keep the message exclusive to a certain region and change the copy as you transition from one region to another.

The same ad copy rules apply no matter where your target audience is. Identify pain points people in that region may have, things that excite them, and what causes them to buy. These factors will vary from region to region, however.

For example, seasonal trends will vary from place to place. Google Trends is a great way to identify this.

google trends for international ppc in the united states

Suppose we use the example of weight loss pills. The trend has generally been consistent for the past 12 months, with a slight dip during the winter months.

This tells us that Spring would be the best time to advertise something like this because more people are likely thinking about losing weight as Summer approaches.

google trends for international ppc in Italy

Research the same term in Italy, and the interest is almost non-existent for months at a time. The culture in the country may not recognize weight loss pills as a method of losing weight, or they may simply not have as much interest in weight loss as in the United States.

The point is, your ad copy needs to address the concerns of the specific region or country. You don’t want to serve the same ad to every area because they may not relate to it or have an interest in the topic.

7. Use a Local Domain Extension

Credibility and trust are important factors for any campaign, but it is doubly essential for international PPC ads. Use a domain extension to match the country you’re advertising in to build trust fast—which is crucial when you only have a few seconds before someone bounces.

While having a “.au” or “.co.uk” domain extension might not seem like a significant change, it can make a massive difference in the long run. Plus, think about the advantage it might give you over someone using a standard “.com” or “.org” extension.

Having a domain extension to match the country gives you the local appearance and increases the chances of someone clicking on your link. If you think about it like this, we have certain trust signals in the US as well. It’s like the endless battle between choosing “.com” or “.org.”

The same trust signals apply all over the world, and every little bit helps. ICANN.org provides a long list of domain extensions based on specific countries.

Conclusion

When it comes to international PPC ads, you can’t cut corners or take shortcuts and expect to have success. Keep your campaigns organized by country, keep tabs on your ROAS (return on ad spend), and be sure to factor in little details like time zones and domain extensions.

The good news is, there are plenty of marketing resources to help make your worldwide dream a reality.

What countries are you targeting with ad campaigns? Let me know in the comments.

10 Powerful Instagram Marketing Tips (That Actually Work)

Since Instagram’s creation, it has grown into the ultimate platform for sharing photos. Over 1.16 billion monthly users are active on the site. Daily users spend about 8 minutes on the app and 500 million use Stories daily. There’s also a large number of influencers on the site with a massive amount of followers. And …

The post 10 Powerful Instagram Marketing Tips (That Actually Work) first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

10 Powerful Instagram Marketing Tips (That Actually Work)

Since Instagram’s creation, it has grown into the ultimate platform for sharing photos.

Over 1.16 billion monthly users are active on the site. Daily users spend about 8 minutes on the app and 500 million use Stories daily.

There’s also a large number of influencers on the site with a massive amount of followers. And with the right plan, you can become an influential brand, too.

You need to post the right kind of content to stay relevant to current followers while also bringing in new ones.

But it can be hard to know which kinds of posts work best for growing your audience.

Here are ten powerful Instagram marketing tips (that actually work) that you can use to milk the popular platform for all that it’s worth.

1. Switch to a Business Profile ASAP

Before you start thinking about your Instagram marketing plan, be sure that you have an Instagram Business Account.

It’s easy to switch your current profile to a business account.

10 Powerful Instagram Marketing Tips (That Actually Work)

Just head to your settings and click on “Switch to Business Profile” to get started.

There are some clear benefits to having a business profile.

For example, followers can click on your contact button to get in touch with you right from your Instagram page just like they would from your website.

A business profile allows you to create and publish Instagram ads without needing to use Facebook’s advertising tools.

You can also access Instagram analytics tools, called Insights, that provide stats about the impressions and reach of your posts.

Once you’ve unlocked the free perks that come along with a business profile, you need to start using them to track metrics and understand your audience.

2. Use Free Instagram Tools

Business profiles on Instagram aren’t all that different from Facebook business profiles.

Through Insights, you can view statistics like impressions, engagement data, and more.

You can even get a breakdown of the demographics of your followers, includinginformation on their age, gender, location, and most active hours.

Insights aren’t just generalized, either. You can get specific insights on posts for the week that show you how many impressions you earned for that time period and what your top posts were.

These free tools are priceless because you can use them to understand exactly how users are interacting with your content.

The more that you know about how users are interacting with your posts, the better you can adjust your content to boost engagement.

One category of posts that is almost always attention-grabbing is product teasers.

3. Post Product Teasers That Will (Gently) Urge People to Buy

What if you could sell more products just by posting product teasers on Instagram?

Well, you can.

Instagram is a great place to advertise your products. And if you play your cards right, you won’t annoy users or scare them off with advertisements, either.

If you’re too pushy, followers will drop like flies. But product teaser posts are a simple way to talk about your product and increase excitement without looking like you’re trying too hard.

Here are two posts from Gilt Man’s Instagram page that don’t directly try to sell a product, but offer a free app where users can shop all of the brand’s inventory.

The brand offers a 70% off discount while showing you photos of some of the items that are available to purchase.

And the posts received thousands of likes each, which is huge in the advertising world.

The ads work because they aren’t pushy. They’re laid back. They tease users with the discount and product image to download the app and shop around.

This works for almost any industry. Starbucks teases its audience by announcing seasonal drinks with sharp imagery and without trying to force people to buy them.

When you tease people about products they are interested in, and you don’t push them into buying anything, they’ll be more likely to pull the trigger and actually buy something.

If not, they’ll at least engage with your post by liking it, commenting on it, or sharing it with a friend.

So don’t be afraid to show off the goods by posting product photos. Just do it gently.

It also helps to create some sponsored ads.

4. Create Sponsored Ads

Instagram ads have become commonplace on the platform. The best part? You can control exactly how much you want to spend on them by setting an ad budget.

You can showcase just one sponsored ad or multiple ads with the carousel feature.

This gives brands the ability to target their audience in a whole new way. Before sponsored posts, only users following your account could see your updates and photos.

Now, brands can promote their photos to anyone that fits their target audience to increase their reach further than ever before.

For sponsored ads, use content that is engaging while also appealing to the target demographic you want to put the ad in front of.

You can turn existing posts into sponsored ads, too, so keep an eye on your top posts.

You can push these high-performing posts out later to potential customers in the form of sponsored ads.

Run multiple posts to different audiences simultaneously for even more engagement. Keep in mind that there are many different forms of sponsored ads that you can post, such as:

Photo
Video
Carousel/Dynamic Ads
Stories
Stories Canvas

Instagram Stories, sponsored or not, are another great way to connect with followers.

5. Use Instagram Stories

If you want to generate leads, Instagram Stories are here to help.

Instagram stories differ from regular Instagram posts because they come in a “slideshow” format.

They’re only live for 24 hours, but Stories can be saved to any of your devices and reused at a later point.

This feature is very similar to Snapchat Stories (and is even a direct competitor).

Rather than appearing in the news feed, Instagram Stories appear in a small area above it.

Once a user clicks on your photo at the top, a window will pop up where they can view your Story.

The benefits of Instagram Stories for brands are truly endless. For starters, Stories are displayed at the top of follower timelines where users already look daily.

Brands can use stories to capture behind-the-scenes insider posts that may not be as “high-quality” as regular posts.

And you don’t have to worry as much about posting content that aligns with the “aesthetic” of your brand or your Instagram page when it comes to Stories.

Instagram also makes it easy to experiment with different types of content in the Stories feature, like photos, short video, rewind video, live video, or Boomerangs. You can use tools like Canva and InVideo to create amazing images and videos for your stories.

Boomerangs are GIF-like images that play on a loop.

You can also tag other accounts in Stories, which is great if you’re collaborating with another brand or influencer.

Face filters, text, or stickers make it easy to edit images or create fun, eye-catching visuals.

Every photo and video you add will play in the same sequence that you added it.

The amount of posts that you can add to Stories at any given time is unlimited, and the feature is available to all businesses globally.

Stories are only available on the mobile Instagram app, and it’s not currently possible to send Instagram Stories as direct messages.

But since most Instagram users access the site via the smartphone app rather than the website,this isn’t really something to worry about.

If you haven’t partnered with influencers who are already making a killing on Instagram, find a few that you want to work with and reach out to them.

6. Partner With Influencers For a Wider Reach

If you want to reach potential customers on Instagram, the fastest way to do that is through influencers who have already built an audience with a large following.

More and more people are buying services or products based on what they see in their feed from the influential people they follow. They trust them.

If you partner with the right industry influencer, you can get your brand out in front of those users.

The first step is to try and identify a few influencers that have an audience that is relevant to your product or service.

Here’s an example of how Gravity Blankets used influencer Jessi Smiles to promote their product on her Instagram page.

The post has thousands of likes.

The brand sells weighted blankets for sleep and stress. Their Instagram page has over 77k followers.

But Jessi’s page has over 400,000 followers that will likely trust her recommendations.

That means that the brand just exposed itself to thousands of potential customers (and new followers) through one post.

If you throw aside the short-term gains and direct sales that you can make from an influencer campaign, there are even more long term-benefits.

If you build a relationship with each influencer, you’ll build lasting brand awareness with a new audience.

And if you play your cards right, you could even work with a top influencer in the future to gain millions of likes, like Coca-Cola did with this post from Selena Gomez.

Your existing customers might not be influencers, but you can still use their posts to influence people to buy your products by collecting user-submitted photos.

7. Collect user-submitted photos

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to create great content for your Instagram page without doing any of the hard work?

Through user-submitted photos, there is.

You already have an engaged audience. Whether it’s hundreds of people or thousands, you can leverage your audience to generate useful content for you.

And your followers will probably enjoy user-generated content even more than they enjoy yours because it’s authentic and unpredictable.

Cosmetics brand MAC uses tons of user-generated content that they promote on their Instagram page to show off products.

Here’s a photo one of their users posted that they then added to their Instagram page. Notice how they used the hashtag #regram and tagged the user in the image.

You might be wondering exactly how you can get your users to create engaging content without being pushy.

It’s actually fairly simple. Your audience probably wants to grow their own following, just like you do.

Just let them know that you’ll tag them in your post if you choose their photo to regram, then they’ll have an incentive to post user-generated content on a consistent basis.

It’s a win-win for you and your customers.

GoPro is notorious for this. The brand chooses a #FeaturedPhotographer every week.

The brand (and their followers) treat this like a weekly competition.

If you try something similar, you’ll probably be surprised at just how eager your followers will be to participate.

Remember to choose the photos you want to post wisely. This can be difficult, but try to remember these things when considering a winner:

Does the photo fit in with the brand image you’ve already created or are trying to create? Or does it go against it?
How big of a following does the person whose photo you want to share have?
Is the photo appropriate for your current audience and following?

When you’re running a business, you have to be sure that everything you post is in tune with your brand’s message (and audience). Even on Instagram.

If someone shares a user-generated image with a large following, those followers will probably be interested in checking your page out, too.

Look at how this user-submitted photo from Boosted Boards aligns with the brand’s aesthetic. It’s high-quality, intriguing, and unique.

Choose images that successfully mimic your brand’s tone, like this one.

That being said, try not to be too biased about the content you want to post. Mix it up and watch your follower count and engagement grow.

It also helps to come up with some kind of branded hashtag that encourages Instagram users to be more interactive with your company.

8. Come Up With an Interactive Branded Hashtag

If you’re looking to create instant engagement, interactive hashtags are a great way to get it.

Red Bull has racked up over 299,612 posts featuring their tag, #itgivesyouwings.

Customers can then use the tag to post user-generated content. This allows users to search through all posts relating to your brand.

It also lets you easily search through images that you might want to consider re-posting on your own page.

Creating a hashtag that your company (and other users) can search for is essentially free advertising.

Every time someone posts a photo using the tag, they’re exposing your company to their followers.

If you already have a popular brand slogan or phrase, consider making that your branded hashtag. Coca-Cola successfully accomplished this with their hashtag, #ShareACoke.

But no matter what you’re posting, you need to post at the right times and refrain from over-posting.

9. Post at The Right Times (and Don’t Over-Post)

Over-posting on Instagram is a surefire way to turn off your existing followers.

If all they see is your brand on their news feed, they’re probably going to unfollow you as fast as possible.

But you want to post on a consistent basis so that you stay in their news feed regularly.

One of the best ways to do this is to only post during peak days and hours when your followers are online.

According to SimplyMeasured, the worst days to post on Instagram are Wednesdays and Sundays, while Mondays and Thursdays are the best days to post.

And according to research from CoSchedule, the best times of day to post are between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM, as well as 2:00 AM.

The hour between of 8:00 and 9:00 AM correlates with the time of day when people are getting ready for work or commuting to their jobs (and checking social media for the day).

And 2:00 AM is the time of day when most folks are up scrolling through Instagram when they should be sleeping, so this makes sense as a second most popular time to post.

You can find when your followers are most active in Instagram Insights, so your best days and times to post might be a bit different depending on your specific audience.

Schedule your posts to go live during these days and times with a tool like Hootsuite, CoSchedule, or Sprout Social.

The research also shows that you should post between one and two times per day, but no more or less.

If you’re tempted to post more, then use Instagram’s carousel album feature to post multiple images or ads in a slideshow format.

That way, you won’t overwhelm your followers’ feeds.

After you’ve made these changes, track your metrics to keep an eye on areas where you can improve.

10. Make Sure You Track The Right Metrics

You can’t improve your Instagram performance and optimize it unless you know how well your page and posts are performing (or underperforming).

When you have measurable results, you’ll know exactly what works and what doesn’t.

Begin by tracking your follower growth rate.

The total amount of followers you have is commonly seen as a vanity metric. And it is.

But your follower growth rate isn’t.

When you keep an eye on what the growth rate of your followers looks like, you can see how the kind of content your posting (or your posting frequency) is affecting things.

Next, measure engagement rates. This includes likes and comments.

You want to find out the average engagement percentage of your total followers as well as the average engagement rate of each post to get a clear picture of how your page is performing.

If you’ve got a smaller following, your engagement rate should be higher. Here’s what your rates should look like based on your follower count:

Finally, you need to track your URL click-through rate.

If you don’t already have a link to your website in your Instagram bio, add one ASAP.

Then, measure how many people are clicking through to your URL.

The average CTR on Instagram is 0.94%, according to Conversion XL.

The more effective your Instagram marketing techniques on your audience, the higher your CTR will be. If it’s low, work on improving your approach.

A tool like Sprout Social will measure just how many clicks that your link is getting in comparison to impressions and engagements.

Conclusion

Instagram has dominated the social media world. It’s the go-to place for image sharing, with over 800 million monthly users.

Billions of likes are handed out each day, so you need to do your part to scoop some of them up.

First, switch your profile to an Instagram Business Profile if you haven’t already. This will give you tons of free tools and insights.

Next, start taking advantage of those free tools. Check out your audience’s demographics, like their age or top locations.

Post product teasers to urge people to buy your products or services without being overly pushy. They’ll be more likely to buy if they don’t feel pressured.

Turn your posts into sponsored ads to reach target audiences that may not be following you yet. One post might just have them hooked.

Use Instagram Stories to post behind-the-scenes photos or videos. Followers will appreciate the insider posts, which builds your relationship with customers.

Partner with influencers that have a wide reach in your industry. Their followers trust their recommendations.

Be sure to leverage the power of user-generated content by reposting images that your customers share. You can turn this into a contest with an interactive branded hashtag.

Choose a photo to share every week or every month that aligns with your brand’s message.

Post at the right times and avoid overposting. Post one to two times every day and check out when your followers are most active. Schedule posts to go live during those days and times.

Finally, be sure that you track the right metrics to see how your Instagram marketing efforts are paying off.

Keep an eye on follower growth rate, engagement rate, and your URL click-through rate.

If you need help with your Instagram ad campaigns, reach out to our agency to help!

What Instagram marketing techniques work best for you and your brand?

How to Set Up Twitter Advertising: Tips, Tricks, and Complete Walk-Through

Like most social media platforms, Twitter is one of the best places to find and engage your target audience. It’s a fast-paced platform you can use to achieve many business goals such as lead generation, brand awareness, and even driving sales, among others. However, because Tweets are limited in length, and the platform is one …

The post How to Set Up Twitter Advertising: Tips, Tricks, and Complete Walk-Through first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

4 New Work from Home Tips To Get The Funding You Need

There are tons of articles on the internet about how to make working from home work for you. How to run a business from home is a popular topic. You don’t need me to give you more ways to organize your work space or keep yourself out of the fridge. No one needs more work from home tips on how to schedule your day and avoid distractions. There are plenty of places to get those.

I’m going to give you something you can’t in every internet search that includes “work from home” and “tips.” I’m going to tell you how to get the funds you need to run your home based business now, and how to ensure you’re set up properly to get more funds in the future.

Little Known Work from Home Tips To Get the Funding You Need for Your Home Based Business

You may think you can just go to the bank and get a home based business loan just like any other loan. However, you may be wrong. If your personal credit score is really high, it’s possible. Yet, home based businesses do not traditionally bode well with lenders. These work from home tips can help your business appear fundable to lenders. They can help you build your business credit score. Even better, they can point you in the direction of the best funding options for work at home businesses.

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

Work from Home Tips #1: Work With a Business Credit Expert

This tip comes before all the other tips because frankly, some of them are almost impossible to pull off without a business credit expert. This is someone who can help you:

Assess and improve the fundability of your business.
Guide your toward vendor accounts that will report your consisten, on-time payment to the business credit report agencies and help build your business credit score.
And help you find the best funding for your business that you can get right now, while you work on building your business credit profile and becoming more fundable.

Work from Home Tips #2: Work on Fundability

Working on fundability is essential. This is a tip for any business, but fundability is something that many home based businesses struggle with. There are many factors that affect fundability. Still, home based businesses struggle with a few specifically more than others.

The thing is, a major aspect of fundability is to appear to lenders to be separate from the owner. They want to see that a business is fundable on its own. For this to happen, the first thing you have to do is set up your business to be separate from you the owner.

The Home Based Business and Fundability Conundrum

What makes this an exceptional issue for home based businesses? Well, it’s no secret that one of the major benefits of working from home is not having to pay for an office space. There is no lease, no extra utilities, you just use the space you already have.

In fact, most home-based businesses are run as sole proprietorships with the same contact information as the owner. Many do not even open a separate business bank account at first. Also, it’s quite common for sole proprietor’s to simply use their social security number rather than using an EIN from the IRS.

While there is nothing wrong with any of this, it does not suit the purpose of separating your business from yourself for fundability. To do that, you need a separate phone number and address for your business. Do not think that means you have to have a separate location. You do not. There are ways to get a business home phone number and even a separate business address and still run your business from home. You also need an EIN and business bank account.

You also really need to incorporate as an S-corp, LLC, or corporation. For fundability purposes, it doesn’t matter which one you choose. Discuss the options with your tax professional and attorney. They can help you determine which one is best for your budget and needs for liability protection.

Work from Home Tips #3: Open Accounts that Report to Your Business Credit Profile

If you set your business up to be fundable, it will also be set up the way it needs to be to establish a business credit profile. This means you can start to build your business credit score separate from your personal credit score.

Here is how it works. You have to open accounts in your business name, using your business contact information and your EIN, not your SSN. The catch is, they need to be accounts that will report to the business credit reporting agencies.

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

This is easier said than done, as most vendors do not make it easy for the general public to figure out whether they do this. In fact, many do not report, which makes this particular tip harder. In the beginning, you have to find vendors that will extend credit and report payments without checking your credit. That is, if your personal credit isn’t good.

This is one tip where a business credit expert can be especially helpful. These experts know many vendors that will report. They also know which ones you qualify for an account with right now. Even better, they know how to position you so that you can be eligible for more accounts in the future.

Work from Home Tips #4: Home Based Business Loans

With strong fundability you’ll be able to get pretty much any funding your business could ever need, even if it is a home-based business. However, in the beginning, some loans are going to work better than others. Here are some examples.

Credit Line Hybrid

With the Credit Line Hybrid, you can usually get a loan of 5x the amount of your highest revolving credit limit account, up to $150,000. Honestly, this is more than what you could get on your own when applying for credit cards. Furthermore, you can get cash out on this program.

Also, there is no impact on your personal credit with this type of financing. You need a 680+ credit score, but if you don’t meet that you can take on a credit partner who does. A lot of business owners use the good credit of friends or family to help them get the funding they need.

It does not affect your personal credit score at all. In fact, it can help build your business credit score if your business is set up properly as mentioned above.

401K Financing

Your existing 401(k) or IRA can help fund your business as well. The funds work as collateral for business financing. As a result, your personal credit score isn’t really an issue. This program uses IRS proven strategies. You will pay no tax penalties, and you still earn interest on your 401(k). Even better, rates are low, and this option usually has a quick closing and funding process. If you are currently struggling to fund your home-based business, this is an excellent way to get started.

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

SBA 7 (a) Loan

The SBA offers federally funded term loans up to $5 million. The funds can be used for expansion, purchasing equipment, working capital and more. Banks, credit unions, and other specialized institutions process these loans and disburse the funds.

Credit Suite business credit experts can help you with these types of funding and more!

A Business Credit Expert Can Help You With These Tips and So Much More

While there are plenty of work from home benefits, there are also some disadvantages of working from home. If you want to work from home, you have to find a way to overcome these work from home challenges. If you are running your business from home, one of the greatest of these challenges is funding your business. A Credit Suite business credit expert can help.

The post 4 New Work from Home Tips To Get The Funding You Need appeared first on Credit Suite.

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