Outdoor Furniture

Does your service-based business serve a specific local-based geographic area? If so, your success depends greatly on attracting local traffic.

Local SEO can be a great way to reach customers. While virtually any business can benefit from SEO, keep reading to discover five fields where this strategy can really pay off to reap great business rewards.

Looking for more Local SEO strategies for your business? Read our article: 13 Strategies to Optimize Your Website for Local SEO

1. Medical and Dental Clinics Love Local SEO

You can see a big jump in search engine rankings by targeting local keywords around health or wellness.

Think about what you look for when you need a new doctor or emergency dentist: you’re probably going to search your city plus “family doctor” or “emergency dentist.”

However, you also need to target long-tail keywords on your website like “doctor’s office open Saturdays Vancouver” to reach more potential clients.

2. The Hyper-Targeted Hospitality Business

Own a restaurant, bar or hotel? Local SEO is a must. People often use Google’s suggested “near me” prompt that pops up in the search bar, so make sure your site content targets your location wherever possible.

Also, many people will check reviews on sites like Yelp before they click on your website – more than in any other type of business. Keep your business info up to date on these sites and respond swiftly to complaints.

3. Home Services (I Need Help NOW)

A local SEO campaign works well for people who solve problems.

It’s common for those searching for a plumber or locksmith to call the first listing that appears in Google, but it’s not as simple as creating a website with your contact info.

To get in front of customers, you need to focus on adding original content, optimizing your site and targeting long-tail keywords. Going with a paid SEM campaign is also a must for these types of businesses.

4. Neighbourhood-Specific SEO for Realtors

Real estate is a highly competitive category, especially with so many big companies out there plus platforms such as Zillow.

You’ll likely get a lot of your traffic from long-tail keyword searches, so as well as “house for sale Toronto” include “downtown waterfront Toronto condo for sale.”

Do your keyword research and write about what families with young kids should look for when buying a home or dog-friendly neighbourhoods – whatever will resonate with your audience.

5. Lawyers

Another highly competitive category! The good news is that potential clients are generally looking for very specific information.

So your local SEO strategy can be built around long-tail keywords. For example, instead of “Calgary lawyer” go for “Southeast Calgary will and trust attorney” to convert searches into leads.

Get Local, Grab Long-Tail Keywords

This is by no means an exhaustive list of businesses that can benefit from local SEO, but it gives you a good idea of where it can really make a difference.

Focus on building your local SEO strategy and utilizing long-tail keywords and traffic will follow!

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

You blog because you want to share your knowledge; you also blog because you want to drive traffic to your website and rank highly in the search results.

You already know about the basic SEO stuff to do with on-page factors and link building, but there are myriad other factors that get overlooked.

Granted, you’ll never smash them all, but it’s worth spending some time on the easy ones to make sure your blogs have a more significant impact.

Here are five simple but effective tactics you should be using.

Stunning headlines

How do great headlines help your rankings?

Well, more click-throughs in the search results boost your rankings because the algorithm will attach more value to your blog.

So if you rank relatively low, but get a lot of clicks, your ranking will rise. However, if you rank highly and you don’t get click-throughs, your blog will be deemed irrelevant to that search term, and your rankings will fall.

Therefore, eye-catching headlines improve your rankings.

Use images to boost your rankings

Using images to link to your blog will increase your rankings and provide some diversity to your backlinks.

The Alt tag tells the search engines about the content of your image. When using an image to link to your blog post, the Alt tag serves as a keyword.

The best way to get these link-based backlinks is to create an infographic for others to use – ask for an image backlink to your original post.

Do-follow vs. no follow

You aim to get do-follow links because they show your blog is of high quality and a trusted source of information.

The problem is a lot of profile sites, and blogs only provide no follow links. An excessive amount of these will make your blog appear untrusted – not good.

Buying in links (please say you don’t do that) is the quickest way to ruin your rankings. Instead, concentrate on guest blogging for high-quality blogs.

Linking to trusted blogs

Outbound links are just as relevant as inbound ones.

As a trusted and high-quality blog, you’ll be expected to link to other high-quality blogs if you want to raise the value of your blog in the eyes of the search engines.

Short or long blogs?

OK, yes you could probably write a useful and informative high-quality blog post that’s short, but the search engines love long content.

But not only should your content be lengthy (but still high quality, relevant and informative), you also need to work on getting comments. This will help boost the length of the unique content of each post.

Although none of these ideas are revolutionary, they often overlooked. Simple and easy to carry out, these tips will help you get more out of your blogging.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any further ideas on how to get the best rankings from your blogging, or if you have any questions.

An earlier article noted that business financing is effectively on life support based on recent reports of reduced business loans made by banks throughout the country. There are several reasons why intensive care comparisons might help to explain what is wrong with working capital financing and at the same time provide a healthy prognosis for impacted businesses. Because commercial financing is proving to be a serious challenge for most small business owners, this analysis should be reviewed by any borrower about to obtain or refinance commercial loans.

During the past two years, banks have lost much credibility and good will. Until the federal government provided massive bailouts for many of them, most of these lenders were on life support themselves. While some of the banks have recovered, others are effectively still in the intensive care process. But whether we are reviewing the healthy banks or ones still recovering, working capital financing for most small businesses is predominantly in what appears to be long-term intensive care. Banks are generally reducing or eliminating a large portion of their business financing activities, as indicated from most ongoing public and private reports. For example, with little or no advance notice, most banks appear to be closing commercial line of credit programs for small businesses regardless of profitability or length of the lending relationship. This is apparently not a temporary move to the sidelines but rather a permanent reallocation of resources to more profitable activities based on the manner in which this is being accomplished.

Lending activity has also decreased significantly for other forms of business financing such as commercial mortgage loans. Commercial loans have essentially been downsized or laid off just as many workers have. The realization that banks are rarely announcing publicly that these cutbacks have occurred is what makes this situation different. Perhaps bankers like to think that when they stop making small business loans nobody will notice. When it becomes public knowledge that their small business lending window is effectively closed, the bankers who placed commercial financing into intensive care are astute enough to realize that their public image will suffer even further damage.

Before they realize that the business financing world has changed before their eyes, it is possible that small business owners might need to connect several dots. As this article and other reviews indicate, banks are simply no longer providing the commercial loan services that they once did. Commercial borrowers should primarily rely on extensive candid discussions with other small business customers of the bank to confirm whether their bank is one of the few exceptions to this new reality. Even in the rare instances in which banks are truly lending “normally” to small businesses, the prevailing trend of less working capital financing coming from traditional banks should not be ignored.

While business financing patients (commercial borrowers) might be in serious condition when they find that their bank will not provide needed commercial loans, experienced small business finance specialists can frequently help in restoring financial health that will facilitate a business getting out of an intensive care situation. In some cases, this involves finding a healthy bank that is willing (and able) to provide “normal” commercial loans and working capital financing. For successful commercial funding it will be necessary to explore non-bank solutions in many other instances.

Business finance training refers to programs that teach individuals how to handle various financial duties. Finance training is similar to finance tips in that both help business owners make better monetary decisions, but training programs offer a more detailed explanation of finance strategies. Training programs vary in price and can be used by the owners and employees of a business.

The most basic business finance training provide information on budgeting, preparing financial statements, managing cash flow, strategizing, forecasting, improving performance, and applying basic procedures and concepts to more effectively manage a business. These programs are recommended for new business owners to help them understand standard business practices. Once these basic methods are mastered, more specific financial training may be looked into.

Advanced business finance training delves more deeply into a certain financial procedure or concept, usually at a higher cost than basic programs. Advanced programs may teach business owners how to set up effective business models, make decisions based on quantitative analysis, manage and control accounts, practice due diligence, measure productivity, and strategize concerning mergers and acquisitions.

Taking part in any kind of business finance training gives a business owner the resources to make more intelligent business decisions that result in increased productivity and profits. Many different types of courses are available either online or at a specified location. Some programs may even offer the option to train at the business. Taking into consideration the needs and abilities of a business is the key to finding the best business finance training.

A business finance solution generally refers to methods of funding and maintaining the finances of a business. Most solutions involve ways of obtaining working capital, but others also offer ways of protecting and increasing that capital.

To obtain working capital, business owners look to finance solutions that offer funding by several different means. The most common means are loans and financing. Asset-based loans use a business’s assets, such as inventory and equipment, as collateral. A business may also opt for a property loan in order to acquire commercial space. Invoice financing, such as factoring, involves liquidating or selling a business’s accounts receivables in exchange for quick funding. Some businesses look to trade financing to supply their inventory. The business will tell its financer the amount and cost of goods needed, and the financer will pay for the goods. The business then repays the amount financed over a specified period of time.

Most companies that provide business finance solutions also offer ways to protect and increase a business’s capital. Credit protection safeguards a business from daily risks, such as customers not paying on time, so that the business does not suffer incredible losses. This makes it much easier for the business to borrow money in the future, and it protects the balance sheet. A finance solution may also offer business insurance plans that increase the stability of a business. The most common types of business insurance are employee and public liability, car, property, and health insurance. These business finance solutions are designed to protect businesses against potential losses.

It is easy to start a business. To keep it rolling and then grow is the tough part. As one goes along there will always be instances of cash crunch that prove to be roadblocks to further progress. Smart businessmen always keep lines of finances open so that they can take care of such situations. That is not the only reason to have a line of funding; growth and expansion are also equally viable reasons to have access to funds. There are signs that you need finance for small businesses.

Pay vendors and pay salaries

You are already running a business and your funds are committed. It depends on cash flows to keep it running. All of a sudden a customer may delay payment but you must meet your commitment to vendors and to employees. You may consider borrowing from friends or relatives but there is no guarantee they will be forthcoming. This is when you need small business finance from the right lender. There is nothing wrong in borrowing if one has receivables incoming but which are delayed for some reason or the other.

You secure a large order

Small businesses need large orders in order to make a big leap. If a businessman secures a large order the problem is how will he execute it? He needs to buy raw materials, processes it and supplies it. He needs funds to buy materials and then he must manage while the materials are processed and supplied. It takes time from when he invests to when he recovers the money. This is when small business finance comes in handy. He can process orders quickly and by satisfying customers he can expect even more orders.

Expansion

One may start small and as one grows one finds that the present circumstances stand in the way of growth. Equipment may not be capable of high production that the growing business requires. Premises may be too small and cramped. This is the right type to access finance for small business and expand production capability and move into larger premises. One can engage more staff. It is necessary to take this step and expand or just be left behind as customers cannot wait for orders to be executed and they are likely to shift their business elsewhere.

Promotions

A business may have a satisfactory number of clients but it must always engage in promotions, especially during some seasons. Promotions help keep the business visible and attract new customers and one can explore regular channels as well as others such as online. Periodic campaigns will net more customers and help the business sell its products in bulk. Obtaining finance for small business for these purposes will pay rich dividends.