Why Local SEO Is More Important Than Ever

Local SEO has become an asset. Everyone is in a race to get noticed on the internet, to have their website be focussed on in the first page of results on Google. So if you’re looking to get popular amidst your target audience, local SEO is more beneficial than you’d think. There’s so much competition out there that you’d have to get in line to find your position somewhere around the search engines. Local SEO will be your best friend to get you out there so you can be seen and noted by people who are more significant than you know. You’d wonder why Local SEO has become that important. Let’s find out.

1. More people are searching for Local Businesses online

The way you look for new apps and games on the internet, people look for businesses too. Yes, it’s the most common phenomena these days after the way the virtual world has evolved in the last few years. You might not know, but the number of people looking for local businesses online is more than those looking out in the real world. People find it much easier to get immediate results at the click of a mouse and the touch of a finger. Your visibility on search engines during such a time will help you get noticed right away. Search engines often find local businesses based on location. If your business is ranking and is close to where the consumer is at the moment, you’re sure to get noticed instantly. Isn’t that so much easier a job for you as well as the customer? People are too busy to take the trouble of scrolling through the wide list of results on the search engine, and if your company website is right at the top, you’re sorted already. Local SEO will help you attract more customers than you would if you were to promote elsewhere.

2. Less competition in local than global search

In the global scene, there’s more than a million websites with ties enough to have them rank right at the top, rendering your website somewhere in that huge mess. Let’s be honest, you’re not going to get up there in the global standard so easily. It takes a lot of effort. But if Local SEO is there to help you out, in the local area, you’re more likely to get noticed, because there’s an entirely separate level of competition here. It’s much easier and more reliable too. With Google maps and the likes, search engines are more inclined towards the local sphere than global to deliver better results. What you must keep in mind is that it makes everyone’s work so much simpler. Neither the search engine, nor you, nor your customer has to go through too much of a hassle. Instead of jumping into the global world first thing, get to the local sphere initially so that you can be more prominent overall.

3. To rank higher in Local search engine with little efforts

Less competition, easier approval from the search engine, and being seen prominently on the local sphere; it gets much easier for the search engine to rank you higher when you’ve gone local. You can be shown on local search results more frequently than you would if you aimed for the global standards. Search engines will rank you higher, resulting in a simpler notice of your website to the people who are near you, and who are searching for local businesses in their area. What better way to get noticed than becoming popular within your local consumers instead of just jumping into the sea of websites ranking high in the global sphere. It makes the search engine’s job much less of a hassle when dealing with so many websites trying to get noticed.

4. Save dollars with local marketing

Local marketing saves more money than you’d think. Your local business will be marketed in a more refined way, without you having to shed dollars every other minute. Search engines like Google are keener to go with local businesses, giving you more access to become popular where other rich and famous businesses are already dancing about getting noticed more often than not. Search engines will want to rank your local business higher so you can get a chance to be out there, ranking you high enough to become as popular as you can get. These search engines might have profits of their own while doing this, but at least you get what you wanted, without having to spend precious time and money that you’d rather save to expand your business rather than in promoting it. It is indeed important to market your business out in the virtual world, and you do have to spend some heart-wrenching money on it, but in the end it all works out best for your business. And the better way is to get Local SEO so you don’t have to empty your bank account all over.

5. Get targeted traffic that actually converts

Matching results with the location of the customer and the geographical area of your local business, the search engines will develop results that will suit the requirements of the customer. This in turn gives you more scope to be seen because you appear to those closer and more accessible. Proximity searches are customized based on the one searching for the local business, and the internet traffic that develops according to your ranking, geographical location of the one searching, and how easily available your local business is to your customer, the search engine will render extremely useful results. And the internet traffic is much more refined than you’d imagine. Local SEO takes up a lot of your significant matter, making you more prominent out there.

6. Create brand awareness and increase visibility

According to the search history of the customer, your website will be ranked in the search results. Your company getting noticed and ranked higher is based on how close you are to your prospective customers. People want to trust local businesses rather than pay too much attention to the global standard. There might be excessively popular websites of businesses out there, but consumers will always give their first priority to those more accessible to them. Your visibility increases if you are in the local business sphere. Google maps targets the proximity factor, and the likes of the Texas Google Maps Company have evolved in this sphere greatly. It will get you a more prominent sort of ranking in the results, so that you can be accessed better by your customers. Also, people recommend things to others, and if you are locally recognized by many, your popularity increases tenfold. Keep in mind that your popularity will directly affect the business of your company in future, which is certain to bring you more progress than what you’d imagined before you even entered the arena of local SEO.

With the virtual world advancing, the website for your business is less likely to get noticed if you delve into the global phenomena. It is much easier for everyone if you are locally visible. Take measured steps, and improvement is sure to come.

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Tracey’s Kitchen at “I Believe”

As part of “I believe“, Ulster Bank has given a stand to their clients to sample the Christmas atmosphere, sell and make the public aware of their offerings.

Over the next weeks you can visit them at the Food and Craft market. On Friday 18 December it is the turn of Tracy’s Kitchen. This is her story.

Tracy’s Kitchen

As a small girl, I recall food being central to our lives – when friends and family called over, when we visited my grandmother’s house, when we came home from school, and certainly at Sunday lunchtimes! It seems that I have always been surrounded by good, wholesome, home-cooked food! It was no surprise to my mother then, that when I left home at 17, I didn’t rely on the usual student fayre to get me through college, rather I cooked my way through those four years, and my digs became the central location for friends who had run out of funds before the end of the month – it became known as a place where tasty grub would always be rustled up…simple and cheap, but tasty and filling!

When my own children started with the Walking and Talking, life got busy and I soon discovered that having more children than hands could be a problem if they weren’t occupied! Thus started the baking – Play Doh I had to buy in, whereas flour, milk and eggs I had in abundance always…when I added a few raisins and they made their first scones, albeit misshapen and kinda tough, we were hooked… hooked on the pieced that gathered us around the counter, hooked on the squigy feel of getting stuck in with tiny hands and hooked on watching through the glass door of the oven watching nothing turning into something…

We became bakers…aged 1, 2, 3 and 35..! It wasn’t until Lucy Jayne’s 4th birthday, that we turned our hand to making something more special, like a fondant covered cake…her first birthday cake request for a Heart Shaped Cake so I bought a heart shaped cake tin and never looked back…

Visit them at the fair or visit their website.

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How to Improve Your Company and Employee Morale

There are many ways that you can improve your sales and increase your profit margin. You can hire great people, reduce your overhead, outsource when needed, etc. Chief among all of these tricks and tips, though, is making sure that employee morale at your company stays high. Studies have proven over and over again that happy employees are more productive employees. Here are some techniques that you can use to boost morale:

Food and Beverages

It sounds like a silly idea, but feeding your employees and having beverages readily available both keeps your employees happy and improves their productivity (productivity that is lost when they have to leave the building to refill their coffee or get another soda). The easiest way to do this is to outsource the provisions to another company. This doesn’t have to mean having expensive catered meals every day! Hiring a company to keep your kitchen stocked and functional can just as easily be done by a food services company. For example, Aramark Refreshments provides coffee, snacks, and more to companies of all sizes.

PRO TIP: Make sure you have healthy food and beverage options like fruit, veggies, bottled water, etc in addition to the more traditional cookies, chips, soda, etc.

Allow Telecommuting

Companies that allow their employees to work from home at least part of the time don’t just have happier employees, they have more productive employees. Allowing telecommuting reduces the amount of time people have to take off from work when they are ill or need to look after their children. It is also helpful for the introverted who might be easily distracted or worn down by an otherwise social office environment. And, thanks to tools like Slack, Skype, etc. collaborating while telecommuting is easier than ever.

Provide Benefits

Offer your employees full benefits packages. This means offering dental and vision coverage in addition to a good health plan. Other benefits can include access to company vehicles during work hours (reducing their financial burden for gas), providing daycare to working parents, and unlimited sick and vacation hours. That might sound counterintuitive, but research shows that people who don’t have to worry about “using up” their sick and vacation leave are more responsible, productive and take less sick and vacation time on average than those who have a “use it or lose it” policy.

Reward Often

While it is true that there are competitive people out there who respond well to healthy in-office rivalries and negative feedback, most people are more inclined to thrive when they are praised and rewarded for their hard work and effort. We all love getting gold stars, right? Make sure that you tell your people how great they are and compliment them on the projects that are going well. Provide small rewards and thank-you gifts after stressful projects are completed to show your appreciation. Even a simple thank you card with a short note goes a long way toward keeping a team’s spirits up.

Social Time Outside of Work

Encourage your employees to spend time together outside of work hours. Being able to spend time together in a casual environment can foster bonding and improve communication between team members. Sponsor a regular happy hour at a nearby pub. Take everybody out to lunch. Throw holiday parties off site. Sponsor a weekend getaway. There are lots of big and small budget ideas that can help get employees together even when they aren’t working.

There are a lot of great methods you can use to keep your company morale high and, by extension, lift productivity rates. These are just a few of them. What are some of the methods that have worked well in your company?

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Silver Hill Farm at “I believe” in CHQ

As part of “I believe“, Ulster Bank has given a stand to their clients to sample the Christmas atmosphere, sell and make the public aware of their offerings.

Over the next weeks you can visit them at the Food and Craft market. On Thursday 17 December it is the turn of Silver Hill Farm.

Silver Hill Fram

Silver Hill Farm is a fully integrated family owned duck company. Founded over 50 years ago by Ronnie and Lyla Steele in Emyvale, Co. Monaghan. The present Managing Director is their son Stuart Steele. All aspects of our duck production are owned and controlled by Silver Hill Farm from breeding, egg production, hatching and selection to processing and cooking. The success of Silver Hill Farm lies in the unique Silver Hill Hybrid duck. Continually developed over the years, to produce a duck that is full of flavour, succulent, tender and consistent in its quality. This breed is exclusive to Silver Hill Farm.

Visit them at the fair or visit their website.

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Maintaining a Reliable Cash Flow Top 5 Benefits of Invoice Factoring

Looking for effective ways to pay bills on time, improve your cash flow, and fund your business’ growth?

With banks tightening the extension of credit for small businesses these days, several financing options seem to be unviable.

In such a situation, invoice factoring may be the right choice for your business. It is being regarded one of the most genuine alternatives to conventional bank funding option by several businesses.

Plus, it has a number of benefits.

Invoice factoring lets you stabilize your cash flow by converting outstanding invoices due in 30, 60 or even 90 days into immediate working capital.

Still not sure if invoice factoring is a trustworthy means of business financing?

In that case, here are five prominent benefits of invoice factoring that will help you understand why it may be right for you.

1. More Time to Focus on Business-Building Strategies

Are late payments from your clients causing you a lot of trouble?

Invoice factoring can be your savior.

The invoice financier will look after your sales ledger, freeing up your time to manage your business. This implies that you won’t have to wait for customers’ payments so that you can make yours. With invoice factoring, you can pay bills, meet payroll, and remit taxes on time without worrying about late fees or damaged credit. Moreover, the invoice financiers will also take care of the excessive paperwork.

This way you’ll get ample amount of time to focus on other business-building endeavors such as sales, marketing, and client development. Further, you can plan about taking calculated financial risks as you’ll be able to figure out the exact amount of money that will hit your account well in time.

2. Quick Access to Money and Living a Debt-Free Life

Invoice factoring makes for an appealing means of financing because it is one of the quickest and easiest processes for acquiring funds. The initial setup averages 5-10 days from receipt of the factoring application and supporting documentation. Funds on approved invoices are provided to businesses within 24-48 hours in most cases.

Comparatively, banks take a lot longer to approve loans.

Moreover, as invoice factoring is not a loan, it doesn’t add to the liabilities on your balance sheet. This implies no monthly loan payments, and a clear balance sheet.

3. Receiving Payments on Time

The invoice financier will credit check potential customers, and this will enable your business to trade with better quality clients, eventually resulting in receiving payments on time. Moreover, the financier can help you negotiate better terms with your suppliers.

4. Choose Invoices as per Your Convenience

Long term contracts, minimums, or maximums – forget these concerns with invoice factoring. You can pick and choose invoices that you want to factor without having to worry about bizarre terms and conditions.

Also, the factoring fee is quite reasonable. The cost of factoring invoices has declined drastically over the years with advances of up to 95% of the invoice value available, and fees as low as 1.5% over base rate. The fees vary by industry, volume and number of invoices, advance rates, customer creditworthiness, and the time the customers take to pay.

Additionally, factoring companies don’t demand you to spend your funds in a specific manner, which is why you can buy equipment or assets the way you intend to.

5. Strong Financials Not a Requisite

If your business has hit a few bumps in the road and you’re worried that you won’t qualify for factoring services, keep your qualms aside.

You don’t need great credit, years of experience in business, or a long strong financial history to qualify for factoring services. The factoring company looks at the strength of your customers paying on the invoices, instead of focusing only on your credit score.

Moreover, unlike traditional bank loans, factoring doesn’t require you to risk your home or other property as collateral. Factoring companies mainly focus on the credit strength of your customers.

If you’re looking for services related to invoice factoring in San Diego, you can consider opting for Invoice Factoring San Diego.

Conclusion

Owing to the many benefits of invoice factoring, several companies are using this means to fund their businesses and increase profits. If structured thoughtfully, you can use factoring to boost your bottom line. There’s so much to it, from taking advantage of early payment discounts, and negotiating bulk discounts from suppliers, to increasing inventory for large orders. Moreover, applying for bank loans can be a real hassle. The aforementioned benefits make it clear that invoice factoring options are more flexible and less expensive than ever before and procuring cash is quicker through it. Not to forget, choosing this funding method will also go a long way in building a healthy relationship with your client.

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Bru Brewery at “I Believe” in CHQ

As part of “I believe“, Ulster Bank has given a stand to their clients to sample the Christmas atmosphere, sell and make the public aware of their offerings.

Over the next weeks you can visit them at the Food and Craft market. On Saturday 12 December it is the turn of Bru Brewery

Brú Brewery

In ancient times many a great Warrior, High King and Goddess ruled over the Boyne Valley and it is these legends that inspire Brú today. Taking their name from the magnificent Brú Na Boinne Neolithic site (Newgrange) they hope to brew a few legends of their own. Hand brewed with passion on the lush, fertile banks of the Boyne all their beers are brewed using local and natural ingredients and are 100% fluoride, chemical and preservative free.

Inspired by legends… Irish in the making

Visit them at the fair or visit their website.

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A Few New Year Marketing Resolutions to Ensure 2016 Outperforms 2015

When it comes to marketing for the New Year, companies forget they need to take a step back in order to take a few steps forward. What does this mean? It means businesses must be able to critically examine their work from years past before they’re able to make good marketing resolutions for the future.

Many businesses are in the money making zone; they forget what it’s like to be a consumer. Think critically as your customer… What would you improve about your business? What do you want to see from marketing strategies (more coupons, more contests, less direct mailers)? If this is difficult for you, consider surveying your customers. Ask your customers directly because their responses are going to help you paint a clear picture of the resolutions you should make in 2016. Engaging your customer is the purpose of any marketing strategy.

Here’s some ideas for a New Year in marketing, many of which can help ensure 2016 is your best year to date:

Be Memorable with Eye-Catching Packaging

Okay, so brown boxes are inexpensive and cost efficiency is a good thing; however, imagine if a small investment into creative packaging could cause repeat business? Your bottom line would increase, and the small investment would be worth it. Look to companies specializing in creative packaging, such as custom made boxes by Custom Boxes Now, to save money and ensure the packaging is memorable.

Here’s an idea: make your packaging holiday or seasonal. Around the holidays, especially, this packaging will be impactful and memorable. Being memorable is a priceless commodity, and ensures repeat business. It helps to create a brand, and once you’ve established a known brand you can almost guarantee ongoing success.

Renew Your Target Audience

You’re thinking, but, I already built my target audience. No. Stop. You should renew your target audience the same way you renew resolutions – Every. Single. Year.

Go over last year’s data. Notice any patterns? These patterns paint a picture of who your customer is, and should provide you with information about who to target. If the outcome is the same as last year, great. If it’s different, you’ll need to change your strategy. Either way, you should review your target audience year after year. You can’t build a successful marketing campaign without knowing your customer first.

Send Mailers that Won’t End Up in the Trash

People hate junk mail, so the secret to a successful direct mail campaign is to send mailers people want to hold onto. This could include a valuable coupon or offer. In general, you should use the information you have on them (target audience data) to create a mailer that grabs their attention, and connects with them on their level.

Be creative, colorful, and add seasonal cheer, such as holiday themes and colors. Be bright, bold, and fun. A bland, dreary, plainly colored mailer isn’t going to grab anyone’s attention; nor will boring language. You need a talented copywriter to push sales and motivate readers. If you want consumer attention, you should have something to offer, and also be willing to get silly or funny. Give them a reason to shop with you (coupons, promos, etc.), and give them a reason to not forget you (be funny).

Branch Out on Social Media

So, you’ve already got a Facebook and Twitter. Why not make 2016 the year you embrace another social media channel, such as Snapchat? Interacting directly with your customers is a great way to get attention.

Take part in your community (whether in person or online). It’s a great way to market your business, how what you have to offer, and build personal relationships. No matter your demographic, reaching out with photos and commentary builds a network of loyal customers.

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First Ireland Spirits at “I Believe” in CHQ

As part of “I believe“, Ulster Bank has given a stand to their clients to sample the Christmas atmosphere, sell and make the public aware of their offerings.

Over the next weeks you can visit them at the Food and Craft market. On Friday 11 December it is the turn of First Ireland Spirits.

First Ireland Spirits

Nestled in the heartland of Ireland’s green and pure landscape, First Ireland Spirts have been crafting Irish creams, liqueurs and spirits for over 20 years. Working with local farmers and producers, the team have perfected the art of Irish Cream Liqueur with 24 hours from dairy to distillery, unique Irish liqueurs with crafted local ingredients, and more recently Irish Whiskey and spirits, creating award winning brands

Visit them at the fair or visit their website.

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Fireside chat with RBS/Ulster Bank skunk team

Working with Ulster Bank is a pleasure. We get paid to be helpful to small businesses, we are housed in Dogpatchlab and we get to work on some cool projects.

RBS distinguished engineers

It also means an opportunity to meet some very cool people. This week Ulster Bank hosted a fire side chat in Dogpatch with the RBS distinguished engineers, a RBS skunk team that fly around the world solving problems, innovating, developing prototypes in spikes of less then a week. This week they were in Dublin.

The topics of discussion

The discussion points were around the future of fintech, bitcoin and blockchain. Convergence, faster banks, slower fintech, surviving digital, customer experience, trust actors, digital assets, the role of operating systems, compliance, regulators, Kenya and Ireland, bit torrent, Ripple, etc. A very rich vain of conversation and discussion.

I learned a lot

I learned that banks now move 30% of the UK economy (salaries) at the end every month in 10 seconds. That banks are the most regulated sector in the world. That fintech companies that want to scale will eventually have to deal with the same regulators, which is no picnic.   

That in the middle ages stealing would get you killed, but forging would get you boiled in oil. That banking as a term is protected in Ireland and the UK and that I still can’t explain bitcoin to my mum (but I am getting there). I now also know that half of the bitcoin stock is hold by only a 1000 people and we don’t know who they are.

Innovation in Ireland

There was an interesting view on the innovation eco system in Ireland. It was compared to Kenya and that was meant as a compliment. Kenya was the birthing ground of Mpesa. We can do the same.

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Fireside chat with RBS/Ulster Bank skunk team

Working with Ulster Bank is a pleasure. We get paid to be helpful to small businesses, we are housed in Dogpatchlab and we get to work on some cool projects.

RBS distinguished engineers

It also means an opportunity to meet some very cool people. This week Ulster Bank hosted a fire side chat in Dogpatch with the RBS distinguished engineers, a RBS skunk team that fly around the world solving problems, innovating, developing prototypes in spikes of less then a week. This week they were in Dublin.

The topics of discussion

The discussion points were around the future of fintech, bitcoin and blockchain. Convergence, faster banks, slower fintech, surviving digital, customer experience, trust actors, digital assets, the role of operating systems, compliance, regulators, Kenya and Ireland, bit torrent, Ripple, etc. A very rich vain of conversation and discussion.

I learned a lot

I learned that banks now move 30% of the UK economy (salaries) at the end every month in 10 seconds. That banks are the most regulated sector in the world. That fintech companies that want to scale will eventually have to deal with the same regulators, which is no picnic.   

That in the middle ages stealing would get you killed, but forging would get you boiled in oil. That banking as a term is protected in Ireland and the UK and that I still can’t explain bitcoin to my mum (but I am getting there). I now also know that half of the bitcoin stock is hold by only a 1000 people and we don’t know who they are.

Innovation in Ireland

There was an interesting view on the innovation eco system in Ireland. It was compared to Kenya and that was meant as a compliment. Kenya was the birthing ground of Mpesa. We can do the same.

The post Fireside chat with RBS/Ulster Bank skunk team appeared first on Small Business Can.