1. Stuffing Your Content with Keywords
Making content related to target keywords (the ones you want your site or page to rank for) is a basic technique of SEO. This fact may lead you to assume that the more you use these keywords, the better an effect you’ll have. This couldn’t be more incorrect. Overusing your target keywords is considered spam to search engines. They will penalize your site, meaning you could actually drop in rank as a result of keyword stuffing. Don’t fall for the quantity-over-quality trap.

2. Ignoring Mobile
Ignoring mobile users is a massive mistake for a couple of reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that more people are browsing the web on mobile devices than computers. This trend has been the case for a few years now, and the trend shows no sign of stopping. That means if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll have a lot of very dissatisfied customers. These customers are will likely to bounce immediately off your site when they realize it isn’t responsive. Google and other search engines penalize sites which they detect aren’t mobile-friendly, regardless of the device visitors are using. So even someone searching your target keywords on a desktop won’t see your site in the top results—all because you didn’t optimize for mobile.

3. Using Poor Quality Backlinks
Another core SEO technique that can go wrong if improperly applied, building backlinks is all about establishing your site as a connected and reliable source of information. But if you’re earning backlinks from other sites that aren’t reputable and reliable, you won’t see any improvement in the rankings. Moreover, if the search engine detects that you’re using “spammy” backlinks, you’ll get penalized. So link to sites that people visit, and get backlinks from these same reputable sites, especially if they’re in your niche.

4. Duplicating Content
Plagiarizing your material, whether it’s from someone else or yourself, is easy for search engines to pick up on. And they’ll knock you for it. While it’s understandable that you might be in a rush to put together content quickly, you’ll regret it if you resort to copying and pasting content from another website. The same is true about republishing your own articles with new headlines or tags. Google and other search engines see this as disingenuous and will penalize your ranking immediately if they discover you’re publishing non-original content without attribution.

Take the time to carefully do your research and make sure to avoid these and other SEO mistakes. It will pay off in the long run and help you to achieve your search engine optimization goals.

The post 4 Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid appeared first on LaunchNeo.

1. More Is Better
This seems to be the ethos driving a lot of email marketing companies and products, that seek to swell your subscriber list ever greater, as though that were an end in and of itself. The truth is that adding to your subscriber list only matters if you’re adding motivated consumers, who are going to be susceptible to your campaigns. Focus on improving the percentages of people engaging with your emails, rather than the total number of people receiving them.

2. Every Lost Subscriber Is A Problem
Building on the previous misconception, this is the idea that whenever your subscriber count decreases, you need to adjust your strategy and implement solutions to prevent a mass exodus. The reality is that disinterested readers are doing you a favor by removing themselves from your overall pool. You should only really be alarmed if your unsubscribe rate rises above 1%, and only then if you see a resulting drop in traffic to your site or sales.

3. You Should Live In Fear of Flagging
You should definitely take steps to avoid being flagged as spam, but the truth is that most people don’t take the time to flag emails. Less than 0.05% of people take the time to hit the spam button. If you’re tip-toeing to avoid being flagged, you’re probably not marketing as aggressively as you could be.

4. Email Marketing Is On The Way Out
Odd how a rumor about an industry’s impending death can perpetuate itself, even in a flourishing industry. While online marketing in general faces challenges, as the Internet continues to figure out exactly what the hell it wants to be, email is still the preferred primary channel of communication for more than three-quarters of Americans. People automatically assume that concert tickets and reservation confirmations will be sent to their email. Email is still a powerful and versatile medium, and marketing through it will continue to be robust and effective.

5. Emails Should Be Sent On A Specific Day Or At A Specific Time
While there’s some truth to the notion that sending emails at particular times is better than others, the tendency in marketing circles is to get far too specific. This causes a few problems. First, if you’re following the same “best practices” as other marketers, you’re going to be hitting subscribers’ inboxes at the exact same time. Second, it ignores the variation within types of emails. You’re better off seeing how promotional offers fare in the evening compared to newsletters in the morning and vice versa than treating your messages as a monolith.

Your campaigns deserve attention! Don’t fall for these false ideas and sabotage yourself.

The post 5 Common Email Marketing Myths Debunked appeared first on LaunchNeo.

Here are nine ways in which your business can benefit by getting your business on the Internet:

Improve Your Company’s Image

Business websites and social media accounts are very common these days. When a business doesn’t have an online presence, it causes customers to wonder if its owners are even serious about their trade. When you take the time to set up a website and social media account(s) for your business, you show your customer base that you are a committed business owner. If for no other reason, you should develop a website and social media presence for your business just because your customers expect you to have one.

An Online Presence Helps Make Sure That You Are Available All The Time

There are some gas stations, pharmacies, convenience stores, and fast food outlets that stay open 24 hours a day, and every day of the week. For most other businesses, however, being always open is impossible. When you take your business online, you can, at the very least, offer detailed information about your products and services to your customer base, every hour of the day. Many people like researching the products that they will buy from the comfort of their homes. If you have no website, you lose out on these customers. A website would help you generate more leads. If you have e-commerce capability on your website, you can help your leads buy from you anytime, as well.

You Can Offer Your Customers Better Support

When you have no online presence, your customers are less able you contact you with presales questions. You can’t sit by the phones at your company all day, and all night. What you can do is to set up an online presence for your business, and direct users to an informative page, an email form, or a social media account. Often, visitors to your website won’t even need to make contact with you. If you have a FAQs section, product manuals, usage videos, and other information on your website, you will be able to answer your visitors’ questions even before they ask them.

Getting Started Is Easy

While it’s possible to spend tens of thousands of dollars on building a top-notch commercial website, there are options out there for less. LaunchNeo offers a simple monthly package called a LaunchPlan that provides everything that you need for a custom WordPress website.

The Internet Is Business-Friendly

When you get on the Internet, every potential customer out there is just a click away. You can use your website and social media presence to educate visitors on your products or services, convert them into customers, and help them use their purchases. Getting on the Internet makes your business more customer-friendly.

The Internet Allows You To Do Business From Anywhere

In many cases, if you have an online presence, you can run your business remotely. You don’t need to be in a specific town to run it. You can move to any city that you like, and continue running your business online.

Cut Costs 

Moving even parts of your daily operations online can help you lower costs. A single online video that explains your product’s features may be able to allow you to cut down on customer support staff. Once you begin making much of your sales online, you will be able to cut down on sales staff, as well.

Target New Geographical Areas

When you restrict yourself to your brick-and-mortar location, your business is limited by the number of individuals who live close by. Getting your business online, however, opens you to a much wider geographical area. You may be able to use delivery services to deliver your product to a larger customer base.

The Internet Allows You To Be More Responsive

When your business goes online, you get to respond to your clients and potential customers far more readily than you would if you weren’t online. You can respond to questions through email and offer basic information to customers through articles and videos on your website.

Whether you physically provide a service to a certain geographical location, or sell products that can be shipped, taking your brick-and-mortar business online can be a powerful way to increase your revenue and find more customers.

The post 9 Reasons Why You Should Take Your Business Online appeared first on LaunchNeo.

Unfortunately, for many people, SEO and keywords are mysterious ideas that seem like they can only be accomplished by a degreed tech specialist who is half-machine.

It’s not nearly as complicated as it sounds. In fact, it’s not at all different from what you learned to do when you were taught to research things.

Let’s say you’re a dentist. Well, everyone who’s a dentist is going to have the word dentist all over their website. You need to add some words to distinguish your practice from other businesses. It’s those words that will often include your location and specialties that will become your keywords.

A couple of definitions:

SEO – Search engine optimization – You need to have Google, Bing, and other search engines find your website. You’re optimizing your website content so the search engines know who you are and they put your business up when someone does a relevant search.

Keywords – This is a bit of a misnomer. They might be a word or an entire phrase. Depending on whether they’re head keywords or long-tail keywords, they can range from one word to five or ten.

Head Keywords – These are the basic keywords or phrases that pertain to your business. In the example above, those keywords will include dentist, filling, etc.

Long-tail keywords – These are phrases that are more conversational. When someone searches for them, they are searching exactly that, not a general phrase. “Root canal with sedation dentistry” would be a long-tail keyword.

Here’s another example:

Head term – “SEO keywords”

Long-tail – “how to pick SEO keywords”; “what are SEO keywords”; SEO keywords website traffic”

How to get started with SEO keywords

Set Goals

The first step to using SEO keywords is to set your goals.

You have two basic goals possible: fast traffic or slow growth.

Fast traffic means that you’ll get few visitors, but that those visitors will be there for exactly what you sell. For example, if you’re a record store, you can use “vintage AC/DC vinyl records” as your main keywords and you’ll get lots of traffic for AC/DC records. You might be missing everyone looking for Led Zeppelin, but you’ll get traffic quickly. In this situation, you’ll use long-tail keywords.

For slower growth, you’d use more head keywords. “Vinyl records”, “AC/DC”, “Led Zeppelin”, and “vintage vinyl” might all be your head keywords. By consistently adding content, you can get traffic over time. Unlike the long-tail example, there will be a lot more competition for these words, but in the long run, you’ll have a broader audience.

Do your research

Researching keywords involves using various tools to figure out what keywords to use.

The easiest place to start is to look at your competition. If you start with Google’s Keyword Planner, you can enter a website address. You’ll need to create a Google Ads account. Alternatively, you can use sites like SEMRush or BuzzSumo. Enter the competitor’s website and the keyword planner will analyze it and give you a list of what your competitors are using.

Often you’ll get words and phrases like, “order now” or “please”. Ignore those and look for the ones with substance.

Start a list

Using this information, start a list of the main keyword that your competitor is using. Remember, they might not be perfect either, so you need to look at this list honestly and make sure it looks like they know what they’re doing. You don’t want to follow them off a cliff.

Now that you have a list, you can go back to the keyword planner and enter those keywords. This will show you how popular that phrase is and other related keywords.

This is the list that you’re going to consider. Make sure that the words are really relevant to what you do. If one popular keyword phrase is “Mozart records”, but you only sell rock and roll, don’t include Mozart on your website. The search engines know when there’s a discrepancy between what you do and what phrases you use.

Narrow down the list

There are several key metrics for narrowing down the list:

• Volume – Look at ‘search volume’ on the reports. The more it’s searched, the more traffic you’re likely to get. The volume might be high today and will change in a month, but it’s a starting point. You’ll want to check again every 3 or 6 months.
• Competition – The higher the volume of a keyword, the more people are using it. That means that it will be harder to rank for that keyword.
• Relevance – This continues with what we mentioned above – If a word has nothing to do with your site, it doesn’t make sense to try to rank for it.

There is a sweet spot between volume and competition. A high volume phrase with high competition is going to be very difficult to rank for. A low volume, low competition phrases is useless. You’re looking for those phrases where the volume is good enough to drive traffic to your site while having low enough competition to make it possible to rank for it.

Making the final choice

This is the part where you’re going to step away from the data a little bit.

Once you’ve narrowed your list using the methods above, you should have a list of finalists. Once you’ve gotten there, this becomes a matter of personal choice.

Look at the keywords you’ve been presented with. The ones that seem most natural to you, the ones that you are most likely to use to describe your business in conversation, those are the ones you should be using.

Google’s goal is to make its search engine more natural, more like human thought. If you use the words that normal people would use to search for your business or to search for your website, with a little data thrown in, you should end up with a great set of keywords to build your site on.

The post How To Pick SEO Keywords appeared first on LaunchNeo.

When anyone searches for a business near them, they’ll see a listing on the right side of the Google search page lists all the data from your business.

Important note: Unfortunately, this service does not exist for virtual businesses, ones that don’t have a storefront. Since online businesses would be likely to show up in every search, it might give them an unfair advantage.

Google My Business provides your potential customers with operating information about your business.

• Business name
• Address
• Phone number
• Web address
• Hours
• Menu link for restaurants
• Photos
• Reviews
• Questions and answers
• A place for customers to add their knowledge
• A map to the location

All of this is presented in a compact, predictable form by Google. 

Google builds a profile for every business and will keep adding information as customers submit it, but the best way to make sure the information is correct is to claim the business and update the data.

The key to Google My Business is that if your business is the answer to whatever the customer is searching for, your business will show up on the first page. That’s the most coveted place on the internet. 

Google My Business also plays a significant role in local SEO. If you’re looking to build your local business, you need to have this data filled out. Google will use that data to bring you new customers. 

We had a massage therapist friend who had never heard of Google My Business. After we encouraged her to complete the information and keep it up to date, she got almost 70% of her new business from Google searches that showed people her business listing on Google My Business.

How to Get into Your Google Listing

To start, visit https://www.google.com/business.

On that page, you’ll see a button that says “Start Now.”

You’ll put in the basic information (name, address, phone number, website) for your business.

The next step takes some time. Google will mail you a postcard. That postcard has verification information on it. The key here is that want to make sure you’re really at the address you listed.

Once you’ve gotten the post and verified your information…

You can enter your dashboard and personalize your listing.

You can include:

• Hours
• All of your contact info
• A profile picture

That’s just the start though. 

Optimizing your Google My Business listing

That’s the basics. Now it’s time to optimize your listing.

Make sure your listing is up-to-date and comprehensive – If you’re a restaurant, your menu needs to be there along with photos of your food. You need to put in your category, attributes, description, and more.

Remember:  This is Google. That means that all of this information will be shared across all of Google’s platforms, like Google search and Google Maps. If it’s not perfect, you’re sharing bad data with everyone everywhere.

Use a local phone number, not a national hotline. Yes, it can be nice to send calls to the national call center, but it will negatively impact your search rankings. This is Google “local.” Keep it as local as possible.

The category and attributes are important. The category will define how Google lists you. The attributes are the keywords that Google will use to deliver your business as a response to searches.

Use the attributes judiciously. Don’t stuff the attributes with keywords. Take your time. In fact, check out our article on picking SEO keywords and figure out the very best ones to use. 

The attributes section is also the place to add amenities. If your restaurant has outdoor seating, this is the place to list that. If your hotel offers free wi-fi, that goes in attributes. This is the place to put in all the things that differentiate your business from others in the area.

Your description should be short, inviting, and honest. It should sound a bit “salesy” but don’t go over the top with the descriptives. Just make it enticing.

Make sure you live up to what your description says. 

One example of where a business didn’t live up to its description, a new local bar opened up. The listing said that they opened at 3 pm and that they were non-smoking. Some friends of ours walked in at 3:10. The bartender was smoking a cigarette at the bar and said they don’t open until 4. Needless to say, our friends didn’t go back. 

The public takes what’s in your Google My Business listing as gospel, primarily because they know that it’s really easy to fix and update. 

Needless to say, they gave the bar a bad review on Google. Read the section about reviews below to understand why this can be a huge issue.

There’s no excuse for any of your information to be wrong.

Reviews

The single most powerful tool your business has is online reviews. Reviews on your Google profile are the fastest way to get busy and make more money.

Unlike other sites, Google encourages you to ask for reviews. They want your customers to post reviews and tell the world what they think. 

Most studies indicate that over 50% of consumers base their purchasing decisions, at least in part, on reviews that they read online. Many savvy consumers will narrow down their list based on the reviews they read.

When you ask for a review, you shouldn’t necessarily ask for a 5-star review, but let your customers know you’d love a review. “If you’re not 100% satisfied, please let us know. We’re happy to help.” It’s not saying, “Don’t leave any review that’s not 5-star,” but it’s close.

You should respond to every review. Make sure that every review, whether it’s awesome or terrible, gets a response from you. It’s okay if the response is just, “Thank for the review!”

If the review is bad, you should be asking the reviewer to contact you and let you fix it. You can then go back later and post an update about what you did and that you hope the reviewer is more pleased now.

Your Best Online Asset

No matter what you might be trying to do, Google My Business is your single best asset. 

Using this powerful tool, you can increase your business locally. Make sure everything is right and that you adhere to what you said. 

Google My Business, like it did for our massage therapist friend, can be the fastest way to grow your business. 

Claim it, get it up to date, and keep it that way and Google will drive a ton of business to you for free!

The post How To Optimize Google My Business appeared first on LaunchNeo.

Promoting your website is at the heart of business success in the 21st century. For most businesses, your website is your lobby; it’s the place where your customers first meet your company and your products or services.

1. Put it everywhere – Your web address should be everywhere. On business cards, on your car, on your t-shirt everywhere.
2. Make your website your business – Amazon, Google, Twitter, Poshmark. There might be companies behind these websites, but they are known as their website. If you have a website, you should name your business the same.
3. On social media – Every social media post should have your web address in it. Every time some sees something you’ve posted, even just for fun, it should have your web address on it.
4. PPC (Pay per Click) Advertisements – Facebook ads, Google ads, everywhere, you should be promoting your website. If you make promoting your website the focus, then you know where to concentrate your sales efforts.
5. SEO – Make sure your website is attracting search engines. You want Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others to come look at your website frequently. SEO will help you do that. It’s a process (see some of our other blogs), but it’s a great way to promote your site.
6. Content – Post interesting content to your website regularly. Blogging once a week with information that people can use is a great way to get Google to see you and get people to come to your website.
7. Email marketing – A series of regular emails that invites people to your website is an excellent way to market it. By contacting them through their inbox and then finding a reason to visit your site, like a blog post or a video, you can get lots of traffic to your website.
8. Infographics – These little informative gems are perfect for the internet. They’re shareable, full of data, and make people want to look at your website for more information.
9. Micro-influencers – When people think of influencers, they think of the Kardashians, but micro-influencers have even more power. They have smaller followings, but those are very loyal followers. They have a lot of influence in a small niche. Make friends with them and they can help promote your business.
10. Google My Business – The free Google business listing is one of the most powerful ways to tell people you exist. Make sure that your website is listed on there. (See our blog about Google My Business listings.)
11. Business listing sites – YP, Yelp, and many, many more sites have spaces for you to add your website. Make sure that your information is correct and that your website is properly linked. There are even a few services that will list you on dozens of sites at once.
12. Quora – Go on Quora and ask and answer questions. Include your web address in your profile or in your answers with an invite to learn more.
13. YouTube – YouTube is the world’s second-busiest website and social media site. Making videos that teach, share, or even just make people laugh is a great way to promote your business. Be sure to include your web address in your description and your video.
14. Reddit – Reddit is a discussion forum that’s a little less formal than Quora. Put answers there and include your website. It will help make SEO connections and will promote visits to your site.
15. Medium – Medium is an article posting that has gained a lot of popularity lately. You can post articles there and have your website LinkedIn your profile.
16. Help a Reporter Out – Reporters are often looking for experts. Help a Reporter Out is a site that acts as a resource for those reporters. You can list yourself and your site there as a resource for solid expert advice.
17. Backlinks – A backlink is when another website links to yours. Warning: There is no easy way to do this. Google will penalize you if they discover that you’re setting up a link exchange. Create great content and people will naturally link to you.
18. Signature – Every email you send out, every text message, can have your web address in it. That will give people an easy way to look up your website. 
19. Guest blogging – Find bloggers who talk about what you do. Offer to write for them in exchange for a chance to list your website. Many times, those who are your competitors are willing to work together simply because there are plenty of customers in the world.
20. Twitter – Unlike other forms of social media, Twitter is a bit more laid back as a promotional site. You can post marketing tweets all the time, but you shouldn’t. Give people a reason to read your tweets, like inspiration, humor, or interesting facts, and only pitch your website every 8 or 10 posts.
21. Blogger outreach – Finding bloggers in your realm is easy. Once you have, contact them and invite them to write for your website or to simply check it out. Ask if they would be willing to recommend your website as a resource if that’s appropriate. If you sell something, offer them a sample.
22. Engage – Be sure to respond to comments on your blog and on social media. If people are willing to engage with you, you should do them the courtesy of responding. Don’t leave them hanging, even if it’s just a note saying, “Thanks for your comment.”
23. Pinterest – This very visual platform is a great place to post images of your products, memes with great advice, and much more. Sharing on the site, with your web address in the image, is an excellent way to promote your website. Infographics are awesome on Pinterest.
24. Quality – The final idea applies to everything above: Always post quality. You don’t need to be Shakespeare to share quality writing or Einstein to share quality ideas, but make sure that everything you do, you do to the best of your ability.

Promoting your website can actually be fun if you approach it as a challenge. The most important thing to note is that there’s always a new way to promote yourself and your website so you should never be bored.

The post 24 Ways To Promote Your Website appeared first on LaunchNeo.

1. Google Voice (Phone)

Google Voice offers a simple phone service that allows you to take calls on your smartphone or on the web. You receive a free phone number with calling, texting, and voicemail available. You can also forward calls to any phone number. Setup is simple, and there are no costs for using the service (within the US and Canada). 

The downside is that you must upgrade to a paid version to get extra features like an auto attendant and desk phone support. The paid version also requires a G Suite account, further increasing the cost of the paid version. That being said, G Suite is a great solution for emails, online documents, cloud storage, and more. So there is still value in the paid version. There just may be other options out there for phones which are more affordable than the paid version.

A close second place – FreshCaller is another great option for your phone service and has more features than Google Voice. It also integrates with the other Freshworks products such as Freshdesk (see the FreshDesk description below for more information). It would make our top choice for phone service over Google, but the free version lacks one crucial feature that is free with Google Voice – voicemail. The numbers available are also relatively limited, especially for toll-free numbers.

The cheapest option for Freshcaller with voicemail is $19 per month. Phone numbers cost $1 per month for local numbers and $2 per month for toll-free numbers, which is very affordable, but it keeps Freshcaller from being truly free even though there is a free plan. They also reel in customers by starting them out on a trial of the paid version, so you may sign up and set up voicemail only to find out later that your callers are being hung up on if you don’t answer! So make sure you are aware of the features of each plan before trying this service.

2. Freshdesk (Help desk)

Freshdesk is a help desk system that provides a system for your customers to find answers and request support. You can easily build a knowledge base to answer customers questions (and reduce support requests). Customers can also open support tickets when they can’t find the answer in your knowledge base. Support tickets can also be automatically opened when you receive mail to a specified address. This allows easy tracking of each issue so you can provide consistent and effective service. 

Freshdesk also integrates with the other Freshworks software such as Freshchat, Freshcaller, and Freshping – so you can also open support tickets for each call or chat. This is very convenient to have one centralized system for support. And considering that there is a free option for each part of the system, it’s no wonder why this system is so popular. If it wasn’t for the limitations of the free plans for Freshcaller and Freshchat, we would recommend the entire Freshworks platform. But as noted above about the phone system, there are some important features that are missing from the free plans. So while we do recommend Freshworks, we also suggest carefully looking at the features which are included in each plan.

3. Mailchimp (Email Marketing)

Mailchimp is an email marketing service that allows you to craft effective email marketing campaigns easily. You can collect email addresses with custom forms, send emails, make landing pages, and more. The service is relatively easy to set up and works well without the need for upgrading.

Although you can use the free version without the need to upgrade, you are required to have MailChimp branding in your forms and emails. Upgrading removes this requirement and allows for a more custom branded look. Monthly plans and pay as you go plans are available, with the pay as you go plans seeming to be better for smaller businesses with fewer emails to send.

Other popular free email marketing services include SendGrid and SendinBlue. SendGrid may be a better solution for businesses with more advanced needs. SendinBlue is more similar to MailChimp, and their paid plans are more affordable than MailChimp. So it may be a better solution for businesses which need the features of a paid email marketing plan.

4. WordPress (CMS)

WordPress, which was founded in 2003, is a content management system that is used to run around a third of all websites. Many well-known companies use WordPress for their websites. It is well known, reliable, and well supported. Web designers are used to working with WordPress, so it’s easy to find someone to design a custom WordPress website for you. There are thousands of developers who make plugins for WordPress, so any missing features can be easily added.

WordPress is the most flexible CMS; however, it is not quite as intuitive to use as your typical drag-and-drop website builders like Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify. So while it will give you the ability to have the best possible website, it may take some help from a professional designer to get the most out of a WordPress website. 

If you do need professional help with the design and setup of your WordPress website, we offer a simple solution. Our affordable monthly plans include a domain, custom WordPress website, hosting, SEO, and more!

You can learn more about WordPress in our article about why you should use WordPress for your website.

5. WooCommerce (E-commerce)

While WordPress is a great CMS, it lacks e-commerce features. Luckily there is a great e-commerce platform built for WordPress called WooCommerce. It’s been around since 2011 and has become a very popular system for online stores. Much like WordPress, WooCommerce is very flexible, but it is also very basic in functionality until you add plugins. With plugins, there is no limit to what you can do with your online store when using WooCommerce.

While there are other e-commerce platforms out there including easier to use website builder systems, WooCommerce offers the most options, and it’s free to use. That being said, most of the plugins are not free. However, plugins are usually very affordable and offer a high level of customization. If you can think of a feature, there’s a plugin for it. And if not, you can easily find a developer to make it.

6. Google Docs (Office Suite)

Google Docs is an office suite made up of a word processor (Docs), spreadsheet app (Sheets), presentation app (Slides), and form-maker (Forms). With this powerful set of cloud-based apps, there is no need to purchase expensive office suite software like Microsoft Office. You also get the benefits of the cloud, such as automatic saving and the ability to easily collaborate on documents with members of your team. The best part about Google Docs is that there is no upsell. It’s a truly free office suite solution.

Other great free solutions for office suite software are OpenOffice and Microsoft’s Office Online. OpenOffice is a more traditional application which is installed directly on your computer rather than being online-based like Google Docs. But much like Docs, this is a truly free solution with no upsell. Office Online is Microsoft’s free cloud based office suite. It’s a good solution for anyone who prefers to use Microsoft’s software, especially for those using their OneDrive cloud storage.

7. Google Hangouts (Video Conferencing)

With online collaboration becoming the norm, video conferencing has become an integral tool for many businesses. The ability to directly speak with a group of people is a great way to avoid unnecessary meetings, get better feedback out of a conversation, and have a professional yet personal interaction. Google Hangouts offers the ability to video chat with multiple people, screen share, and more. You can use any smartphone or computer to start a video call, so you can easily communicate no matter where you are.

8. Slack (Collaboration/Project Management)

Another great example of an online collaboration tool is Slack. Helping to keep teams organized and focused, Slack offers many features to keep projects moving forward. You can make channels and set who sees each channel so you can keep each part of your team in the loop without any unnecessary information overloading them. Team members can leave channels as needed, so they won’t get stuck in conversations that they are done with. Everything is searchable, so you have a way to go back and check details of projects when you need to.

The free plan is limited to the most recent 10,000 messages, file storage is limited to 5GB, and you are limited to a maximum of 10 third-party or custom apps. There is no limit to how long you can use the free plan, so it’s a nice tool for small businesses to help their team stay on track with projects.

9. Square (Payment Processing)

Online stores have to be well designed, so the customer has an enjoyable shopping experience. One of the most crucial parts of the shopping process is payment processing. If there are problems with your payment processor, you may end up losing sales. You also must count on the security of your payment processor as they are dealing with sensitive private data. And of course, you must also consider the processing fees which can quickly add up.

Square offers a well known and trusted payment processing solution. It is simple to use, and the fees are very reasonable. While the service is free to use, you are charged a payment processing fee of 2.75% for each transaction. (fees for invoices are charged a 2.9% + 30¢ fee – 3.5% + 15¢ if processed using a saved card).

A close second place – Stripe is another great solution for payment processing. It is very similar to Square, including the fees. The payment processing fee is a flat 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. Depending on your individual needs, Stripe may be a good choice for your payment processing needs. Some plugins or features may require a certain payment processor. For example, WooCommerce’s subscription payment plugin currently doesn’t support Square for recurring payments, so Stripe is the better choice for WordPress websites with the WooCommerce subscriptions plugin.

10. Wave (Accounting)

Wave offers a simple and secure way to keep track of your business expenses. Simply connect your bank accounts and credit cards to sync data to your Wave account. Having your accounting organized can help you when it comes time for tax season. Save yourself the headache and expenses of last-minute tax planning and get your company’s finances in order the easy way. You can also use Wave for invoicing, so if you don’t already use Square or another platform for invoices, it’s another plus of using Wave.

11. TinyPNG

Page loading time is an important factor in Search engine optimization and user experience. So you should make sure that the pictures on your website are optimized. Reducing the file size of images can improve load times leading to a lower bounce rate (fewer lost visitors) and improved SEO. You can easily compress your PNG and JPEG images with TinyPNG. It simply decreases the number of colors in your images thereby reducing the file size. The change to the image quality is usually not even noticeable and the change in file size is significant.

As you can see, there are plenty of free services available for your small business. You can get your business organized, attract customers, look like a larger company, handle your finances, and more – all for free. So make sure to leverage these options and take your business to the next level without breaking the bank.

The post The 11 Best Free Services For Your Small Business appeared first on LaunchNeo.

While it has its detractors, WordPress is the base of 34% of all websites on the internet. That number includes websites that have no outside CMS or have a custom-coded CMS. (W3Techs) 

With one-third of all websites running on this one content management system, it’s no wonder that it has a lot of assets to recommend it as your CMS.

1 – It’s open-source.

You don’t have to pay anyone to use WordPress as your CMS. You can download an installation file for it and then upload it to your host. In fact, most hosts make it even easier: all you have to do is push a button to install the WordPress CMS on your site. 

There is a paid version of WordPress that includes hosting, etc., but you don’t have to pay to use WordPress on your website.

2 – Lots of plugins/extensions

Because WordPress is open-source, there are thousands of plugins that you can add to your site to make it better. They range from anti-spam plugins to design tools that help you build a website. 

Essentially, these are pieces of code or functionalities that someone wrote that make your site work better for you. Most of them are free, although some have a small fee to get all the bells and whistles. In essence, these will save a developer time having to reinvent the wheel; someone else has already done it and they make it available to everyone.

3 – It’s not new.

WP has been around for about a decade now. That means that the kinks are worked out and there’s a large, professional organization there making sure that everything works well. 

When a new CMS is issued, it will often have lots of glitches and problems. They will cause your site to crash and create a lot of headaches. Those problems are in the past for WP, so you can expect smooth running (most of the time – everything has its issues).

4 – Many, many big companies use WordPress.

The list of companies that use WP as their CMS is like a who’s who of the world’s largest, most notable companies and even government agencies:

• BBC America
• The New Yorker
• Variety
• Sony Music
• MTV News
• Mercedes-Benz
• Katy Perry
• The New York Times
• The Village Voice
• New York Post
• The White House
• The Obama Foundation
• …and many more!

There are tens of thousands of major brands that use WordPress to build their websites. That means that you can count on it being around for a long time and to be constantly improving.

5 – Lots and lots of themes

A WordPress theme is a template that you build your WP website from. There are thousands of them to be had. Every day, someone issues a new theme.

WP started as a blogging platform. It has expanded into a complete content management system. In order to get a website to look the way you want, you need to add certain elements. A theme is a pre-designed template that you can use as a starting point. From there, you can add more elements to the site to meet your needs.

6 – WP makes SEO easy

Search engine optimization (SEO) is at the heart of success on the internet. WordPress and the developers who’ve contributed to it over the years know this and have designed it to be SEO-friendly right out of the gate. In fact, because so many important websites and so much of the internet runs on WordPress, it’s only logical that Google and other search engines look to WP to know what to add to their algorithm. 

SEO is simply a part of the WP core, making it a powerful platform for getting your message out to search engines and the world.

7 – Developers and designers are everywhere.

Because WP is so popular, there are literally millions of designers and developers. You can find them on every continent and working in every language. There are very few web design and development companies that don’t offer WordPress. In fact, WP is the core of many desengers worlds, without them ever learning any other system.

8 – WP grows with you.

Because the platform is so flexible, it grows with your needs. One page or one thousand, a blog or an ecommerce site, multiple themes across multiple pages, all of it can be done in WP. Because the platform is 100% scalable, it will grow as your needs grow.

Often, you can transfer from one theme to another with ease. The content will stay in place and simply move around in the themes. That makes growing and changing your site easy.

9 – It’s multilingual.

Because WP is so popular, it’s everywhere. Baked right into the system is the ability to be multilingual. You can easily duplicate a website and change the language. This allows you to localize your websites to your audience if you have customers or staff in multiple countries. 

10 – It’s really easy to use.

Most of the time, you don’t need to know any coding at all. You don’t have to understand HTML or CSS to build a website. There are programs that allow you to drag and drop elements, change parts of the site, and make it what you want. The themes are very often nearly complete in and of themselves. For example, a lawyer theme only needs you to change the words to match your law firm to make it yours. Changing out photos, adding signup forms and more is all very simple.

11 – It’s compatible with everything.

Not matter what CRM or email program you’re using, it will work with WP. The reason is simple: it’s the most popular so everyone makes their systems work with WP.

One example is your email service provider, like MailChimp or Mailerlite. All you have to do is look for the WordPress tutorials and they show you exactly how to add their system to your website.

12 – Mobile is built-in.

Being “mobile-friendly” was a catchphrase a couple of years ago as everyone tried to adapt their websites to all the mobile devices in the world. WP has mobile readiness built in. While almost everyone else has gotten there, there are still some platforms that you have intentionally convert your site to mobile ready. WordPress does it automatically.

Get Started With WordPress!

There are even more reasons to use WordPress as your CMS, but these are the ones that matter most. Use WordPress for your website and it will make your life easier. Need a custom WordPress website designer? At LaunchNeo we offer an all-in-one solution that includes web design, hosting, domain, SEO, and more – all for one monthly price.

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