America’s SBDC Blog

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Oh No! My Web Traffic Is Falling!

November 21, 2013

I’ve been hearing about falling web traffic a lot lately. I find it is no surprise, with the vast amount of changes Google regularly makes versus how infrequently business owners implement website changes. It is inevitable that a website that remains stagnate will lose ground as Google continues to change the rules, which they do about 500 times each year.

What was sound SEO advice last year and the year before is the Kiss of Google Ranking Death this year.

Some recent changes are:

1. Content – the good kind. Your content has to be good enough to read well (Google looks for spelling and grammar just like your high school teacher did), interesting enough to hold a visitor’s attention (Google looks at how long visitors stay on a page) and written just for this page (Google hates to see the same thing over and over on other pages or on other sites).

2. Link building. While link building was all the rage and if you worked at getting a bunch of links in to your site or hired someone to go and get hundreds or thousands of links for your site, now it could bring you nothing but penalties. Inbound links from relevant and high performing sites was and still is a good plan but you might want to check what links you have coming in and actively seek to have irrelevant ones removed. (more…)

How to Make Sure Your Next Event is a Financial Success

September 23, 2013

Anyone who has ever an organized an amazing event knows its success is never coincidental—especially when you are looking for an event to be a success from a financial perspective. A financially successful event takes not only sound planning and execution, but a strong event strategy that includes leveraging technologies like an online registration system and a payment processor.

With the fall event season in full swing, now it the time for you to think about what you can do to take your events to the next level, and ensure that they are financially successful.

Here are 4 ideas to help you ensure financial success at your next event:

Leverage an Online Registration Tool

Online registration is a great way to ensure success because it removes the labor-intensive and time-consuming process of managing registrant details. It also allows you to capture registrant information and payments 24/7 and at the leisure of your attendees. If there are fees for your event, it’s recommended to collect these fees with a payment processor. (more…)

“Yes, We Accept Checks!”

June 4, 2013

Those of us in the payments industry may often think “electronic is better,” but there are still those who prefer paper. Specifically: checks. 91 percent of U.S. consumers use checks, which is more than any other form of payment?1 In fact, the average U.S. consumer writes over five checks per month for retail payments, and 22 percent of total U.S. non-cash payments were made by check in 2010.2

However, checks often shift risk and hassle onto merchants who have to transport them to the bank, deal with bounced checks and worry about fraud.

Luckily, new advances in check acceptance technology make it safer and easier than ever before to include checks as a customer payment choice. These technologies provide merchants with more secure and convenient options when deciding whether and how to accept checks. (more…)

Make Your Events Memorable, From Start to Finish

May 15, 2013

What was the best event you’ve ever been to? Was it a dinner party? A fundraiser? An industry conference? A sporting event? Think about the experience you had at that event. What made it so memorable? Why was it so unique?

Just like any event you attend in your personal life, the events you decide to host for your business or organization will be defined by the type of experience you offer to those who attend.

That experience will have a lot to do with the type of event you hold and the expectations your customers, members, and supporters have going into it, but it is that experience that they will remember the most.

Are you offering the type of experience your customers, members, and supporters will want to remember? (more…)

Shaping the Future of Credit Cards Four Important Trends

April 25, 2013

As a merchant it is important to keep abreast and know where the future of credit cards is heading. It is with this in mind that we review four important trends of innovation and technological advancement in the credit card space.

Multi-function Cards

A common challenge faced by the global credit card industry is combating attrition and diminishing wallet share, particularly as the use of debit over credit continues to increase. Historically, rewards programs were used to encourage consumers to choose a particular card over another. As these programs decrease in perceived value, issuers are searching for another tactic to encourage customer loyalty. One way is with a single, multi-function card.

Multi-function cards have the capability of giving the holder access to multiple accounts on a single plastic. The most common multi-function card structure gives consumers the ability to access both a debit and credit account on the same card. While multi-function capability has generally been used to enable consumers to choose between credit and debit accounts, the functionality can also allow different categories of accounts or different modes of credit to be accessed. (more…)