How To Build a Website for Your Painting Business + 5 Alternatives

A professional website is an essential element for every business’s brand strategy. Apart from being an authoritative platform on which the company communicates its brand, it also helps considerably with engagement and conveying your services.

Having a website makes it very easy for people to find you and discover what you do. It also makes you stand out as a professional in your field.

Then, there’s marketing. Through website analytics, a business owner can quickly tell the demographics of those who show interest. On-page and off-page SEO also goes a long way in building online visibility and search engine ranking.

But how do you actually build a website? And what are other options if you can’t afford one?

Before we get started.. We have 7 simple steps that will help you get your business in front of the right customers, downloadable as a free guide.

The Painter Marketing Broad Brush Effect

Get a FREE download of our 7 simple steps that will bring in more painting customers than you can handle in 2021 and beyond.

Ready to roll?

How Do I Build A Website For My Painting Business?

There are various ways to go about building your painting business website. And frankly, anyone can create a website these days with a good Internet connection. Here are your options:

Template-based website builders

These require no design or development skills at all and are exceptionally popular when it comes to building a website on a low budget. Some of the best website builders out there include:

Do keep in mind that you will still need to pay for things like a domain name, business email, hosting, and customized themes. There’s also photography to take into account, or the purchase of stock images. You will additionally need to put in some time and effort to learn the platform of your choice. WordPress, in particular, is the trickiest but also the best when it comes to ranking on the search engines.

Seek out a freelance web designer/developer

It is not a secret that you can hire freelancers online these days for a fraction of the price you would pay your local creative agency. This again applies to those on a small budget who are also short on time and other resources.

Some of the most popular freelance outsourcing sites include:

While this is an affordable option, finding the right freelancer will take some time and effort. To streamline the process, make sure you create an ad with specific details about what you want, so that the freelancer can bid on it knowing all the specs of the job.

Don’t hire someone simply because they’re cheap; check out their profile and portfolio first and have a look at what projects they are currently working on (you would want to avoid anyone already working on 27 other projects!).

Before you decide to hire, hop on a video call with your candidates to verify that they are not scammers or fake profiles — unfortunately, this does tend to happen when there is no supervision or control over who creates a profile.

Hire an agency

Agencies will be your best option when it comes to creating a professional-looking, fully functional website.

They won’t limit your options with template designs and quick fixes, and they usually consist of specialists, in which case you may be able to get a full package of web design, marketing, and branding services by a team of real experts who know what they’re doing.

But do be aware, these professional services come at a higher cost due to the quality they offer, and a website alone could cost you anywhere from $500 to $10,000!

As a small business that requires an uncomplicated website with only a few pages, consider putting aside $1000-$3000. If you’re serious about your painting business, you will not hesitate at making such an important investment.

At IFTS we work with our clients to make customized solutions for your website development and marketing needs.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you are considering creating a professional website for your painting business.

5 Alternatives to Building a Painting Business Website

Are you hoping to avoid the whole website-building hassle altogether? If you are, you can still build your online brand and presence. It’s only the platform that will be different.

A website is not the only tool that a business can utilize to create an online presence. There are various alternatives you can look at which are much less pricey, too. Below are some of the most commonly sought after alternatives for painting businesses:

1. Google My Business

A Google My Business page is an all-in-one listing management tool. This tool displays your business information and your business’s location will also appear on Google Maps.

You can also take advantage of other tools, like Reviews and Insights. You can even create a DIY site if you like and promote events and special offers. It will boost your visibility on the search engine results page when a relevant query is placed.

A GMB page is responsive, mobile-friendly, and can be optimized for SEO.

Need help creating or optimizing your Google My Business profile? Check out our Introduction to Google My Business for tips on how to set up your profile correctly and accurately.

2. Online Local Business Directories

Yes, you can pay for a listing on your local online business directories such as Yellow Pages and Foursquare.

These online directories allow you to optimize your listing for SEO and showcase as much information about the business as you can. You can also just list the basics – name and contact information of the business and services and working hours, and you’re good to go.

3. Review Sites Listings

Review sites such as HomeAdvisor, Yelp, and Angi are well-optimized for search results. Hence, a listing on these sites will allow you to take advantage of their undeniably impressive business-boosting functions.

The best part of registering your business with review sites is that clients tend to trust any review they read on them! And if you’re low on reviews, you can always invite your current customers to these platforms and have them give their two cents.

Want to know how to win over customers with your online reputation? Here, we discuss proactive tactics for online reputation management to get more clients.

4. Facebook Business Page

Facebook has over two billion active users. It is one of the few platforms that are continuously improving their B2B offerings and helping new businesses promote themselves.

With a Facebook business page, you can create an ecommerce store, accept payments, book appointments, share content through posts, create promotions, announce events, set up ad campaigns, and do pretty much anything you need to attract and retain customers.

You can also use Facebook for SEO purposes or targeted advertising. The possibilities are endless!

5. Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces perform well on the search engines, and a listing on them can significantly boost your presence and sales.

They are also a great starting point for small niche businesses, as you can position your business in front of your target audience without the need to resort to advertising.

For home services business, your go-to marketplaces should be Handy, ProReferral, and Serviz.

Regardless of the options you choose, you must maintain a professional online presence at all times.

Be sure to craft an online marketing strategy and implement, review, and improve your online marketing efforts constantly.

Click the button below to download our free guide, The Painter Marketing Broad Brush Effect. This guide will walk you through 7 simple steps to bring in more painting customers than you can handle in 2021 and beyond.

If you need help creating a website for your painting business, or figuring out a marketing strategy that drives results, feel free to ask us any questions! Give IFTS a call at 412.715.6266 for a free consultation.

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How To Market Your Painting Business – 8 Benefits of Local Marketing for Painters

In today’s world, technology is a small business’s best friend. It has made it exceptionally easier to reach out to target customers, set different variables when marketing, and ensure that those customers stay up to date about what you are offering.

As a painting business, it is essential that all of your customers, especially those in the same local area as your business, know about you and are able to find you should they need your services. This is called local marketing.

With local marketing, a painting business can advertise specifically to the targeted location where the business operates.

Businesses of all sizes, including large firms and corporations, utilize local marketing to grow their sales and customer base. Even the little guys are killing it, and so can you! But how exactly can you benefit from it?

In this article we are going to cover 8 benefits of local marketing for painting businesses and why you should start implementing these strategies today.

Before we get started.. We have 7 simple steps that will help you get your business in front of the right customers, downloadable as a free guide.

The Painter Marketing Broad Brush Effect

Get a FREE download of our 7 simple steps that will bring in more painting customers than you can handle in 2021 and beyond.

Ready to roll?

Benefits of Local Marketing for Painting Businesses

Painting businesses that implement local marketing strategies can attest to the growth that comes with it. Here are some of the benefits that you cannot afford to miss out on:

1. Highly Targeted

Your painting business may be located in New Jersey, but how do you get the locals to even notice you, let alone schedule an estimate? Thankfully, local marketing allows you to specify the demographics and location of your potential customers.

It also allows you to target customers based on their interests, and even filter through the timewasters. Local marketing is the best way to get in front of those local customers who are really hungry for your services and are willing to make a purchase. And all this can be done while you’re on a low budget.

2. Low Cost

Forget what you thought you knew about marketing and advertising 20 years ago. Local marketing these days is known for its low-cost strategies, thanks to the web. Traditional forms of advertising can still be a bit costly, reserved mostly for larger companies with an in-house advertising department who can afford the expenses; but you’re not Home Depot, are you?

When it comes to local online marketing, marketing strategies are significantly low-cost and customizable, even for the smallest of businesses.

3. Local Search

With local marketing, you are positioned right in front of your future customer — a local who is either actively searching for your painting services or has a significant interest in them.

You will appear in the search engines based on local queries (“professional painter near me”, “New Jersey painting company”), and rank the highest if you go about it strategically and have the know-how of ranking factors and things like SEO.

Local search is on a constant rise, with the words “local” and “near me” being searched 350 times more than they were 10 years ago. You’d be crazy not to take advantage of this!

4. Lasting Business Relations

Customer loyalty is one of the cornerstones of a successful painting business. In the world of digital, we like to replace the term with “community”.

Building local online communities is not only easy, cost-free and accessible, but it also results in lasting business relations. You don’t need to be Coca-Cola or Apple or have your own in-house PR department to build good, long-lasting customer relations. All you need to do is choose a platform and start building a community around your business. You can do this by sharing information, photos and other content related to your painting services, and by keeping in touch with your customers through direct messages and comments.

Besides the free consumer information, your business can advertise bonuses, discounts, or new products. This way, you can retain customers even after a sale, and nurture repeat client relationships that will last.

5. Branding and Brand Control

Branding might sound a bit too technical for most people but with local marketing, small businesses can dominate and establish themselves as industry experts if they can position and brand themselves effectively. You can always contact us at IFTS if you want to learn more about branding rather than figure out and do the legwork all by yourself.

As an industry expert who is well-branded, you will draw in more customers without having to do much work — your branding does the work for you. Customers will know your brand when they see it, and learn to trust and identify it.

You can then reap the benefits of your branding efforts by easily keeping track of clients’ opinions of your services and rectifying dissatisfactions before they get out of control. Armed with clients’ preferences and consistency, you can retain your relevance in the market and, in turn, convert more locals into paying clients. It’s all about branding, baby.

6. Scaling Your Business

Have you ever watched a YouTube video on DIY painting by an average Joe who owns a small local painting business on the other side of the country, yet has a slew of worldwide followers? That’s what scaling your business may look like in the digital world.

Because you are on a globally-accessible tool called the Internet, your small local business may grow beyond its regional status into possibly national and international levels.

As the business scales, the established local communities will help you maintain your relevance locally as you garner attention from others beyond your local area. While this may not result in actual service sales, boosting your following will, more often than not, boost your digital visibility, ranking, positive reviews, Likes, and referrals — regardless of where your web-based supporters are located.

7. Accessible Booking

Another benefit of local marketing is making use of online booking tools. If you have a local Google My Business or Facebook page, for example, you can add your phone number, email, or even make use of the scheduling button to make booking accessible to your potential customers as soon as they visit the page.

80% of home services queries lead to a phone call after search, but that’s if you make it easy for them to call you.

8. Keeping Track of Marketing Efforts

Online local marketing is one of the easiest ways to keep track of the performance of your ads and marketing efforts.

As a business, you can access low-cost and sometimes free statistics. You can get and analyze information such as website hits, engagement on posts, and even sales for free from the available inbuilt platform statistics. If you feel fancy, you can pay for marketing automation tools that also keep detailed business statistics.

Any kind of painting business stands to grow tremendously from implementing a well-thought-out local marketing strategy.

Don’t forget, we have a FREE guide that you can download for instant access to 7 simple steps that will bring in more painting customers than you can handle in 2021 and beyond.

If you’d like us to do some or all of the work for you, contact IFTS for a free consultation and let’s talk about your business specifically.

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Is Your Business Ready for 2021 – 8 Simple Steps to Take to Make 2021 Your Best Year Yet

Is Your Business Ready for 2021 - 8 Simple Steps to Take to Make 2021 Your Best Year Yet

Are you a small business owner ready to say “Bye Felicia” to 2020?

I think that we all are!

However, if there was one thing that 2020 taught us, it was that your online presence is now more important than ever…and this doesn’t just mean your website. Your online presence consists of many pieces, like your website, your Google My Business Profile, your social media spaces and so much more.

Want 2021 to be your best year yet? In this article, we are going to cover 8 simple steps that you can take in January (2 per week) to help your business get ahead of the game!

Week One will cover choosing the best keywords for your business and improving your onsite SEO.

Week Two will take you through everything that you need to do in order to improve your Google My Business profile and start getting leads through Google Local Search.

Week Three covers EVERYTHING that you need to do to create content for the whole year and how to save time and money while doing it.

Finally, Week Four forces you to up your video game and start using the second largest search engine in the world.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Week One – Up Your Onsite SEO Game and Be Found More Easily In the Search Results

STEP 1 – Figure Out What Keywords Are Best For You

Is your website working for you as well as it should be? Are people finding your business online? If not, your search engine optimization, or SEO, may be to blame.

To improve your SEO, the first step is to create a list of popular keywords or phrases that you want to rank for. To create this list, I recommend a combination of brainstorming, asking your current clients what they typed in to find you and an online keyword research tool called SEMrush. You can use the free version to find the information that you need.

Take thirty minutes and brainstorm the keywords that you think your ideal clients would type into Google or Bing. When this is done, send an email to a few of your best clients and ask what they would type in to find you. It’s always great to get into their minds.

As an example, one of our clients is a personal injury firm in Greensburg, PA. Their brainstorming list included the following:

Personal injury law firm in Greensburg PA
Personal injury attorneys Westmoreland County
Greensburg Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Attorneys

However, when they asked a few of their clients what they typed in Google to find them, they received a slightly different list:

Personal injury lawyer
Personal injury lawyer near me
Personal injury lawyer Greensburg
Greensburg lawyer personal injury

They found out that while they were calling themselves attorneys on their website, more of their clients were typing in lawyer! They also discovered that none of their clients even thought to use the county that they were located in.

Want to know what keywords you are currently ranking for as well? Be sure to add them to your list! IFTS can send you a free report with that information. Enter your information below. You should receive your report within 10-15 minutes.

Once you have your list, you are ready to use SEMrush! This tool will help you figure out what the most popular phrases are on your list.

First, sign up for your free account here: https://www.semrush.com/signup/?src=header

Then, after you have created your account and are signed in, you are ready to start using this tool. Enter the first keyword phrase from your list into the search bar.

In this example, we will use the phrase “Personal injury lawyer Greensburg”. The following results are returned to us:

This tells us that the number of times that this phrase is searched monthly on Google in the United States is 30 times (the VOLUME). The keyword difficulty (or how hard it is to rank organically for this phrase) is 54%. Anything under 60% is normally a great keyword to rank for quickly.

The other important results to look at are the “Keyword Variations” and the “Related Keywords”. The keyword variations will show you common variations on your searched phrase. The related keywords list shows you phrases similar to the one that you searched. This is a great way to find phrases that you may not have thought about.

Repeat this process with all of your keywords from your list. If the “Related Keywords” list has any good suggestions, add them to your list as well. We recommend creating a spreadsheet that looks like the one below:

Once you have the data for your whole list, go through and highlight the keywords that are searched often and have a lower keyword difficulty. These will be perfect keywords to target across your online presence.

Keep this list for the rest of the steps in this process. It is the basis of everything else!

STEP 2 – Incorporate Popular Keywords and Locations into Your Page Titles and Headers

Now that you have your list of popular keyword phrases, you will need to use them in your website. You will want to choose one or two keyword phrases to be the main focus for each page of your website.

The first important place to use keywords is your page title. The page title is the text in the browser tab. It is also the text that shows as the title in the Google search results.

A good rule of thumb for a page title is to use the following convention:

“Keyword 1 – keyword 2 | Name_of_Company Location_of_Company”

So, for our example, a good homepage title for our law firm may be “Personal Injury Lawyers – Accident Attorneys | Law Firm Name Greensburg, PA”. This lets Google know exactly what your page is about and who your company is.

Create new page titles for each page of your website. In WordPress, you can do this using the Yoast plugin. If your website is in SquareSpace, you can change this in the general page settings. If you have a website developer, just let them know the text that you want to use.

After you have changed your page titles, you will want to be sure that each page of your website has one <h1> header on it and that it contains one of your important keywords in it. This header is the most important and it is another sign to Google that tells them what your page is about.

Week Two – Quickly Improve Your Google Local Presence

STEP 3 – Perfect Your Google My Business Profile

If your business depends on people finding you locally, your Google My Business profile is a great advertisement. If you have not claimed your business profile yet, go through that process described here by Google: https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

Once your profile is claimed, there are 11 things to complete to make sure that your profile is optimized. We have listed them below in an easy to use checklist:

Get the Top 3 Social Media Post Templates for Law Firms to Grow Your Following and Get New Clients

Engage with prospects and save time with your FREE Canva template kit. This kit features the top 3 social media posts for law firms and directions on how to brand them for your own firm in 5 minutes or less.

Enter your email below and get the templates sent directly to your inbox along with an instructional video on how to make personalized edits.

For more in depth information on filling out your profile, check out this article: https://blog.iftsdesign.com/introducing-google-my-business/

STEP 4 – Get More Reviews (and Answer Them)

When Google is deciding whose business to show in the Google Local area (also known as the map pack or 3 pack), they look at a multitude of factors. One main factor is the proximity of the person to your business location. Unfortunately, you can’t do anything to affect this. Another factor that Google will look at is the number of reviews and your overall rating, which is where you can shine!

Google’s number one priority is to be helpful to their end user (the searcher). So, they want to show people the best option for their query. It is up to you to prove that you are that option!

Create a system for requesting reviews from your satisfied clients. If you have one-time clients, ask them for a review via email or text at the end of their purchase cycle. This also gives you an opportunity to have one last touch point.

If you have clients that have a renewal cycle, ask them for a review at the end of that process. This is a nice way to end the renewal and get you credit for doing a great job!

A common objection that we hear is that people don’t know what to say. Make it easy on your clients! Send them an email with a direct link to leave a review on Google as well as a suggested list of questions to answer for the review. This also allows you to “sneak” keywords into your questions…and hopefully, they will repeat those keywords in their answers!

The most important thing to remember about reviews – when you receive a review, reply to it!

This works in a positive manner for your business in multiple ways. First of all, the person that left the review feels appreciated because you took the time to thank them. Prospects who are looking at your profile will see that you read/reply reviews and care about your clients. Finally, it helps with your local SEO because you and your clients are using keywords and phrases in the review and reply.

Need help getting more reviews? Check out our article on “10 Proven Ways to Get More Online Reviews for Your Business.”

Week Three – Make Posting to Social Media A Breeze

It’s hard to have a consistent social media presence without a plan and the right tools to do it! Week 3 is where this is addressed. You should be able to spend less than 4 hours per month to create and post all of your content!

STEP 5 – Sign up for a OneUpApp Account

There are multiple social media scheduling apps available. The one that we recommend is OneUpApp. One of the main reasons is because it connects and posts to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and most importantly, Google My Business.

Google has said that starting in 2021, they will be looking to see who is utilizing their GMB profile updates. These updates will start to be shown on Google Maps. So, if you have recent, consistent updates, your profile is sure to stand out!

To sign up for an account, go here: https://www.oneupapp.io/register

There is a small cost associated with OneUpApp, but because it connects to all of the profiles that you need, it’s worth it! Most free scheduling apps do not connect to Google My Business.

Take a few minutes and connect your social media profiles to finish the account set up. You will now be able to schedule posts to all of your social media accounts at one time! This will save you a huge amount of time and make your business look professional while doing so.

STEP 6 – Create a Schedule for the First Half of the Year (and repeat for the second half)

Now that your social media scheduler is set up, you need to create some content to post. To create this content, start with another list.

Write down every question that you receive from your clients on a regular basis. Most companies can come up with at least 10 or 20. Make sure to include questions, even if you think that the answer is obvious because it may not be obvious to your client.

Aim for 24 questions, which allows you to address one question every week for 6 months.

Why questions, you may ask? As we mentioned before, Google wants to be as helpful as possible for their end users. They want to answer their questions, which is what your content will be doing.

Can’t think of 24 questions? Again, we will turn to SEMrush and your keyword list!

Let’s use the term “Personal Injury Attorneys” as an example. The results for the term are below:

Look at the section titled “Questions”. This gives you frequently searched phrases that pertain to your keyword phrase. So, one question that an attorney should put on their list is:

“Is it worth hiring a personal injury attorney?”

Once you have your list of 24 questions, put them in an order that makes sense. Typically, I suggest putting them into main categories if possible and addressing one main category per month.

As an example, let’s say that the personal injury firm mainly handles cases that revolve around auto accidents, medical device defects, trucking accidents and workplace injuries. These would be great main categories and each one could have 6 questions associated with it.

Assign a week to each question in your list.

There are 2 ways to create the actual content itself. The one that you pick depends on your personality.

Option 1 – Write down the answer to the question. Then, once you have your answer written, record yourself reading the answer as a video.

Option 2 – Record yourself answering the question in video format. Try to keep your answers within 60 seconds. Then, use a free transcription service like otter.ai to create the text.

Once you have the text, post it to your blog and schedule it to release the Monday of the week that it is assigned. Make sure that the page title contains the main keyword in the question. Be sure that your <h1> is the question itself.

Next, edit the video if you want. There are multiple video editing software apps out there that make editing a breeze.

Upload the finished product to YouTube and schedule it to release the Tuesday of the week that it is assigned. Again, be sure to make the title of the video the question itself. The description should have the question repeated in it plus a small summary of the answer. Bonus points if you have incorporated keywords into your answer!

Now, here is a posting schedule to get a week’s worth of content from one question:

Monday: Post the link to your blog

Tuesday: Post the link to the YouTube video

Wednesday: Pull out one helpful sentence from the text and create a quick “quote” post. This can be done using the free version of Canva in less than 2 minutes.

Thursday: Post an additional fact that goes along with the question. You can do this with plain text or you can create another “quote” post.

Friday: Post a link to the video from the week before with the label “In case you missed it” (Obviously, this cannot be done the first week, but it works for every other week)

You get bonus points for using hashtags!

Once you know what you want to post, sign into OneUpApp and schedule the posts. To learn how to schedule posts, check out their video here: https://www.oneupapp.io

I’d recommend scheduling at least one month at a time. This way, you can take a small amount of time from your day and get all of your social media for the month done in less than 2 hours!

Once you get through the first 6 months, you can just repeat your content. The average life of an online post is less than one month, so don’t worry about people seeing repeats. I promise, they will not remember.

Week Four – Take Advantage of Offsite SEO Opportunities

STEP 7 – Optimize (and Create if Needed) Your YouTube Channel

If you don’t already have a YouTube channel, you are missing out on a traffic opportunity. YouTube is the second most popular search engine and it’s owned by Google!

Create your YouTube channel for your business if it doesn’t exist already. Need help with this task? Follow these instructions from YouTube: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1646861?hl=en

Once you have signed in, you can start optimizing your company’s channel! Try using the following tricks:

If you can, use a keyword in your channel’s name. This can help your channel show up for organic searches. For example, an easy way to do this for a law firm would be to name the channel “[COMPANY NAME] – Your Personal Injury Law Firm in Greensburg, PA”.
Make sure to completely fill out the “About Us” section. Be sure to include relevant keywords.
Include a link back to your website. If people want to learn more about your company, make it easy for them to do so. It also helps with your SEO rankings.
Fill out your channel keyword tags. This tells the search engines what your channel is about and who you are.
Create a “trailer” video for your channel, if one does not already exist. Typically, this should be a 30-60 video that introduces you, your business and lets people know what they should expect to learn about in your videos.
People typically decide whether to watch a video within the first 15 seconds, so make that time count! Try to grab your audience’s attention with a big motion, a relevant prop or a question that makes them say “I want to learn more about that!” Bonus points if you can include a major keyword phrase in this time as well.
Do you have videos that would group well together? Create a playlist with them and send your viewers on a journey through your material. Try to create at least 2 playlists.

STEP 8 – Check Out Your Current Backlinks (and Create a Plan to Get More)

A backlink is a link from another website to your own site. Most businesses will have backlinks from a multitude of places, such as:

Local chamber of commerce
BBB
Social Media Profiles
Local News Story
Company that you collaborated with
etc

One major factor that Google looks at when it comes to deciding who shows up first in search results is the number of backlinks that a page has. Now, when the Google algorithm was first invented, it would only look at the volume of links. This paved the way for link farms and other dishonest means of creating backlinks. However, this is no longer the case.

Google now looks at the number of links that you have along with the authority score of those sites. Authority score is basically a measure of trustworthiness. So, more links is not necessarily a good thing. They have to be links from a reputable source.

To see the backlinks that you currently have, go back to SEMrush. Enter your domain name into the search.

The results will show you the number of backlinks that you have as well as the number of referring domains. The referring domains are the websites that contain links to your website.

In the example below, you can see that there are 498 backlinks from 35 domains.

If you click on the backlink number, it will show you some of the links and referring domains. With a paid plan, you can actually see all of the links and the referring domains.

Now that you have your baseline, you are ready to start building links.

One way to build links is to make sure that you are in all of the top local business directories. IFTS offers a list of the top 25 places to get a free business citation here: https://blog.iftsdesign.com/local-citation-pdf/

Another way to build links is to look at your competitors. Make a list of your top ten competitors and enter their domains into SEMrush. How many backlinks do they have? You should have a goal to have more backlinks than them.

You can also look to see who is linking to them by clicking on their backlink number. Check out the referring domains. Go down the list and look at each backlink. Is it a niche directory that you hadn’t heard of? Submit your listing there. Is it a local business group? Enter your name as well. Is it an organization that accepts articles from people in your area? Send them a link to yours!

Backlink building is tough and requires you to stay on top of the task. Choose a ten minute time period each week and start working on this. Aim to gain 1-3 new backlinks per month.

Congratulations! You Made It Through All 8 Tasks!

This is just the beginning, but by jumpstarting January 2021, you’ll be setting yourself and your business up for success in the new year.

Have any questions or need help with any of the tasks listed above? Send me (Stacey Ivol) an email at si@iftsdesign.com or give IFTS, Inc. a call 412.715.6266 for a FREE consultation.