MEDIA RELEASE: The Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) has officially begun accepting applications for commercial loans from the new Accelerating Community Excellence (ACE) Loan Fund, a state of Maryland-funded program that provides loans to small, minority, and women-owned companies. MCEDC is the ninth fund manager in the Maryland Small, Minority, and Women-Owned Business Program, also known as the Video Lottery Terminal (VLT) Program.
business strategy
SEO Overhaul for Business Websites
SEO – search engine optimization – is one of the essential tools to boost organic website traffic. If you haven’t reviewed your SEO strategy in a while, now is the perfect time to evaluate your best practices and look into an SEO overhaul for a fresh start.
SEO checklist
GKA, a local creative ad agency, offers the following checklist to help you determine whether your site is properly optimized. It will also offer places to start if it’s not:
- Each page contains a mix of main keywords and semantically related keywords that occur naturally in the copy.
- These keywords are present in your page titles, URLs, alt tags, metadata, and more.
- You have plenty of long-form content to display your expertise.
- You use compelling title tags and meta descriptions to grab users’ attention on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) and receive more clicks.
- User experience is something to prioritize, and your pages load fast.
- Your website has a logical structure so users can easily navigate and find the content they need.
Create Sustainable Growth
Successful websites adopt SEO best practices that allow for sustainable growth in terms of organic traffic. Specifically, this includes developing content hand in hand with your strategy, from creating quality and authoritative articles to using keyword research to identify new topics to discuss.
You should also have a plan for building good links to continuously boost your rankings and get more organic traffic. Keeping up with new trends and search methods is also important. Recent examples include voice search, featured snippets and searches for video content.
A strong SEO campaign should focus on attracting qualified traffic by looking at the search intent behind the keywords you target and using data to track conversion rates.
Lastly, you should be aware that Google and other search engines roll out algorithm updates that might call for new best practices, like the recent Google Page Experience update.
Audit Your Website
Ultimately, an SEO overhaul can identify missing or outdated SEO practices and help get better results with new strategies. Let’s work together. Contact us to learn more about getting better results with your SEO efforts!
About the Author
Sarah Crisafulli is vice president of brand strategy for GKA, a creative agency based in Gaithersburg, MD. Contact her at 301-657-8855, ext. 1203.
Push your business forward with Google My Business
How would you feel if you visited a local business (A) to buy something and found out it was closed for no apparent reason? As a customer, you might consider it an unpleasant surprise and quickly find an alternative business (B) to get what you want, right? Chances are that in the near future you are likely to set B as your favorite business and take A off your list because it didn’t meet your expectations.
Sometimes local business owners don’t find it necessary to provide information about their business and unfortunately, they miss potential clients or even existing ones. To prevent this from happening, Google has created an excellent tool called Google My Business (GMB), a robust platform where businesses can manage their digital marketing efforts all from one screen.
In today’s information age, it is more important than ever for businesses to have a strong online presence. Although it can be achieved in many ways, the easiest is with the help of GMB — a free, easy-to-use tool that manages your business’ or organization’s digital footprint across Google search results pages as well as map listings.
Not only does this ensure you are found in relevant searches such as “restaurants near me,” but also allows customers to leave reviews about their experience at your establishment that could lead them & others who might be reading those reviews back again!
This tool is very useful for local businesses, as it allows owners to manage their business information, interact with customers and expand their presence. One of the most relevant features for today’s business is that customers can share your company’s profile with other people, further increasing potential clients.
GMB is very simple to use thanks to its user-friendly interface. All you need is to access Google My Business web page, create a business profile and add your business information such as business name, category, location, working hours, phone number and website.
Market research indicates the best way to ensure your business stands out is by showing potential clients the reasons why your company is different from the rest. This helps to attract new customers and keep existing ones happy!
To take maximum advantage of this powerful tool, we consider the following steps necessary:
- Add a short description
You need to write some lines to tell people about the products or services your business offers. This is your opportunity to attract potential customer’s attention. Try your best to make this short description catchy but not “salesy.” It will reflect your business brand values and personality.
- Add pictures to call the attention of potential clients
We recommend choosing genuine images, not downloaded images. Original images will fit your business perfectly and will be trustworthy for visitors. Deliver a relatable experience. Think of what your current customers love the most of your business and showcase it properly!
- Answer every client’s review
Customer reviews are important. Responding to customer’s feedback is a way of showing that you care about customer satisfaction. It also helps you to identify business areas that can be improved.
- Promote your content, events, offers and products through advertising
Google has launched Google Post for businesses. It allows you to share interesting content about your business such as blog posts, events, special offers and all you consider necessary to promote your company.
- Add a short video
It is by far the best way to catch your target audience’s eyes because it shows the reality as if they were there. Start recording your company’s events or even just how your team works. It makes a huge difference!
- Complete the Question-Answer section
Respond to your clients’ doubts so they don’t hesitate in coming on by. You should do this not only for the sake of professionalism, but also because your answers help strengthen relationships with previous clients or even potential future clients who might have similar queries.
About the Author
Fernando Polti submitted the article on behalf of Global Wizards, which specializes in marketing and web development. Check out his company at https://wizards.us
It’s All About You
The Benefit of Being Local
How a Rockville Grocery Store Shined During the Pandemic
When Covid-19 arrived in the United States back in March, grocery stores across the nation went into a panic as they ran out of necessities such as bread, milk, and toilet paper. Meanwhile, at Dawson’s Market in Rockville, they didn’t need to worry about running out of supplies. We spoke to Bart Yablonsky, the owner of Dawson’s, about how they were able to stay stocked at the onset of the pandemic. “We’re a small independent store and so we have lots of connections with regional and local distributors” said Bart. Being able to establish and count on these relationships in chaotic times helped Dawson’s keep selling the items that most large grocery stores had run out of.
In addition, Dawson’s staff was quick to think outside-the-box and create a website where customers were able to order their groceries online and pick them up curbside on the same day. As a result of this, Dawson’s was able to reach a wider market beyond their usual customers and create more business in the area.
As Dawson’s thrived, they were also able to help the local businesses they get their products from. Because Dawson’s gets a lot and certainly supports more local vendors then any other store in the area with food and drinks from local farms, butchers, and breweries. Their success means that these local businesses are also able to thrive. Dawson’s commitment to bettering the community is just one great example of the importance of local businesses.
Published by Timothy Fahey; and written by Eric Schwartz a freelance writer and public relations and political science major. Timothy Fahey is branding and design professional, designer, professor, blogger, videographer and owner of Dirigo Agency Inc., a company focused on helping business owners use branding, design, and content to market their business. He has worked in the agency business since 1986 and served both local and global brands. His passion is to collaborate with others to create content more strategically so they get the recognition and results they desire through content marketing efforts.
Giving the Gift of Gifting
How a Local Gift-Giving Shop Spreads Positivity during the Pandemic
Rockville local Becky Briggs has a knack for giving gifts. That’s why in 2000 she started Our Gift Biz, a business that specializes in creating custom gifts for professionals to send to their clients. Becky collaborates with artists and other small businesses to build the perfect corporate gift basket that she guarantees will put a smile on the face of anyone’s clients.
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, it has become increasingly difficult for companies to stay in touch with their clients and maintain relationships. Becky has helped numerous businesses create gift baskets to send their clients as a token of appreciation during these tough times. In the gift-giving process, Becky is also helping other small businesses by using their products in her baskets. Recently, Becky bought maple syrup from a small Wisconsin business and paired it with pancake mix from another small Wisconsin business in a basket for one of her clients. “It’s a real win-win for people” said Becky.
From supporting small businesses to creating the perfect gift basket for clients, Our Gift Biz has been spreading kindness across the country. Becky spoke on the importance of staying positive and helping others during these unsettling times. “That’s what it’s all about today, trying to find some joy at home”.
Visit ourgiftbiz.com for help creating the perfect gift for your business’s clients.
Published by Timothy Fahey; and written by Eric Schwartz a freelance writer and public relations and political science major. Timothy Fahey is branding and design professional, designer, professor, blogger, videographer and owner of Dirigo Agency Inc., a company focused on helping business owners use branding, design, and content to market their business. He has worked in the agency business since 1986 and served both local and global brands. His passion is to collaborate with others to create content more strategically so they get the recognition and results they desire through content marketing efforts.