Category: Growth

Link building. It’s the backbone of SEO.

The way we build links has changed quite a lot over the past decade, but links themselves are no less valuable.

Like us, you may remember the early days of online marketing, when generating backlinks to a website was as simple as requesting links from link farms and other sketchy sources.

Google put a stop to that, so generating backlinks for a brand-new website is a bit trickier these days.

That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, though. The sooner your site has a decent number of backlinks from authoritative, high-quality websites, the sooner its performance on the major search engines will improve.

Although this is largely a waiting game, there are things you can do right now to generate first-rate backlinks to your new site.

If you want to gain relevant backlinks to a new website, you’ll need an SEO tool. Here’s the best options.

• SEMRush – Best Overall SEO Software
• Ahrefs – Best Advanced SEO Software
• Yoast – Best SEO Plugin for WordPress
• Screaming Frog – Best SEO Crawling Software
• Pitchbox – Best Outreach Software

You can read our full reviews of each SEO tool here.

5 Steps to Gain Relevant Backlinks to a New Website

Follow the advice below, and you can easily generate upwards of 100 authoritative and relevant backlinks to your new site in just 30 days.

1. Forget the old way of doing things
2. Find relevant authority sites
3. Have an offer ready
4. Making contact
5. Follow tips and best practices for quality authoritative backlinks

Step 1 – Forget the old way of doing things

First, don’t even think about employing black-hat…

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Any business with employees needs to carry workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment insurance, at a minimum. But depending on your business type and industry, you’ll also want to consider getting general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and professional liability insurance.

Finding the best business insurance goes beyond choosing the right policy. Getting insured through the right company makes a huge difference.

The Best Business Insurance Companies For 2023

• The Hartford — Best overall business insurance company
• Travelers — Best insurance company for workers’ compensation
• State Farm — Best for small business insurance
• Chubb — Best business insurance for international coverage
• Progressive — Best for commercial auto insurance
• Liberty Mutual — Best business insurance for manufacturing and agriculture
• AmTrust Financial — Best business insurance for restaurants
• Founder Shield — Best business insurance for tech startups
• Farmers Insurance — Best small business retail insurance
• Allstate — Best for rental services and real estate agents

The best business insurance policies offer a wide range of basic coverage. Ideally, you’d like to get a policy covering all of your needs under one roof. After reviewing and researching dozens of business insurance companies, we narrowed down the top ten for you to consider.

Our list is based on factors like coverage offered, premium pricing, and customer service. Use this guide to find the best business insurance company for you.

The Best Business Insurance Reviews

The Hartford

The Hartford is the best overall…

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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best cloud storage service for most people is iDrive or Microsoft OneDrive.

Cloud storage services offer an easy and convenient way for you to save, organize, and share files.

Instead of storing your files and documents in a physical server, you rent out space on a third-party company’s server to store your files. This allows you to scale your storage capacity while keeping files safe from accidents on-site.

5 Best Cloud Storage Services

Keep reading for our in-depth reviews of each cloud storage service below.

iDrive – Best for backups

iDrive is a cloud backup and storage solution that comes at a great price.

They’re offering a promotional deal now that offers up to 50% off your first year. For a Personal Plan, that’s $59.62. For a Business Plan, that’s $74.62.

They give you the standard features one should expect in a good cloud storage solution such as:

• File syncing
• Backups for multiple devices (PCs, Macs, Android, and iOS)
• Data protection
• Mobile app
• 24/7 customer support

The service comes with its own unique features such as IDrive Express. It allows you to backup several gigabytes of data onto a temporary storage device sent from IDrive. You can return the drive to IDrive once you’re done.

There’s no bandwidth usage for data transfers. And your data is kept secure using their 256-bit AES encryption, the same encryption used by…

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We recommend Nextiva or RingCentral for most businesses because of their comprehensive list of features that cater to virtually any communication need. Save up to 27% on a Nextiva plan, or try RingCentral free for 14 days.

After spending eight weeks researching, testing, and evaluating multiple office phone systems, we narrowed our list to 28 possible contenders. From there, we shortlisted 21 products and eventually narrowed the options to 12 of the best office phone systems for various use cases.

The Top 12 Best Office Phone Systems

Our in-depth methodology brought us to the following list of 12 office phone systems. We recommend Nextiva or RingCentral for their secure, easy-to-use, and feature-rich platforms. Save up to 27% on a Nextiva plan, or save as much as 33% on a RingCentral annual plan.

• Nextiva — Best All-Around
• RingCentral — Best for Hybrid or Remote Work
• Ooma — Easiest Setup for Small Businesses
• Net2Phone — Best for Receptionists
• Grasshopper — Best Lightweight Phone Systems for Solopreneurs
• Phone.com — Most Flexible Plans
• Avaya — Best UCaaS and Contact Center Features
• Zoho Voice — Best for Businesses Immersed in Zoho
• Webex — Best for Scaling Small Businesses
• Zoom — Best for Internal Communications
• Aircall — Best for High-Volume Sales
• Dialpad — Best AI-Assisted VoIP Phone Platform

How We Evaluated the Best Office Phone System Companies

We want to help you compare your options as simply…

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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best HVAC software for most people is Housecall Pro or Service Fusion.

The biggest problem for technicians in the HVAC industry is using out-of-date practices such as paper-based work orders, relying on handwritten quotes, and only offering one point of contact for customers.  

HVAC software is the ultimate solution to this problem, offering improved customer service, increased revenue, and a better experience for technicians through an automated system.

The Top 5 Best HVAC Software

Those are our top picks of the best HVAC software. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Housecall Pro — The Best for GPS Tracking

Housecall Pro has a lot to offer users with a suite of robust tools, but the GPS tracking is particularly impressive. 

The GPS tracking functionality allows you to text your team job details along with directions, and they can stay in contact via an in-app team chat.

You can see where your technicians are quickly and easily, and this gets presented via an interactive map showing you what routes they’ve taken and the distance required for their next job. It’s one of the most valuable features of the software.

Fancy GPS technology isn’t the only thing we recommend the software for, though. The advanced reporting capability offers real-time data that you can save to a personal…

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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best accounting software for most small businesses is QuickBooks or Zoho Books.

Accurate bookkeeping is one of the most underrated assets of any small business.

The best accounting software saves you time and energy every day. If you don’t have it yet, you’ll be surprised how little it costs for the value.

The 8 Best Accounting Software Solutions for 2022

• QuickBooks – Best small business accounting software for new businesses
• Zoho Books – Best value solution for large lists of customers and vendors
• FreshBooks – Best invoicing software for entrepreneurs, agencies, and SMBs
• Melio – Best free business payment solution to pay and get paid via ACH, check, or credit card.
• Sage 50cloud – Best desktop solution for medium-sized businesses
• Wave – Best free accounting software for entrepreneurs
• Xero – Best for data imports and Gusto payroll integration
• Kashoo – Best straightforward, all inclusive pricing

Read on for in-depth reviews including the pricing, pros, and cons of each tool on my list. Use this as a guide for comparing your options.

QuickBooks – Best Small Business Account Software For New Businesses

• 30-day free trial
• Plans start at $15/month
• Integrates with popular apps
• Industry leader in accounting

Try Quickbooks for free

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Imagine the power of a platform if nearly every entrepreneur thinks of starting there to open their dream business and sell globally in an instant. That’s Shopify for you.

You can’t not know about this amazing ecommerce platform if you’ve ever thought of opening an online business. After all, it has the broadest range of sales tools and templates, is user-friendly and cloud-based, and is suitable for all sizes of businesses.

But what exactly is Shopify, and how does it work? You’ve heard your friends talk about it, watched that one random YouTube video, and read a few blogs. But now you want to know more.

Well, you’re at the right place.

Top Rated Ecommerce Website Builders to Build a Shopify Online Business

If you want to build a Shopify online business, you’ll need a website builder. Here’s the best options.

• Wix eCommerce — Best for getting a store up and running in minutes
• BigCommerce — Best site builder for multichannel selling
• Squarespace — Highest quality website templates
• Square Online — Best integration with brick-and-mortar
• Shopify — Most customizable ecommerce site builder
• Weebly — Most affordable for small businesses
• Shift4Shop — Best enterprise-level builder at rock bottom prices

You can read our full reviews of each website builder here.

What Exactly Does Shopify Do?

Shopify is a commerce platform that lets you set up an online store to sell your products.

It has been designed for businesses of all sizes to sell anything and everything that’s socially acceptable in society. You can sell physical products, dropshipped products, digital products, or services…really anything that…

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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best social media marketing course for most people is Social Media Marketing Specialization (Coursera) or Social Media Marketing – Content Marketing Masterclass (Udemy).

Social media marketing is an integral part of any digital business. It can help you build a loyal audience, drive sales, and grow your brand. Taking a social media marketing course is a great way to kickstart your social media growth and give you an edge over the competition.

The Top 5 Best Social Media Marketing Courses

Social Media Marketing Specialization (Coursera) — Best for In-Depth Learning

We’ll take a deep dive into the key features, benefits, and pricing of each course to help you decide which is the right social media marketing course for you. 

If you’re looking for a course that will teach you the foundations of social media, Coursera’s Social Media Marketing Specialization is the one for you. Offered by Northwestern University through Coursera, this set of courses thoroughly covers the knowledge and resources you need to build a successful social media marketing strategy. 

The Social Media Marketing Specialization is a six-part course covering social media marketing, analytics, engagement strategies, content creation, advertising, and business planning. The sixth and final piece of the course…

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CRM (customer relationship management) software functions well on its own. But to really get the most out of these tools, you need to understand CRM integrations.

Integrating your CRM software with other business tools can make your life easier and take the system’s functionality to the next level.

By leveraging CRM integrations, your team will limit the number of times they need to bounce back and forth between multiple platforms. Integrating with the right tools can streamline your workflow and improve the data within your core CRM solution.

If you’re interested in getting started with CRM integrations but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will explain everything you need to know about CRM integrations.

Top Rated CRM Software to Improve CRM Integrations

If you want to improve CRM integrations, you’ll need CRM software. Here’s the best options.

You can read our full reviews of each CRM software here.

What Are CRM Integrations?

In short, a CRM integration connects your CRM software with a third-party tool or application.

By integrating two or more business tools, you’ll benefit from extended functionalities, automated actions, and a streamlined workflow in your CRM process. The CRM software can pull data from multiple sources and compute everything in a single source of truth.

Integrations also help eliminate wasted time switching between platforms and manually entering data.

Lots of CRM platforms and business solutions support integrations. But these five systems are our favorite.

1 — Zoho CRM

Companies like Amazon, Bose, Netflix, and Suzuki all rely on Zoho CRM to manage customer relationships….

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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best billing and invoicing software for most people is BILL or FreshBooks

Collecting payments from clients and customers can be challenging. Ineffective invoicing systems can create serious cash flow problems.

For service businesses, freelancers, and B2Bs, billing and invoicing software can simplify your payment collection process. You’ll get paid quicker while simultaneously giving your customers more convenient options to pay.

The Top 7 Best Billing and Invoicing Software

• BILL – Best intuitive interface and automated workflows
• FreshBooks – Best all-in-one billing and invoicing software
• Square – Best for low-volume invoicing
• Zoho Invoice – Best automation features
• Xero – Best invoicing software for small businesses
• Wave – Best free billing and invoicing software
• Invoicely – Best simple billing and invoicing software

After researching and testing dozens of different billing and invoicing solutions, we’ve narrowed down seven that we can confidently recommend. Continue below for in-depth reviews containing the features, benefits, pricing, and use cases for each tool on our list.

BILL – Best Intuitive Interface & Automated Workflows

• Simplify and speed up payments
• Customizable invoice templates
• ACH and credit card payments
• Risk-Free Trial

Try it now

BILL is a great billing and invoicing solution with an intuitive user interface that anyone can use…

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