When a potential client performs a search for a CPA or accounting firm, they are typically looking for a local firm. Searching on “CPA” or “accounting firm” yields mostly irrelevant search results. More likely searches are made with a location and service, such as “Miami Accountant”  or “Fort Worth TX CPA”.

Google, Yahoo and Bing recognize such local searches. When they detect a local search, they will show the local listings above the organic listings. These listings are often significantly more relevant then the organic listings.

Local Directories. There are other local directories such as YellowBook, AT&T Yellowpages, Kudzu, and many others. Many of them may already have a listing for your CPA firm.

The source data for your listings probably originated from a variety of third-party sources. There may very well be variations in your listing name, address and phone number. This potentially creates multiple representations of your business online. This hinders the ability of the various local search engines to know which of your listings is the true identity.

Updating Your Contact Information. Change your address or phone number and update your CPA website? Unless you have control of your local directory listings, your updated data may never be reflected in the directories. The online directories do their best to ensure they have accurate data. However, if you were at your old address for 10 years, then there may be hundreds of sites and directories that show your business at the old address. All that information can influence the major local directories into believing that is the right data.

Going Mobile. In an ever increasing mobile world, people are relying on local data more and more. In fact 45% of local searches are performed by people who know the company they are looking for. These searchers rely on and expect to find your current address, phone number and driving directions. They are relying less and less on finding it via your website.

Taking Control. For these reasons it is important that your business controls and proactively manages your local business identity. This increases the confidence of the local search platforms that they have valid and accurate data. This also increases the local platforms ability to link other unique content such as customer reviews and social media.

CPA Site Solutions has a Local SEO service, that optimizes and manages your CPA firm’s local listing for you. Rest assured that your business identity is submitted to and consistent across over 100 directories, including all the major local search platforms. When you change your address or phone number, CPA Site Solutions makes sure your information is updated in the local directories. That ensures existing and new customers alike are able to find your CPA firm.

Getting listed on Google’s local search results is a must for any CPA website to be successful. Second to getting listed is getting people to review your accounting website. This post is about the third way to improve your local listing, through updating your business categories.

Local Map Showing CPA Site Solutions

Business Categories. According to Google, “Categories are ways to classify your business that help Google show your business for the right searches.” You establish your category in the initial listing process but these can be updated at anytime.

Updating Categories. Again, according to Google, “The Local Business Center will suggest categories that match what you type, but feel free to create your own if you don’t see a category that fits your business.” To clarify, you have to choose one of the categories that Google automatically lists. After that you can, and should, create your own.

Custom Categories. You can customize four category listings. You can take what people might search for and update these categories appropriately.

Example. Lets use a CPA firm in Winooski Vermont that is Quickbooks Certified. I might add the following categories for this fake business: Winooski Vermont CPA, Winooski Vermont Taxes, Winooski Vermont Tax Preparation, Winooski Vermont Quickbooks.

Use Some Caution. There can be some abuse to custom categories and Google looks for this. If you try to stuff your categories, for example with terms that might help your business show in a lot of searches but not directly related to your website, you will actually get penalized.

Since Google local searches show at the top of any search, just below sponsored listings, it is important to maximize this potential. Taking the time to create custom categories is another way to make sure your CPA website is viewed by more people interested in your services.

What’s Local Search?

We often get questions about local search and why it is important for any accounting firm’s website with CPA Site Solutions. This is the first part of a series dedicated to answering some of those questions.

Whenever someone searches on a location and service, such as “Boston MA Accountants”, Google shows the local results for that location. These results will always be above the other “organic listings,” i.e. the results that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to their being advertisements.

The Search Engines like Google,Yahoo, AOL and Bing know how important Local Search is, that’s why they give Local Search the prime spot on the Search Results page. Getting your firm listed in this prime spot can make a big difference in the amount of leads and new clients you get from your website.

The only downside to Local Search is NO MATTER HOW BIG YOUR MARKET GOOGLE WILL ONLY TURN 10 RESULTS ON THE MAIN PAGE. This means an inquiry for “Boston MA Accountants” returns the same number of inquiries as “Big Piney WY Accountants” even though Big Piney has a population of 408 and density of 1 per 1000 miles.

It also means that in order for your listing to be REALLY effective you have to be one of the top ten results in your area.

Getting in the top 10 may not be easy, but the first step to get listed is. In my next article I’ll tell you step by step what you need to do to get yourself included in the local search listings.

Next we’ll talk about claiming your business and editing your content. Then we’ll give you a couple of articles on how to improve your rankings. But let’s start at the beginning… Tune in soon for my next post… Getting Listed.

Have any stories of your own about Local Search? Give us a comment, we would love to hear from you.