Links Via Comments. There are some marketing tips and tricks in the CPA Site Solutions blog. When you comment upon those blog posts, you not only interact with others, but get links back to your CPA website.

Having links from a highly ranked website like CPA Site Solutions boosts your own CPA website. This boost helps you gain in traffic and potential customers.

Marketing Changes with Technology

Links From Testimonials. As the article on marketing from a lemonade stand pointed out, testimonials are great to have on your website. When you submit your own testimonial of CPA Site Solutions, be it positive or negative, you get a link to your website.

(Note: Both positive and negative comments are welcome. There is no trade for your testimonial and a link. However when you give honest feedback a link does follow.)

Referral Program. When you let others know about CPA Site Solutions and they sign up past the trial period, you get $50 cash back. This referral program is a way to say thanks for passing on the word to others that need a CPA website.

New Marketing Blog. Marketing your CPA website is an ongoing learning process. One reason is that some rules change over time as new ways to market come available. Keep up with those changes and read about specific tips by subscribing to the new CPA Site Solutions Marketing Blog.

Are there special marketing tips you want to share? Comment below and engage with other readers.

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There was a recent article online called, 9 Marketing Tips from a Six-Year-Old’s Lemonade Stand. The title alone is eye-catching however the content, and the lessons learned, are priceless. If you have a CPA website hosted by CPA Site Solutions you are already practicing a number of these marketing gems. Here are a couple of tips on how to incorporate a few more marketing ideas.

Lemonade Stands and Marketing?

Free Information. There is plenty of great content on any CPA website. Included within this content are free articles with helpful and practical information. Having free information, “you’ll not only build trust, but also develop relationships with potential clients.”

Your Blog. “When users are excited about the base product, they are much more likely to upgrade.” Your blog is a great place to show more about who you are and what you offer.

You can also use it to give a preview of what types of offerings you have coming up. All of the free information, updates on your accounting firm, and hints towards the future make a potential client “upgrade” to an actual.

Something Extra. “Make everything you do something “extra special” and clients will take notice.” The newsletter that comes out each month has new information freely available. All of this information is certainly extra.

You can do more by leveraging contact through the Email Marketing System with messages that provide contests or offerings. Other extras you might consider are easy translation, or use free screen sharing, and easy online scheduling.

Client Showcase.  “Don’t be afraid to tell friends and colleagues about your services.” Networking is not only about telling your services but also helping others sell theirs. You can do this by showcasing clients on your website regularly.

Social Platforms. “How are you “screaming” about your business?” The use of Facebook, or other social platforms like Twitter, help you get the word out about your business. Spend just a few minutes each day and keep the flow of information consistent.

Traffic and Responses. “Be Persistent” When first starting a CPA website or even Pay-Per-Click campaign, you want results immediately. Responses to these take time but, if you are persistent and stick with marketing, then it pays off.

Client Testimonials. “Advertise Your Popularity” When you have a client who has great things to say about your firm, capture that as a testimonial. You can then show that testimonial on your CPA website. These types of testimonials are a great way to “advertise your popularity” and help in marketing your CPA firm.

What types of marketing tips have you learned from your kids or other unusual places? Send a comment below and share your story with other readers.

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More than 14 billion videos are viewed online each month. Many businesses are increasingly turning to online video as an effective way to engage viewers and win more business.

Take advantage of this growing trend to showcase your business online with a high-quality, professionally-produced video at a price far below traditional video advertising.

Video Opens Several Doors for You:

• Build rapport with potential clients before the first call or meeting.
• Pre-sell your firm’s services.
• Establish your credibility and professionalism.
• Communicate the value of working with an accounting professional.
• Act today so that you can experience for yourself the power and intimacy of an online video message. Video allows you to build your firm while spending less time pre-selling your services in person.

Sample Video:

How it Works

It’s easy and surprisingly inexpensive to add a short professional video message to your site.

You get assistance with the creative process and a professional videographer is sent to your location at a arranged time and and date. The videographer guides you to ensure that your interview and business footage looks and sounds great.

The footage is submitted for your approval. After the shoot is complete you can view and make edits. It’s a remarkably simple, straightforward process resulting in a quality video message.

Insert your video onto your site. Once production is complete you get a copy of your video, which you can then insert it directly onto your website and submit to popular social networking websites.

For pricing information and to sign up for this exciting new service, please see our Video Page on our site.

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As an accountant, you are asking new clients to reveal to you very personal information. Your web site needs to convey a certain level of comfort with you, so that potential customers are willing to take the first step and open a dialog with you about your services.

Many of your customers will come to you because a friend or colleague of theirs recommend you. That recommendation is simply a vehicle that conveys trust in your firm. Your web site can also be that “friend” or “colleague”, and convey trust, albeit in a more subliminal fashion.

One way to convey trust is to make your site personal. Add a Meet The Team page, or Partner’s Bios section, complete with photo’s and descriptive paragraphs of each person’s professional history. But don’t stop there, we’re just getting started.

How about if each person shared their favorite books and movies? (Don’t forget to put those books on your recommended books online bookstore page!) While you are at it, talk about each person’s favorite sport or activity. Did anyone win a recent award, get married, have a baby? Anyone in your firm involved in community activities like coaching a little league team, volunteer at local shelters or organize charity events?

By showing your prospective clients a little about your personality, hobbies, and values you give them a chance to identify with you. Once potential clients feel comfortable with you they’ll take the next step and call, and you will already be one step closer to closing the deal.

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A blog allows you to speak directly, openly and honestly with your clients. When prospective clients and staff members can relate to you through your blog posts, they’ll get to know you and trust you before ever meeting you in person.

The personal relationship you establish through your blog gives you a competitive advantage over other firms in your area. By differentiating yourself through your blog, you’ll stand out from the competition and earn the trust of potential clients. You’ll establish a personal relationship with your readers in advance of their visit to your office.

What’s more, a dynamic and frequently updated blog will help improve your site’s rank in Google and other search engines.  Search engines like Google love unique and frequently updated content on websites. By consistently adding new content to your site through your blog, you can improve your site’s relevance and authority rank.

This means that your site can appear toward the top of the search engines when business owners search for an accountant in your area. As a result, your website gets more visitors who are looking for accounting services. And getting more visitors means means you’ll get more calls, appointments, and clients from your website.

Adding the blog to your site

It’s easy to get started blogging on your site.  You’ll find the blog under the Add Page menu in your Site Manager. Just add that page and arrange it in your SiteMap as you have any other new page on your site.  If you don’t see the blog as an option in your Add Page menu, just give us a call at 800-896-4500 and we’ll migrate your site to our newest hosting system and make the blog available to you.

Once you’ve added the blog, you can post to it anytime by logging into the SiteManager and clicking on the blog page in your Site Map. Then you can simply click “Add Blog Post” to start writing.

Every new post will automatically appear on your blog page, and bump the previous post into the list of Previous Posts that appears to the right side of your blog.

For an in-depth walkthrough of adding, using and managing your blog, check out our Blog Help.

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I should point out, they will only show three kinds of results, if they have valid results to show. For example, if you search on the phrase Burlington VT UFO Sightings you will find about 5,000 organic listings, but you will not find any local businesses or sponsored links. At least not at the time of this writing. That could all change tomorrow, but back to today’s topic.

Here are the three kinds of results you will generally see on google’s search engine results pages (SERP’s);

Organic listings

When people talk about search engine optimization, they are talking about optimizing for the organic (or free) listings. This is a highly competitive area that every one wants to be on the top of, or at least on the first page. You only stand a chance of getting onto the first page of course, if Google is aware of your web site in the first place. To see if Google has indexed any part of your site is easy. Simply go to Google.com and enter site:www.yourdomain.com in the search field. For example when I search site:www.cpasitesolutions.com, I see Google shows results 1-10 of 189 pages. That means Google has indexed 189 pages of the site www.cpasitesolutions.com.

Perform a similar search on your domain. Does Google show any results? If they do not, you will want to submit your site for indexing. In the case of the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, it is best to manually submit your site and not rely on automated programs and services that will submit your site to 100′s of search engines. Here are links to the submission pages for Google, Yahoo and MSN;

To submit to Google:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

To Submit to Yahoo:
https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=srch
&.done=http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request
You will need a yahoo Username and Password

To submit to MSN:
http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER
_REF_GettingSiteIndexed.htm

Be patient. It can take more than a month or two for your pages to start to appear in the SERPs. The way Google index’s your site is they will visit and index a few pages at first, then come back and index a few more, and so on. It can literally take 6 to 12 months for them to index every page of your site, including all of the financial guides. So it does take time and you have to be patient. Keep searching on site:www.yourdomain.com and when you start to see matching results you will know Google has found and is indexing your site.

Don’t submit your site more than once every couple of months until it is listed. Once your site is listed you should not need to resubmit your site at all, except after you have made significant changes. If you are needlessly submitting your site for indexing, the search engine may feel you’re spamming them with submissions and they’ll penalize your listing. Once they are aware of your site, search engines should revisit it on their own on a regular schedule. However, some search engines have grown smart enough to realize some sites only change content once or twice a year, so they may visit less often. Resubmitting after major changes will help ensure that your site’s content is kept current.

Local Listings

Local listings are above the organic listings and show only specific companies in the area being searched. Local listings display companies offering the specific service being searched on. For these reasons they are arguably even more important then being on the first page of organic results.

Additionally, requesting a local listing may get a better response from Google then requesting organic indexing, and once you are accepted in the local listings, you will automatically be included in the organic results.

Checking to see if you are in the local listings is easy. Simply visit http://maps.google.com/ and search on your office address. If you do not initially see your business listed, you might do a few broader searches first, just to make sure. For example if your business is

Homer Simpson CPA
742 Evergreen Terrace
Springfield, VT  12345

You might try searches of Evergreen Terrace Springfield 12354, or Springfield VT CPA. If you see your business listed, you are in the local business results. You will want to claim your listing.

To claim and edit your business listing you must be logged in as a Gmail user. There is “sign in” link in the upper right hand side of every page. If you don’t already have one go to gmail.google.com and sign up for a free Email account. You can use this user name and password to log in. Once you’re logged in simply click on your business name in the listing to open up the detail balloon for your business. You should see something like this;

Click the “Edit” link in the detail balloon and from there you will find a link to claim your listing.

If you are not already in the local listings, requesting submission is easy. Just visit http://www.google.com/local/add and you can add a new listing to the local directory.

Sponsored Listings

Sponsored listings are, by and large, pay per click advertisements. Meaning the companies and businesses that advertise here, create their ads (within Google’s advertising guidelines) and bid what they are willing to pay to achieve desired placement. There is no charge to have an ad displayed in the sponsored listings. Companies incur a charge only when someone clicks the sponsored listing link.

As you probably already know, hundreds of books have been written on these subjects and complete industries have started up. We understand your time is valuable and hopefully this primer will get you headed in the right direction. If you are interested in learning more about optimizing your site for search engines or advertising in Google’s sponsored listings, please contact us and ask to speak with one of our SEO Coaches about our Platinum level service. You can also review Working With Search Engines in our online help, and we’ll be posting more on these topics here in the future.

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We’ve expanded our Platinum Service Level’s marketing features to include setup and management of the Google Analytics tool for your site. We’ll set you up with your own Google Analytics Account and add your unique tracking code to every page of your site.

Once installed, it takes just a few clicks to view detailed information about how your visitors are using every aspect of your site. With this information you can carefully adjust your website to maximize incoming business at a minimal cost.

Google Analytics is completely integrated with the Google AdWords system, which means that you can even more closely track the success of your Pay-Per-Click campaigns.

Take a look over our Google Analytics overview for more features of Google Analytics, or give us a call to add this new feature to your Platinum Site at no additional cost.

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With our Pay-Per-Lead Program you can pass along the trouble of cold-calling, prospecting and mailings. We give you a consistent marketing program that’s guaranteed to bring you new clients with less hassle.

We take care of all the trouble of finding interested potential clients who are searching for tax and accounting help on the Internet. We find out exactly what they need and how big they are. Then we email you all their contact information, allowing you to make a call confident that you’ve got the services that they’re looking for.

There’s no contracts or commitment to the Pay-Per-Lead service, so you can give it a try and cancel anytime by just giving us a call. You’re only responsible to pay for the leads you received.

For more information, or to get started, just visit our Pay-Per-Lead Practice Building Program page and fill out our form. We’ll send you out additional information right away.

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