The home page is the most visited page on websites for accountants and it is critical you take the time to “optimize” it so your page will rank well in Google. Your home page content should tell Google and the other search engines where you are located, who you are, and what you do.

1. Identify Your Keywords
Focus your SEO on your top 10 most important keywords to get the best results. Most searches will include a location, so your town name and state will be on your list of 10 keywords. Your next most important keyword will be related to your business profession, so if you are a accountant then accountant will be a great keyword.  Next, think about the products and services you offer and use those as keywords.  So, if you are an accountant then tax preparation would be a likely keyword.  And when I say keyword it can be multiple words like tax preparation.

Each page can only be optimized for a handful of words, so you’ll need to choose the keywords for your index page carefully. My recommendation for an accounting firm would be to optimize your page to two, maybe three, of the following keywords:

• Accounting
• CPA
• Accountant
• Accountants
• Tax Preparation
• Tax Prep

Of course, you’ll want to include your city and state. I know it can look a little sloppy but consider using the abbreviation for your state. Abbreviations tend to have a higher search frequency. For example, a good selection of index keywords might be:

• Orlando
• FL
• Florida
• Accounting
• CPA
• Accountant

2. Write original relevant content
Using the keywords you’ve chosen write some original content for your home page that includes each of your keywords 4 – 5 times and is 400 – 600 words in length.  When writing the content try to break it up into different paragraphs and have a paragraph for each keyword. Keywords used at the very beginning and very end of your copy will get a slight boost. Don’t hesitate to contact your CPA Site Solutions design representative if you need help modifying your pages.

3. Create headlines and use keywords in them
Write a headline for each of your paragraphs and use your keyword each headline. Apply the H1 tag to the headline. Almost all web page editors have a setting for headers. Your design rep can show you where this dropdown setting is in your WYSIWYG editor.

4. Use keywords in meta title tag
Use your keyword(s) in your page title and format it like this. Page titles can be pretty long, but the search engines are only going to give real weight to the first seven or eight words. List your firm name last as this is not a competitive keyword. A good page title would be…

5. Build links to internal pages
This is easy. Link your keywords to relevant internal pages on your website using your Site Manager. The keyword “tax preparation” should link to a full page that has content explaining your tax preparation service in detail. For best results optimize that page as well. Call us if you need help.

6. Use alt tags on images
Have a nice photo of a popular landmark that is located near your business?  Add it to your home page to help visually localize your website to your physical location, then add your location keywords to the image “alt tags” or “alternative text”. This one is a little trickier. You can add alt tags to your images in your CPA Site Solutions Site Manager by opening the properties of an uploaded image.

If your website isn’t with CPA Site Solutions these tips will still work for you! You’ll need to contact your website provider for more information. They can tell you which of these features they support and how to implement them on your site.

Websites for accountants are not that hard to optimize. If you know what you’re doing you can get a solid boost in the search engines with very little difficulty. While these strategies won’t help you attract “backlinks”, the biggest factor in your Google ranking, in most smaller markets these “on-page” factors alone can often get your site onto the first page.

Brian O'Connell, President

Is there really such a thing as a “best lead”? Well, yes and no. All prospects are important – but those looking specifically for your services are the ones who are ready – right now – to pay expert rates for what you offer.

How do you attract these high-quality leads? In our Google-dominated world, firms whose CPA websites show up high in the search results are the ones who attract these prospects.

But getting listed on the first page of results requires some setup work. And the very first part of this is choosing the right keywords.

When you establish a list of relevant, effective keywords, you’ve taken the first step toward bringing in new clients.

The words people type into the search box are called "keywords."

“Keywords” Defined

So what exactly are keywords?

Put simply, keywords are the words or phrases people enter in a search engine to find you. They can be one word or several words. For example, “Dallas accountant audit” is a keyword phrase (also called a “search term” or “search phrase”).

Brainstorm

Your first step is to create a list of all the services you offer. It should be about 20 to 30 words long.

Here’s a short list of example keyword phrases for a hypothetical firm in Dallas. Note that in addition to the city name, you should use your zip code in keyword phrases.

Use Free Tools – Or Ask Us

To make it easier to identify your keywords, consider using one or both of these free tools:

Wordtracker – https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Google Keyword tool – https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Or, if you’d rather talk over your particular situation with one of our SEO Specialists, call us at 1-800-896-4500, or email support@cpasitesolutions.com. One of our experts can guide you to the best keywords for your business.

Narrow and Refine

Once you have a comprehensive list of your services, it’s time to narrow them down to the best dozen or so keywords and keyword phrases.

Delete generic – or broad – search phrases. Use this litmus test: could the phrase relate to a wide spectrum of services? If yes, strike it from the list. You want specific search terms instead – for example, “Dallas leading tax preparation” is better than “Dallas accountant.”

Keep a variety. Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes. Will all of them type in “preparation,” or will some of them use the abbreviated form, “prep”? For the keywords you think are best, include all possible variations.

Use modifiers. Consider using adjectives that reflect the way people search – words like “best,” “top,” “leading,” and “affordable.”

Don’t forget plurals. This is another facet of thinking like the client. Some folks will use the singular of your service, and others will use the plural. For example, both “tax preparer” and “tax preparers” can pull in prospects.

What to Do with All These Keywords?

Once you have a list of the best keywords and keyword phrases to describe your services, you’re on your way to attracting new clients.

To make these keywords start working for you, you need to use them to “optimize” your web pages for the search engines.

There are several aspects to on-page optimization, but it basically means adding keywords to the text on your home page and the other pages on your site. Just watch that you don’t overdo it.

Aim for using 7 to 10 keywords on each page (“Dallas,” “CPA,” and “accounting” would be three good words to optimize for). Also – and this is important – make sure the text remains readable.

If you’re at the Gold or Platinum level, you get We Do It All for You Service – which means you can send us the edited copy for your home page and any other pages you want to optimize, with the keywords inserted, and we’ll post it to your site. Call us at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Brian O'Connell, President

It’s not easy running an accounting business. You need to manage a lot more than your clients’ books – from human resources to operations to IT.

Chief among these “extracurricular activities” is marketing. You really do need to pay attention to marketing. After all, if you don’t market your services, you won’t have many clients.

But marketing is a big field. There are lots of ways to promote your business, all of which take up plenty of your time. How do you manage them all when you also need to focus on client work?

The answer: Focus on your website, and just use the other marketing streams to pull prospects to your site.

Your CPA website should be your marketing hub, and all other forms of marketing – ads, referrals, direct mail, and so on – should be treated as spokes on the wheel.

It may seem like a small detail, but when you shift your thinking this way, you focus your time and energy and make the most of each marketing stream.

Which means more of what your marketing is all about: getting new clients.

5 Spokes of the Marketing Wheel

Your marketing wheel: your website is the hub, and the spokes are your additional marketing efforts.

Think of all your marketing efforts as a wheel. The wheel’s hub is your website, and it has 5 spokes, which represent the 5 main areas of marketing.

Social Media

It’s easy to get distracted by social media. But remember the end goal of marketing: to draw in new clients, not to make friends or post clever status updates.

Your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts should serve to funnel people back to your website, where the work of “conversion” happens (converting them from a prospect to a client).

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a popular topic these days. Experts say that delivering messages straight to the inbox is the best way to get someone’s attention.

But don’t forget that an email message doesn’t contain a signup form – you still need folks to go to your site and actually become a new client. So emails need to pull the reader back to your website.

The emailed newsletter that sends automatically from your CPA Site Solutions website links readers back to your site. Custom email messages should do the same. To review how to send a custom message, with links to your site, see this Help file.

SEO/SEM

Search listings are called the “new Yellow Pages.” Put simply, if you want people to find you online, you MUST place well with the search engines.

If you search for an accountant in your area on Google and Bing and your URL doesn’t show up on the first page, you might need SEO (search engine optimization) services. Check out our Local SEO package.

SEM services – pay-per-click ads – are included in our Platinum service. If you want to focus your advertising dollars on targeted ads for folks who are actively looking for your service, take a look at our SEM package to see if it’s right for you.

Offline Marketing Streams

Offline marketing options include:

• Direct mail
• Print advertisements
• Radio and TV advertisements

Each of these areas should include a mention of your website. You may pique people’s interest with a postcard in the mail or a 30-second ad on the radio… but to actually “make the sale,” you need to give them a website address so they can visit your pages and get comfortable with you.

Referrals

Another very important offline stream is word-of-mouth referrals. Again, if a client recommends you to a friend, they’ll give your web address – not a memorized phone number. (As long as they give your name, the prospect will be able to find you in a Google search.)

Your Website Is the Hub

Your website is the heart of your marketing – the place where the conversion actually happens.

Why is that?

Quite simply, for someone to convert from a prospect to a client, they must become familiar with who you are – as a person, and as a professional. It’s just part of our psychological makeup – the need to gain a certain amount of trust before entering into a transaction with another individual.

Your website should answer these questions:

• How professional are you?
• What do you look like?
• What specific services do you offer?
• Are you an expert in your field?

If people get satisfactory answers, they become comfortable enough to take the plunge and sign up with you. And THAT is the ultimate goal of all your marketing.

Coordinate – Save Time and Effort

Don’t spread yourself too thin among every kind of marketing campaign.

Establish your website as the foundation of all your marketing efforts – use other marketing tactics to pull prospects to your site – and then enjoy the boost in your client base.

A professional, fully loaded website from CPA Site Solutions is designed to do the heavy lifting of turning prospects into clients. To get a 60-day free trial, sign up today.

Brian O'Connell, President

I love cable news. I love getting up-to-the-minute headlines 24/7. I’ve come to trust that if I tune in to CNN, it will deliver, every time.

The most successful accounting websites have something in common with CNN: they always deliver up-to-date information.

Of course, accountants don’t have the huge staff and generous budgets of cable news companies. It’s not easy to find the time to keep your site updated with the latest staff changes and firm events. Realistically, you need to focus on work that brings in revenue.

Most of the time, client work takes precedence over tweaking your website.

Besides, not all of us are techies. While updating your site isn’t hard, it does take a little while to figure out. And it can be frustrating – a real drain on your energy.

So how do you squeeze in as much billable work as possible (and keep your stress levels in check) while also staying on top of your website?

I have a solution…

Let Us “Do It All For You”

Make the most of each minute by outsourcing website maintenance.

Consider upgrading from Silver to Gold. The Gold level gets you the We Do It All For You service.

This service is like having your own webmaster just a phone call away. When you need to update your site, simply email us. We make the changes as soon as possible.

Here are some examples of the information to regularly post on your site:

• New employees

• New address or contact info

• Firm event – seminars, extended hours, etc.

• Introducing a new service

• Adding a new page when we offer a service improvement – such as our new QuickSend service

With “We Do It All For You” service, you stay focused on your core business while we do the grunt work.

The Benefits of Fresh Content

An updated site is critical for client relationships.

Like with cable news – if your site is always fresh and relevant, your clients are trained to “tune in” on a regular basis. What better way to keep that client connection?

And because search engines reward sites that regularly post new content, keeping current lands you a top spot in Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Listing high in organic search results is key when trying to attract new clients.

Cost Benefit Analysis

At $69.50/month, an upgrade from Silver to Gold costs an additional $20/month, or $240/year.

Say you bill $125/hour. If using our webmaster service allows you to do just 2 extra hours of client work per year, that’s $250/year in extra revenue. You make a little profit from upgrading to Gold, just from a tiny bump in client work.

And as a bonus, you save yourself a few mornings of tedious technical stuff. (Why suffer more stress than you need to?)

Of course, this doesn’t take into account the less quantifiable advantages of increased client connection and a possible rise in page rank on Google.

Upgrading has other benefits, too:

• When you want to try out a new website design, choose from double the number – 300 instead of 150. (It costs you nothing to switch designs.)

• For the Client Portal, you get easy one-click file upload. Simply right-click any file on your system and send it directly to the Vault.

• You also get additional space in the Vault - 500 MB total.

Click to Upgrade

If you sometimes put off making changes to your site because it takes time or it’s a bit complicated, then an upgrade to Gold might be a great solution.

To upgrade, click here. Once you submit your name and website address, one of our webmasters will call. Or call us: 1-800-896-4500, or send an email: support@cpasitesolutions.com.

What updates do you think are important for your website? Did I miss any? Share your thoughts below.

Video provides a way to communicate on your CPA website while providing marketing benefits. A previous series walks you through how to create video and what kind of content to use. Here is a quick way to add it to almost any page of your CPA website.

Previous Posts. Be sure to check out why to use video on your accounting website. There are many tools available to create a project yourself or you can have someone else create one for you. Here is some some inspiration if you are doing it alone.

Use Multiple Platforms. Part of having video work for you is to use multiple platforms. You want to place it not just on YouTube but also the following:

• viddler.com
• revver.com
• livevideo.com
• dailymotion.com

The content is leveraged further when placed on these other websites rather than just showing on your accounting website. More potential clients see the content and it is a source of free advertising.

The Code. Every video sharing website generates code to use on your CPA website. All you need to do is copy this code and paste it into Notepad. Yes, you have Notepad on your computer! It is probably rarely if ever used because most people skip to Word.

While word is great for writing, it adds a fair amount of code that creates problems on your website. When you paste into Notepad you get just the code and nothing else. This makes it easier to save each video websites code all in one place.You won’t be using all of these! You are just keeping them here for reference.

Adding The Code. Decide where on your CPA website you want your video to appear. Mouse over it and click to bring up the easy to use page editor. Find on the page about where you want it and highlight a few words of text right in that area. This is going to give you a place of reference while you are in code view.

Choose the “Source” tab (see image below) and you are in code view. This can be confusing but just look for your highlighted text.  Now paste the code from one (YouTube) of the video sharing websites after the </p> (see image below).

Where To Place The Code

If it doesn’t look just right, try moving it to another location. Still having trouble? Leave the code in place and then send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com with a request to troubleshoot.

Do you use video on your own accounting website? Send a comment below and share with other readers.

Juggling Tasks Takes Talent, Helpful Tools, or Both

Reading the CPA Site Solutions blog, you can find many helpful online tools. These tools make juggling a CPA website, accounting firm, and client needs easier. You can leverage your time further just by commenting upon any CPA Site Solutions blog post for SEO benefits.

You Comment, CPA Site Solutions Follows

You Comment We Follow. You may notice to the right this post, a new icon. It says, “You Comment, We Follow.” When you comment on any post, CPA Site Solutions links to your CPA website. This provides your accounting website a little bit of SEO benefit. Over the long run, this can add up.

All Comments Welcome. Your comment can be short, long, asking a question, or making an observation. Any and all comments are welcome. For example, your comment might extend the idea of the post. You could mention specifics you might be doing on your own CPA website.

Subscribe to Any Comment

Subscribe to Comment Updates. You can subscribe to the comments feed automatically. You get an email of any other comments that happen after your own. This is a great way to get engaged with other readers. You also get a chance to learn what other people are doing with their own CPA website.

Share the Post. Right below the Follow icon is now a share button. This allows you to share any post with one click. You can even add this feature to anywhere on your own CPA website as well.

You can find some great tools, tricks, and tips reading the CPA Site Solutions blog. You can leverage that further through comments. Have your own ideas around how comments can be helpful? Send a comment below to share with other readers.

The welcome page for some CPA web sites remains the same or very similar to what it was when the site was first launched. You can and should shake up your welcome page on a regular basis. There is a previous post from CPA Site Solutions that talks about the SEO benefits of a fresh profile page.

The same is true but even more so for your welcome page. Here is a breakdown of why and how you might consider sprucing up the first page that many visitors see when they come to your accounting web site.

The why of change. Before starting any project it is best to know why your doing it. Then if your motivation wanes you can reconnect and remain focused on the task. Writing a bit for your CPA web site is a project worth the time and effort due primarily to the SEO benefits. Aside from that, when a user comes to your web site and see’s information that is recent, even if it is just seasonal, they have greater confidence in the web site as a current resource.

Search engines. Google and other search engines love unique and fresh content. The more of this type of content you can provide on a regular basis the stronger your domain.

Current resource. It can be hard to tell if a web site is up to date. When you put fresh content that is relevant and current on the welcome page you put a visitor at ease because they know right off the web site is updated frequently rather than put up in 1999 and left alone.

Use Current Tax News

Current news. Are there changes in recent laws that may effect a majority of potential clients? Having some information regarding this is a great way to draw people to your CPA web site.

Images. Adding images that are familiar and appealing to those local to your accounting firm’s office can help make new visitors more comfortable. Any images of you and the rest of your firm gives a face to who you are making it easier for potential clients to trust you.

Create interesting text variations. Along with what to write is how it is displayed. When you take the time to provide variations in text color it helps the eye gravitate to important main points.

Color and size variations for headlines is the more commonly used tactic. What shouldn’t be overlooked is bold text for important sentences within your paragraph. If the bold text is relevant to what you offer overall then it is also a plus with search engines. See the help section on how to make changes to text.

There is a lot you can do on a regular basis with your welcome page. If you don’t have a lot of time just making some quick seasonal changes can go a long way to help keep your web site fresh.

Every accounting web site hosted by CPA Site Solutions can be optimized as the Content Manager is designed to be Search Engine Optimization friendly. Properly executed SEO generally requires more resources than most small accounting firms are able to part with. Here is some advice on the process if you are considering it.

World Wild Web-Watch Out For SEO Claims

As a rule Pay per Click advertising is much more cost effective and offers a much higher ROI (Return On Investment). If you do hire an SEO firm be very careful about which one you choose. There are a LOT of scammers in this business.

There are a lot of companies that do SEM (Search Engine Marketing). The best way to start your search for a good one is to go to www.google.com and type in “search engine optimization” and “SEO”.

Any result on the first 3 pages of either search is likely a great one. Anyone on the first 8 pages is darn good, and anyone on the fist 15 can pretty much get the job done for a small local accounting firm.

Caution is called for. There are some who promise high rankings but ultimately get sites removed from the index altogether because of their shady methods.

Not all SEO is safe. Some SEO’s specialize in ranking sites by deliberately breaking the rules. This is called “spamdexing”,”black hat”, “gray hat” or “high-risk” SEO. If you are caught using these techniques your domain name can be banned from the search engines. The people who use them are not usually forthcoming about the risks or even that they are breaking any rules.

As an accountant your reputation for integrity is vital to your relationship with your clients and prospects, and getting caught cheating the search engines could hurt you in ways that make getting a domain name banned look like a slap on the wrist. I strongly recommend avoiding any “get listed quick” schemes.

Whatever you decide it is your responsibility to make sure you are dealing with a reputable professional that’s being frank about his techniques. It is your responsibility to weigh any risks with the potential benefits and hire an SEO willing and able to do the job according to your wishes.

Here are a few tips to keep you out of trouble.

• Stay away from any company that markets by spam or cold calling. This is a huge red flag. Good SEO’s don’t need to drum up business. They have plenty of work.
• Don’t trust anyone who guarantees results. Nobody can guarantee position, especially for your competitive keywords like “accounting”.
• Google does not certify SEO’s. The only certifications that Google offers are in regards to a Google Adwords Professional.
• There are no companies with “special relationships” or “partnerships” with Google, Yahoo, MSN Live Search, or Bing.
• Make sure that the SEO company you hire has done a good job getting his own site listed. If he can’t get himself on the search engines there’s no reason to expect him to be able to do it for you.
• Many SEO’s cheat, and this has gotten their sites (often along with many if not all of their clients) banned entirely from the search engines. These guys have to change domains/company names every time they get caught (every year or two). As a rule it’s best to avoid SEO’s who don’t have an established history of more than 3 years.
• SEO is hard work, there are no guarantees, no (ethical) shortcuts, and even the best SEO is going to need your help. It’s just too much work for one person to do. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a bill of goods.

Don’t expect fast results. The best SEO will need a couple months to get your site rankings to climb into a noticeable position, and some factors can’t be optimized. For example: one of your sites ranking variables is it’s age. The older the site is, the better. No amount of optimizing is going to change your sites age.

There are a lot of good, honest SEO’s out there, but they are not always easy to find and they tend to be expensive because they are in such high demand. Expect to pay at least $500/month. The average is honestly closer to $1000.

That’s actually a pretty long answer, but the short answer is…

“Meta tags aren’t a big deal.”

In 1995 having well organized Meta Tags could skyrocket a site right into the number one spot on Google even for highly competitive keywords. Those days are gone. When I started specializing in CPA Website Design in 2002 Meta tags were already the fading stars of SEO.

What META Tags Are

Generically the word “meta” is used in technology as “data that describes other data.” In web design, be it an accounting website or a family home page, a Meta Tag is an HTML tag that identifies the contents of a Web page for the search engines.

Meta tags are hidden on the page, but they (as well as all the HTML code on a page) can be viewed by selecting View/Source or View/Page Source from the browser menu. Meta tags contain a general description of the page, keywords and copyright information.

What META Tags Aren’t
META tags are NOT magic bullets that will get your website good rankings. They were once, and there’s an army of scam artists claiming that they still are. Don’t be fooled.

The days when you can get a good ranking just by fiddling with your META tags are LONG GONE!!! If you want to get good rankings you’ll need to put some hard work into it until you have a unique CPA website design with a strong domain authority and plenty of relevant incoming links.

What META Tags Do I Need?

The “Title Tag”
A page’s HTML page title is it’s most important tag. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages with lots of good incoming links may be poorly ranked.

Searchers SEE your title tag in their search results, so a string of keywords won’t do.  Your title needs to read like a “headline” as it functions to not just tell the search engines what the page is about, but also get people to click on it.

Your title tag can be as long as you want it to be, but the search engines will ignore everything after the first 7 or 8 words, so be succinct.

Use keywords in your title tag that local prospects are actually likely to search for, like the name of your town, the abbreviation for your state, and service keywords that describe what you do. If you are optimizing an accounting website your target keywords are (in order of importance):

• Accounting
• Accountants
• CPA
• Tax Preparation
• Tax Planning

Trust me on this. I’ve done a lot of keyword research on websites for accountants.

Another option is to optimize to an industry specialty. For example “car dealer accounting” or “funeral home accountants”. You can even do both, as in “Hoboken restaurant accounting”.

Meta Tags as seen while logged into Site Manager

The “Keywords Tag”:
There is a Meta Tag called a “Keywords Tag” (in this illustration this tag is labeled “Search Engine Keywords”) that used to be very important, but these days it’s virtually meaningless. Google doesn’t even look at keyword tags any more, and Yahoo and Bing barely give them a sideways glance. We still use this Meta tag as a formality (in case the search engines decide to start using them again) so don’t leave it blank, but don’t waste a lot of time on it either.

The “Page Description” Tag
Search Engine Description is more important than it used to be. The search engine description is the block of text that will appear on the search engine when your page comes up on a results page.

Again… Treat your page description like a headline. The purpose of your page description is to get people to click on the link to see your page. Keep it short and simple and try to include important keywords from the title tag.

This is my favorite tag. When you are writing a Page Description Tag you are writing more to the human element than to the search engine algorithm. It’s really the only point in this process where you get a chance to make a connection with the visitor without having to worry too much about what the search engines think. When someone does a web search it’s because they want something. Your page description is your best chance to convince a searcher that you can give them whatever that thing is!

Should I Use Different Meta Tags on Different Pages?

Your Page Settings

YES! Search engines prefer sites that have unique meta tags on unique pages. Whenever you add a new page or rewrite a standard page you should modify the Meta Tags for that page to reflect the actual content of the new page. If you have a CPA Site Solutions site you can access an individual pages Meta Tags from the site map by accessing the page settings for the page you modified or added. You will see that the settings for each page has it’s own “Search Engines” tab.

Don’t waste your time changing every Meta Tag on the site. If the page content isn’t unique there’s no point in optimizing the Meta Tags for it.

Have any comments about the use of Meta Tags? Let us know we would love to hear from you.