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.

Wish there were a way to streamline tedious tax work? Check out your Online Tax Organizer.

Websites for accountants help you serve all your clients – whether you manage their books, run their payroll, or act as their part-time CFO.

But the bread and butter of most small to medium-sized accounting firms is taxes.

How can you speed up the time-consuming and laborious process of completing 1040s?

With your Online Tax Organizer, of course!

Save Time

The Online Tax Organizer saves you time in 3 ways:

1. Because the organizer is online, there’s no need to mail a tax info sheet back and forth. The client fills in the information online at his or her convenience, as they gather data (and at any time throughout the year) – and you can see it right away.
2. It’s easy to collaborate with your clients and your staff. Everyone has access to the same document right at their workstation – cutting down on the need for face-to-face meetings.
3. With your Tax Organizer, it’s a cinch to compare a client’s information year to year so you can check your work and cut down on errors. Say good-bye to flipping through pages while you struggle to keep your place.

Work Flexibly

Every client is different – so not every client will need the same Tax Organizer. That’s why we made your Online Tax Organizer easy to customize.

You can customize an organizer for a particular client – or create multiple organizers, one organizing Real Estate transactions, one organizing Stock transactions, one organizing interest income, and so on.

And as your practice grows, so does your Tax Organizer. Not only can you create and store up to 200 Tax Organizers per client, but the Online Tax Organizer also allows you to support up to 10,000 clients. You’ll always have enough capacity to store as many Tax Organizers as you need.

Enjoy Top Security

All of your clients’ data is stored on our secure server, which uses 128- to 256-bit file encryption. You can be assured that critical financial information is fully protected.

Update Now to 2010

When it’s time to update to the next year’s organizer, it’s easy to do. Once you’re in the Tax Organizer Administration in the Portal, click on “Manage Organizers.” On the next screen, you’ll find a link: “Add 2010 Organizer.” Click that link, check the box next to the 2010 Organizer now listed in the table, and hit “Publish.”

Check out our Help file for detailed instructions and screen shots.

Tax Season Is Coming…

Do you have questions about the Online Tax Organizer before tax season hits? Give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com. We’re more than happy to help.

If you don’t yet have a Complete Web Suite with CPA Site Solutions, remember that the Online Tax Organizer is included in your subscription fee. Give us a try free for 60 days!

A video is friendly and reassuring - like a warm kitchen on a cold autumn day.

The Web has become a place to sell, sell, sell.

Understandably, some folks are tired of being sold to. They’re looking for real people they can trust – not a bunch of marketing hype.

What does this mean for CPAs attempting to sell their services on websites for accountants? It means they need a way to take the skeptical visitor and “warm them up.”

To sell your services through your website, you need to introduce yourself. Tell your story. Allow potential clients to feel like they already know you.

In fact, 76% of business owners recently indicated that they wanted to have a sense of an accountant’s personality before contacting them for the first time.

Just a 60-second online video is actually all you need to do this.

Reach Out to Your Visitors with Video

More and more, people surfing the Web love to watch videos. Just look at the popularity of YouTube!

Not all videos are purely entertaining. Increasingly, businesspeople are using video to describe their products and sell their services.

It’s easy to see why. Imagine you’re in a new town and you need a dentist. Being a savvy consumer, you look around for one on the Web – but they all look about the same to you. You can’t see a reason to pick one over the other.

Then you find one dentist whose site has a 60-second video. It shows a brief interview of the dentist, it shows her hygienists, and you see the space they work in.

Because you can now picture the office and the staff, you trust them. You’ve seen them smiling, talking, and working on patients. You choose this dentist for your next cleaning.

Video Gets Real Results

Here are some statistics about the effectiveness of a promotional video:

• 52% of viewers take action after watching
• Clicks for more information increase by 30 to 40%
• Phone calls to your business increase 16–20%

Check out this sample video for an accounting firm:

Apply Proven Marketing Techniques without Being a Marketing Genius

You can enhance your website from CPA Site Solutions with a professional online video.

When you sign up, we give you a call and work out the details. Then a professional videographer is dispatched to your office on a date and time of your choosing – and they work with you to create a high-quality multimedia message that makes a real impact on your leads.

Once the video is done, it’s easy to place it on your site (and we can help). It’s also distributed to the most popular social media sites – including YouTube, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!Video, and Metacafe.

Get Started…

Sign up today for an online video. Take advantage of the medium to reach out to your prospective clients and introduce yourself before you ever have a conversation.

If you’d like a promotional video but don’t have a website with us, try us out free for 60 days!

Websites for accountants are a fantastic way to get noticed by your prospective clients.

But you don’t just want prospects. You want clients.

How do you make sure your prospects become your clients?

Google Analytics – Free and Easy

Google Analytics might sound intimidating, especially for those less technical. But it’s actually a very easy tool that can help you determine whether your site is converting prospects into clients.

Google Analytics makes detective work on your site fun and easy - and profitable.

Once you embed the code on your site – just a matter of pointing and clicking – you can start to take advantage of Analytics’s reports, graphs, site overlays, and many other features.

Analytics helps you gather information on…

• what keywords brought folks to your website

• how they navigate through your site

• how they go from a casual visitor to filling out the contact form

The Importance of Getting to Know Your Clients

The Wall Street Journal‘s article about conversions named “getting to know your clients” as one of the three most important steps you can take when converting prospects into clients.

Even small tweaks to your site can help. For instance, maybe you learn that visitors leave your site altogether after clicking on your “About Us” page. This is a strong indication that this page is not doing its job. Maybe you need to add some pictures, bios, and friendly language to this page. (And we can help you do that, of course.)

Once you delve into the data about how visitors are behaving on your site, you have a much clearer sense of what works and what needs to be refined.

It helps you make the most of your website – turning your monthly subscription rate into a smart investment.

Integrate with Google Adwords

If you want to take your marketing to the next level, consider employing a Google Adwords campaign. When you do, Google Analytics comes bundled with it – allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads.

Platinum clients get a PPC campaign fully set up and monitored by our certified Google Adwords professionals. They also get the power of Google Analytics set up on their site, as well as expert coaching on how to use the various features and interpret the data.

Free for Anyone

Google Analytics is free for Gold and Silver clients, too. Simply sign up on google.com/analytics, get the code, and send it to us. We’ll put it on your site.

Start Making New Clients Today

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that helps you ensure visitors aren’t clicking away from your site prematurely.

If you have any questions about Analytics, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

If you’d like to extend your marketing efforts into Google Adwords, sign up for our Platinum-level service. You get not only a targeted PPC campaign, but also coaching for your Analytics data. You can upgrade by calling 1-800-896-4500 or emailing support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Don’t have a website yet but ready to dive in? Sign up for our website service and receive the first 60 days free.

Kathy O'Connell, CPA

Cloud computing is all the rage these days.

But what exactly is it? And is it secure enough for accountants?

As financial professionals, we need to make sure our clients’ data is protected. We don’t want their financial information compromised in any way.

How do we balance the efficiencies of cloud computing with the potential threats?

What Is Cloud Computing?

Wikipedia defines “cloud computing” this way:

“Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.”

So what does that mean?

Basically, when you use the cloud for your IT needs, you no longer need to have servers and copies of software at your office. You just need access to the Internet, and you pay a fee to access programs for things like tax preparation, workflow management, and file storage.

The term "cloud" refers to the Internet. It's based on the cloud drawing historically used to represent the telephone network.

If you’re familiar with Software as a Service – or SaaS – then you’re familiar with the cloud. Think of SaaS as what’s delivered, and the cloud as the medium by which it’s delivered.

Here are some examples of common computer programs that run in the cloud:

• Google Docs

• QuickBooks Online

• online access to bank accounts

Is It Safe?

Accountants are the safeguards of our clients’ financial data. We take that very seriously, as we should.

So should we feel comfortable sending off their data to data centers all over the country – and around the world? What if the files are hacked into, either at the data center or while in transport from our computers to our SaaS provider?

And will we truly own and control that data anymore once it’s left our hands?

I think these are important concerns – but they must be balanced by the benefits of this brave new world.

What Are the Benefits?

The benefits of cloud computing outweigh the risks, in my opinion.

Cheaper

Instead of buying and maintaining servers and software at your office – which usually means hiring an IT guy – you do away with all those needs.

Plus, you get the chance to purchase just what you need, rather than an entire software program that’s far too complicated for the size of your firm.

Greener

Instead of keeping filing cabinets full of paper versions of your clients’ tax returns and financial statements, you have it all online.

You also can likely downsize to just one or two printers per office, instead of one per workstation.

More Efficient

Brian talks a good deal on this blog about the efficiencies offered by our websites for accountants (the secure Client Portal, an emailed Monthly Client Newsletter, the Workteam Collaboration Suite, and so on – see the Increasing Efficiency section of our blog).

When you think about it, all of these are courtesy of the cloud. They save you hours of tedious work and allow you to focus more of your time on client work.

So… What Should You Do?

There is a way to take advantage of the pluses of cloud computing while also guarding against the risks.

Before you jump up into the clouds with any SaaS provider, Greg LaFollette suggests you ask these questions:

1. What’s their privacy policy? Is it published?

2. Is all data safeguarded with 128-bit SSL encryption?

3. Is it compliant with SAS 70? (Starting in June 2011, this becomes SSAE 16.)

4. How well protected are the data centers where your files are stored? (And I would add, are they in the U.S. or outside of the country? If outside, are they in a country with a stable political situation?)

If the answers satisfy you, then go for it. After all, within a year or two or three, you’re probably going to be forced to.

In the words of Mr. LaFollette…

“Cloud computing as we know it now is still a few years away from full acceptance, but I guarantee you, within 10 years there will be no premise-based software in the business of tax and accounting.”

You Might Already Be Up There!

If you participate in online banking, then you’re in the cloud.

Likewise, if you have a website with CPA Site Solutions, you’re also in the cloud!

And just to reassure you, we take your security – and your clients’ – very seriously. Please read about our 14 layers of security for the Client Portal.

If you have any concerns at all, please don’t hesitate to reply to this post or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com. You can also call us at 1-800-896-4500.

If you don’t have a website with us but you’re ready to get started in the cloud, try us out free for 60 days.

Enjoy running your business from the clouds!

There's lots of "juice" in your website. Make sure you get it all...

Websites for accountants are an excellent way to serve existing clients and draw in new ones.

But sometimes, their value is even more direct.

With your CPA website, you actually earn commissions.

With no extra work from you, money on the sale of QuickBooks software comes right to you.

Earn Commissions Selling QuickBooks

Your QuickBooks Store allows you to keep your clients’ software up-to-date by offering them up to 20% off retail prices and free shipping on the latest version of QuickBooks.

Best of all, you earn 5% every time your clients buy from your site.

You don’t have to be a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to take advantage of this program – but if you are a ProAdvisor, you earn 6% instead of 5%.

Serving Your Business Clients

QuickBooks is far and away the most used accounting software among small to medium businesses. When you offer a discount on QuickBooks products, it truly benefits your clients.

When clients visit your site, they see a menu option for QuickBooks Services under the Services tab. When they mouse over “QuickBooks Services,” the last option is “Buy QuickBooks and Save.”

On this page, they get a listing of all the QuickBooks products you sell. And when you sign up with Intuit’s affiliate program, you get an Intuit banner to put on this page.

The page for your QuickBooks Store.

Get Started Selling QuickBooks Online

To become an affiliate with Intuit and offer QuickBooks products to your clients at a 20% discount, check out this Help file.

Gold and Platinum clients, if you’d like your Dedicated Webmaster to take care of this for you, call 1-800-896-4500, or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

More Ways to Earn Commissions…

Selling QuickBooks software isn’t the only way to earn commissions on your website.

Take advantage of these other sources of income that take virtually no effort on your part:

• sell books online through Amazon

• online client incorporation

• online payroll processing

Make the most of your CPA website. Get started with our affiliate programs and add revenue to your firm today.

We’re Always Here to Help

If you have any questions about your QuickBooks Store – how it works or how to start the ball rolling – or you’d like to learn more about our other affiliate programs, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do you participate in the QuickBooks Store? How do you like it? Let us know below.

The right kind of client keeps the working flowing, day after day.

Websites for accountants are critical for the CPA. They draw in new clients, help retain current clients, and increase the efficiency of your firm.

But not all clients are created equal.

The All-Important Business Client

A good deal of accounting work centers around tax preparation for the individual. But business clients are often more complicated – thus bringing in more revenue – and provide year-round client work.

CPA Site Solutions provides websites for accountants that help you appeal to the business client – so you enjoy a year-round, stable revenue stream.

Features of Your Website Help Draw Them In

QuickBooks Services

One of the best ways to reach out to business clients is to offer them QuickBooks services. QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software used by small to medium businesses.

Your website with CPA Site Solutions has a whole section dedicated to QuickBooks services.

The menu for QuickBooks services.

Online Payroll

With our partner, Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals, we offer you an Online Payroll System that gives your clients more control over their payroll.

Our system is a convenient “back office” payroll processing service priced as low as $10.99 per month, per client.

Your clients access their accounts directly from your website  – which means they enter their hours, print checks, and view reports with or without your assistance.

The Onine Payroll sales page.

Client Portal

Our Client Portal – the most secure on the market – is a must for the small business owner evaluating accounting firms.

With the Portal, you can easily exchange large accounting files with your business clients. No more hassle trying to send attachments that are too large (and, as it happens, not at all secure). No more faxing or using a courier service.

Your clients simply log in to your secure Client Portal and upload their materials with the click of a mouse. You access the documents in the client’s folder, and you’re able – just like that – to get back to the billable time that actually supports your business.

The sales page for your secure Client Portal.

Business Services Section

Your website includes an entire 13-part section on the various services you offer to business clients. (Of course, you can remove any pages that your firm doesn’t actually offer.)

From pages devoted to Part-Time CFO Services to those on Business Valuation and Litigation Support, your website explains just how well you serve the business owner.

The menu for Business Services.

Articles and Newsletters

Don’t forget about the 3,000 pages of financial guides included as stock content on your site, or the Monthly Client Newsletter – both of which educate and guide your clients wrestling with the day-to-day functioning of their organization.

Let Your Website Shoulder the Burden

If you ever feel overwhelmed by the need to even out your workload throughout the year, remember that your website can help.

In highlighting your usefulness to the business client, your site attracts the kind of stable, revenue-generating work that helps to build up your firm.

Have Questions? Give Us a Call

If you would like to remove any of the Business Services pages on your site – or add a new page for a service that’s not listed – call your Dedicated Webmaster at 1-800-896-4500, or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

What feature of your site do you find most useful for business clients? Tell us about your experience with a comment!

Provider of CPA Websites Ranks No. 1313 on the 2010 Inc. 5000 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 223%

Winooski, VT – August 26, 2010 - CPA Site Solutions, a provider of CPA websites, was just named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list, a compendium of the fastest growing private companies in America.

“I’ve wanted to make Inc. Magazine’s list since I was 16 and dreaming of being a successful entrepreneur,” comments Brian O’Connell, President of CPA Site Solutions. “Thirty years later my dream came true – and I owe it all to our fabulous team for making it possible,” O’Connell adds.

CPA Site Solutions was honored as the 1313th fastest growing private company in America, with an extraordinary three-year growth rate of 223%.

“On the heels of an excellent year, CPA Site Solutions is poised for future growth,” continues O’Connell. “Technology and Web-based services are increasingly important in the accounting field. We truly enjoy providing accountants with the fully loaded websites they need to excel in today’s environment.”

An Innovative Company in a Small State

CPA Site Solutions was founded in Winooski, Vermont, in 1999 by Brian and Kathy O’Connell, CPA. It was the first company to be devoted solely to websites for accountants.

The small company with 16 employees was named the 3rd fastest growing company in Vermont.

“We’re very proud to be a leader among small businesses in Vermont,” says O’Connell. “We love this state, and we find it an excellent place to run a successful company while enjoying work-life balance.”

The Inc. 5000 Distinction

The Inc. 5000 list, produced by Inc. Magazine, represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Music website Pandora, convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Brooklyn Brewery, and Radio Flyer – maker of the iconic children’s red wagon – are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.

“The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”

About CPA Site Solutions

CPA Site Solutions (http://www.cpasitesolutions.com) provides websites for more than 4,000 CPA and Accounting firms. They offer personalized websites, a dedicated webmaster, a secure client portal, a client newsletter, secure email accounts, search engine optimization, and 109 additional website features designed specifically for Accountants.

This demo video gives an overview of CPA Site Solutions’s offerings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxMz_GwWgX0

###

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.

The contact form on your accounting website is one of the essential forms of communication to potential clients. You want it to not only be easy but also send a personalized message to potential clients after they submit the form. There is now an easier way to do that with the custom form response page.

How It Works. When a potential client fills out the form on your accounting website, they get an automatic response. The custom form response page allows you to create a personalized message that reflects your firm more than the default message.

Don't Let Your Email Responses Get Lost in the Crowd

There is a great help section that gives screen shots on how to use the form response page. You edit it just like any other page on your website. When done editing you connect it to the form on your CPA website.

The Benefits. Create as many forms and custom response pages as you need for your accounting website. The default is to have a form on your contact page but you could create forms on many other pages. You then have the ability to create custom responses for every form you create.

The Uses. You might want to change the page response at different times of the year. You could have seasonal messages or, when you get busier, give an expected time frame for a response to their comment.

Service Pages. You could also use this on custom service pages on your accounting website. When a client is interested in the service, they call or fill out the form. The response for each form is customized to the specific website page.

The auto response to a form should be customized to better reflect your firm. It is also essential that the page response be specific to the website page the form has been submitted on. Now it is easy to accomplish all of this with the custom form response page.

How have you used custom forms on your accounting website? Send a comment below.