So, your sparkly new website is live. It’s amazing. You are so proud of your achievement. Exciting isn’t it? Now, sit back and watch the leads flow in.
Right?
Despite what you were promised in those ‘SEO for accountants’ and ‘websites for accountants’ spaces – that’s not quite the full story.
The reality for any business website, including accountant’s websites, is a little different.
Your fabulous new website going live puts you at the starting line, not the finishing line. You’ve dressed up, turned up, and warmed up; now the race can begin.
The goal of the race is to win and to do that your amazing new website needs to be able to compete. More specifically, your website needs to compete for:
- Attention
- Google rankings
- Traffic (website visitors)
- Leads…
…and unsurprisingly yours is not the only runner is this ‘websites for accountants’ race.
So, how do you get off the starting line with your website?
Ensure it can compete, and more importantly, how does it win? How does your website improve its Google ranking, attract plenty of visitors, and generate plenty of quality leads?
Let’s start with what doesn’t work: You are not Kevin Costner and “If you build it, they will come” is not a mantra to base your web strategy on.
It doesn’t work that way for accountants, and I’m sure that your website host or provider never said it would, not in so many words. But there is a chance that they phrased it as being ‘the single answer to all your marketing prayers’.
Unfortunately, the reality is very different and sweeping statements like this are at best inexperienced and at worst dangerous and misleading.
While an awesome website that looks good and has great content is vital, it is just one cog in the machine that is your business’ approach to marketing. A cog on its own is just a cog, meaning that on its own, your accountancy website will accomplish little value for your business.
Truth is, most new accountancy websites don’t create much in the way of traffic. They can be likened to a new café or store that is set and prepared to go but lacks customers walking through the door. It takes a great deal of effort and expense to get to this stage, followed by an unsatisfactory underwhelming feeling as you see little new business comes through the door following launch day.
But why does this happen?
It is easier to show you how to reduce the risk of this happening. By following a sure-fire, methodical sequence, you can maximise your return on investment on that sparkly new website and get people through the door.
MAKING YOUR ACCOUNTING FIRM’S WEBSITE WORK FOR LEAD GENERATION
SEO For Accountants: KEYWORD STRATEGY AND RESEARCH
Choose the keywords (specific phrases of between three and six words per phrase) that you want your website to rank well for in Google. Your target keywords choices are based on the audience you are targeting, the services you are focusing on, and which leads you want to attract.
IMPORTANT: Avoid broad search terms like ‘accountant [your location]’ as these attract price-focused leads with no other criteria other than your proximity. Such prospects are generally searching low-cost providers because they have no exact needs and are therefore not discerning.
Your Keyword Strategy is simply being clear on what you want to rank well for in search engines. It is too often overlooked despite being pivotal to the effectiveness of your digital marketing.
Upstream from your Keyword Strategy is your Marketing Strategy — which focuses on essential decisions related to the types of patrons you want, your service blend, your pricing, how you prefer to be seen in relation to your competitors, etc.
Your SEO keyword strategy develops from your Marketing Strategy which, in turn, develops from your Business Strategy.
The importance of setting the right target SEO keywords cannot be overemphasised. Yet, still many small businesses and accounting firms fail to do this at all or fail to do it systematically and tactically.
That’s why this is one of the very first steps we cover when onboarding new FRESHVIEW members with our Modern Marketing Mentoring platform. We guide you on your strategy and aid you in identifying 30 phrases that you want to rank well for in Google (and Yahoo! and Bing).
So, this is important. Why? 80% of the clicks on Google are received by the top 3 free (‘organic’) search results on Page 1. To be successful your focus needs to be on being in the Top 3, rather than just being on Page 1, for your main SEO keywords or target phrases.
What is the purpose of dominating Google search results and achieving numerous Top 3 positions in Google with your accounting firm’s website?
Simply put, your accounting firm’s website will receive a lot more traffic. This traffic will no longer be measured in hundreds each month, but rather in thousands of visitors. We see this result time and time again with FRESHVIEW members who have implemented our SEO services and advice.
Why you should care about website traffic?
Website traffic is so significant because, without an adequate visitor capacity, it is unlikely that your website will generate leads; regardless of how shiny and brilliantly put together it is. A trickle of visitors is not enough; your site needs a critical mass of visitors.
Need some advice on your SEO performance? Creative Harmony is an established London based digital marketing agency with expertise in helping businesses to grow their online presence, providing a range of online marketing services from SEO, PPC to Website Development, Social Media Management and Content Marketing. Give our friendly team a call on 0203 773 9137.
