SEO for Accountants

Whether it is staying up to date with changes in taxation laws or the constant fear of losing clients to competition, accounting firms have enough challenges in their everyday lives and the last thing they often think to do is perfect their marketing strategy. In fact, that’s probably one of the first things any company should be doing and is becoming more and more vital for success.

Many accountants have found that conventional marketing is no longer enough, and they are now looking for ways to set themselves apart in an industry cluttered with competition. But they do not need to look any further because Marketing for Finance or more specifically SEO for accountants is the light at the end of this tunnel and the one-stop solution for all marketing woes.

Why Do Accounting Professionals need SEO for Accountants?

No time to focus on marketing

Most of the accountants have the intelligence to understand complicated accounting principles but sometimes lack a clear understanding of the dynamics of marketing.

Understanding marketing, developing an effective strategy and implementing it successfully can consume a lot of time and effort, which they often cannot commit to considering such busy schedules. By delegating this job to a company like ours, that specialises in performing SEO for accountants their marketing requirements can be met effectively and leave them with a lot of time to pursue other important aspects of their business.

Acquiring new clients

According to a recent survey almost 70% of the accountants cited acquiring new clients as the biggest obstacle faced by the financial services and accounting firms. Although it is a challenge faced in many other industries, it is more prominent in this sector as there is little scope for businesses to set themselves apart from their competition.

The products or services that they offer are quite similar to that offered by their competitors and establishing a brand in such an industry can take many years without the right kind of exposure. The fierce competition does not make things any easier for them and as a result they are under tremendous pressure to create a unique marketing campaign.

Remember: SEO provides such businesses the perfect opportunity to create a unique brand identity and grow their business by bringing in fresh leads in the most cost-effective manner.

SEO for Accountants – How would that work?

…what if your book is nowhere to be seen on the shelves?

Traditional marketing despite its advantages is now considered to be a forced method of marketing. It means putting up with advertisements of products or services which we are not seeking at the moment.

While they are still important, our instincts have evolved into ignoring them, irrespective of where we see these advertisements turn up. When they take us by surprise on YouTube, our instinct is to put it on mute and look away. When they emerge as a pop-up we move our cursor instantly to shut them.

But, marketing has changed, when people want something they go on the internet and seek information specifically regarding it. This is what makes online presence an important aspect which businesses cannot ignore anymore and SEO for accountants aims at making this online presence stronger in order to achieve better results.

Digital marketing is different from traditional marketing in many aspects. When you are performing an online search about a product or a service, you are in need of it.

In today’s world where everybody is short of time, we do judge a book by its cover. If the book is your business then its cover is your website. It’s the first impression that you create on your users and there’s a lot that can be told about your business by simply having a look at a website.

But what if your book is nowhere to be seen on the shelves?

This is where SEO steps in.

Remember: SEO for accountants will help bring you to the front of the shelf. A place where the user is bound to have a look at you before moving onto others.

What are the types of Accountants?

Many types of accountants practice in the UK. They work in a variety of sectors such as auditing, taxation, personal, corporate and more. An accountant should be affiliated with a professional body such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

The title of an accountant can be held only after successfully passing an examination along with some other certifying requirements that have been set by the respective professional body. There are a number of specialisations possible apart from the usual auditing and accountancy services who can benefit from SEO for accountants.

Management Accountant

Management accountants are trained in a wide range of disciplines which allows them to deal with the day-to-day financial needs of an individual or a business. A person who is self-employed or has a lot of investments will need a management accountant to deal with the individual financial affairs. A specialist personal accountant, with their advice and skills, can help a business in various matters such as bookkeeping, investments, tax returns, savings or quarterly forecasts.

A small or medium-sized business will need a management accountant to help the business owners in looking after their finances. Few business owners believe that book-keeping is a task which can be handled without the assistance of an accountant, however there are very complex technical aspects of running a business which will require a trained expert such as VAT returns, monthly and quarterly forecasts, budgeting, sales invoicing, credit control and ledger management.

A business accountant will be able to handle all of these tasks and relieve the owners of the stress of handling bookkeeping along with running a business. Management accountants can benefit immensely by hiring an agency that provides SEO for accountants as it will enable them to create their own place in a highly competitive market.

Taxation Accountant

Several types of taxes have to be paid by businesses such as VAT, payroll and corporate tax. Even salaried individuals are required to file tax returns and accountants specialising in such type of accountancy are known as taxation accountants. While a personal or business accountant can offer an advice in such matters, a taxation accountant is a specialist and has more knowledge of the tax codes and laws compared to general accountants.

Tax accountants which have a detailed understanding of tax laws generally provide consulting services and also assist in tax preparation. Few of the services offered by tax accountants include sales and excise tax returns, monthly financial reports, income and estate planning, partnership, corporate and individual tax returns and payroll taxes.

With SEO for accountants, they can be a step ahead of their competition and this will help enable them to grow their business exponentially.

Forensic Accountant

A forensic accountant is specialised in areas of auditing, accounting and investigation of business and financial issues. Forensic accountants can offer their assistance to a wider group of professionals such as solicitors, business owners and government agencies as they are trained to look into matters which are beyond the scope of numbers. These accountants can provide an accounting analysis by investigating businesses other than their clients which forms the basis of a dispute case that is to be heard in a court of law.

There are two types of analysis and investigation, the first one is called as litigation support which mainly deals with issues related to financial damages and offers assistance of an accounting nature in a litigation. They help in the calculation of financial loss which a company incurs due to a breach of contract.

The second type of forensic accountancy is known as investigative accounting and it refers to the investigations carried out in criminal matters such as employee theft, insurance fraud, securities fraud, kickbacks or proceeds from crime investigations, this type of accountancy is ideal for SEO for Accountants as it’s so niche.

Corporate Recovery Accountant

Corporate recovery accountants specialise in providing services which guide a business towards financial safety and these services include analysing operating reports, forecasting profitability, identifying trouble spots, investigating cash flow problems, monitoring performance, creating recovery strategies and evaluating assets.

They can also provide advice on purchasing businesses and assets from insolvent companies. They also offer help to entrepreneurs who intend to wind up their business and also act as liquidators in solvent liquidations. Those who have a failing business usually consult a corporate accountant for advice that can save their business before it liquidates.

Digital marketing for accountants can help them acquire new clients which is very difficult to achieve through conventional marketing.

Corporate Finance Accountant

Large organisations and businesses turn to corporate finance accountants for advice on how to develop and pursue transactional and strategic objectives in order to maximise profit and grow the business. Corporate finance accountants specialise in four areas which include mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, structuring and raising debt and advising on private equity.

However, their expertise is not only restricted to these areas and they can also provide guidance on other matters such as capital allocation, capital structure, external financing and financial risk.

Corporate finance accountants are experts when it comes to management buy outs/buy-ins, securing finance, selling a company, buying a failing company and also the guidance required to grow an existing business.

Risk Advisory Accountant

It is extremely important for any business, big or small, to have a risk management strategy in place. Few businesses already have such a process in place but it is still advisable to seek the guidance of a risk advisory accountant as they can give you complete information on the subject. There are many risks to be faced in any business, most prominent of which is the financial risk. Every company faces the risk of losing financial resources or incurring losses due to local, national or global events which can have a potential impact on the organisation’s ability to meet their objectives.

Risk advisory accountants are trained to identify such factors that can impact the financial planning of organisations and accordingly develop a strategy which can help the organisation to prepare themselves in the event of such a problem. The various areas that these accountants consider are the market conditions, insurance and forward planning.

Taking the assistance of such accountants is necessary as their expertise can help businesses devise a unique risk management strategy which is best suited for their business. Such a strategy is tailored to meet the specific requirements of a company and prevent the company from entering into a financial debt.

How Your Company Can Benefit From SEO For Accountants?

You may have heard your business pals from other sectors speak highly about SEO and how it has increased their business, but you are still sceptical about how SEO can benefit you or your occupation in general.

Marketing professionals of accountancy firms may find the concept of SEO appealing but they might have reservations about integrating it into their marketing campaign. This can be due to lack of knowledge or doubts about the effectiveness of SEO for accountancy firms.

Many still hold onto the traditional belief that advertisements in papers, yellow pages and other forms of traditional marketing may be more beneficial for their firm and this could be true, however things are changing. Traditional marketing can be beneficial for a company but if a company solely relies on it then it may not bear fruit. A major reason being that the potential customer base of every business has adopted the internet and this makes it necessity for the firms to have a strong online presence.

Some of the most common benefits of SEO for accountants are:SEO brings the warmer leads to you

SEO brings the warmer leads to you

As mentioned above a user searching for an accountancy firm online is more inclined towards utilising those services than a person reading a newspaper at home or a traveller in a vehicle passing by a billboard advertisement. Such people have already realised the need of an accountant in their business and are ready to take the next step by making an enquiry online.

This user has taken the first step of identifying the need, the next step that such a user will most probably take is research among the available options and then finally shortlist an accountant whose services they would want.

For this reason, investing in SEO for accounting firms can be a wise investment. It also saves the firms a lot of time that usually gets spent in generating leads that are to be contacted, educating the prospect and then explaining your services to them. A website can effectively handle all these tasks.

Remember: When a tech savvy user is performing an online search, being high enough on the search results page increases your chances of becoming ‘the chosen one’.

Expands your marketing footprint

A common difficulty experienced by many businesses is expanding their client base beyond their geographical boundaries. By switching to internet for marketing, this obstacle can be removed easily as the internet is virtually limitless. You cannot air your advertisements on international channels or distribute fliers with every newspaper but with the right digital marketing you can make yourself truly international. All of this at no extra costs.

With the help of SEO for accounting firms, they can establish their presence in regions where they do not expect to have a customer base because in today’s age if there is anything that connects us all, it is the internet.

Hence by having a good strategy for SEO in place and the willingness to provide services even in regions outside your geographical reach, you can tap on a market which you never thought would be a source of business for you.

Better utilisation of time

If your firm has a business development or marketing team, then SEO can leave them with more time to aggressively pursue their goals. Consider it this way, the time that a division usually spends in generating leads and then pursuing them to turn them into clients is completely saved.

SEO for accountants enables them to hone other important business development functions. This can allow your employees to handle the sales process in a more time efficient way and in turn gain more traction for your business.

A larger Pipeline

Once you optimise your website you may well experience an increase in the number of prospective clients now contacting you to enquire about your services. Therefore, SEO for accountants will help you widen the pipeline of opportunities and in this way, you may find that your business is growing more than you expected it to. Consider the way you currently contact prospects. Do you send out electronic newsletters or focused and targeted personalised mails?

By adopting such traditional outbound marketing techniques, firms invest a lot of time, resources and energy into acquiring new clients. These resources can be better utilised by having an optimised website which can perform similar functions at negligible costs. Once the optimisation of a website has been performed there is little maintenance work which will be required and hiring an agency which has experience of performing SEO for accountants can further save your efforts.

SEO is effective

Many businesses have realised the importance of SEO through the difference it has made to their business. With SEO, marketing is no longer an internal services function but a revenue generator for the firm.

Google’s view of the world of internet

In order to truly learn about SEO for accountancy firms you need to acquaint yourself with the requirements of Google. However, their requirements are in stark contrast with the intent of a business behind having a website. While a website is an investment that businesses make in order to grow their business, Google believes that a website should be a place where information is freely exchanged.

Since this philosophy is quite different from that of an entrepreneur, many believe that providing such information free of cost will hamper their growth prospects. But in reality, making this information available to the public can be an amazing way to acquire new clients.

Search engine crawlers can be spellbound if they realise that you are providing users with valuable information and in return they will reward you with more visitors by making you rise on the SERPs. This gives you an opportunity to showcase your expertise to your prospective clients.

Techniques to achieve SEO for accounting firms

So, you have read how search engine optimisation can benefit you as an accountant but you have no clue where to start from? While many businesses think of SEO as something that can be managed internally, learning these techniques can be time-consuming.

However, our vast experience of SEO for accountants has helped us master these techniques. From our knowledge, few of the best techniques that can work as a charm for your visibility are as follows:

Content

Content is the one ring to rule them all

It would not be unfair to say that without content the internet would be lifeless. After all content is what attracts people to the web and content is ultimately what we are on the lookout for. This significance of content makes it necessary for all businesses to have great quality content in their websites. There is nothing that can get as viral on the internet as a well written article (or an amusing video of a kitten in a box).

While it is not one of those techniques that can assure immediate results, it is the ‘slow and steady’ force of your business and having a great content strategy in place is going to be rewarding for the efforts you invest in achieving SEO for accountants.

Good content can drive more traffic to your websites and this leads to higher rankings and more conversions.

 Remember: Content is ‘the one ring to rule them all’, the mother of all SEO techniques and no matter how much we emphasise on it we can never get over its importance in search engine optimisation.
There are certain types of content that are now evolving such as YouTube content, press releases and forum posting.

YouTube content

With the evolution of digital marketing, there are now several channels through which marketing can be achieved. If you were asked which is the platform that makes people of many age groups come together? Which is our preferred way of learning new concepts? If you had something specific in your mind where would you go to get that kind of entertainment? It has to be YouTube. This is exactly why YouTube plays an essential role in the strategy of SEO for accountancy firms.

Visual media is more appealing to a large number of people due to many reasons. First, it makes understanding things easier as we are more likely to retain visuals in our memory than too much text. Think about it, you have a 2-page article in front of you but on the other hand, you have a 3 minute video explaining the same thing, which one would you prefer? Secondly, there is no topic that cannot have supporting videos.

There is also the added benefit that YouTube is an ocean of opportunity. By creating the right type of visual media, you can have the attention of millions of people at once. It gives you the perfect exposure that you may need before you become popular for the services that you are offering.

Forum Posting

Forums are online platforms where experts interact with new users and provide their opinions on the area of their expertise. These forums are gaining a lot of popularity as many people now turn to the internet to solve their queries. Just like web programmers have forums where they share coding tips there are similar platforms for accountants where an accountant can share information in their accounting community which is one of the best ways to implement an SEO for accountant’s strategy.

Businesses that have a lot of knowledge regarding their niche can make a good impression on the users who search online for answers to their queries. This way they can earn the trust of those users who may pay your website a visit the next time they are seeking similar services.

The all essential keywords

If you were to ask an SEO expert what lies at the heart of a good SEO strategy he will say ‘keywords’ without a second’s hesitation. If visitors bring in the money and traffic brings in the visitors then what drives the traffic? It’s the Keywords.

Doing the right keyword research is sure to bring in revenues for your accountancy firm and at dapa, we have learned, practised and mastered the art of researching for keywords.

If you are new to the world of SEO for accountants then you may have a question. What is the purpose of keyword research after all? There are two things keyword research is aimed at:

1. Build Traffic.
2. Increase Conversions.

Despite SEO being in a state of constant flux, this is something that has never changed and something that is not likely to change in the near future. The rise in competition couldn’t impact keywords and the abundance of content couldn’t undermine its importance.

Even with a basic level of understanding about search engines, you can know how important keywords are for your business. A user can only find you if you are known by the right keywords. Your website is an important tool towards SEO but it only comes next.

This makes keyword research the first important step that all businesses should take in order to get themselves ‘optimised’. In keyword research, you are required to make a list of all keywords that describe your business. Since you are an accountant, your primary keywords should revolve around accountancy firm, accounting firm or simply accountant. Having such keywords registered for your business or bought from Google AdWords will ensure that you get ranked for these keywords whenever a user performs an online search on similar lines.

Once these keywords have been identified the next step in your SEO for accountants’ strategy should be to optimise your website accordingly. These keywords should be integrated into your content, page titles, key areas and heading tags.

Remember: The one who has a knack for doing the right keyword research is like the cheetah who will always be ahead of the penguins and pandas on its way.

Let’s take an example of accounting to help you relate better.

An accountant who has just recently started her firm, let’s call her Anna, is doing a keyword research to help her website rank better. Anna goes for the first keyword off her head and decides to go for ‘accountant’. Sure it describes her business in the best way but it’s a very broad term and her website is unlikely to rank high for it. Perplexed? Here’s why it’s true.

For a moment put yourself in the shoes of a person typing ‘accountant’ on Google. You could be an accountant yourself and looking to apply for a job online. You could be a student wanting to browse certain subjects that an accountant needs to learn. This makes it necessary to be precise about what you want to do as an accountant online.

Hence keyword research done in the absence of SEO for accountants will not yield the same results that an SEO agency can deliver.

Here’s what dapa would do for Anna:

We would first ask her to decide who she intends to do business with. As an accountant, she believes that there’s always more profit in working for a business than an individual because they need to file taxes every quarter. They need to gain a clear understanding of their finances every month and given their hectic schedules they are most likely to outsource their accounting tasks to a CPA.

With this newfound realisation, she tweaks her keyword research and instead incorporates the services that a business may require from an accountant such as CPA, Accounting, Financial Advisor, Accountant, Retirement Planning etc.

This is twice as likely to generate leads for Anna since those who enter these words into the search engine are definitely in need of these services. This impresses upon the fact that keyword research is an extremely important part of the strategy to achieve SEO for accountants.

Remember: A keyword is not just characters and alphabets, they are your identity on a search engine. So, ignore keyword research at your own peril.

What is Off-page SEO?

Search engines take into account several factors in order to decide how to return the best results to a searcher. Broadly speaking the factors that are considered by search engines while ranking webpages are on-site SEO, off-site SEO and some other quality factors.

The actions performed on the website in order to give a boost to its SEO are referred to as on-page SEO.

The actions performed outside the boundaries of a website to improve its rankings are known as off-page SEO. Off-page SEO is an indication to the search engine about how a website fares among the other sites.

Generally, websites that are high-quality and of great value to the users are popular on other websites as well. They are famous and get mentioned on social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ etc. Their content is given an up vote in the form of likes, retweets, +1’s and pins. If users bookmark the pages and share it on other online communities, then it’s just icing on the cake.

Such websites are already a step ahead of their competition and already halfway through the implementation of SEO for accountants’ strategy

Benefits of off-site SEO

A well-executed off-site strategy can benefit businesses in many ways and few of the benefits are:

Boost your Rankings

With a good off-site SEO strategy in place your website will rank higher in SERPs. Higher rankings will direct more traffic to your website.

Greater Exposure

This is a natural outcome when the website rankings get a boost and a website begins to rank higher on SERPs. Greater exposure can get you more links, more social media shares and more traffic. Think of it as a never-ending sequence where all factors are inter-connected and one thing leads to the other and then to another.

Off-page SEO techniques that can benefit accountants

Creating quality infographics is an off-page SEO technique which has not been utilised completely and has tremendous potential to have a positive contribution in achieving SEO for accountancy firms.

Infographics

As a reader what is your most preferred choice of consuming information? I bet it isn’t reading lengthy pages written in one ink without any visual aid to the written text. We tend to understand something better when it is given to us with supporting diagrams and the information is split into small visual chunks. Following are few of the benefits of using infographics in SEO for accountants’ strategy.

Higher Number of Shares

A recent Hubspot study stated that 40% of people give better response to information which is visual in nature rather than text. Another way this result can be verified is by analysing the content that is shared on social media. Most of the content that gets shared extensively on social media is pictures and videos and not text.

Recyclable information

The information obtained while researching for an infographic is not restricted to the creation of an infographic alone. The information can be used later for creating a white paper or a press release and this is something that most clever marketers do.

Some create content for blogs, press releases and then create infographics to give their content a further nudge and some marketers research content for an infographic first and later utilise the researched content in blogs, press releases etc.

Especially useful in complex industries

A big advantage of infographics is their ability to penetrate industries which face many challenges in marketing. In such industries, guest posts and content face high barriers and infographics provide an opportunity to market a company despite the limitations imposed upon them.

When companies that deal in engineering or finance create a piece of lengthy content full of technical jargons, they are in a way singing a lullaby to their reader. Such companies can greatly benefit by infographics as it can attract the attention of the reader and get him interested in knowing more about the product. Not only is infographic a great way to interact with the audience but it is also an important part of the strategy adopted by clever digital marketing companies that provide SEO for accountancy firms.

Easier way to explain complicated data

Excessive statistics, lengthy calculations and too much information in one page can be a perfect recipe for an afternoon nap. This is possibly the worst way to present data and content put forth in this manner has very less chances of becoming popular or liked by users.

Infographics, on the other hand, provide concise information and have a better look to them due to the different colours and illustrations.

Creative Content

While we do agree that most of the infographics found online are not up to the required standards, there are those who know their way around it and are able to create readable and enjoyable content in the form of infographics.

There is a lot of scope to be creative in its creation and there are ways you can make amazing infographics with just little creativity from your end. The best thing about infographics is that they are inexpensive and have no limitations in terms of creativity.

Remember: Creating content, whether in the form of blogs or infographics, will always help an accounting business to implement their SEO for accountants’ strategy successfully.

Why dapa for SEO for Accountants?

Being an entrepreneurial ourselves, we understand that you are always short of time. Everything is a priority and everything needs your attention. In such cases, it is best to leave certain things to the experts.

The reason we believe that dapa is the perfect choice for SEO for accountants is that we have the experience of delivering results and know which strategy to adopt depending on the profession of our client. We know that a similar strategy cannot be applied for all types of business as what works for one, may not really work for the other.

We have dealt with the difficulties faced by accountants in achieving SEO for their websites and our experience has helped us devise a special approach to put them in a position where they get noticed by their potential clients.

Give us a shout now to talk about your options in the SEO for accountant’s arena.