SEO Guides, Tips & More!

Accounting marketers face many challenges when managing the needs and demands of the department. The Partner group has expectations about what marketing should be doing for the firm. Depending on the size and sophistication of the firm these expectations can differ. For larger firms with multiple needs there is often more than a single individual in the marketing department ensuring deliverables are completed and deadlines are met. This most commonly comes in the form of someone that is responsible for proposal development or event management. For smaller firms, the department is often a “one-man band” that requires the accounting marketer to wear many hats to meet the firm’s expectations. Regardless of your situation, when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it can be difficult to obtain buy-in to invest in this approach. The truth is that while most marketers understand the importance of appearing in Google, far fewer – marketers and partners included – understand the essential steps to reach success. Before making an investment in SEO it’s important to clearly understand and explain how SEO can benefit the firm. To help clients, prospects and others with this task, FlashPoint has provided a summary outline of key reasons below.

Organic not Paid!

Before going into the benefits of SEO, it’s essential to understand we are talking about organic SEO. This means the type of activities that can be performed to move a site up the ranks in Google and other search engines without taking a pay-per-click (PPC) approach. There are paid methods which can be effective under certain conditions, but this blog post is focusing exclusively on organic SEO. Organic SEO allows a firm to rank for a series of terms for no cost or payment required to the search engine. PPC is a completely different matter and will be reviewed in another blog post.

• Expanded Geographical Presence– SEO allows a firm to market in geographical locations where it doesn’t make sense for the firm to invest dollars in traditional marketing. Services such as international tax and SOC amongst others can be marketed in areas where the firm doesn’t have an office location. For example, a firm can attract leads to their website for international tax services by building content and creating landing pages optimized for cities and states that border Canada or Mexico. The strategy can be applied for locations on both sides of the border. This allows the site to be found in a specific area when an individual or company seeks assistance with cross-border tax planning, compliance or other issues. We work with many CPA and accounting firms that regularly receive inquiries from individuals and businesses outside their “home” market. The expanded reach that SEO offers has been essential in growing their business.
• Access to Warmer Leads – Another benefit that SEO brings to the table is access to warmer leads. Rather than having to “reach out” to cold prospects, those who contact the firm through the website already have an identified need and understand they need your firm (or one like it) to help resolve it. Depending on the lead, prospects often give a lot of information about their challenge or issue, which allows the firm to quickly assess the opportunity and assign the appropriate follow up priority. When the firm needs to chase new opportunities, it can often take a lot of time before the prospect sees a need for the service or has a motivating reason to change. Through SEO however, the firm can expand its source of warm leads and create new opportunity streams.
• Establishes Presence – At the most basic level clients and referral partners should be able to search Google and find your website. Most can agree a website is used as a method for ensuring a business passes the “smell test”. How does it look when someone is unable to find your firm’s website? What does it say about the sophistication of the firm? The answer is not really anything good. SEO will ensure that clients, prospects and referral partners are able to find the website and access the necessary information on services offered, thought leadership or hosted events.

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While not every firm needs the same level of SEO, it is important to ensure the site can be found and offers the right messaging to target audience members. Effective SEO implementation gives this basic result and much more.