We know: internet slang can be confusing. But there’s one digital marketing term you might want to familiarize yourself with. SEO stands for search engine optimization — and it might be just the thing your accounting firm needs to grow your online presence and visibility.
So… what is SEO?
Let’s start at the very beginning. I’m sure you’ve used Google or Bing before, but did you know that search engines like these have “bots” that venture out to collect information about your web pages. Search engines strive to give their users the most accurate results. After all, when you type in “local Chinese restaurants” into the google search bar, you don’t want to get bombarded by listings for Italian recipe blogs.
Search engines try to find out as much information as they can about your web pages and then store that information in an index. Next, that index gets thoroughly analyzed and search engines will “rank” the web pages according to things like content quality and page speed. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, simply refers to the strategies you can use to make sure search engine bots get accurate information and are able to direct the right traffic to your website.
What can SEO do for you?
We put so much stock in SEO because it helps us seal the deal. When you’re driving more traffic to your website, there’s an increased chance that you will attract the right clients who will be interested in hiring your firm. Digital marketing is also becoming increasingly important for all businesses — including your accounting firm. Trillions of searches are made on sites like Google and Bing each year. Some of those people might be looking for YOU.
SEO strategies you should be using
There are MANY ways to use SEO to drive traffic to your website, and, fortunately, sites like WordPress can even tell you what improvements you can make to leverage your SEO. But the first thing you’ll want to do is conduct some research on keywords that are relevant to your business.
When potential clients are looking for a firm like yours, what words do you think they’re typing into search engines? “Accounting” is pretty vague and might be hard to rank for because so many businesses fall under this category. Try to focus your keywords and think about what makes your firm special. “Succession advisory for large companies” or “financial advisory for tech startups”. You’ll want to use a few keywords and place them strategically in the content you generate for your website. You’ll also want to make sure the content you are creating, like blog posts, is relevant to your business and of interest to your audience.
Some other strategies you might utilize are: using social media to grow your presence and link to your website, optimizing your website for mobile use, and making sure your design is user-friendly.
There’s one thing to keep in mind as you start paying attention to your SEO: the robots come second to your clients. Make sure your online presence is curated with your audience in mind and focus on your web pages’ user-friendliness. At the end of your day, your client’s experience is what matters most.
