What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic a Web site receives directly from search engines. Essentially, if you improve your site’s position within the major search engines for search term phrases and keywords that are descriptive of your accounting services, you will receive more traffic to your site, receive higher visibility and generate more leads than a site which is not search engine friendly.

While search engine optimization sounds simple and easy to do, it takes considerable planning, knowledge, continuous work and takes several months to deliver results. As more and more businesses employ search engine optimization in their Internet marketing strategy, the more competitive the landscape becomes for securing top placement in search engines. And with the emergence of social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and blogs, an entire new layer of techniques are being deployed to strengthen search engine optimization for leading edge accounting firms.

Search engine optimization is mostly technical in nature. It combines source code programming with business marketing, Web site architecture, visual presentation, persuasion copy writing and some other disciplines woven into the site's fabric. Few Web site developers search engine optimization into the construction of your Web Site because it’s hard for the client to visibly see and would drive up the cost to develop the Web site due to the extra labor involved.

To effectively optimize, a Web site and make it search engine friendly, the Web site developer must understand how search engines work along with the factors that are important within the search engine algorithms. In addition, the developer must research the terms that your prospects will type into search engines when they are searching for your accounting services. With this knowledge, the site's developer can practically engineer how the site is developed to meet the needs of search engines and your prospects. 

Why Bother with Search Engines?
Search engines are the most important source of “new” visitors to your Web site.  Since millions of people use search engines to find these sites, maximizing your visibility in the search engines can be a powerful and cost-effective part of marketing your accounting practice. These fast, easy, effective and free tools can search thousands of sites for all kinds of information, including accounting services.

As a result, search engines have become an inexpensive opportunity to attract people to your site (if it is optimized for search engines).

Search engine optimization has been around since the mid-1990’s, and was the primary responsibility of the webmaster back then. By the late 1990s, Web site owners started to realize the business potential and value of having their sites ranked highly within the search engines so they started to deploy tactics to manipulate rankings and game the system.To offset these “black hat” search engine optimization tactics and recapture control of which Web sites received top rankings, the major search engines changed their algorithms and became more complex and proprietary.

Today, major search engines ban from their results from sites that deploy overly aggressive search engine optimization techniques. Google says it ranks these using more than 200 criteria as part of their algorithm and continuously changes which factors matter.

Search engines have become a huge business. The companies that own them are always improving the technology used to crawl the Web to deliver better results to users. However, there are limits to a how the Web site is constructed, which programming languages they work with, and whether the search engines will index the site. While the right changes can deliver thousands of new visitors, the wrong moves can hide or bury your website deep in the search results where visibility is minimal. That’s why your goal should be to have a “search engine friendly” site that makes it easy for the major search engines to index it. 

Do People Really Use Search Engines to Find Accountants?
Absolutely! People use search engines to find all kinds of accounting services from the internet and they are doing it more often than they used to. Using a search engine empowers them to locate an accountant that provides the exact type of service they are searching for, has the proper qualifications, went to the appropriate college/university and is the right sized firm for their needs. The number of people searching, and the time people spend searching, continues to increase gradually over time.

In large part, I believe that people are willing to use search engines to locate accountants because they genuinely trust accountants. Conversely, it has been our experience that people do not use search engines to locate financial planners on the internet or even accounting firms that provide financial services, because they generally do not trust financial planners. Instead, they prefer to ask around and get a referral for this type of service. 

How Do Prospects Search?
More than likely, prospects for your accounting services will use Google, Yahoo or Bing (MSN’s search engine) to search the internet.  These three search engines comprise over 95 percent of the search engine traffic.

The harder part is researching exactly what keyword phrases your prospect might type into the search engines for your services. Most often, the prospect will start very broad and gradually modify their search to improve the results for their specific search. Generally, the prospect will start with a national search and gradually narrow their search through trial and error. Below are examples of what I mean by each of these searches:

National Searches – CPA firm, accounting firm, accountant, bookkeeper, quickbooks accounting firm, income tax preparation, payroll services
Local Searches – Pittsburgh CPA firm, Pittsburgh accounting firm, Pittsburgh quickbooks accounting firm, Pittsburgh income tax preparation, Pittsburgh business valuation services
Industry-Specific Searches – CPA firm for dentists, accounting firm for architects, construction CPA firm, accounting for restaurants, cost accounting for manufacturing business, accounting for churches
Service-Specific Searches – IRS problem resolution, business valuation, international tax and accounting, expert tax witness, outsourced CFO services, non-profit accounting, audit services
Ethnic-Specific Searches – Latino CPA firm in Dallas, Italian speaking accounting firm in Chicago, Chinese speaking CPA in Los Angeles

To conduct your own research on which keyword strings are most important for your practice, there are paid research tools like Wordtracker and free keyword tools offered by Google and Yahoo. 

Results from Accountants
For those accountants who remain skeptical about the concept that you can truly acquire new business from the internet, I contacted several accounting firms who were kind enough to share their experiences with me.

Kathy Hess is the Managing Partner for Kathy L. Hess & Associates in Pittsburgh, PA. Hess has had a search engine optimized site since 2004 and is highly selective about the clients she accepts. “During the December to March period, we receive approximately 100 leads per month and 20 leads per month outside of that period. From those leads, we carefully screen the prospects and are able to acquire $25,000 to $30,000 in new business each year. Occasionally, we will receive inquiries for business valuation, estate planning, and attorneys inquiring about expert witness work. The majority of our Web-site leads tend to be younger (under 40 years old), inexperienced with financial matters, and looking for guidance on matters that they are not proficient with. They are motivated, appreciate our advice, and pretty much sold by the time they arrive to meet at our office; the choice is ours after the face-to-face whether to allow them into our practice and accept them as a client. The Web site provides the illusion that we are cutting edge with technology and enables us to pick and choose which new clients to accept,” Hess says.

Steven J. Graber is the owner of Graber & Associates, Certified Public Accountancy in Baltimore.  Graber, who founded the practice in 1993, was extremely skeptical about the possibility of acquiring business from the Internet and now receives 12 to15 leads per year from his site. According to Graber, “The typical Web site engagement is $1,200 to $3,000 per year and the normal client is small. However, I have acquired one business client from his site that yields $28,000 per year in fees. “

And another accountant who has had success developing his accounting practice using a search engine optimized site is Guy Sperduto of Cooper City, Fla. Sperduto is the owner of AccountingLinkUSA in South Florida and he receives eight to 10 leads per month from his site. He says, “The prospects that contact me from my Web site are absolutely worth meeting with because they are ready to do business. As a rule, the vast majority of Web site leads are real businesses and my closing ratio for Web site leads is 90 percent. For someone like me who was not at all convinced on internet marketing and had no real idea what to expect, I am very pleased with the results. Actually, my concern now is how am I going to handle the volume of new business.”