why is search engine optimization important

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Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important?

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Written by Hugh Duffy MBA

Monday, 11 January 2010 13:47

Deli.cio.us Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon Newsvine search symbolIf
you are interested in acquiring new business, then you need to
understand what search engine optimization is and how it can deliver
qualified prospects to your doorstep. In other words, it’s how your
Web site gets found on the internet. That’s right, a Web site that has
been effectively optimized for search engines can deliver motivated
prospects to your firm. On the other hand, a Web site that is not
search engine optimized is essentially lost in internet space, which
renders it worthless from a marketing perspective. This article will
describe optimization and also discuss results reported by three
practitioners.

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.”

Leave a Comment

Hugh Duffy MBA

About the author:

Hugh Duffy is co-founder and chief marketing officer for Build Your
Firm, a leading practice development firm dedicated to the accounting
industry. Build Your Firm works with small accounting firms providing
accounting marketing, practice management and Web site development
services. He writes regularly for The Progressive Accountant on
related topics.

Read More >>

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Comments (1) This article neglects the most important aspect of SEO. 1
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 16:40 CPA Tech Nut This article is more than
a little misleading. The most important elements of SEO has nothing to
do with "source code programming with business marketing, Web site
architecture, visual presentation, persuasion copy writing and some
other disciplines woven into the site's fabric". I mean these elements
are necessary, but this article implies that the trick to SEO is good
design. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The trick to good SEO is what us internet marketing types call
"Off-Page" factors. The short version is this:
The more links that come to your website from other websites with
similar topics the better your page will do.

Here's a great page on link-building and SEO from one of BYFs
competitors.
http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/help/searchengine.php#3

Other good methods for building incoming links include article and
software distribution.

If this seems like a lot of work, it is. Shortcuts are cheating. For
example, I'm familiar with BYF (Build Your Firm). They use a banned
technique for SEO called "Link Farming". The link their clients sites
together using a link network using pages like these:

http://www.la-cpa-firm.com/links.htm
http://www.ddacpas.com/links.htm
http://www.hangcpa.com/links.htm

Now don't run off to your Google Webmaster Tools account and snitch
these firms out to Google. You'll only wind up hurting a bunch of
innocent accountants, but notice that these pages are all identical?
This is exactly the kind of "black-hat" SEO that can get you into
trouble!!!

If you want links, you'll have to work for them. Any company that
claims to be able to get you search engine listings cheap and easy is
either lying, or cheating.Reply

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