Intuit Accountants News Central
Four SEO Secrets That Drive Traffic
Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to have a high rank on Google, Yahoo! and Bing boosts lead generation, branding and public relations, yet few accountants want to manage SEO because they think it is too difficult and too costly.
A simple “How to do SEO” search yields so much technical information that most everyone soon gives up. Here, then, are a few secrets any accounting professional can implement to help improve SEO.
Secret #1: Focus on Inbound Link Building. Search engines determine website rank, in part, based on the number of “inbound links” directed to your website. These links are viewed as a vote for your site, telling the search engine in what areas your firm has expertise and knowledge.
There are many ways to increase inbound links an they do not cost any money. For example, the next time your firm sponsors an event, purchases online advertising or writes an article for a publication, be sure to ask for a link to your website. In addition, ask your clients, business partners, colleagues and anyone else connected to your business to insert your website link on their site. The more links you are able to build, the higher your website will be positioned on search engine result pages and the more you will drive traffic to your site.
Secret #2: Develop and Update Your Sitemap. The easier you make it for search engines to find every page in your website, the more hits you will have. A sitemap is a page on your website that provides an organized list of links to every page. The purpose of a sitemap is to provide users with easy access to pages that are more interesting to them. Sitemaps help search engines quickly find and index your website.
If you don’t have a sitemap on your website, contact your webmaster and have one made. If you already have a sitemap, be sure to continually update with any new pages so users and search engines can find them.
Secret #3: Add Photos, Video and Other Content. Boosting your ranking is as simple as adding more content – copy, images, photos and video – to your site; the more content you have, the more likely you’ll be ranked higher. When someone in the company speaks before a group, attends an association meeting or participates in a civic event, take several photos with your phone. See one firm’s example of a video. While every picture from every event is not going to be relevant, you will start to develop a collection that will make great content for your website and social media outlets.
The same can be done with video. If you have a speaking engagement, record it. Pictures and videos make great content that can be used on several web platforms to engage your prospects, clients and referral partners.
Secret #4: Invest Time in SEO. The best secret is to be very aware of ways to improve your website. The days of having an online brochure as a website are long gone, so spend an hour a week on the first three secrets and you’ll really see the benefits.
Engage others in the firm to help out and make it a team effort! In a few months, you will have significantly increased your website’s visibility with search engines and helped your firm’s SEO. In addition, work with your web designer or internal marketing professional to brainstorm new ways to improve SEO. Remember, just because you are an accounting professional doesn’t mean that you can’t be a valuable contributor to the process.
Editor’s Note: For more information, the March 2011 ProLine Newsletter includes an article and link for ProAdvisors to a white paper on SEO.
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