If you are not in the Big Four of accounting firms, you need to work hard to build credibility for your services.
People already know about Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, but not all businesses have the budget to work with them. So there’s a need for you to become visible in search engines and reach your target companies when they seek help.
67% of accountants think that the profession is more competitive than ever. Though there are more competitive industries that pay $100+ to get a click from Google, driving organic traffic to your accounting and tax firm is not easy.
Our today’s article is dedicated to SEO for accountants and tax preparers and we will discuss how to optimize your CPA website content for search engines.
#1 Your main keywords, your site/meta descriptions
Once your accounting website is live, the first info you should provide for CPA SEO purposes is through the site description. There you should mention what services you offer, where you are based, and mention the benefit of working with you.
Here’s the site description of Raben CPA, a CPA firm in Las Vegas:
Once you start publishing service pages, blog posts, etc, all of them should have meta descriptions. While the site description is broader and talks about your services in general, page descriptions are more specific and contain narrower keywords.
#2 Differentiate the right and wrong keywords
“Tax help” might seem a perfect keyword for doing SEO for tax preparers because you offer that service. Plus, it has 6,600 monthly searches only in the USA (according to Ubersuggest).
But that keyword is too broad and the searcher intent is not understandable.
Besides, ranking high for that keyword will be almost impossible as most government websites rank on the first page.
You should go more specific! It may be through specifying a location (state, city) and/or adding other parameters (e.g. “for small businesses” or “for self-employed”).
To guide you even further in choosing the right tax preparation keywords, let’s have a look at the screenshots below. When you type “accounting firms in chicago”, you get this list of keywords.
NOT all of the suggested keywords are worth targeting as many of them are irrelevant to your business. For example, “accounting firms in chicago” would be a great blog post topic if you were situated in Chicago. You could make a list of the top 10 firms, including yours, and show your advantages over the others.
However, targeting the keyword “accounting firms hiring in chicago” would be unprofessional. This keyword is searched by jobseekers, not accounting firm clients.
#3 Accountant directories are the first step to building links
When you are first starting to build your tax and accounting firm’s online reputation, receiving many links is not easy. You start with submitting your website to high-quality directories.
CPA Tax Accountant Firm Finder is one of the many websites that link to accounting firms and help find a service provider in your preferred location.
TaxBuzz is another source, though it’s focused on listing accounting professionals rather than firms. So it will be more suitable for SEO for accountants.
Another way to build links for CPA SEO is to write guest blogs on high-quality accounting-related websites.
The best place you can publish guest posts to boost SEO for tax preparers is on the websites of SaaS companies that offer accounting software. They aren’t your competitors but they cover similar topics on their blogs and you have the perfect chance to get links.
#4 Decide who you target and what’s your offer
Some businesses want to work only with CPAs (certified public accountants), while others need only bookkeepers to track and organize financial transactions. Some businesses need consulting services as well, while others only need financial matters handled.
You should clearly understand what services you offer and consequently what buyer personas you have.
Besides, you should have a perfect understanding of the industries you are going to serve. For example, ORBA offers services to dental, healthcare, law, manufacturing businesses, real estate agencies, restaurants, and nonprofits.
CapActix works with more industries, including agriculture, retail & eCommerce, and power generation.
Now you think what your buyer personas have to do with SEO for accounting firms. Well, it helps you create a search engine optimized website copy for your future customers and reach them more easily.
The same principle works for service pages. You can’t write a search-engine-optimized copy if the list of your services is not clear. The example below is again from CapActix. Every button leads to a separate service page that describes the service scope in detail and using appropriate keywords.
Accounting services include tax planning, payroll processing, audit, etc and it’s your task to inform your prospects in advance.
#5 Invest in a fast-loading, secure, and user-friendly website
Technical issues can ruin all the hard work that you’ve put in while creating high-quality CPA website content for your website. Some of the SEO issues (technical and not only) include but aren’t limited to
- Your website isn’t secure
- The website isn’t mobile-optimized
- The website is loading in more than 2-3 seconds
- Meta descriptions are the same for all pages or are missing
- There’s duplicate content on the website with no canonical tags
- There’s duplicate content on the website with no no-index tag, etc
Here we have a separate article dedicated to 7 SEO Problems You Can Detect and Fix Right Now.
#6 Create and optimize your Google My Business profile
Though not a directory, Google My Business is a top place for receiving customer reviews, showing your credibility, and boosting your SEO for CPA/accounting firms.
GMB allows you to list your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number), describe your company, and show searchers what others are talking about your services. If you want to be visible on the local pack and Google Maps, you should have a GMB profile.
See your accounting website ranking with the help of the Andava team
SEO keywords for accountants should be picked with a deep strategy in mind. Then, hard work is required until your website is technically and contextually ready to compete with major players in search engines.
The Andava team is here to conduct a free audit of your website on SEO for accountants and present a list of practical, personalized recommendations.
