SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the work that needs to be done to make sure your website appears when people use a search engine to look for companies like you.
For an accountant, that means coming top of a search for 'local accountant in [your town]' or 'accountancy near me'.
SEO is both simple and extremely complex! In simple terms, your website needs to have plenty of content that is relevant and useful to your potential customer. The complexity comes with the many other factors that need to be considered, which include your content making sense and not being a list of keywords; that you must include clearly labelled images and links, and that your site needs to display well on mobile devices as well as computers.
Do I just need to do SEO when I'm building a new website?
It's true that you need to have a good eye on SEO when you first create your site. You need to make sure that the site's structure makes sense and isn't too complicated. You also need to make sure that the names of each page align with the important keywords linked to your business. So 'accountant' is important, but so is the name of the city or region where you operate.
But it's not enough to only think about this when the site is being built.
How do I maintain SEO once my site is built?
Google is considered the king of search engines and is certainly the first choice for most people online. Over the years Google has worked hard to refine how it works so that the most useful websites appear at the top of every search.
As a result, Google prioritises 'content' over everything else. It looks for well written, recent articles that seem to be relevant to the topic that a person is searching on. So, for an accountancy site, you should make sure there are plenty of useful articles available that answer questions people might have about their business' finances and tax affairs.
What kind of content do I need on my accountancy website?
Aim to publish a new article on your site at least every other month. These should focus on topics that are current and appealing. So today, for example, you might want to advise people about Making Tax Digital and what it means for them. Or, when the self-assessment deadline is approaching, publish a list of tips on how to make sure you file your tax return correctly.
Again, make sure you reference your location in these articles if you want to reach people in your region.
How do I write good content? I'm busy!
We recognise that most accountancy firms are busy focusing on their clients and often don't feel they have the time - or the expertise - to write good content for their websites. And that's why we created totalSOLUTION. As the name suggests, this includes everything from creating a brand new, responsive website that reflects your brand and specialities – through to regular updates, fresh content and more.
We'll create and post articles for you on a monthly basis to make sure you stay on top of the search engines – and on top of your daily business. totalSOLUTION costs just £99 a month and we have thousands of UK accountants already on board. So for great content at exceptional value, get in touch with us today.