The marketing landscape has undergone a seismic shift, and for accountants and bookkeepers in Australia, the need to adapt is paramount. Today, any successful industry professional knows that the only way to stay competitive is to have their bookkeeping or accounting website appear on the first Google search engine results pages for relevant keywords.
In fact, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential digital marketing tool for all accounting businesses and bookkeepers. It allows their businesses to be found online for the services they offer.
This blog post is a broad overview of not just SEO for accounting firms but SEO for accountants working independently. This SEO Strategy information is also relevant for SEO for bookkeepers looking to improve their local SEO efforts so potential clients within their community using local searches can easily find them above their competitors.
Read on to find out what it really takes to harness the power of Search Engine Optimization, and how it can elevate your accounting practice. What kind of successful SEO Strategy do accounting firms need to be truly competitive? Let’s dive in.
The Algorithmic Bots: Google’s Web Crawlers Explained
Imagine the internet as an infinitely large city and Google’s bots, crawlers, and spiders as meticulous cartographers mapping every turn, street, and alleyway. These bots tirelessly scan an accounting firm’s website – both yours and your competitors – to determine their relevance and authority on given subjects. For accountants and bookkeepers, being found by these bots means appearing in Google’s search results when potential clients search for accounting-related services.
Investing in SEO: A Necessity, Not Just An Option
Gone are the days when a simple website was enough. Now, SEO for accountants, bookkeepers and in particular, SEO for accounting firms is crucial in steering potential clients to your digital doorstep.
Businesses, now more than ever, have more access to more information, so when they choose who they want to help manage their cash flow and finances, they will take the time to research the market for a suitable fit for their business. However, they won’t scroll far down Google’s Search Results Pages (SERPs) to shortlist who they want. There’s a 95% chance they won’t go to page 2 of Google and beyond.
To make your mark in the online world where marketing firms are savvy about reaching potential clients, investing in SEO strategy isn’t just advisable—it’s essential.
Marketing Has Dramatically Changed
While traditional marketing may still support a company’s overall brand awareness, its effectiveness has always been hard to measure. Even in the digital world, Google Ads and other Pay Per Click (PPC) methods have their limitations. Once the budget runs out…you disappear from view.
That’s where running a successful SEO campaign comes into its own:
- A huge budget isn’t required to get your web pages visible.
- Unlike PPC, every dollar invested in SEO marketing for accountants will deliver returns over time.
The great thing about investing in SEO for bookkeepers and accountants to help boost their web pages is that in part, it helps to level the playing field. That’s because a Google ranking can’t simply be bought; it has to be earned. Your rankings are dependent on the value that your site offers to online searchers with regard to how it answers the question they’re asking and ultimately, how it solves their problems.
What You Really Need To Invest In
SEO for accounting firms is probably one of the few marketing tools that gives sole and small businesses the opportunity to compete alongside existing players, larger companies with large budgets. Unlike Pay Per Click (PPC), you don’t need money or a daily budget to stay visible. Instead, you invest in keyword research web design, web development and content writing services.
Investment is the key to SEO, not just in the services we’ve already highlighted. You also need to invest time and effort if you’re going to run a SEO campaign, successfully. To beat the competition you’ll need to invest time and commit to producing content regularly, and analyse your results. and you’ll have to wait patiently for improvements.
Successful Search Engine Optimisation campaigns won’t deliver results overnight, over the first few weeks – or even over the first few months. But, little by little over the long term, all of the effort will pay off, and traffic will come to your website in the numbers needed to help beat your competitors.
How Can SEO Help An Accountant Or Bookkeeper?
SEO is all about improving a website’s visibility to search engines like Google.
Applying clever SEO for accountants that will target the accounting services that a potential client would be looking for can transform a business. Clever SEO strategies increase visibility in the Google search results, enhance user experience, and establish credibility with your target audience. It’s no longer just about your bookkeeping business or accounting firm being found; it’s about being found first, and by the right people.
The goal is to be one of the first 3 web results listed when someone looks for relevant keywords related to what your business practices. The higher your site appears in SERPs, the more visitors your site is likely to get, and, of course, visitors can be converted into paying clients.
The exact workings of search engines are basically secret to the companies that own them. What do we know? We know that the “search engine robots,” also known as bots, crawlers and spiders, move across the web, and they collect information on every accessible website that exists. This is a process referred to as “indexing”.
With Google, the results of their indexing are copied onto a huge number of computers, known as servers. In effect, they make a copy of the web. So whenever you search via Google, you search through this copy of the internet.
This Is How Google Views The Web
If you want to learn about SEO, you need to be aware of what Google expects from your business. Google philosophy is that the World Wide Web is a place where information is freely exchanged. This might seem to conflict with any goals you have for your bookkeeping or accounting website. Most business owners tend to see their website as a channel for new business acquisition, not a medium to educate people for free. However, as a leading SEO agency for accountants, BAMBRICK has found that the most effective SEO strategies are those focused on providing helpful content. This informative information boosts not only the accounting firm’s reputation but the accounting website’s organic search results.
The more you educate others (for free) about your local accounting firm and its services, you will discover that valuable information is the best way to get the new clients your business needs. By freely giving away your valuable knowledge and expertise on a website, you can show the search engine as well as the visitors to your site the information they are looking for.
Over time you’ll achieve higher search engine rankings, as you broadcast your expertise to all and any potential customers, looking for problems. Before we delve into the finer details of SEO, let us let you in on what some of the main themes are in this guide:
BE RELEVANT TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Being relevant to your target audience is all about choosing your words wisely. By that, we mean choosing the best SEO keywords for accounting and/or the best SEO keywords for bookkeepers. Since your main focus needs to be to answer the problems that your clients are having, that means that your website must appear to the target audience when people search the web using target keywords and search terms that relate to your firm’s services.
You might craft the ultimate blog post imaginable, yet if there’s minimal interest in the subject matter, it becomes strategically futile as it fails to generate any traffic. To remedy this, leverage a keyword research tool. Such a tool not only reveals the monthly search volume for specific keywords on Google but also gauges the difficulty of achieving a first-page ranking in Google’s search results.
KEYWORD RESEARCH AT THE CORE
Choosing relevant keywords should be at the core of your SEO strategy. The first step in choosing keywords is to be clear about the services you have to offer. More things to consider are the pertinent services you want to focus on, your qualifications, length of time that you practice etc. It will add weight to your offer. Your website should be simple and easy to access so that search engine crawlers can clearly understand what it’s about. and any potential clients can understand how you can help them.
SEO keywords for accountants
Once you know what services you want to highlight, then you need to create a page for each business focus that you have listed – and make sure your page is heavily themed. How do you theme your pager? By choosing relevant keywords that help both users and search engines to immediately recognise what your web page is about.
By example, If you are writing a blog about tax planning strategies, then your keyword research tools will provide you with information about the types of high-volume keywords your potential clients would be interested in. More people will be looking for target keywords such as “how to pay less tax in australia” and “reduce taxable income australia” while fewer people will search for “5 outstanding tax strategies for high-income earners”.
SEO keywords for bookkeeping
Similarly, SEO keywords for bookkeeping would follow along the same lines, where you would use a keyword research tool to assist you choose the right bookkeeper-themed keywords. Once you have those keywords, then you ensure they “themed” keywords are mapped to the same page and the content is clearly about that subject.
For example, if you were writing a blog on a personal property securities register, you would look for high-volume keywords such as “what does ppsr stand for” and “personal property securities register fees”, which have high volumes of people searching. However, a keyword such as “budget ppsr check” has far less user search.
SHOW THAT YOU ARE AN AUTHORITY FIGURE
Google prioritises content that demonstrates expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. As accountants and bookkeepers, it’s vital to share your knowledge and insights within your field. Regularly updating your blog post with tax tips, financial advice, and industry news validates your authority and boosts your rankings.
As a leading SEO expert for accountants, BAMBRICK has found websites that are an authority on a specific subject matter will tend to rank higher than those that aren’t. You need to present yourself as the expert on all the services you offer and anything relevant to your business. That can occur on your accounting firm’s website through a blog post, through your service or product pages and in fact, every page that you present to your potential customer. Why? Search engines love reading words – so place plenty of helpful content on the pages so that your bookkeeping or accounting website will rank better than your competitors.
QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY!
The best SEO for accountants goes beyond relevant keyword choice. It’s the quality of your content that is fundamental. Engaging, informative, and useful information keeps visitors on your website longer, reducing bounce rates, and increasing the likelihood of conversions. Remember, it’s not just about attracting visitors—it’s about providing value that turns them into clients.
Your website needs to provide visitors with a great User Experience (UX) as well as deliver an accurate response to their search query. Although other search engines – such as Yahoo and Bing – rank websites in different ways to Google, the principles are the same. SEO, what works for Google will also work for others, meaning your content marketing strategy is all-important in creating quality information for your accounting website.
The Importance Of Content And Context
Part of any good SEO for accountants and bookkeepers means continuously turning out high-quality content. The content produced should be written to showcase your specialities, as described above – search queries that lead visitors, which in turn lead to clients.
Content is a broad term that covers marketing pages text, blog posts, articles, videos, case studies and infographics. It’s really anything that provides value to visitors and is accessible to search engines. Not all content needs to sit on your website, publishing content on other websites and social media platforms also helps.
Any content marketing strategy should follow these guidelines:
PUBLISH CONTENT FREQUENTLY
Updating your site, as well as pointing to it on a regular basis lets Google know that it’s still active and indicates that you are taking the time and effort to actively promote your business. Produce quality, relevant content regularly.
MAKE CONTENT THAT’S TAILORED TO YOUR AUDIENCE
What would make your SEO for accounting stand out even further from your competitors? Be as specific as possible, by writing about your area of expertise and make sure your website’s content is aimed at your audience. If you stray too far from your core area of speciality, you may confuse the audience and the search engine algorithms.
TRY TO CREATE UNIQUE CONTENT
Ideally, the content on your site shouldn’t exist anywhere else on the web, if you do use content from a third party source, publish and reference that source. Never just copy and paste text from other websites onto yours. It will never rank as high on the search engine results pages as the original. It can also trigger a Google penalty, that can cause your site to drop in search rankings. There are also legal implications for breaching someone else’s copyright.
Link-building And The Importance Of Inbound Links From Other Sites
As we mentioned above, not all content needs to be published on your website. It’s also important to look into ways of publishing on other websites that link to yours. Creating inbound links is a crucial part of an SEO campaign. We believe that Google sees the internet as an arena for the exchange of valuable information, and links are the currency for this exchange.
When Google sees one site linking to another, it’s an indication that there is a relationship between the two sites. If you get inbound links from as many different websites as possible, over time it will improve your website’s perceived authority to Google.
Not all links have the same value. Great SEO for accountants and bookkeepers means that you will need to consider some different kinds of linking to be truly successful. That’s why you will need SEO
BACKLINKS BOOST SEO FOR ACCOUNTING FIRMS
Backlinks function as endorsements for your website in comparison to others. A multitude of endorsements signal search engines that the content is not only worthy of reading but also trustworthy and valuable.
However, not all backlinks hold the same weight. Superior backlinks are strategically placed to elevate SERP rankings. A solitary top-tier backlink can surpass the impact of 100 lower-tier ones. Indeed, high-quality backlinks share similar attributes that set them apart.
In short, the greater the number of “votes” you achieve through a backlink from another site, the higher your site will rank over your competitors in Google and the other search engines.
INTERNAL LINK BUILDING
Internal linking is much easier and when building an effective link building strategy, you will be in control of this type of linking.
It entails linking one page of your website to another page within the same site. For instance, suppose you possess a particularly significant blog post, and there are 10 additional pages on your site pointing to it. This signals Google about the article is of high value. This prompts closer scrutiny of the page for both the user and the search engines, potentially enhancing its Google ranking.
Why A Local SEO Strategy Is A Game Changer
Using strategies such as Local SEO for Accountants and Bookkeeping professionals could mean the difference between the people in your local community finding you and walking through the door over those same potential clients choosing another local provider who was easier to find online. Given that many accountants cater to local businesses and individuals seeking nearby assistance, implementing Local SEO strategies is vital. These strategies ensure your bookkeeping or accounting practice gains visibility in local search results, making it easier to be found by nearby clients.
WHAT IS LOCAL SEO FOR BOOKKEEPERS & ACCOUNTANTS?
Local SEO involves refining your online presence to bolster local traffic, visibility, and brand recognition, with emphasis on the “local”. Local SEO allows you to reach your community.
What does it involve? As an SEO AGency for accountants, BAMBRICK sees most of its Local SEO include:
- Optimising your Google Business Profile (which you may know by its old name, Google My Business or GMB)
- Conducting local keyword research pertinent to your area
- Crafting content tailored to local interests and needs
Local search results are achieved using a range of ways. Here are the most common:
OPTIMISING YOUR GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE (GBP)
Every business must have a GBP profile. It will give you a strong local presence when people search for a local business, such as yours in their area. Your business name, office address, contact information and website address will be displayed in Google search, Maps and Links to Your Social Media Pages.
BUILD CITATIONS
Local citations encompass any online references to a business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP). These citations are typically found across platforms such as business directories, apps like Trip Advisor or Yellow Pages, and other websites. Beyond aiding individuals in discovering local businesses online, citations play a crucial role in bolstering local search engine rankings for businesses.
Numerous websites offer opportunities for listing businesses online, but not all may be pertinent for boosting accounting services. You need to be specific about what type of citations are linked back to your accounting firm. That’s where citation categories come into play.
However, if managed improperly, citations can become a daunting task to rectify.
USE LOCAL KEYWORD RESEARCH
Researching local search terms aids in gaining insights into how individuals search for products or services on Google within a specific region and even suburb. Your research objective is to work out which keywords are most suitable for optimising your pages, ensuring their visibility to users within a particular area.
For example, people in your neighbourhood are more likely to search using “near me” or even the name of the suburb that they are living in or visiting. They could be using “accounting services [city/region]”, “tax preparation [city/region]”, “[city/region] bookkeeper” and so forth.
By identifying relevant keywords through local keyword research, you can optimise your pages to target specific users, potentially attracting prospective customers. Remember to include variations of these keywords, such as plurals, synonyms, and long-tail keywords ( more specific phrases that a potential client is more likely to use) to capture a broader range of search queries. Excellent SEO for accountants will also include the integration of your business’s specific attributes, such as specialisation or unique services, which can help differentiate you in local search results.
Book Your Free SEO For Accountants and Bookkeepers Strategy Session Today
Find out how your accountancy practice can use SEO to improve your Google search results with your community. Search engine optimization for those in the financial accounting profession can apply to sole business operators, a small, medium or large accounting firm and either national or local businesses anywhere in Australia.
As an SEO agency for accountants and bookkeeping professionals, we will help you generate more traffic and more leads using SEO techniques that are crucial to your online visibility.
READY TO KICKSTART YOUR SEO JOURNEY?
BAMBRICK’S Search Engine Optimization specialists are at your service, equipped with proven keyword research techniques. Our approach ensures your accounting or bookkeeping firm’s website is finely tuned with keywords that attract traffic ready to convert.
Reach out to a member of our Brisbane SEO team today to discuss your digital marketing objectives. Give us a call at (07) 3216 1151 or drop us a message via our Contact Form. Let’s elevate your online presence together!