Helping Prospective Clients Find You

Get Prospective Clients to Call You

When a startup business or new homeowner needs an accountant or financial professional, do you want them to choose you?

First they have to find you.

You’re competing with dozens of websites for accountants. To help prospective clients find you easily, you want to be listed near the top of the search engines – Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Follow these 4 steps to help you score with the search engines…

1. Fresh Content

The search engines love websites for accountants with lots of fresh content – text and graphics. In the world of online marketing, “content is king.”

Try these methods for bumping up your content:

• About Us. Every accounting firm should have an About Us page (also called a Profile or Bio Page). Keep it current, and include your keywords, your name, your location, and what services you offer. And don’t forget the pictures!
• Welcome Page. Your Welcome Page can enjoy frequent updates if you add a section for current news, weather, and images.
• Blog. Blogs are increasingly important in today’s business world. They help your clients get to know you, and they also have SEO benefit. A frequently updated blog equals fresh content – and a win with Google.

3. Incoming Links (Backlinks)

Think of links as votes. The more sites link to yours, the more votes your site has. And the more votes your site has, the more credible and important you are in Google’s eyes.

The best backlinks come from big, reputable sites – especially .edu or .gov domains. But don’t worry. Any kind of backlink is a lot better than nothing. Ask your friends and colleagues to vote for your site by giving it a link on their site.

Relevant links are best, so be sure to hit up your fellow financial professionals.

2. Outgoing Links

The search engines also like it when you link to other sites. Link to your friends and colleagues – and don’t be afraid to link to the bigger sites, too.

Write a blog post about an accounting article you read and link to it. Link to a news story on your welcome page about tax season. Or include a resource page with links to other financial and accounting services.

4. Get Out There!

The best way to look like an active site – which Google loves – is to be an active site!

Make a habit of visiting blogs, forums, and social media sites. Get out there on the Web and let people know about you. The search engines will love it.

And when that startup business owner needs an accountant, it should be you he calls.