Overnight success in the realm of SEO is mythical and is generally impossible to achieve. In today’s internet-driven world, instant gratification has the wheel, and that instant gratification mentality can completely shift an accountant’s view towards effective online accountant firm marketing.
Overnight success is just one of the common digital marketing myths for accountants sold in a variety of ways, and it is a one of the myths too stubborn to go away. Accountants tend to have a higher risk being victimized by this myth when they are not aware of the internet and search engine fundamentals.
Are You an Accountant Who Believes Any of These Digital Accounting Marketing Myths?
Consider whether any of these accountancy marketing myths sound true for you or your accounting firm.
There’s A “TOP” of Google — and Your Accounting Firm Can Get There.
A number one ranking position does exist for any Google search initiated, but there is no such thing as a “top” of Google.
If you look up a basic keyword phrase such as “Accountant Sacramento,” the results you get will vary depending on the browser that you’re utilizing, on the time of day you search, the day of the week, the device you are using, and the place that you search from, among many other factors.
Prospective clients will share a search experience for accounting firm websites very similar to the one I just described.
Assuming that potential clients search for vague keyword phrases similar to the one mentioned above is also making the assumption that the potential client is already aware that he or she needs an accountant and types in exactly those terms. (That is almost never the case.)
Prospective clients usually engage in searches by questioning search engines particular things about their needs or problems. Those questions may contain basic keyword terms, but usually searches are entirely unique. And each different search yields a different set of search results.
A similar, related belief is that you can achieve a top ranking for a popular accounting firm keyword in the short span of a couple weeks. (As stated earlier, potential clients most of the times don’t search for popular accounting keywords.) There is a incredibly high volume of competition for accounting keywords, and a few of those keywords can require major costs.
If your firm is taking ”disposable” CPA firm marketing approaches like PPC, then you have likely realized that competing for popular keywords related to accounting firms can leave you with a severely depleted marketing budget.
Learn about “Why SEO Takes So Long” here.
With such intense competition, it is usually not realistic for a brand-new accounting firm website to rank organically for those costly, high-demand keywords. And, if you do enter the competition to pay for those keywords through pay-per-click advertising, you will be draining your budget to compete for clicks who may not truly be appropriate for your accounting firm, and the expense to you is identical regardless of whether they contact your firm or not. In many cases, PPC for these expensive keywords is not the most effective marketing plan for tax preparation businesses or bookkeepers.
There are a few small accounting firms that are successful in ranking high for competitive keywords, but they are creating a ton of informational, authentic content related to those specific keywords. And that content is most probably concentrated on long-tail keywords and phrases, designed to address the needs of potential clients.
A smaller accounting firm may not possess the ability to compete for a term like “Best Accountant California,” when it comes to PPC, for example, but the firm can certainly compete for searches on relevant subjects when they produce a tremendous quantity of quality content that answers issues like:
“How can I keep my money right now and pay my taxes later?”
“If I wanted to retire in a few more years, how much money do I need to save?”
Timely, informational, and valuable content are synonymous to successful online marketing for accounting firms. When accounting firms produce and publish that type of content consistently, it ensures a visit from the search engines to index the newly created content on your firm’s website. The more quality you provide to search engines will be translated into better quality results the search engines will provide your prospective clients when they initiate a search query.
The More Pages You Create For Your Accounting Firm’s Website, The Better You’ll Do in Search Engine Rankings
Not only is this belief completely untrue, it can also be damaging to your accounting firm’s online presence.
Quantity is not the same thing as quality in regards to the number of pages in search engine ranking. Yes, there are huge accounting firm websites that are very successful in search engine rankings. Those accounting firm’s websites may have hundreds or thousands of pages.
The distinguishing factor is what each individual page offers to a user. What sets a page or site apart is that each page is dominated with valuable, quality content for prospective clients, and they have a consistent record of publishing high-quality content. These pages were not assembled in a hurry — they were carefully crafted to offer potential clients with the information that they value the most.
A website can be labeled “large” or “small” in terms of the quantity of pages that it possesses, but just creating countless pages lacking the high-quality, relevant content to hold them up them can lead to disaster.
Producing lots of web pages that fail to provide high-quality content, strips away their value to potential clients (and search engines), and is not likely to increase the search engine rankings of your accounting firm. In reality, it could even be harmful to your accounting firm website’s rankings. According to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines:
“One of the most important steps in improving your site’s ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content.”
Nevertheless, a few webmasters’ digital marketing tactics for accounting firms entail efforts to inflate their pages’ ranking and increase traffic by publishing pages with numerous keywords or phrases but no actual original content. Google will penalize such domains that sacrifice integrity to rank higher by just publishing gibberish or other irrelevant pages that do not enhance value for users.
Effective SEO strategies for accounting firms include adhering to Google’s Webmaster guidelines, and developing useful, quality content.
Confused About What’s Fact And Fiction in Online Accountant Marketing?
At AdInfusion, we realize that a successful online marketing campaign for an accounting firm needs remarkable content. We can teach accountants how to dependably expand their accounting firm’s reach and revenue through content-based marketing while helping them avoid wasted resources –including time and money – on content marketing myths for accountants that do not yield results for their firms.
The existence of a “top” of Google is a myth, but the existence of potential clients with concerns your accounting firm can help with is very real. When you reach out to those people, you will be offering them with valuable information that will increase the probability of them contacting your accounting firm.
There are no shortcuts or quick tricks that will dependably skyrocket your rankings in a search engine’s results. “Overnight success” just one of many accounting SEO myths. If you are not sure about what is real — and what actually are effective search engine optimization strategies for accountants — let’s talk about how to amplify your accounting firm’s online marketing efforts. Contact us today! 916-798-5707