U.S. Accounting, CPA Firms Need Much Help with SEO

I just released a new study called, “When Will SEO and Accounting Firms Add Up?” It was produced by with World Synergy,  Online Marketing Coach and the Internet directory Accounting Firms and CPA Firms.

Get a FREE copy of the accounting study today.

Or, check out this excerpt from the Executive Summary of the 39-page report:

Most accounting and CPA firms have a long way to go if they want to aggressively use search engine optimization (SEO) to connect with prospects and help their bottom lines.

Our analysis of 200 accounting firms (100 large and 100 small) shows that most firms do little to have their web sites found among natural search engine results.

It could be that they’re enormously successful with old-school and other marketing tactics. Or, maybe not. CPATrendlines reported that “revenues at the typical CPA firm are up 1.7%,” according to the 2011 Rosenberg MAP Survey.

At least for large accounting firms, the news is worse, according to Accounting Today. In its “Top 100 Accounting Firms 2011” report released in March 2011, Accounting Today used this apt title: “Waiting for the thaw.” The widely regarded report overview sized up the financial health of the industry this way: “The accounting profession … entered a cold snap in 2009 that has lasted right through 2010, and still seems to have The Top 100 Firms in a deep freeze, stuck in a second year of declining revenue, partner and staff figures.”

In a fiercely competitive world, accounting firms should be doing everything within their power to connect with their target markets and improve their profitability. With SEO, they could make some inroads on their own or rely on the wisdom of consultants.

Clearly, accounting firms get business from traditional marketing and favorable word-of-mouth. In other words, if an individual or a business has concerns about existing accounting professionals, they may ask friends to suggest alternative experts.

On the other hand, millions of people search for accounting firms every month through the Internet. They locate them through search engines, directories and other services. Some people may simply want help with an individual tax return. Others may be looking for help setting up a business or need long-term advice with growth plans. Either way, potential sales may be missing if no one knows the accounting firm exists.

Here are highlights from our study:

• Among small accounting firms, 62% use the vital page title on their home pages, but 38% don’t include any keywords and 82% get poor or fair marks for a lackluster strategy that sometimes has a single, shoot-for-the-moon keyword (if any at all).
• Sixty-eight percent of small accounting and CPA firms have no search engine presence even for keyword phrases related to their local cities.
• Small accounting firms do use a keyword in their domain name 66% of the time – a huge advantage if coupled with other strategies.
• Only 20% of large accounting firms use a keyword in their domain names.
• Large accounting and CPA firms use the home page title 57% of the time, but 43% don’t include even one keyword and 63% earn poor or fair ratings for not using keywords or barely mentioning one.
• Astonishingly, 55% of large firms lack a search engine presence – either for national keyword phrases or local search terms tied to their headquarters.
• In contrast, nearly four in 10 large accounting firms (39%) participate in paid search despite missed opportunities with SEO.
• The small accounting and CPA firms we looked at don’t appear to embrace paid search (only 2% demonstrate any interest).
• Sixty-three percent of small accounting firms have fewer than 25 inbound links (43% fewer than 10). But 57% of large firms have at least 501 inbound links (43% have 1,000 or more).
• Small accounting firms don’t seem interested in social media – 83% apparently don’t use it in their marketing; but 73% of large accounting firms promote one or more social media profiles.
• Unfortunately, with small and large accounting and CPA firms, web site social media references often are displayed at the bottom of the web site pages.

Perhaps accounting executives simply don’t understand SEO. In some cases, they may be leaving web site development and marketing opportunities to others who fall short or don’t try hard enough in the first place.

Given the pages we looked at, it’s very apparent that SEO is viewed as a one-time exercise – if it’s implemented at all. At the same time, scores of pages among small and large accounting firms are loaded with identical page titles starting with the home page across dozens or even hundreds of pages. In other cases, page headers merely mimic page titles with no thought to modifying them for SEO purposes.

And yet, both small and large accounting firms have the right conditions for successful SEO strategies – given the age of their web sites, amount of content on many of the web sites, number of web site pages and text headers that could easily be updated. The influential page titles can be modified as well.

Get the CPA study today.

SEO and Accounting Don’t Add Up But Should

If you’re passionate about SEO or accounting, you’ll find want to get my new national study, “When Will SEO and Accounting Firms Add Up?”

Get the free study of accounting firms.

I spent a lot of time with 200 accounting firms – well maybe not in their offices. But I got to know them – from the single page that looks like it was made in 1996 to the largest CPA firms in the world. Amazingly, despite the apparent strides they’re making, they aren’t performing too well from a search engine optimization standpoint.

From what I could tell, they really lack visibility on the Internet. It appears that 62% don’t have a single word in the top 1o 0n Google for keywords based on the cities where they’re located.

Ouch.

I led the study with a team through Online Marketing Coach, a service of World Synergy (I’m the web strategy thought leader).

Online Marketing Coach manages an Internet directory I created called Accountants and CPA Firms. Until recently, it was Ohio CPA Firms. The directory ranks all over the place for major cities in Ohio. In recent months, we’ve been building up content with the new directory – and top rankings are springing up for everything from Fresno and Spokane to Ocean City (and a lot more).

Get listing info here.

By the way, we didn’t use any of the directory advertisers for the study except one we couldn’t avoid because it’s among the top 100 firms in the nation (one of the types of firms we targeted). We also looked at 100 small firms to see how they stacked up.

View the news release.

Let me know what you think of the study after you get a chance to check it out.

Try michael at onlinemarketingcoach.com or call me at 440.349.4940 ext. 635.

Online Search Marketing

For effective online search marketing, here are some SEO Basics:

Keywords:

Keyword phrases are the most important part of your strategy. You’re going to miss your target, but that’s OK. That’s web site development. That’s marketing.

You can cast a big net and grab everything or you can target a specific phrase. I favor a mixed portfolio. It increases your odds of some success. A mixed set of keyword phrases also ensures some commonality among keyword phrases like nature posters and nature posters for sale.

If you go broad, your opportunities to convert a visitor (prompt them to take some action) are more limited. The searcher may very well not be interested in what you offer. If you’re too specific, no one may be searching (or the search traffic may be rare).

Web Site Content for Online Search Marketing

You don’t have a Golden Rule for content and the number of times you need to mention a keyword phrase. Start with few and then add more. Overkill won’t cut it. Some people suggest having 250-500 words per page. I think that can vary site to site and depending on what keyword you’re targeting. I’ve received traffic with 50 keywords and had no traffic with 500.

Focus on page headers, subheads and info boxes (secondary navigation) to other parts of the web site. Search engines seem to like it when you cluster together related keywords and navigation).

Online Search Marketing Analysis:

You can’t look at data in a vacuum. The real story is in the multiple slices of data and how they relate. A keyword ranking is nothing if no one is searching. And a single web site visitor can be worthless or an invaluable piece of data. You need to know how often people search for your relevant phrase. For example, if you see that you only got one visitor, that may be good if you’re ranking #15 and 500 people search for your phrase each month. You can do more with the page that is ranking and create related pages to support that keyword phrase (to help you get on the first page of Google and get more of those 500 visitors). Or, if you’re already ranking #3 for the keyword phrase and you only got one visitor, it’s likely a keyword phrase people rarely use. So don’t dismiss low web site visitor traffic. Keep it in perspective. If the Google tool suggests that relevant search traffic is high and you’re in the ballpark with rankings, you can make some changes and get the web site traffic volume you want.

Learn More

2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors – SEOmoz
 

SEO

• Competition
• Domain age
• Keywords in domain
• Text navigation
• Number of pages
• Amount of content on a page
• Keyword themes (keyword focus on web site)
• Anchor text (linked words when cross-referencing pages)
• Inbound links (from other web sites)
• Alt tags (text associated with images)
• Page headers (like headlines – H1 code)
• Subheads
• Proximity and density of keywords on page (staggered or limited to one area)
• Info boxes (secondary navigation with closely related linked text)
• Page age
• Programming (prominence of text on page or text lost in mounds of programming)
• Page load time
• Splash page (bad for SEO, and limited value for visitors who leave or click on
• Skip Intro out of habit)
• Keywords in page URLs
• Web site traffic
• Social media (mentions of your web site)
• Future content (your capacity to add to the web site)

If you want to be successful at online search marketing, these are some of the many variables you need to consider.

SEO Marketing Expert – Gaining Visibility

It’s not that hard to gain some recognition as an SEO marketing specialist.

I just tried.

It started in 2005 when I got a chance to speak for the first time at a Search Engine Strategies conference. I’ve always been grateful to Danny Sullivan for giving me a shot.

Between then and now, I’ve spoken at a lot of different places and written many articles and industry guides. The effort has paid off for the places that hired me and my career. Everyone wins.

The key is to be authentic and informative. I make sure that nothing I say, present or write is like a big advertisement. That wouldn’t sit too well with anyone.

Have I been accepted to speak every place I contacted? No.

But I kept trying. Timing (and a good topic) paid off.

Here are some of the subjects I have covered and the organizations that have been kind enough to welcome me – both for speaking and for writing.

• “SEO Overkill,” “Can You Please Them All?” “75 Minute Search Abs,” “SEM Pricing Models,” and “Dealing with Difficult Clients” – Search Engine Strategies conferences in New York, Chicago and san Jose
• “How To Turn Search Engines Into Sales Machines” – What’s Working Now! Conference
• “How To Boost Your Website ROI” – American Marketing Association, Cleveland chapter
• “How To Reach More Customers in A Search Engine Marketing World”  –Franchisee meeting (2008)
• “Reaching New Bank Customers”  – Banking and marketing workshop
• “SEO and SEM: What Does It Take to Succeed?”  – Educational Travel Conference in Providence, Rhode Island
• “All About Search Engine Optimization” – University of Toledo Internet Conference

In the News…

• “10 Minutes with Mike Murray”– Marketing News magazine
• “San Jose – Search Engine Strategies” – WebProNews Video Interview
• “Hot Links” – LifeTips, WebmasterRadio
• “Start Your Search Engines” – Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine
• “Study: Health Sites Fail on Natural Search Marketing” – Direct Marketing Association Blog
• “Manufacturers Need to Learn the Joy of Search Engines” – IndustryWeek
• “SEO for Large Corporations” – SEO Radio

And stuff I wrote:

• “10 Critical Errors to Avoid with Your SEO Campaign”– Visibility magazine
• “It’s Not Mojo: How to Take the Guesswork Out of Keyword Selection” – WebProNews
•  “Tips for Taking a Holistic Approach to SEO & PPC” – SEO video
• “Google Duped By Massive Comment Tag Stuffing Ploy” – Search Engine Land’s Sphinn discussion forum, citing blog post
• “Excuse Me While I Give My Sales To Someone Else” – ReveNews
• “Improve Your SEO in Minutes with Titles” – iMedia Connection
• “How Lousy SEO Smothers Good Practices” – WebProNews
• “New Archenemies? SEO and ROI – Say It Ain’t So, Joe” – Marketing Pilgrim
• “Is Search Engine Optimization Worth It? SEO and the ROI Debacle” – an industry guide
• “U.S. Health Care Web Sites Resist Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Online Sales Leads,” national study of 350 health care companies
• “10 Ways to Master SEO Keyword Selection” – eMarketing & Commerce(eM+C)
• “13 Ways to Sabbotage Your SEO Efforts” – WebProNews
• “Ranking Analysis – How to Look Beyond What Is or Isn’t Ranking” – SiteProNews
• “How to Navigate Online Marketing’s Slippery Path” – SiteProNews