5 Tips for SEO for Accountants & CPA Firms

SEO for CPA and Accounting Firms - How to Rank in Google 2021 and Beyond

Nothing will help your accounting and tax practice more than getting lots of Google and Facebook reviews, creating an optimized website that actually converts, and then advertising using paid google search. Those 3 things will help your business create a steady flow of customers well into the future.

4 Foundations of CPA Firm, Tax and Accountant Marketing:

1. Google & Facebook Reviews
2. A Website that Converts
3. Paid Search Ads to Drive Traffic & Remarketing to Close
4. Lead Magnet Facebook & LinkedIn Ads

After that, you'll want to also focus on content and SEO, which is also called "search engine optimization" and "content marketing" It's often called SEM as well, which is "search engine marketing".

Profiles You Should Open to Help with SEO & Marketing

If you open up, optimize, and periodically engage on the following platforms, you'll have much better results in Google. I would setup all of these accounts, while making sure you have a PRECISE BUSINESS NAME - so you don't title it different.

Besides all this, we should add the URL's of these pages to your website, and place them within an organizational SCHEMA code on the home page.

1. Google my Business
2. Bing Places
3. Linkedin Business Page
4. Facebook Business Page
5. Yelp Business Page
6. Youtube Brand Channel for your business

The goal of having these citations and profiles is to help search engines, and people, identify who you are, what you do, and actually engage with you.  Each person has subtle differences in their preference, so it's good to have each profile.

Branded Search Improvements Result with Citations & Profiles:

If someone ever searches your business name, it's great to have an entire page dedicated to your profiles. Take a look at what this looks like for Feedbackwrench:

When you search "Feedbackwrench", the whole page is us!

We want Google and Bing to serve up your content to people when they search for it.

What are the best keywords for CPA firms, bookkeeping businesses and accountants?

When we're talking about what's the best keywords for CPA marketing, it's you should think of "TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU".

Top of Funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel.

Keywords aren't the way you typically think about them. Rather than "keywords", it's best to think about. "queries" that someone would ask Google or bing.

The funnel is the sales funnel, and top of funnel means that the keywords would be focused more about problems and ideas, rather than solutions.

Bottom of funnel keywords are those that a person would use when they're ready to get a solution.

The bottom of funnel keywords are the ones that people search to take action.

Examples of "Bottom of Funnel" CPA and Accountant Keywords for SEO:

• CPA near me
• accountants near me
• tax preparation near me
• tax professionals
• bookkeeping near me
• payroll services
• certified public accountants near me
• tax companies
• tax firms
• bookkeepers
• tax accountants

Examples of Top or Middle of Funnel Keywords for Accountants, CPA Firms. & Tax Professionals.

• LLC vs. S Corp
• How to write off health insurance premiums for an LLC (or S-Crop)
• How to start a business in (your state)
• How to convert to an S-Corp
• How to become an S-Corp
• How to pay estimated taxes in (xyz state)
• Drawbacks of an S-Corp
• When should you become an S-Corp
• Writing off computers, cameras and equipment
• How to maximize your vehicle write offs in an LLC or S-Corp
• How to setup new employees in (xyz state)

When people ask these questions, your website should be in on the answer.

How can you get your website to rank for these keywords, and how to can you make sure that it would be relevant to your business?

When you watch the video overview below, I'll hit on the foundations of the bottom of funnel SEO, but let me quick hit on these top fo funnel keywords.

If you want to rank for these top of funnel keywords, then you need to write really good answers to these questions.

You should write helpful, authoritative, and thoughtful guides on your websites (similar to what you're reading here), and then promote them and build up both traffic, and authority to them.

How to rank for Top of Funnel Keywords:

• Create an authoritative guide, much like a super informative email
• Drive traffic to the article so people can read it - you can use social media, paid ads, and email marketing.
• Build up authority by attracting backlinks to the content (more on this later)

Why do you want to rank for these top of funnel keywords?

People who search these queries are prime prospective customers for you because they have a problem that needs fixing.  

Some people that read these articles will actually reach out and start doing business with you.

You can now serve up Facebook, Youtube, Google and LInkedin retargeting ads to them. att

Google pays attention to what content your site is doing well with, and tends to "steriotype" your domain.  Once this is done, you'll notice your Google my Business, and your entire website start to do much better for keywords that have to do with this "stereotype".

The goal os SEO is to drive traffic by getting served up in Google and Bing Search Engine Result Pages

Now let's talk about how to rank for those Bottom of Funnel Keywords.

You can get traffic from those bottom of funnel keywords in a couple of different features on Google

Bottom of Funnel Keywords Marketing Opportunities on Google:

1. Google Ads
2. Google My Business
3. True Organic SEO (your website ranks in the organic SERPS)
4. Bing Places (like Google My Business for the Bing or Microsoft Edge Browswers.
5. Microsoft Bing Ads

Google and Bing have lots of things that will pop up when you make these coveted search queries.

Here's a screen shot of a SERP (Search engine result page) - I made a search called "CPA Near me"

When people search "CPA near me", they will first see some Google Ads on the top, then the Google My Business, and then below that, you'll see some regular website and the third party aggregators. like Angie's List, Thumbtack, Houzz and others.

SEO for Bottom of Funnel Keywords for CPA firms is the Google My Business Feature.

How can a CPA firm rank higher on Google My Business?

Google my business takes its queues from a number of things, and those signals are a mix of your website, Google My Business profile, proximity to the searcher, and the overall SEO signals across the internet.

What are the most important SEO signals for your CPA and accountant website?

You can read MOZ's study and report that they put out every year to see the factors, but check out the infographic here:

So what does all that mean and what can your CPA firm do to actually rank in SEO?

1. Create a user-focused, SEO optimized website
2. Create excellent content & user interface on that website
3. Setup your "citations" or profiles that matter most like Google My Business, Bing Places, Yelp, Social Media, and other profiles around the internet
4. Create 10 - 30 authoritative, super-helpful, well-researched blog articles on your tops
5. Find ways to attract backlinks to your content and your overall domain
6. Pay attention to how people use your website and fine tune it so people consume more of your content, and for longer.

Create a sweet website, be a place that people want to be on the internet, and then build up votes of confidence from other sites in the form of backlinks.

As you gain backlinks and engaged users on your website, along with lots of Google reviews, your Google My Business wills start to rank more often.

Great SEO Foundations:

• Good User Experience on Your Website
• Excellent content that's actually work reading or consuming
• Votes of confidence from around the internet in terms of backlinks