A site that pulls in fresh clientele is crucial for marketing a CPA firm, just like with any business. As a matter of fact, one could make the argument that a company’s site is their key promotional tool. Consequently, marketing websites for accountants must be optimized to generate as many fresh clients as they possibly can. Take a look at all 5 crucial actions that enable CPAs to ensure their websites for accountants boost any CPA firm’s clientele.

Elegant Design Is Critical for Websites for Accountants

A website’s design is critical when trying to attract new clients. The site should be easy for a visitor to navigate so they can quickly find the information they want.

When procuring the services of a designer, ask to see all his or her designs. Definitely do NOT sign an agreement with the designer unless you’re able to view his or her complete portfolio.

Clearly presented content that is of high value to visitors will greatly increase the chances that visitors will sign up to get more information. Use a series of contact tools including a simple web form to enable your visitors to receive your newsletter by email. It must be easy to subscribe; ask only for the name of the subscriber and their email address so the form is easy and quick to complete.

The More Content on Your Website, the Better

Make sure your website holds many, many pages of compelling content. Note that the servers hosting websites for accountants must be robust enough to handle very large websites.

Again, organize your content sensibly and make navigation easy – you will increase the number of leads you generate if visitors can easily move from one topic to another.

Refresh your content on a regular basis. Offer an alert function so that visitors can tell you what sort of information update they would like. This gives your subscribers more of a stake in following your site.

Allow Your Readers to Steal Your Web Tools

Offer some of your tools for no charge. This will increase your inbound lead generation and also enables you to net new clients who find your services superior.

Here are other tools you should consider offering:

• Newsletter sent by email
• News updates
• Tax organizers that can be individually customized
• Secure file transfer facilities for clients

Again, these are just some of the tools you can offer. Anything that might lure prospects to your site makes a good addition. Accounting websites offering investment tickers, news feeds, and weather reports might even find their website being bookmarked or even used as a home page. You’re limited only by your imagination!

Market Your Website with Professional Assistance

You want your web designer – the person who sets up your site – to understand Internet marketing as well. This is important: a website is a live sales tool that should generate leads, and your web designer must set up your site with this in mind.

In addition, hire a designer who has mastered the following:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• SEM or Search Engine Marketing
• Keyword placement and how to use keywords
• Placement of anchor text

Effective SEM and SEO raise the position of your site above other websites for accountants in the search engine results pages. This is why: SEO and SEM give information to Google about your site and how well it will match a particular search.

To decide on your site’s relevancy, the search engines use keywords and links coming to your site from other sites, blogs, and forums. The higher quality these links and keywords, the more the search engines perceive your site to be popular and useful, and they reward you with a higher listing.

Given all this, it’s important your web designer understands SEO and SEM and can use keywords and links to your advantage. Your web designer should make a list of the keywords that attract the most promising leads, as well as which pages to place them on and where on the page to position them. Putting in the extra work at the beginning will ensure your site brings in targeted traffic.

The Right Keywords Are Critical

Keywords for websites for accountants should be segmented by different potential client groups. For example, some visitors want tax prep, others want payroll services, and still others are looking for a general financial professional in their area.

The type of keyword lists should be:

• Accounting services they offer
• Their geographic region
• Their specialties: tax prep, payroll, QuickBooks, etc.
• Any tools they offer

It’s important to know that you should place keywords not only on your home page, but on internal pages as well. Also, be careful not to stuff too many keywords onto one page, because that severely limits readability. A good rule of thumb is no more than three to five keywords per page of text. Any more than this will make your page too hard to read.

This article has explored 5 pointers for increasing lead generation for websites for accountants. Try not to get discouraged; the rewards of your hard work might not show up at first, but if you’re patient, your client base should climb significantly.