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8 website updates for accounting firms

05/01/2020 by scmarketing

With all the change and uncertainty right now, as an accountancy practice your main concern is servicing your existing clients offering the most-timely advice as and when updates are announced by government that could assist your client base.

Importantly it’s also the key time to maintain your presence online to continue building that groundwork that is the necessity of any lead generation strategy. In time, when circumstances change, and businesses start to grow, it’s the firms and suppliers that have provided helpful advice that will be remembered and be seen as the go to company for new business.

So, what can you as an accounting firm do to optimise your website to help maintain your position in search rankings? Here’s our top website tips to help you kick start a great Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaign for your business to get your website seen.

1. Is your website easy to navigate?

Check that your accounting services are clearly visible in the menu so that there is an easy path for visitors who reach your homepage. Show your key services on your homepage and a call to action to read more, download information or get in touch.

2. Do you have enough internal links on your website?

This is another navigation tactic. Make sure that you are making it even easier for visitors to find information on your website. Embed links into keyword phrases.

3. Complete your H1, H2 headers

This helps search engines work out the theme of the page to return the right answers to the searcher.

4. Complete your meta descriptions

This neat little paragraph is what you read when you search online. Keep to under 160 characters and make sure it’s relevant to the content on that web page.

5. Be image-led on your website

Help create stand-out with good photography and video content. But, make sure images are the right size and you have completed the alt tag on the backend as this will help site speed and prevent visitors leaving your site.

6. Create a content plan

A solid basis for any website optimisation strategy is to develop a content marketing plan. This should include a regular schedule of information such as blogs that can be drafted and uploaded onto your website. Search engines love fresh content. It helps position you as an authority in your sector.

However, ensure that you are using good keywords within your content. By this, we mean phrases that you want to be found for when people search for you. If you include these important phrases in content, in particular headings, then it helps you to be found when people search. Such as ‘Annual Accounts for construction firms’ or ‘Tax returns for a sole trader’. Think of who your target audience is and write content for them.

This has only touched the surface, so if you want to delve a little deeper into SEO as part of your digital marketing strategy then do get in touch for a free consultation via Zoom.

7. Calls to action

Calls to action (CTA) should form a key part of your content marketing strategy. These are best placed above the fold, the space before the visitor has to scroll down. Make sure you have a bold CTA so that it stands out and use design to make it clear that it’s a clickable link.  

8. Get a free website review

With so many factors affecting whether and where your website will be found on google search, complete our form to get a free website audit. This free review provided by Smart Cow Marketing will provide you with some interesting results to help with your inbound marketing.

Navigating your digital marketing journey

If you want the task of fixing these issues taken off your hands, then we’d be happy to assist you further with your digital marketing. Just get in touch about what your digital marketing requirements for your accountancy practice.

Smart Cow marketing specialises in digital marketing for accountants helping firms improve online visibility to attract potential clients through online marketing.

Digital marketing resources

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Digital marketing tips to help your business during coronavirus

12/22/202404/28/2020 by scmarketing

Regardless of whether your business was already embracing the virtual world, or you were just starting out in the digital world, one this is for certain, these times have highlighted the need for online presence and maintaining it.

So, we’ve gathered a few tips for you to action now to optimise your website to help improve your search engine rankings and online visibility.

If you need a hand with any digital marketing activity just drop us a line as we offer free consultations and free website reviews. These can really highlight areas specific for you to implement.

Website review

Once a website is built, you’ve got to maintain it with up to date content. The hospitality industry has already had to change the way they do business quickly to offer takeaway and delivery services. Whatever your business, you and your customers are being impacted. So, take a few moments to see that you are offering the right advice on your website. Makes sure you’re being informative and a thought leader. Add a simple message to the homepage of your website about your opening hours, how to contact your team and ‘business as usual’ even though working remotely.

Check your content details are up to date. The last thing you want is clients unable to get through to you when it may just mean a simple update of an out of office contact number. For most businesses, the use of VOIP phones mean no disruption when remote working. But it could be a simple overlook of not checking your website that could prevent business coming your way.

Also make sure you have ease of navigation across your side. Internal link building can help the flow for a visitor. So, see where you can add links to other web pages on your site so that it’s easier to move from one page to another by just clicking a link.

Specific content marketing plan

Review your content marketing plan, from blogs through to social media posts and offers. Make sure you’re answering your target audience’s specific challenges during this time.

Think of the challenges and draw up a specific marketing plan for the next couple of months, if you haven’t already. Schedule planned content on specific themes to help your clients and prospects. With constant change in our everyday, revisit your plan regularly and adjust creating content accordingly. During these times you may find a ‘news jack’ offers timely advice as well as links to great resources.

Search Engine Optimisation

This is at the core of your content marketing plan and website updates. A Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy is about getting your website seen. Now more than ever, you should make sure that you implement a few processes to continue moving forward.

Get your technical backend SEO sorted and up to date. This includes Meta Descriptions, Alt Tags, Meta title tag (H1 and H2 headers). Do this now and continue to do so. This helps your website in search engine rankings and is particularly good for local search.

Create at least a couple of blogs a month, if not more, to help with adding fresh content to your website. All the time think about what you want to be found for – those are your keywords you want to weave into your content. This keyword research will help with where you appear in the search engine result pages.

Social media marketing

Keep on sharing posts on your social channels throughout this time. Keep communicating with your followers letting know any business changes, how you can help them.

Take a moment to review of your channels. LinkedIn is great for networking but so often we’ve found that business profiles aren’t updated as best as they could. Add as much detail as you can about your business. Start following relevant hashtags and join groups. Start engaging. We’ve certainly noticed that engagement has increased as more and more people are reaching out as they find that the business world they were used to has changed.

Be thoughtful of your content. Share articles you found interesting. And, use imagery to help your posts stand out.

Video and webinars

Talk directly to your audience. You can make videos efficiently, simply and at no extra cost on your mobile phone.

Repurpose content from your blogs and make short and snappy videos to accompany them to bring your social posts to life and your web pages.

Read our blog on using video for business for tips on setting up videos for your business for some useful dos and don’ts.

Seek out local networking groups and see if you can create beneficial webinars for fellow members which can be hosted via channels such as Zoom.

We’re a member of London Chamber and will soon, be hosting a webinar on How to grow your business through online lead generation on 20^th May at 12:45. We’ll post details of how to register to join in due course.

Free resources

We’re a digital marketing agency in Croydon and we have the following resources you can draw on during this time. Get in touch with us today to talk through your requirements.

Free website review: Find out how to improve your website’s performance.

Free digital marketing consultation: Our Free consultation should be between 15 and 30 minutes. The goal is to provide you with thoughts on how to start an effective marketing campaign and for us both to see if it would benefit your firm. No obligation at all, we just want the best for you.

The benefits of local search

05/05/202004/20/2020 by scmarketing

Having an optimised website is essential to maintaining online presence and rising in search engine rankings.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) goes hand in hand with the term ‘local search’. We’ve added resources at the end of the blog for more broader detail on website optimisation but for the main purpose of this blog we’re focussing on what small businesses can do to improve local search. We’ll cover how local search can help you target local clients and prospects, particularly now when we’re reliant on the online world.

Target areas for local search with relevant content

As part of your marketing campaign you should be focussing on areas you want to target to find new clients.

Review the content on your  website and check if it is specific for the location you’re targeting.

Make sure you start to weave in information about the area you’re targeting in blogs and on your contact page.

Read ‘Why Blog’ which will give you more tips on why you should have a blog or news page. Ultimately, it’s about keeping content fresh and provides a great way to add local information which search engines will trawl helping your website to Google rank.

You want to be the authority in your field, especially locally. For your content marketing plan, think about tips you can provide your target audience, key dates you can use as a news hook and add links to useful resources.

Google My Business

Make sure you have completed your Google My Business page. It helps Google verify your business. But not only that your business could also appear in the sidebar when a prospect searches a relevant business.

You can continue to add fresh content to your Google My Business page by repurposing your blogs and adding images. Also ask clients to add reviews.

Ensure all your contact details on external sources are consistent with your website.

Online directories

It’s not just about Google My Business. Inclusion on other online directories will help in search results. For example, Yelp and Bing through to industry associations you may be linked with such as Chamber of Commerce.

When you first embark on SEO, you should include this within your wider marketing strategy rather than look at it in silo.

Internal links

When you conduct a review of your website to check you have good quality relevant local content for your target audience. But also remember to review the navigation too. Is it simple to follow? Is there anything you can do to help website visitors? This all helps the user experience and helps keep visitors on a web page for longer.

A quick win is adding internal links throughout your website so that if a visitor is on one web page it not only provides additional information but helps guide the visitor easily to another page.

Social media engagement

Maintain your presence on social media as this will help you with local search too. If content is shared by your followers, this can help with search ranking too as it is helping position you as an authority.

Resources

If you’d like to work with a digital marketing agency to help you navigate Search Engine Optimisation as part of your wider marketing plan and give your business a boost in search, get in touch today. Take advantage of our FREE WEBSITE REVIEW to help discover the areas that you may need to improve initially.

We also have links to blogs below with further information on local search to help you and your business.

Lights, camera, action! Using video for business

05/26/202204/15/2020 by scmarketing

With lots of people now working from home, many of us are getting to grips with video conferencing to hold our regular update meetings. But not only that, video is a great way to spread the word of your products and services, a tactic often used in digital marketing campaigns.

Video is great for content marketing and sharing on social media, but don’t just take our word for it, just look at some of these staggering statistics:

Well, it certainly makes sense to be in the mix when you see how popular video is.

So, if you’re embarking on creating some short video tips for your clients and prospects or perhaps you’re looking to host a webinar, here’s our top tips for working on video.

Tips for your delivery on camera

Look at the lens.
Keep hands away from your face.
Don’t fidget – Don’t hold anything (if possible) as you’ll have a tendency to fidget with it.
Avoid looking at notes when you’re talking. It doesn’t need to be word perfect. You want it to come across as natural.
Smile or make sure your face is animated. Be expressive, much more than normal.
Keep the message concise.
Speak slowly. This helps make the piece authoritative, easier to understand and easier to edit.
Practice, practice, practice.
Above all – be natural.

Tips for video set up

Appearance: Check your appearance, hair, collar, background should be as clear as possible.
Lighting: Nice soft light to the face, also a light to the wall behind works well, if possible.
Sound: Make sure there is as minimal background sound as possible. Reduce the hum of your PC, fans, air conditioning, switch of the ringtone of mobiles, and your messages on PC/Laptop etc.
Check your sound recording is good.

Relevant content for Search Engine Optimisation

It’s not about posting any video, it’s important that your video content is also targeted to your audience, with a relevant script, tagline and a clear call to action for increased engagement.

If you haven’t already, then develop keywords and phrases for your business. This is simply about what key term you would like to be found for when people search online. The more content you produce using keywords the more your website is recognised by search engines and improves your search engine optimisation (SEO). This is relevant to video, not just written content. You can add captions to videos so that people don’t have to switch volume on.

We’d recommend having accounts on channels such as Vidyard, Vimeo and YouTube. This all helps with your rankings in search. Think about the name of your video file and its title when you upload to the video channels as it should contain keywords. On YouTube you can add an SRT file to enable you to add subtitles and closed captions rather than burn them onto the video file. This can help with SEO within the YouTube channel. Don’t forget this is another search engine.

Video for your website

It’s not just about sharing your videos on social media and adding to video channels such as YouTube. Remember that you should be adding the video to your website. Ideally you want to push social media posts back to your website to view the video. Remember that placing the video higher up the page is much better for engagement with website visitors.

Smart Cow is a digital marketing agency in Croydon. If you’d like a free website review to look at how your website is performing in search to find out how an SEO campaign can help local search results, complete our form and we’ll take a look for you.