Why Is Local SEO Important for My Accounting Firm?
Many accounting firms face the intimidating landscape of ongoing mergers in the industry. The impending Baker Tilly – Moss Adams merger will create the sixth largest accounting firm. At the same time, 13 other CPA firms have announced their intention to combine and, backed by a private equity firm, DFW Capital Partners, will create a new Top 50 accounting firm called Sorren.
What’s a smaller or mid-sized firm to do when it wants to stay independent and also thrive? One piece of an accounting firm’s growth strategy should be local SEO. For CPA firms that serve specific geographic regions, a strategy that includes well-executed efforts to increase visibility and earn trust among local and regional businesses can generate high-intent leads and measurable growth.
If your firm isn’t showing up when local buyers search for accounting, tax and advisory services online, you may be missing out on an effective way to compete locally.
How Can Local SEO Help My CPA Firm?
Local SEO, or local search engine optimization, is a strategy whose goal is to improve your firm’s online presence, so it appears in the results pages of location-based searches. This might include positioning your firm to appear when someone searches for “accounting firm near me” in your city or a nearby town or, using a figurative example for a tax and accounting firm based in Boise, Idaho: “Boise outsourced accountant.”
While the goal of many SEO efforts is to find users regardless of location, local SEO focuses on maximizing visibility in your firm’s physical service area for prospective clients who prefer a trusted, local group.
How Do I Optimize My CPA Firm for Local SEO?
There are several steps to improve your accounting firm’s local SEO visibility including:
Build your CPA Firm’s Google Business Profile
For starters, build a free and comprehensive Google Business profile. When people search for your business online to learn more about you, this snapshot is often the first impression a prospective client has about you. Include as much information as you can to make your profile complete including the street address, hours of operation, services (your services are important keywords), photos of your business and team, and ongoing updates. Keeping your profile current with new information can increase the likelihood Google will want to display it to people searching online.
Build Local Office Pages
If your CPA firm has multiple brick-and-mortar office locations (even if it’s just a home office), but you have not dedicated a web page to each one, you may be missing out on potential visibility with people searching for accounting and tax services in your area. Creating a service page that includes the name of your city and those of surrounding towns increases the likelihood your firm will appear in the results when people search from those locations.
To make each office page especially attractive to local traffic, include the names and headshots of local team members, a Google Map that shows the actual office location, information about the town or city including services and industries that align with your business, a list of services your firm offers in the area and case studies and testimonials related to local businesses served.
Generate Links from Authoritative Local Business Websites
Which local businesses—such as chambers of commerce, industry associations, media outlets and other business groups—is your firm involved in? These hubs of commerce have a lot of authority with search engines such as Google. Seeking links from their websites to yours (either through a membership link or by contributing a guest blog, for example) demonstrates that your business is a reliable, trusted service provider in the community, which boosts the likelihood of visibility with search engines.
Go to Market With a Consistent Business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP)
Google and other search engines are more likely to recognize—and show in the search results—your accounting firm when you provide a consistent listing of your firm’s name, address and phone number across ALL your digital assets including your website, business directories and social media pages. Search engines may mistakenly assume your firm is NOT the same if it is listed differently across various digital platforms. Any internal branding drama between team members – Should we use our firm name or our acronym? – should not touch your go-to-market digital strategy. Keep it straight and keep it consistent.
Ask Clients to Contribute Google Reviews
Google reviews offer helpful information about your expertise to prospective clients wanting to know if your CPA firm can help them. Consider asking clients for a review following each engagement. The local pack is a series of three service provider listings (see image below for an example) that appears at the top of the Google results page when people search for a local business. The number of reviews your CPA firm has can impact whether it appears. Google also considers whether you have responded to reach review—positive and negative—since your responsiveness demonstrates that your business values customer service.
How Does Local SEO Create Leads for My CPA Firm?
An effective local SEO strategy can create leads several ways and even cut into lead generation costs you might otherwise invest by pursuing other marketing strategies. Consider the following.
Can Local SEO Earn My CPA Firm More Visibility in Local Searches?
Greater visibility is one of the driving reasons for the recommendations above. When a potential buyer searches for your service in your city or town, your effective local SEO strategy can ensure your firm shows up in the search results including, ideally, in the local three pack (with accompanying Google Maps).
Is Local SEO a Cost-Effective Lead Generation Strategy for My Accounting Firm?
Paid ads require, well, payment. Local SEO, on the other hand, can deliver long-term ROI by demonstrating to prospective local customers that your firm can serve them and is a trustworthy and respected member of your local community. Optimizing your Google Business profile and web pages can generate traffic that is essentially free.
How Many Local SEO Searches Occur on Mobile Devices?
According to some statistics, more than 80% of local searches occur on mobile devices and these represent high-intent searches, meaning the person searching is likely to take action once they find a service provider. Optimizing your business for local SEO traffic can increase the likelihood that prospective clients who find your website will reach out.
Can Local SEO Give My CPA firm A Competitive Advantage?
Many buyers prefer local. Human beings, in general, often feel more comfortable socializing and doing business with people and establishments in their own community. As a result, your ability to demonstrate a local presence can provide your CPA firm with a competitive advantage for leads over larger firms. Although many national accounting firms do a good job showing a local presence, if your firm truly was born in your community—and if you articulate that in addition to optimizing your site for local SEO (build a Company History page!)—your differentiator over other firms will be powerful.
Does Local SEO Help My Accounting Firm Build Trust and Credibility?
As mentioned above, a CPA firm with Google reviews attached to its online profile gives prospective buyers the opportunity to review the experiences of other clients. Positive reviews supported by a detailed Google Business listing and strong visibility on Google Maps demonstrate that your firm is reputable and established, which can increase leads.
Final Thoughts about Local SEO for Your Accounting Firm
Local SEO provides small and mid-sized firms with a distinct edge when seeking clients in your local community. That can remove some of the concern that otherwise might come from competing with national firms or firms pooling their resources through strategic mergers.
Local searches also reflect a high intent to buy which means people seeking “accounting firm near me” or “tax firm near Rockville, MD” are likely thinking of reaching out.
Because of the positive impact of local SEO, it's true that an accounting firm that gets it right may end up with leads that aren’t appropriate. That’s okay. Eventually your team will begin dialoguing with opportunities that represent “best fit” clients and that’s when you will be happy you invested in developing a local SEO strategy.
Joe Kovacs, APR is founder and managing director of Kovacs Communications, a consultancy that serves growth-minded, resource-constrained accountants with content and marketing solutions that drive growth. Connect with us on LinkedIn or via email. Or schedule a complimentary consultation.