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Winning with the Search Engines

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a massive subject and you can find many resources about it on the web. Many businesses will pay many tens of thousands of pounds per year to have their sites optimised and reach the top of the search engines. Search engine optimisation is an ongoing, and sometimes lengthy, process, not just a one-off job.

However, we're just going to concentrate on the few key areas that can have the most impact to get you going.

There are two key elements to search engine optimisation...

  1. On-Page Optimisation

    On-page optimisation covers the areas related to how your web pages were built and the content found in them. Key points to get you going are...

    1. Ensure that your keywords appear in:
      1. TITLE tag. It appears in blue bar at very top of the page above the browser toolbars. It is also generally used by search engines as a link on the search engine results page. This is the single most important element of the on-page optimisation and it should be unique on every page.
      2. META Description. Not viewable on the page but often displayed within search results as snippet of text under the links;
      3. META Keywords. Far less important than what they used to be, but still worth adding to your pages;
      4. Headings. Especially the main heading on each page, known as the H1 tag. Only use one H1 tag per page and try to structure your page with H2's to H6's.
      5. Links. Avoid using the word "click here" for links between pages of your website. Use your keywords in your links, this will help both your search engine rankings and improve your website accessibility.
      6. Other elements on the page. Such as paragraphs and website copy
    2. Avoid using a 'flash intro' or a 'splash page'. Your homepage is the most important page of your site. It should contain HTML content that search engines can use to rank your website.
    3. Avoid getting a website design only in flash. Search engines have a hard time reading flash movies. You site will therefore be unlikely to perform well in the search engine if it is a flash-only site
    4. Avoid repeating keywords. Do not repeat keywords over and over again as it may trigger some spam flag and get your website penalised

    Accountants will usually want to focus on searchers looking for an accountant in their local area. It's also going to be easier to get to the top of the search results for searches like 'accountant in Burnley' than it is for 'accountant in London' or for general terms such as 'accountant' or 'tax'. Location related keywords and searches are far more likely to lead to a new client or lead.

    Content is King!

    Never forget that content is king. It's no good having a great search engine page if it doesn't read well to your visitor to make them take action.

    There are also many other ways to promote your website through conventional marketing means that can have far more impact than the search engines can for accountants.

  2. Off-Page Optimisation

    This is increasingly becoming the most important area in helping your site do well with the search engines. If content is King, links are the Queen. Most of it is about links from other websites to yours. Links are considered by search engines as a 'vote' for recommending your site. They look at the number of links but more importantly the relevance and the importance of the site linking to you. When asking for links, relevance and quality is more important than sheer number. Key points to get you going are...

    1. Get Relevant Links to Your Site. Especially from sites and pages that have good page rankings themselves that are related to what you do.
    2. Link from Pages with Few External Links. If there are only a few links on that page and one is to you, the link given will have more importance. But if there are lots of links, the effect on your site is watered down.
    3. Directory Links. Links from directories are still important, but you need to pick them carefully. The two most important ones to get into are DMOZ Directory (used by Google) and the Yahoo! Directory.
    4. Press Release, Forum & Blog Links. Other useful ways of getting links are to issue press releases with links in and by registering in forums and have the link in your postings and within any blogs that you write or comment.
    5. Wording of Links. Also know as 'anchor text'. When requesting a link to your site, try using your most important keywords within the link text.
    6. Deep Links. Remember that you can have a link to any page on your site, not just the home page and you should link to the page with the keywords you are focusing on.
    7. Gradually Increase Your Links. Don't have them all added in the same week. Spreading the addition of new links over time is a more natural way of getting links.
    8. Hosting. Ensure your host server is based in the UK, especially if your domain name has a .com extension - this may have an impact when searchers filter the search results to only show UK based results.
    9. Domain Name. If your keywords are present in your domain name it will make it a bit easier to get prominent positions in the search engines. Different search engines give more or less 'value / weight' to domain names when they rank websites but they all do.

How long does it take to get listed on the search engines?

In some cases it can take up to 3 or 4 months for a brand new site to be listed by the search engines but usually within a month. You will get listed more quickly by having links to your site from other well ranked sites that the search engine spiders visit regularly. They will find the link to your site and follow it to index your pages.

The first time the spider visits your site it may well just visit the home page and not follow links to any other pages. The next time it visits it may then follow a couple of the links. So it is often a case of waiting for the pages you need to be indexed by the robot. The higher the page rank of your home page the 'deeper' the spider will crawl links to other pages.

The Alternative - Pay Per Click

If you decide you can't be bothered with the work involved or the time lag in waiting to get to the top of the search engines, then Pay Per Click might be just right for you. It provides an excellent opportunity for accountants to promote their practice online.

The most popular of the pay per click offerings is Google Adwords - usually for around £1 per click (sometimes 20p per click) you will be able to get near the top of the first page and even at the rate of one new client for 20 clicks, that's only £20 for each new client. Even at one client per 100 clicks, you'd still win due to the level of fees charged by accountants and their recurring nature. Just compare that to the cost of buying clients!