Do you need to optimise your Website for Search Engines?

Although this article is primarily aimed at Websites for Accountants, it is also just as relevant to the majority of other industries/professions.

If you are not particularly bothered about being found and indexed by Search Engines, then there is no real need for Search Engine optimization (SEO). Likewise, if good Search Engine placements are integral to your sites success, then your Website needs to be carefully optimised for Search Engines. If not, then getting your site indexed for key search phrases, will be left to luck, rather than good judgment.

For those Accountants who believe their site does not need to be optimised or even picked up by Search Engines, then, most likely, the majority of their business is generated via referrals. This is all very well and assumes a single source of new business leads is able to sustain business growth. However, circumstances do change, as many businesses would agree.

Being prudent is a good thing!

Therefore, it is usually prudent to have some eggs in other baskets when it comes to marketing the business. Other Accountants who have identified the Internet as a major marketing channel, most likely, have already taken steps to ensure good exposure. They also know; once much of the hard work has been done, there is every chance of them reaping the benefits further down the line.

Accountants, not starting the process of taking even the simplest of steps to optimise their Website, every day lost, will be a day gained by competitors. The majority of Search Engines take a long term view with Websites they index. They want to be sure they will be around tomorrow.

Therefore, if good Search Engine placement is about being in it for the long term, the sooner they get started, the better. Playing catch up with competitors with good search results is very difficult and can be measured in years and not months.

No one will find your Website if you don’t take the necessary steps

Most new Accountant Website owners wrongly assume, their Website will be found by just about anyone looking for their services or products. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

With, literally, thousands of new Websites being added to the Internet every day, Search Engines have the unenviable task of trying to filter the good from the bad. They do this by crawling the Internet using Web Robots. These robots are capable of retrieving vast quantities of information which is then analysed by special algorithms, able to score and rate millions of Websites.

Needless to say, Robots and their algorithms take an objective view of the sites they look at. Like any judge in a competition, Search Engines will judge Websites on certain criteria. Not surprisingly, Websites ignoring this criteria or not giving it enough consideration, are given low scores and placed well down the list of search results. If you are not on the first two or three pages (some would say first page), then there is little chance of being visited by Web Surfers.

Make SEO integral to your Website Design

This is one of the key reasons why we include Search Engine Optimisation as standard in all Accountant Websites we design. It is also why we try and encourage clients to have more written content on their Website. More content, means more for Search Engines to index.