Is Blogging Worth It for Accounting Firms?
If you want more clients, then I recommend that you reconsider your position and keep an open mind about the role that a blog can play in your practice.
By all means, some of the accountants that I speak to think that blog posts are like trees falling in the forest and nobody cares. This thought process is perpetuated when they don't get many comments (other than spammers) and assume that people are not reading the blog posts and all of their work is worthless.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider adding a blog into your existing website:
Search Engine Benefits
Far and away, the largest benefit to blogging is improving your organic search placements in Google, Bing and Yahoo. Search engines give preferential treatment to websites that include a blog because they want to provide fresh and interesting content to readers online. This is also the biggest reason why accountants are finally getting on board. According to research provided by Hubspot, companies that blog realize:
- 55% more website visitors
- 97% more inbound links
- 434% more indexed website pages
Blogs are Becoming the NEW Front Door
For many accounting firms, their blog is becoming the new front door into their website. And website analytics document that the first landing page is often within the blog (1st page new visitors see), the amount of time spent on the blog far outpaces regular website pages, and it generates more page views.
Branding Yourself and Developing a Following
If you have an area of concentration or a niche, a blog is a wonderful way to establish yourself as a knowledge expert and enables you to demonstrate your expertise. We often recommend that accounting firms that have an area of concentration or niche should blog on the niche website rather than the corporate (generalist) website for the accounting firm because it enables the blogger to write content that is more concentrated around a topic and enables search engines to better understand what the blog is about.
In today's world, blogging is becoming the new form of public relations. A well timed and provocative blog post can provide thousands of visitors to your website and create a following around something that is your passion. And even if nobody reads your first few blog posts, you can be assured that the search engines will find it and reciprocate by elevating your website placement in the search engine results pages.
As Nike would say, just do it! Get a blog integrated into your website.
Here are examples of accountants who are improving their SEO and creating a following:
Restaurant Accounting blog - Gift CPAs
Forensic Accounting blog - Fox