SEO Changes for Accountants in 2015

The search engine optimization (SEO) landscape is constantly changing and dynamic. Here are the things that we see changing and the implications for your accounting practice.

1. Local Search gets more important and specific – The use of mobile phones and tablets now represents 50% of internet usage and search engines are improving their proximity based searches (e.g., physical distance from searcher to business location). This means the role of maintaining your listings within Google My Business, Yelp, YP.com, and smaller local websites will take on a greater role. Second, the location of your office becomes more important as well because search engines will steer their results to providers closest to the prospects physical location.
2. Social Signals become more important – The value of having online reviews in Google, Yelp and other review websites will take on a greater role.
3. Voice search will become popular – Voice based search capabilities within smart phone and smart watches will catch on, thus making Local Search critical to this feature.
4. Bing and Yahoo gain market share in 2015. Google will lose a little market share as Firefox switches to Yahoo as the default setting and some mobile browsers re-evaluate their options (Safari, etc.).
5. Content Oriented Accountants grow faster – As more accountants embrace content marketing to support their inbound marketing efforts, more accountants will become adept at driving prospects from Google+ and LinkedIn to their blog, thus supporting their website placement and creating a local following. Yes, savvy accountants will be forced to embrace blogging to obtain top placement within search engines.
6. Responsive websites become imperative – Now that half of the internet usage is from mobile devices, being search engine optimized for mobile devices will become important as well. That means that nearly all websites that have been around for longer than two years will become dated and need to be redone. If your website is not responsive, it will be analogous to having a flip cell phone.