Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/42507
FROM THE TRENCHES M Websites: Your New Front Door Most of us have built our businesses based on relationships. Some have built a reputation around a specific expertise. Others have built a business based on service levels. All of these strategies are still extremely important, but an increasingly important factor in the last 15 years is being found on the web. Many of us are not trying to build a national business, but as new, younger clients look for services, they are oſt en turning online. Potential clients with more specifi c needs are also using Internet search to fi nd new sources of expertise. T ere are clear factors that make certain web presences stand out more than others: design, readability, ease of navigation, ability to be found by search engines, localization including local search, and the ability to run in diff erent browsers on diff erent devices. Your website should support your business model, and that may well include portal capability, integration of online accounting, news feeds and content that you produce yourself through social media. If you have a relatively static "yellow page" website that merely lists team members and services, you are highly unlikely to attract new business to the fi rm. T at approach is "so" last decade. Before I explain the options available, I'd like you to consider your website as it stands today. Would you be pleased and honored to have unknown guests visit your site? Does it represent the quality and values of your fi rm? Is your site understandable? To test this, ask your family members, friends or non-employee associates to evaluate your site with you. Although this is clearly an amateur approach, it will give you an immediate sense about the issues with your site. Consider your goals for the fi rm's website. Are these clearly communi- cated and accomplished? What do you want the website to do for your fi rm? If your current website is accomplishing everything you want it to, well, excellent for you! If not, you are now ready for a conversation with a website professional. IF YOU HAVE A MARGINAL WEBSITE, OUTSIDERS WILL PERCEIVE THAT YOUR SER- VICES ARE MARGINAL, TOO. You can acquire or build websites multiple ways, but there are three methods that dominate. T e fi rst is to obtain a site from a provider that has canned content and templates, usually for a small upfront fee and a relatively low recurring monthly expense. Most tax and accounting fi rms take this approach since it carries the least expense. Examples of this approach include CCH Site Builder, T omson Reuters Web Builder CS, Build Your Firm, Emochila, CPASiteSolutions, CPAsites, etc. (see page 27 for more information on these tools). T e second method involves greater risk Randy Johnston Mr. Johnston is executive vice president and partner of K2 Enterprises and Network Management Group, Inc. He is a nationally recognized educator, consultant and writer with over 30 years' experience. He can be contacted at randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com. and expense. T is is where expertise is sought out, sometimes locally and sometimes from a national or international resource. T ese sites are oſt en built based on a local referral, and the hope is that you get a customized site with a unique look and feel. T e issue with this method is that when the website programming resource becomes disinterested or unavailable, you may have to rebuild your entire site. Sometimes the programmers of custom sites can commit to other projects and become unavailable for maintenance or updates. T e third method involves a hybrid of the two other approaches, where professional design and marketing is used on a site and content updated inside these wireframes or designs. Sites built with this technique are cleaner with clearer messaging than the template sites using canned content. Examples of these types of sites include the work being done by the RootWorks team or by Network Management Group, Inc.'s WebCare team. Here are a few technical design principles that all sites should follow. 1) Never host your website in-house. T e security risk is too high. 2) Use a content management system, such as Joomla. 3) Make a signifi cant part of your website visible "above the fold" (not requiring visitors to scroll down). 4) Include social media integration using YouTube video feeds, RSS feeds, Twit er, Facebook, etc. 5) Make your website usable on mobile devices. 6) Build your website so it follows search engine optimization (SEO) rules, although they change over time. Search engines view D headlines E fi rst paragraph content F hidden site description (should contain between 25 and 100 words) the following: B domain name C page title (with 14 words in the title currently best) G remaining visible content H links between other sites I hidden keywords Your content management system may help with some of these items, but your website builder's thoughtful design can make a noticeable diff erence in your organic or unmanipulated search engine results. Including items like the cities where you operate, key areas of expertise, and other keywords to help people fi nd you and your site can make a big diff erence, but you can do bet er. All sites need SEO. T e tips in the pullout above are a start, but the steps to do opti- mization right takes an SEO professional's touch, some thoughtful setup and guidance from you, and hours (two to 30) of work each month. T e heart of SEO is keywords. It generally takes about 40 hours to properly develop a keyword list and get these keywords into the code portion of the website. T en, the keywords need to be used in the text on each page of the site. T is is where SEO starts … not ends, as many people think. T e goal is that you appear on the fi rst page of the major search engines when using the search terms that potential clients use to fi nd you. It's not an exact science because the engines don't divulge why they rank things the way they do. T rough a community that thrives on testing theories, there have been tried-and- true methods that are known to increase rankings. Oſt en, these discoveries lead to spammers exploiting it, and then the engines respond by adjusting their algorithm. A focus on the end user experience (providing fresh, relevant content in a quick and easy manner) will lead to the best long-term results, not "chasing the algorithm." See page 22 for some basic SEO tips. Since the majority of all web visits start at a search engine, it is important to ensure that a search strategy is included in the overall website design process. Simple design or programming decisions can have a signifi cant impact on rankings and can remove from search engines entirely. The trick is to understand how people look for you to select the right terms to optimize. SEO can make a huge diff erence in your results, but it is not cheap. Typical SEO services vary in cost from $500 to $1,000 per month or more. Good SEO is expensive, but it does deliver a very good ROI if done correctly with a good website. However, if you add just one client that pays fees of $10,000 or more per year or for a single project, this marketing expense has more than paid for itself. Consider your web presence. If you have a marginal website, outsiders will perceive that your services are marginal, too. If you do the right work with the right professionals, you will have an image that is professional, conveys your key messages, works on multiple browsers and platforms, and allows you to be found easily in your local market. So how much is one client worth? October 2011 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 21