Websites - useful information

It depends off course on the type of pictures you are thinking of adding, but for business type pictures, you can look at the www.istockphoto.com website. Alternatively Google "stock photography" or "royalty free photos".

For pictures of your local area, stock photos might not be varied enough so you could try flickr and contacting the person who shot the photo you like and want to use.

Leo | Website design for accountants

I also like Fotolia 

-- www.maxxy.co.uk www.find-me-an-accountant.com Twitter:@maxinemaxxy

My understanding is that the vast majority of visitors to a website stay on it for less than 30 seconds - and often much less than 30 seconds.  So your site does need to make an immediate impact on the visitor - even if your total 'message' will take longer than 30 seconds to absorb you need to have captured their interest straightaway.

David

I am not an SEO expert but I am told that Google likes words and it also likes those words to change or be added to frequently.  It also likes unique words so stuff which is duplicated all over teh web doesn't give you as much SEO juice. It is aparently also best to keep each page for a specific topic so that Google can very easily understand what it is all about and index it highly for that topic.

Do you have any video taht can go on the site?  That is scoring higher these days because Google likes video which is probably why they bought you tube.

Lastly, do you have the other on page SEO done correctly.  Does the file name of each page contain your most importa key phrase for that page?  Have you tagged your header text as H1.

If you need proper help with SEO I cna put you in touch with somebody if you like.   If you want proper help with text then find a good copywriter.

I agree with zeofiles.

Websites are for prospects not for clients (in the main). You may have other target audiences too - incl prospective staff and partners as well as referrers and business collaborators. Also possibly the press/media. 

I've shared my views re accountants websites on my blog for ambitious professionals.

Good luck with yours.

Mark

www.BookMarkLee.co.uk/blog

...I know you did qualify that statement slightly.  However, who says you should just have one web site.  Your client web site should probably be whatever you are actually called.  The web site you use to attract new clients and strategic alliances etc. should probably be www.milton-keynes-accountant.co.uk obviously substituting where ever you are based in the domain name.  Find somebody is good at SEO or more particularly keyword research and ask them what is being most heavily searched for in your area.  Use those words with hyphens between them in a domain for a site that will attract the new clients and then link them through to your 'named' web site.

Obviously if your client base is not geographical and you have niche specialities then use that in an attraction domain name.

The other thing you can do for your clients is have a clienst only log in area where they get something extra special.  It will make them feel special and make other wonder what they are missing out on.

Fundamentally, have different sites for different purposes.  Good luck

Hi Mark, Re your first comment about the 250 words, on the whole I would say I agree with you: to rank a page for relatively competitive keywords a single page of 250+ words is probably the minimum. A cluster of pages with 250+ words is probably the best solution though with keyword variations for each versions of the page. So if you wanted to rank for "business cards", you'd have something like a page with 500+ words business cards (generic) and (for example) 4 other pages around this one: "what to put on your business card", "double sided vs single sided business cards", "what material can the cards be in", "unusual business cards from around the world"... all with 250+ word and pointing back to your main "business card" page.

Regarding the domain name choice though, I TOTALLY disagree with you. A company should try to establish a brand, and this is not possible with the keyword stuffed domain you mentioned. In the long run 9 times out of 10 a brand-able domain will win over a keyword based domain in SEO if the same amount of SEO effort is put in. If you want to include the word "accountant" in your domain that is fine, but ideally it should be your practice or trading name. People should also be encourage to Google your company and company + location, as it helps Google trust your domain name / brand more. Also having two domains targeting the same area just means twice the amount of SEO efforts.

Regarding what Lee said "websites are not for clients", I would agree this statement: websites are - primarily - for prospects. Clients can go there to do a few things (finding phone number, email, office address, map, pay fess online etc...) but your site should be designed to convert visitors into leads. And to do so, they need to be confident in what you are saying and the pre-packaged content @zeofiles mentioned is designed to gain that trust and make you look like a reliable, up to date tax and business information centre.

Leo | Websites for accountants

I agree with much of what has been said in particular David makes a good point about how long visitors stay on a website.  The first thing a website has to do with a visitor is get their attention followed quickly by keeping their interest; your header and first paragraph need to be keyword relevant and have impact.

A website needs to attract visitors who are prospective clients but who don't know about you, and to convert visitors to clients.  Your website should not stand-alone instead make it part of your marketing plan and use other online resources (e.g. blogs, article writing, etc.) to support it.

I agree with a length of 250 words as appropriate, when writing you need to think optimise for search engines and get the attention of the person who will read the post.

Gerry www.gerrycreedon.com

There's a mention of video, which I'd go along with as well as clear photos of all the staff. Worth paying to get these done well and then re-used on LinkedIn profiles and in any brochures/presentations. If you are selling a product, then pictures of the products are useful - you are selling a service delivered by the people, so that's what's important. Recognisable picture of the front of the building can be useful. I think local views add to the "comfort factor" for local businesses whether that's in one or more offices and, if there are some great views, then capture them.

All this is useful and helps to draw people in, once they've found you with your improved SEO. However, research I've seen suggests that people most often look at a website for the contact details; many want a phone number and an email address, with fewer using a "contact us" form. Existing customers are most likely to want the address and parking details or the phone number and rarely look at anything else unless you post newsletters, blogs and other current information.

I know you are probably the number one web expert in the Accountancy niche.  I use sub pages in my own site but didn't realise that this had real seo value and helped the main page.  That is great news.

I don't really understand why using a keyword domain will fall down over a brand based domain.  I was thinking that they would both have different content and that this was a solution to the problem of whether your web site really speaks to your existing clienst or the ones you want to attract.

Thanks again for bringing me up to date.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your kind words and re the cluster of pages, I forgot to add: that's where a blog comes in real handy. Your blog pages can be your cluster pages and the "main" page is part of your "corporate" website.

Regarding kwd based vs brand based domain: one of the main reasons you hear / read so much about keyword rich domains is not because of the weight search engines put in the keywords in a domain name (which is marginal) but rather the - relative - ease to get links back to your domain with an anchor text containing your keywords.

When a company buys 2 domain names (1kwd - 1 brand) and use both with two websites, I found that the kwd based domain is always only a shadow of the brand domain: pages are left out of date, there is no logo, no branding etc... which people will find difficult to associate with / trust and which, in the end, defeats the purpose of having the second domain (additional lead generation).

Which method do you find best in attracting clients to your website? Are google ad words worth it or are directories a good idea?

Hi Lucy, I guess it would depend on how much you are willing to invest? It also depends on what you mean by directories (Yell vs BOTW and the likes).

Each have their own pros and cons:

• Directories: you won't REALLY know (despite what their sales people say) how much traffic / leads you will get from their listing until you've tried them on.
• Adwords: it allows you to test the best keywords for your market (many hundreds, hopefully) but as soon as you stop paying your traffic flow will cease.

I mentioned it on Twitter before but Unbiased.co.uk have started taking Accountants details as a new section of their website. I think practices should sign up for this as I keep getting advised on forums and the likes to go there to find IFA's and mortgage brokers.

All have been alluded to but not, as far as I can see, emphasised.

Firstly, a website will be part of your marketing and promotional strategy - Not the whole of it, just as promotion is not the whole of marketing.

Secondly, no one else can say precisely what will work for your firm - So don't frame your thoughts and questions in that way!  You will need to find out for yourself, to collect ideas from a wide area, select a few at a time that you feel comfortable with, adapt them to you and your firm, then test them on a small scale and measure the effectiveness of each.  With the results available, stop doing what doesn't work, do more of what does work, and keep trying to find things that work even better.

Thirdly, as my namesake suggests, you need to grab and hold attention very quickly.  This demands hugely compelling, vastly "What's in it for me?" (WIIFM) headlines and value propositions/outcomes.  Anything without any WIIFM should not appear on any page that a visitor will first land on, unless they already know you well.

With a stunning headline, masses of value outcomes, and lots of calls to (the same - not confusingly different) action, you will find that the number of words on a page doesn't matter.

"When content is relevant, length is irrelevant!"

David Winch

Make Sales Without Selling and Get Paid What You're Worth