Copywriting, domains,hosting, building an accountancy website can be confusing.
If you are brand new to digital marketing then there are an array of terms that you need to get to understand.
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a guide for what to do and when, until now.
This is that quick guide. The steps you need to get your accountancy website up and running.
Step 1 Choose your domain name.
Imagine this like the plot to build your house on. You can’t build your house until you have a plot of land and your domain is like the house.
Domains have a name and a suffix, sometimes called a level.
For example, a .com domain is a top-level, whereas with a .co.uk domain the .co is the top level and the .uk is the second level.
There are all sorts of different types with .com being an almost universal signifier generally denoting US based businesses.
You can go for a country (like .co.uk) or you can go for an industry type suffix like .biz, .photo, or .online
Step 2 Sort out a host
To use an other simile, hosting is a bit like renting a desk in a coworking space. You rent small to start with and often there will be a package deal with a certain amount of space and you can get your mail sent there.
With hosting you point your domain to the host, your email will come through the host’s servers and when you need more space or services then you just buy them.
Step 3 Set up your website.
I always use WordPress to produce a website. In yet another simile WordPress is like excel.
You use excel to produce a spreadsheet but all it does is produce a blank sheet, you have to sort out the numbers yourself.
Now you can use a template for excel which will make your numbers look pretty but again, you still have to produce the numbers.
In the same way you can use a selection of free or paid for templates that will make your site look cool or professional, but you have to sort out the words, images and videos.
Step 4 Sort out the content
The starting point is to produce the ‘pages’ for your site. These are the general pages that tell people about you, how to get in touch etc.
Generally speaking, I suggest to my customers that the minimum you need are Home, Services, About and Contact pages.
These will give you the bare minimum.
Then you look to produce content in ‘posts’.
They look very similar to pages to the reader but you can think of these like the individual pages of a magazine, each will have a subject and together they go together to produce the magazine.
You should use a marketing plan to decide what to write in your posts.
Step 5 – organise your SEO
There are two types of SEO:- on-page and off-page.
On page SEO is all about making sure your keywords are properly presented in your writing, that the text is presented in a style that is friendly for search engines and that the content is engaging for the reader.
Off-page SEO is all done in the back end. It’s not visible to the viewer but Google loves it.
Off-page SEO covers things like making sure your site loads quickly, is good for mobile, tablets and desktops and has the structural aspects needed to please search engines.
Step 6 – publicise your site
Imagine opening a shop and not bothing to put a sign up outside and not telling anyone you were open.
This is the big mistake people make with websites – they think that it is enough to get a well SEO’d site sorted and then people will flock to it.
This is not the case.
You need to get the word out by telling people what is going on.
This is done by building links to different sites, by advertising and py putting links to your posts on social media like LinkedIn.
Step 7 – Keeping it up
Step 7 is simple, it’s about keeping the content production going.
Producing regular, interesting and useful content will help your site rise through the ranking and, in turn, attract more visitors.
Doing 6 posts and stopping is pretty pointless and looks really bad.
Set up an agreement with a content producer (me) to get regular posts on your site so that you start to hit your important keywords.
Digital marketing for accountants is relatively easy
Digital marketing for accountants isn’t rocket surgery but it does take application and effort.
I’ve produced a free guide you can download that gives you all the information you need to set up your digital marketing process for your accountancy practice and you can find it here.
Contact me if you need help
I’m a digital marketing bod and I specialise in working with accountants and professional services.
I can set up your site, write the content and make sure it is SEO compliant.
Give me a shout and let’s have a chat about getting you more clients.