Five or so years ago, listing your CPA site online may have been optional, but that is no longer the case. The internet has become the prime source of where people get their information. That includes local businesses like accounting offices.
Waiting any longer to list your accounting practice online could give your competition a further advantage and cause you to lose out on yet more customers. Stem the flow of phone calls and clients that are being diverted from your practice and channel them where they belong: in your appointment book.
When you list your accounting practice online with sites like Google, Yelp and Bing, you gain so many advantages, even it is just a bare bones listing. Here are just some of the benefits you earn:
- Relay Crucial Information
Even long-time clients of yours will become frustrated if you neglect to create an information portal for them online. They will want to know vital facts like your accounting practice’s address, phone number, office hours and your main website address.
New prospects will especially want this information to help weigh their judgment over whether or not they can visit based on the distance from them, how long you are open and other such criteria. Recognize that even if someone has visited your site hundreds of times, they may be looking for a convenient source to look up your phone number or address to punch it directly into their smartphones. Listing your accounting practice online with sites like Google helps them find that info instantly and click to call or get turn-by-turn directions.
- Earn New Client Leads
80 percent of consumers are now using search engines to find local businesses and services in their area. Anytime they have a need, they turn to their smartphone or desktop computer to look it up. Not having your site listed makes it harder to pull up your website or include your practice in local results when people search for a accountant in their area.
If you are not listed and you have an out of date site, you have effectively disappeared from their radar. Since 50 percent of consumers perform local business searches with the intent to visit, missing out on these leads means missing out on revenue your practice needs to grow or simply stay afloat.
- Control Your Online Image
Do you know what you customers are saying about you online? It may be nasty, or it may be flattering. In either case, by not having an official listing on sites like Google or Yelp you have a slimmer chance of having the reviews in one place and having them linked directly to your site. You also want to ensure that information like your business hours or phone number is up-to-date.
With a listing on sites like these, you avoid duplicate entries or reviews that end up nowhere. Imagine someone who had a great experience accidently talking about it on “Joe’s accounting” instead of your proper business name. Ensure that your information is accurate, aggregated in one place and compatible with neat features like Google maps integration or Yelp Top 10 lists.
The truth is that all of these reasons make it extremely important to list your accounting practice online so that people may be out looking for local businesses. If you really think that it still does not seem like that big of a deal, read our post on the power of online reviews from sites like Yelp and Google can have for your accounting practice.
