Think about this: You have limited hours in
the day to market the firm. There are competing pressures from partners on how to spend
your time and which activities take priority.
What should you do about an SEO program?
This article provides guidance on the issues
to consider when deciding how to implement
your firm’s program.
Web,” said Jolene Colant, marketing direc-
tor at CPA and consulting firm Hall Kistler
in Canton, Ohio. “The folks entrusted with
your SEO will continually keep up with word
rankings and demonstrate how their efforts
drove leads to your Web site.”
“Traffic, number of page visits, time on the
site, ranking for keywords we are trying to op-
timize, qualified leads that come through the
Web site’s contact form,” said Bonadio’s Fehr-
enbach. “Of course, the best leads are those
that come to our site from a keyword search
and requested to be contacted. They are gen-
erally further along in the sales cycle versus a
visitor that just fills out a contact form.”
“We regularly check the SEO analytics on
our site to evaluate where our links are com-
ing from, what keywords have been used to
find our site, and what pages/articles are be-
ing read most frequently,” said Hertzig. “This
information is important to understand what
people are looking for when they come to our
site. Ultimately, the true indicator of ROI can
be determined by going out to a search en-
gine, thinking like a prospect and typing in
key phrases to see where our firm is listed.”
There are no hard-and-fast rules about how
to track ROI. However, in my experience the
most commonly used metrics for tracking
performance include total number of visi-
tors, pages viewed, time on site, percentage
of new visitors, top five performing keywords,
top five referral sources, top five most visited
pages, and number of inquiries made through
the Web site.
SEO: In-house or outsource?
The trade-off between control and expertise
BY Brian SwanSon
Search engine optimization is a hot topic for many firms, partners and marketing managers. By
now, most firms understand what SEo is and why they should be investigating it as a marketing
strategy. There is little doubt that most even understand basic SEo strategies and tactics. However, one question that keeps coming up is whether it makes sense for an accounting firm to
outsource its SEo function or use internal marketing professionals to manage such projects.
“Yes. I think that SEO is a very important
function for the marketing department. ...
You need to be ranking when it comes to keywords for your industry in your geographic
reach,” said BCG’s Hertzig. “However, I see
the role of SEO as needing to go hand in hand
with the time dedicated and spent towards
having a reputable Web site. Yes, you want to
be found, but at the end of the day, you want
what your prospect finds to be something that
looks professional and provides information
they need.”
BENEFITS TO OUTSOURCING
When evaluating which option is the best for
your firm, it is important to understand the
benefits each approach offers. As you determine which makes the most sense for you,
several “value” variables should be assessed
to decide the best method for your firm.
“A key benefit to outsourcing would be you
have a dedicated team keeping on top of the
latest SEO strategies,” said Jennifer Fehren-
bach, senior marketing specialist at Top 100
Firm Bonadio & Co. “Equally as important is
that it would save you time.”
“One of the benefits of outsourcing is that
it ensures your Web site is receiving constant
SEO attention,” said Jennifer Hertzig, mar-
keting manager at CPA and consulting firm
Brockman, Coats, Gedelian & Co., in Akron,
Ohio. “The drawback to in-house, though, is
that there is never enough time in the day;
you can always be doing something to im-
prove your SEO.”
“The benefits of outsourcing SEO are the
promise of rank and being ‘found’ on the
BENEFITS TO MANAGING IN-HOUSE
“A major benefit to managing SEO in-house is
our ability to internally test, track and manage
results on a real-time basis,” said Fehrenbach.
“When we outsourced, we created a plan for
optimization that was done one time per year.
This was not nearly frequent enough to pro-
vide our team with valuable information to
keep the effort fresh.”
“The benefit of in-house is total control
over your SEO efforts,” said Colant. “This
works well if your marketing department is
Web-savvy and knowledgeable about the nu-
ances of ranking, content development and
keyword optimization.”
Each approach offers benefits that must be
considered. In our experience, this decision is
influenced by the condition of the firm’s Web
site (is it SEO-friendly?), available time, and
the desire of marketing managers to take on
another project in their schedule.
ADVICE FOR FIRMS
If you are currently in the process of deciding
whether to outsource SEO or manage it internally, there are several factors to consider.
Be sure to confer regularly with your partner
group to understand their expectations and
to help refine unrealistic expectations.
“If you want to start doing SEO in-house,
first do some research on what the latest
SEO trends are, because they change often,”
Hertzig suggested. “Type in some keywords
you would like to be ranked for and see who
is on the first page. Look through those sites
to see what they are saying. Don’t plagiarize,
but be cognizant of what words those sites
are using. Don’t write for yourself, write for
your readers.”
“If you are looking to an outsourced pro-
vider, do your homework and ask lots of ques-
tions,” said Colant. “Ask your partner group
for their expectations. If you are considering
an outsourced vendor to manage your SEO,
ask what they will do, how they will do it, what
the reports will include, and how often you
should expect to see them. Ask for case stud-
ies of other service firms and, if possible, find
out if it has worked for them.”
Brian Swanson is a principal with Flash-point Marketing, a marketing and lead-generation company focused on serving the
accounting profession. Reach him at (888)
428-6524 or bswanson@flashpointmarket-
ing.biz.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
An important component to managing any
marketing program is the ability to measure
return on investment. For firms considering
implementing an SEO program, it is important to know what type of information or metrics you should evaluate, regardless of who
is providing the services. Ultimately, these
metrics are critical to partners, as they need
to see “hard numbers” to understand exactly
what the firm is getting out of this effort.
IS SEO THE NEXT BIG THING?
“No. Creating quality content should be the
No. 1 focus. ‘If you build it, they will come’ is
the approach I like to take,” said Fehrenbach.
“Prospects become clients because they view
you as a thought leader, a real person and an
expert. If you want the search engines to like
you, give them something to like — fresh, relevant, timely content. SEO should take a back
seat to preparing good content.”
IN PERSPECTIVE
For those looking at SEO for the first time,
there are certainly many issues to consider.
Be sure to carefully review your expectations,
the time commitment to manage an SEO pro-
gram, the benefits of each approach, partner
interest, the state of your current Web site,
and the overall budget for SEO activities. An
honest assessment of these variables coupled
with the advice and information presented
herein will give you a head start in bringing
SEO to your firm. AT
The numbers we hear in the media are
sometimes skewed by ... the media. Gross
domestic product, unemployment claims, the
Consumer Price Index. These are important
to note, but are often revised and slanted to
meet the agenda of the guy (or the cable news
channel) interpreting the news. Most of the
metrics I noted above don’t get much atten-
tion from the mass media. But they’re all just
as important when trying to understand the
direction of the economy. And the numbers
are out there for you and (hopefully) a few
non-partisan economists to interpret. No one
I know is following all of these metrics. But
the smart guys I know are picking a couple
and watching them closely.
