Traditional SEO vs Local SEO: Which works best for Accounting Firms?

Look, before we say anything, the first thing to realize is that neither Traditional SEO or local SEO are inherently “better”. They’re both a set of tactics that work depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. That said, as an accounting firm, you actually DO have specific goals that might adhere to one strategy over the other. That’s not to say that you can’t use both (we do! We’re a company that provides local SEO services while also writing blogs that adhere to traditional SEO best practices). In the end, what we want to do here is to explore what these terms mean, how they work, and which one might be best for your company. 

What is traditional SEO? 

Traditional or keyword SEO involves creating content (usually blogs) that are keyworded with words or phrases that you’d like your company to rank for in Google. So for an accounting firm that could be writing a blog that uses “tax planning for businesses” many times. When Google indexes these pages, they’ll automatically scan your text and rank you accordingly. Then, the next time someone types that phrase into Google, you’ll ideally be one of the first sites that comes up. That means driving more potential leads to your site. How good are those leads? Well, more on that in a second.

What is local SEO? 

Local SEO is similar to traditional SEO, but really focuses on making sure your Google My Business page is ranking as high as possible in local search results. Why? Because often when a potential client is looking for someone, they want to be able to meet them face to face. That’s why Google values “accounting firms near me” so highly. To have good local SEO, you’ll need to do things like audit your site for listing errors, combat spam from competitors, and create valuable citation links that prove you are who you say you are. 

Which is better for accounting firms?

The short answer is that both of these tactics CAN be valuable to accounting firms. Here’s the problem with traditional SEO, that space is saturated already. If you’re trying to rank for a general keyword like, say “business accounting” you’ll have to deal with companies putting millions of dollars into their SEO strategy. While this can work better for specific keyword searches – say you do accounting for ballerinas, “accounting for ballerinas” is a search term you’d definitely be able to corner – it won’t work well for general searches. 

Instead, we recommend using that money to bolster your local SEO. It’s cheaper to start and leads to noticeable results much more quickly. Sure, your vanity metrics (like clicks) won’t be as high, since you’re not going out to the same national audience, but the things that matter actually WILL increase. We actually encourage our clients to have their cost per click go UP because it means they’re only getting valuable qualified leads. 

A good SEO strategy incorporates both but starts locally

Look, if you’re a highly specialized firm, you might find real value in keyword SEO searches. For most of you, you’re going to want to start with local SEO. It’s the best way to get value for a generalist firm at a price point that makes sense. The good news? It’s not hard to get started. If you’ve got more questions about local SEO, we’d love to talk. Send us a message and get started!