It's probably overwhelming to figure out like all the techie stuff you have to do to get your website to be found on Google. You might even have been avoiding this topic. But today we're going to talk about that.
I'm going to just break it down to six pretty simple things that you can do as a bookkeeper to help your website be found. And of course, the benefits to this is that you're going to get better clients, they're going to be able to find you the right types of clients are going to find you. So I would encourage you to just take a couple days and start implementing maybe just a couple of these six ideas.
And I do have a couple other videos just on the basics of building a bookkeeper website. If you are at that point, maybe check out those videos and then come back for this search engine optimization. You can check out those videos if that is more your speed right now.
All right, and I'm going to be referring to SEO, which is search engine optimization. So that just means optimizing your website so it is found in a search engine, pretty much always Google. All right, number one, create a Google business profile.
And so I'm going to have a link in the description box of where you can go to do this. And so that's just basically like on Google Maps, if someone's looking for a bookkeeper in your area, they're going to find you. And you can do it even without an address, as long as at some point you make in person contact with customers, which is usually the case. like I'll meet someone at a coffee shop or something. Number two is use customer review sites.
So there's sites out there that you know of Google, Yelp, even Facebook. These reviews are actually sending signals to Google that there's like buzz out there about your business, about your website. So you'll see these first three actually all have to do with like creating buzz surrounding your business.
So not only are reviews good for you to get in the habit of collecting, it's also going to help your SEO. as people are posting on these external sites. And number three kind of goes along with both of these, and that is called build backlinks. So that means other websites linking back to your website. So maybe if you were a speaker at the Chamber of Commerce, have them include your website as like a link, like here, contact me.
Or if you have like a small network of bookkeepers, maybe you guys can do backlinks to each other's websites. Maybe if you're a guest on a podcast, or if you... answer some QuickBooks online questions. Anywhere you can, post your website so that you're able to link back because that is building those backlinks and raising your website's authority. So you can see the first three were all about things that you can do externally.
So if someone's looking on Google Maps and then your website is within that Google Maps, then that is, your website is showing up different places around the internet. And if you have any questions about these things, let me know in the comments. I'm not an expert, but I have done research and I've just been learning about it for the past like five years in my own business.
So I am trying to explain things pretty concisely. Really, like each one of these things could probably be its own video. So let me know if there's something you want to learn more about also. All right, number four is optimize your website.
behind the scenes. So this is kind of like some of like the techie stuff that you can include in your website. So I use Squarespace, I used to use Wix, but a lot of these website platforms will have the same capabilities. The most important page is of course your homepage. If you watch the other video I mentioned, I talk about building a story brand.
and exactly how to make calls to actions. And just like a clear button someone can click to set up a meeting with you. All right, and then think about meta descriptions. So when you Google something, there's like a little preview.
There's like two little lines that come up that start to tell you something about that website. So people read those little meta descriptions and that's what helps inform their decision. Like, do I wanna actually visit this website? So within Squarespace, I can go in and update that meta description.
And you can do that for each page of your website if you have multiple pages. In your website platform, there's also going to be title tags. So that is similar to what I just talked about, but it's a short description that shows up in different places. Like if someone's deciding to click on a link, they'll see the little title, usually when you hover over it, and it appears differently in different places.
You can also do that alt text. So if you have a photo, a picture, it'll ask you to describe what is in that picture. And I believe the purpose of that is actually for visually impaired people.
But all of these markers, all of these keywords are going to help give Google as much information as they can about your website. And that is going to, in the big picture, help your SEO. All right, speaking of keywords, there are places you can go to search on what the best keywords are for your...
business and your area and your niche and your industry. So in the past, I've used something called keywords everywhere and they have a free version and I think they also have a paid version. So maybe some of the keywords you can try out is bookkeepers in the tri-state area, accounting for veterinarians, maybe some of the service you provide like bookkeeper cleanup or tax prep.
So try out some of these keywords in that keyword generator and usually it will give you a good idea of what you're looking for. words you should be using and then sprinkle those words in as naturally as possible on your website. All right, next thing for your website, write it in simple language. So they say usually like a fifth grade level is about right. All right, and the last part of this behind the scenes section is Create a site map.
So even if you've never heard of this before if you don't know what it is It's not that hard to do. Okay, let's see if I can explain this So a site map helps Google crawl your website So crawling means basically like they read through the whole thing See what it's all about and then they're able to target the right people and suggest the website to the right people So you want your website to be crawled and I'll leave a website linked about how to do this You do it through the Google search console and it's really easy to set to get set up in there. And then there are a few steps to follow in order to get this site map. All right, on to number four is increase your website speed.
So if your website loads really slowly, Google does not like that and they will not prioritize showing your website to people. So I'm going to link pagespeed.web, I think, for you guys. And you can put in your website URL in there and it will tell you a ranking of how fast or slow your site is.
And then you can figure out how to fix it. So maybe you have a lot of really large images. can you make those images smaller size, like less pixels, I guess, so that it won't take as much memory when your site is trying to load. And kind of a tangent from this, make sure your website is mobile friendly.
So you probably already know to do this, a lot of people are going to be using their phones to like your website. So like on Squarespace, there's just a little button you can press to look, what does my website look like on a phone versus on a desktop? So make sure you don't ignore that little button.
Number six is create a blog for your website. And again, this could be a whole nother video. But this is just giving Google more content to look for and increases your authority and your credibility. So maybe go out there and look and see what some other bookkeepers are doing.
What are they writing about to attract their customers in their niche, and then you can use that as an inspiration. And then you can write your own post on a similar topic. And don't forget to do that keyword research like I've talked about earlier. Make sure your content is unique. And I do not recommend just using ChatGPT to write blog posts for you.
I'm guessing Google is pretty wise to that. So you're going to want to make it in your own voice. Other blog tips include graphics. And don't forget to add that alt text, those little descriptions about the images. That makes it visually appealing as well.
and strategically add links. So you'll probably want to link to your own website as well as to external websites. So maybe if you have another blog post that relates and they're like, oh, like I do in my videos, I'm like, oh, I have another video about this thing. Go check out that one next. And I did find a really helpful article about blogs as well that I will link for you.
So basically, if you want to dive into any of these, I should have a link to give you more info and literally just start with one at a time. I do know it's overwhelming and it's probably not your favorite part. of owning your bookkeeping business. Maybe it is. I mean, I kind of like making my website, but if you're planning to be a bookkeeper for the long haul, I really do think it is worth it to invest your time into some of these things.