Understanding the different keyword searches prospects use to find you is essential for your marketing strategy and how you set up your website. If your tax or accounting business is solely referral driven, you want to optimize your firm and partners names within search. You will want to use social proof throughout. If you are getting prospects through non-branded search terms, you will design your content differently. In this Quick Hits video ClientWhys/CountingWorks PRO CEO, Lee Reams II will be discussing branded vs. non-branded search terms. What does this mean and why is this important to tax and accounting professionals? You will have two different user experiences when people are searching.

1. Non-branded search: they don't know who you are and they are searching with non-branded search terms such as - "city tax preparation" or "Newport Beach CPA"
2. For non-branded, you have to make sure your website is ranking for these terms and keywords.
3. If they do click on your link, what message are you sending them and how are you communicating with them?
4. Branded search: this is if someone is searching specifically for you or your firm.
5. For branded, it is important to know if they're a referral or are they a client already.
6. If a referral, it is important to show a lot of five-star reviews. If it is a client, it is important to get them the information they are looking for quickly, such as office hours, location, phone number, etc.

In the video below, Lee gives an example of a what a non-branded keyword search result looks like by googling the city and state of a CountingWorks PRO client. As you see in the video, you'll notice that the keywords he used ("city", "state", "CPA") are bolded within the search result. In any non-branded search, you'll want to make sure you're using the keywords in your meta titles and meta descriptions and including them in the body copy of the page. Furthermore, make sure that the content on the page is related to the search term. Basically, if someone is looking for a CPA, you want to have prospects land on either your homepage or a page with CPA related content.

He then moves on to do a branded search using the same client, Karen Drescher. When prospects are specifically searching you, it is important that your website is ranked number one. Using the example in the video below, you'll see that she has five-star reviews from TaxBuzz, CountingWorks and Google My Business. You'll also see that reviews are syndicated here. If this was a referral, it is a great way to welcome a new client. It is a good first impression for new clients to see so many five-star reviews about you and your tax or accounting practice. Whether or not your tax or accounting practice was found using branded or non-branded search terms, have landing pages that can connect people, including company information (such as location, contact number, bio and a professional photo) and having positive online reviews will increase the user experience for prospects and clients. All of these are important criteria to consider when you are building your website.Want to see more videos like this? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. See the full Quick Hits: What is the Difference Between Branded and Non-Branded SEO here. If you have any questions or would like more assistance in optimizing your own tax or accounting website, contact us today at 1-800-442-2477 or set up some time to speak with one of our digital marketing experts. We're here to help!