SEO. Guide for Partners. Beautiful accounting software

Transcription

1 SEO Guide for Partners Beautiful accounting software

2 Introduction 1 What is SEO and why is it important? 2 SEO suggestions for Xero Partners 4 Example co-branded page 8 Example optimised page 9 Resources 10 General SEO suggestions 11 Further reading on SEO 13 Appendix Xero branding 14 Glossary 15

3 PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION This guide provides general advice on search engine optimisation (SEO). After reading it, you will be familiar with basic SEO methods, which you can use to optimise your website. The goal is to make it easier for search engines and customers to find your site. Before you jump in, it s important to note that SEO is complex and there is no guarantee of success. Your website ranking can be affected by competitor s efforts, algorithm updates, and other factors outside your control. Luckily, the basics are fairly easy to understand and implementing them can drastically improve your website. If you don t see results immediately, don t worry! SEO is an ongoing process a marathon, not a sprint. The guide contains: An explanation of what SEO is how it works and why it s an important online marketing tool. Our suggestions for Xero partners these are practical steps you can take to ensure the Xero section/s of your website are more likely to be found by search engines. General SEO guideance you can use this as a starting point to improve your whole website. Further reading on SEO extra information on some of the tips discussed in this guide.

4 PAGE 2 This is what a web page looks like to a user. This is what the code looks like. WHAT IS SEO AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Search engines are a popular tool used by small businesses to find new accountants, so SEO is a great way to generate leads for your firm. Here s a breakdown of some of the basics: What does SEO mean? In simple terms, SEO means making it easy for search engines to find your website. The goal of the process is to get traffic to your website, from search engines, without paying for advertising. The higher your website appears on a search results page (known as a SERP ), the more visitors it is likely to get. To succeed at search engine optimisation, everything that makes up your site should be written or labelled in a way that search engines can understand. Your site is made up of many elements, including the content and images on the page and the code behind it all of which search engines consider. This process is known as organic, natural, or unpaid search marketing (as opposed to paid search). In other words, if you want anyone to find your website without paying for advertising, your success depends on SEO.

5 PAGE 3 So why is SEO important? Say you re looking for some new potted plants. If you wanted to find Percy s Plantland* in Sydney, you might type Percy s plants Sydney into google.com.au. It comes up first because it s an extremely close match for the search term. However, if you don t know the name of the store, and just type plant shop Sydney, Greta s Gardenworld* comes up first Percy s Plantland doesn t even appear on the first page. You don t want to be the Percy s of the accounting world you want to be the Greta s. You want as many people as possible to find your site, even if they haven t heard of you. People generally accept that higher- ranking websites are generally more trustworthy and informative. SEO is the key to making this happen for your business s online presence. You want to appear at the top of search results. Okay, so why is SEO important for accountants? Just like any other business, you want your website to be as close to the top of the search results as possible. If someone searches for Xero accounting partner Sydney or accounting and financial advice Sydney, you want to rank for these terms. Think about your key services and make sure you have information about them on your site so that search engines can find them. How does SEO work? There are many factors that search engines take into account. Google has previously revealed that their algorithm assesses roughly 200 variables. Some of the basic ways to maintain a website that appeals to both users and search engines include: making sure you use relevant, descriptive keywords for your titles, copy, URLs, and images having fresh, relevant information on your site creating content that other people want to share and link back to. Make sure you re using SEO correctly There are penalties in place for websites who employ unethical, black hat SEO practices such as keyword stuffing or spamming. Google can actually recognise these methods, and will penalise the guilty website by pushing them further down the rankings than they would have been otherwise. This is another reason it s important to talk to an expert about SEO for your website, as they can help steer you in the right direction. * Percy s Plantworld and Greta s Gardenworld are fictional businesses.

6 PAGE 4 SEO SUGGESTIONS FOR XERO PARTNERS The following suggestions will help you get started with SEO for your website. For the purpose of this guide, we ve created a fictional accounting practice: Superawesome Accountants, located in Sydney. We recommend handing the tips below on to your web team, or if you manage your site on your own you could allocate it to a tech- savvy member of your team to work through on a Friday afternoon. Xero Partner logo and Partner banners The Xero partner logo should appear in the header, footer or sidebar of your home page, and on your Xero co- branded page. Every occurrence of the Xero Partner logo on your website should link to xero.com. This URL should contain a special code which will cause a Partner banner to appear at the top of every page on the Xero website. This banner will encourage potential customers to Get special package pricing and services with Superawesome Accountants. Check out this video for more information: If you re already using a partner banner link, make sure it has the appropriate region -specifier (/nz, /au, /us or /uk) in the URL. These were introduced more recently, so you may need to update it for your site. Every link on your website sending traffic to xero.com should contain the partner banner info. Naming images Search engines can t see images like a person can, so they read the details applied to it. File names are what you have saved the image as. They don t have to sound like poetry, just make sure they are descriptive, as opposed to Screenshot or photo_103. Use hyphens (not underscores) to separate the words. Make sure to use lowercase letters only (no capitals). The alt text is what will appear if the image isn t showing up for some reason. It is the most important element for image SEO. It is also what a screen reader will read out for people with vision impairments, so that they can understand what the image is showing. It should provide a brief explanation of the image. The title text is the words that appear when you hover your cursor over an image. It should elaborate on what you established in the alt text sort of like a caption. For example, take a look at the Gold Partner image to the right. When you use a Partner-specific URL to link to xero.com, a banner like this will appear at the top of each page on the site. Your country should appear in the URL for any links to xero.com

7 PAGE 5 A good file name for this image is xero- online -accounting- logo Alt text should read something like Xero accounting software Gold Partner logo Title text should prompt people to Find out more about small business accounting with Xero HTML tags HTML forms the building blocks of your website it is used to create font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on your website. There are some HTML tags that search engines will read, and others that are important for click- through rates (the percentage of people who click through to your website from a search engine results page) and user experience. Title tags the title tag is the text that appears at the top of browser tab or the top center of the web browser. It is also the heading that appears in search engine results pages. Note that this is one of the most important, valuable elements of on-site SEO. Xero Gold Partner image Title tags briefly state what the webpage is about they should be no more than 65 characters, as this is all that Google displays. The recommended formula is Keyword Brand Name. This means your homepage title tag might read something like Finance & Accounting Advice Superawesome Accountants. The title tag for your page about Xero should say something like Xero Accounting Software Superawesome Accountants Meta description the meta description is the blurb about a page that appears in search results. It is recommended that this description doesn t exceed 155 characters, as this is usually all that will be displayed by a search engine. Google does not factor meta descriptions into search engine rankings but a descriptive meta will encourage a searcher to click through to your website. So make sure you include an enticing call to action! It s also helpful to include a keyword as Google will bold phrases that match the search term. This will help pull the eye of the searcher to your listing and encourage them to click through to you site. A good meta description for your homepage might be something like We offer a range of financial & accounting services to small businesses including [insert core services, eg Xero accounting software, tax advice, etc]. The meta description for your page about Xero could read something like Superawesome Accountants offer a range of financial & accounting services to small businesses. We are a Xero accounting software certified partner. H1 tag the H1 tag is one of most important elements for search This is how a title and meta description look in a search engine results page.

8 PAGE 6 engines. It should be applied to the heading, title or first sentence of a page the most important, key phrase. For example, on the xero.com home page, the H1 is used on Beautiful accounting software, which serves to describe the page, highlight keywords and fit with our branding. Accountants and bookkeepers should apply an H1 tag to every page on their website. Ideally, only one H1 tag shouled be used per page. For your homepage, something like Superawesome Accountants top financial and accounting advice in Sydney works as it is both descriptive and uses keywords. For your page about Xero, you should use it on the heading, which should read something like Xero accounting software, Xero online accounting or Xero small business accounting software. There are also H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 tags, applied to text in that order of importance, ie, if H1 is the most important heading, H6 is the least important. You don t have to use all of these tags, but you may find them useful. Anchor text Anchor text is the words used to link to another webpage, both on your own site or an external site. A common mistake people make is using words like click here or find out more as anchor text. These phrases mean nothing to search engines, as they are very generic. It s important that you use descriptive text to tell search engines where the link is going. For example, if you are linking internally, you might write contact us to find out more about pricing contact us should link to your contact page, and pricing should link to your pricing page, if you have one. For anchor text that has a link to xero.com, you should use keywords like: The H1 tag is applied to the page heading to tell search engines the text is particularly important. accounting software small business accounting online accounting Remember to use the partner -specific URL it can be used for any page on xero.com. Xero co- branded page Using Financial Reporting as anchor text tells users and search engines where the link is taking them.

9 PAGE 7 Having a page specifically about Xero will improve both SEO and the user experience of your site. Why? Search engines: See that you have content relevant to search queries like Xero accounting partner or small business accounting software. Users: Find the information they need without having to leave your site or do a Google search to find out more. Ideally, it should be clearly linked- to via the navigation menu on your home page. The URL for this page should contain relevant keywords. Make sure all letters are lowercase and seperated by hyphens not by underscores or any other smybol. For example, a good URL for a Xero co-branded page should look something like: accounting- software The page should contain around words describing what Xero is and the benefits it offers small businesses. Here s an example which you can use notice the use of keywords (highlighted), one per paragraph. See the Resources section of this guide for images and video you can use. Make sure to use hyphens, not underscores to seperate keywords in a URL. For Google, hyphens seperate words, but underscores join them together in one long word. You can find an example of a co-branded page overleaf feel free to use the words on your own page.

10 PAGE 8 EXAMPLE CO-BRANDED PAGE Xero accounting software Xero is small business accounting software 1 that runs in the cloud. This means all your financial data is stored online so you can access it anywhere, anytime, from any device with an internet connection. The Xero accounting application was designed specifically for small businesses. It s easy to use and will save you incredible amounts of time, transforming the way you run your business. Small businesses actually say they find using Xero fun! Cloud accounting Cloud-based accounting systems like Xero run in real-time, which means your data is always up-to-date. There s only one version of it, so you can connect from the office, at home or on-the-go no more being tied to your desktop! Collaborate online Xero uniquely provides a single platform where small businesses and their advisors can collaborate easily online. You can choose who you want to give access to your financial data, then log in and look at the same figures at the same time, without any complicated processes. Xero features All of Xero s features have been created to make small business accounting easier. They include: Bank reconciliation Online invoicing Mobile access Financial reporting Purchase orders File attachments Payroll World-class security Unlimited users Unlimited support Bill payments Bank feeds Invoicing Expense claims Fixed asset depreciation What s really exciting is that Xero s features are constantly growing and adapting to the needs of small businesses and all updates are free! Xero works with hundreds of Add-on apps Xero integrates with a large network of Add-on applications 2 to help you manage all aspects of your business. These include point of sale, time tracking, inventory management, invoicing and job systems plus a wide range of other specialised software. Try Xero for free If you d like to revolutionise the way your small business does accounting, Superawesome Accountants can help you set up a free trial of Xero. If you do decide to sign up, you ll only pay a small, monthly, pay-as-you-go subscription fee. There are no contracts or setup costs and you can easily upgrade or downgrade your package at any time. To find out why small businesses all over the world love doing their accounting online with Xero, contact us 3 today. 1 Link to 2 Link to 3 Link to your website s contact page.

11 PAGE 9 EXAMPLE OPTIMISED PAGE Here is an example of an optimised page for our fictional practice Superawesome Accountants. They want to rank for the keyword online accounting so they have created the following page. Online Accounting Superawesome Accountants Title tag (uses keyword in the page title). URL contains keywords, seperated by a hyphen Online accounting is easy with Superawesome Accountants online accounting H1 used for page heading. The H1 is a tag applied in the source code of a web page. It s used for the most important words on the page. First keyword in the body of the text. It is used as anchor text to link to more information/source. Photo of laptop, tablet & mobile Photo description online accounting Relevant image with the following: File name: Online-accounting Alt text: Online accounting on the go Title text: Access your online accounting anywhere, anytime. H2 used for sub-heading. The H2 tag is similar to H1, but for the second-most important information. online accounting online accounting Meta description gives a brief summary of the page and contains the keyword.

12 PAGE 10 RESOURCES Embedded Xero video See our YouTube channel for videos to use on your website simply rightclick and copy the embed code: Xero product photos A selection of Xero product photos are avalible for download from our press kits avalible at Xero Partner Communication Guidelines If you re not familiar with our Xero Partner Communication Guidelines, take a look here:

13 PAGE 11 GENERAL SEO SUGGESTIONS Below is a list of the techniques we have used to come up with suggestions for Xero partners. You will recognise many of these methods from the previous section. It will be helpful to consider these points when thinking about SEO for your site. Content/text The more descriptive website content is, the easier it is for Google to understand what the purpose of a site is (and match it to related search queries). Try and add fresh content regularly to help your site stay on Google s radar. If you have a blog, this can be a great channel for providing new, topical articles to existing and potential customers. Alternatively, the pages on your website can be filled with descriptive content that search engines and users will value. Readability Search engines assess the readability of the text on a page, so it s important to use plain English where possible don t use jargon. Try to keep sentences under 20 words, and vary their length. Use subheadings to break up long sections of text. If you re not sure about whether something you ve written is easy to understand, make sure it s proofed and edited. Get someone in your office or team who has a knowledge of writing to take a look. It might also be helpful to look at a book like Writing a Good Blog for Dummies. A blog is a great way to attract people to your site with valuable, relevant information. Keywords Keywords (search terms such as accounting practice or small business accounting ) are one of the ways search engines recognize how relevant a webpage is to a search query. Therefore, it s important to use keywords that are descriptive and related to the webpage or website in question. Try to use keywords in your on page content and HTML. Make sure you don t resort to keyword stuffing : using keywords that aren t directly relevant or over using keywords so they sound unnatural. Links When search engines scan your text, they pay close attention to where any links go and what the anchor text (the highlighted text that takes you to a new webpage) says. Search engines view links as a vote of authority. The more quality links to a particular site on the web, the more authoritative that site is to search engines. However, links to and from spammy, non informational sites can actually be harmful to SEO efforts, as search engines will see these links as an unfair way to generate votes. If you are linking to other sites and vice versa (for

14 PAGE 12 SEO purposes or otherwise), make sure the websites are high- quality and have a legitimate purpose for existing. So just remember search engines will judge you by who your friends are! URLs URLs should tell both searchers and search engines what a page is about. You can achieve this by using descriptive keywords seperated by hyphens and capital letters. Anchor Text The anchor text helps search engines understand what the webpage being linked to is about. Using keywords you want to rank for as anchor text (like financial advice or Sydney accountants ) is more beneficial than using a phrase like click here or read more. An example of poor anchor text and good anchor text HTML structure Making the most of your HTML structure by including descriptive words and phrases helps with SEO. Like links, Google pays close attention to the content in specific HTML tags, including: Title The word or phrase displayed in a browser tab or the top center of the web browser. A title provides concise insight to what the site is about. It should be no more than 65 characters. The recommended formula is Keyword Brand Name. H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 Heading tags should be applied to descriptive headlines. H1 is the most prominent and usually used to describe the webpage as a whole. The H1 tag carries the most weight with search engines, and should be used once per page. H2 normally acts as a sub headline or a headline used to break up on page content. H3 and so on are headlines within the H2 tag and can be used as needed. Meta description The description of the website and webpages displayed on Google search results (below the clickable title). It is recommended that this description not exceed 155 characters. Google does not factor meta tags into search engine rankings but a descriptive meta tag can encourage a searcher to click on your website. Make sure to include an enticing call to action and the page s main keyword. Alt tag Description of the image on a webpage. Search engines cannot read the image itself, so they rely on alt tags for this purpose. Images In addition to alt tags, search engines look at image file names (what you ve saved the image as) and image titles (the text that displays when you hover over the image). File names should be brief and descriptive, with words separated by hyphens (not underscores). Title text should elaborate on the alt text sort of like a caption. It can also serve as a call to action, encouraging users to find out more.

15 PAGE 13 FURTHER READING ON SEO Here s a list of recommended reading if you want to find out more about SEO, or get a further explanation of some of the techniques discussed in this guide. Check out Search Engine Land s basic guide to SEO Read about the difference between ethical and unethical SEO Learn more about H1 tags and how they improve your search engine ranking using-h1-tag-improves-search-engine-ranking/ Take a look at this explanation of how to use alt and title attributes in image tags See some of the factors to consider when writing content for your site Hear why readability is important for SEO Get some helpful advice on keyword research Moz is a particularly great resource for pointers and explanations. For starters, you can find out more about: Anchor text Links URLs Title tags Meta descriptions On -page factors

16 PAGE 14 APPENDIX XERO BRANDING Xero is happy to support co-branding by partners. In any co-branding initiative it s important to strike the right balance between the use of your brand and the Xero brand. Please remember that Xero must always approve co-branding. Rules Using the name Xero in your company name, product name, service offering or URL is not permitted Use of the Xero logo, tagline and web address must conform to our brand guidelines Apart from the use of the Xero logo, use of the Xero brand blue is not permitted Copying or obvious adaptation of the Xero design interface from either or the Xero application is not permitted Use of copy, images, screenshots, photos and any other content produced by Xero is permitted only with approval When promoting or offering your products or services your brand must be the dominant brand When promoting or offering Xero products or services you must use materials provided by Xero. You can only alter the materials and apply your own brand and content in ways pre-approved by Xero Any implied endorsement by Xero or implied affiliation with Xero must be approved Xero is a fast moving company that is dependent on close partnerships - we will ensure you get a speedy and flexible response to all co-branding requests. For more on Xero s Partner Communication Guidelines, go to And don t hesitate to get in touch if in doubt.

17 PAGE 15 GLOSSARY Anchor text Call to action Co-branding Content Copy or body copy Words on a page containing a link. Text or image on a webpage which encourages the viewer to click through to the next stage of conversion or sign-up. Two or more brands joining together to promote the same message. The information contained in a website or web page. The text on a web page. H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 Tags used to define headings in HTML H1 is the most important, H6 the least important. HTML (hypertext markup language) Image file name Image alt text Image title text Keyword Meta description Organic, natural or unpaid search marketing Ranking Search engine SEO (search engine optimisation) SERP (search engine results page) Title or page title Title tag URL The language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser. HTML determines the look of font, color, graphic and hyperlinks. This is what an image is saved as. It should be a brief description, written in lower case, with words separated by hyphens. Provides a brief explanation of an image. The alt text is what a user will see if an image isn t displaying. Provides additional information to the alt text. It should read like a short sentence or caption. A word or phrase that describes the contents of a web page. The description used by search engines to describe a page to a searcher. Appears beneath the title tag in a search engine results page. Attempting to optimise your site in order to get high ranking without paying for advertising. A webpage s position in search results. Program that searches the internet for results for a search query. Commonly used search engines include Google, Yahoo and Bing. The process of making changes to websites and web pages to improve their unpaid rankings in search engine results. The page on which search engines list results for a search query. A page heading, above the body copy. Not to be confused with a title tag. The text that shows up at the top of a browser tab and as a result heading on search engine results pages. Not to be confused with a page title. A web page address, such as