Congratulations to my friend, CPA marketer Rob Orr, on a terrific-looking website for his new firm, Graf Repetti.
When Rob arrived at the firm, as their first marketing director, the website was a fairly typical first generation website: no pictures of real people, ordinary text, and design scaled for 800x600. The biggest problem with it, though, was that all the text on every page was embedded in pictures so search engines couldn’t index a darn thing.
With plenty of potential "first projects" to choose from, Rob knew the old website was a liability hindering recruiting and marketing efforts because search engines couldn’t pick up much of anything about the firm. It simply couldn't wait.
He made it a priority to focus on a rebuild and a fine job he did. I love the messaging and the partnering/pairing “2” concept, I love the curves, and I love to be able to see the real people in the firm. A huge leap forward for Graf Repetti. Well done, Rob!
Getting indexed by the search engines, as you well know, is only the first step. Achieving top placement on the search engines will do little if your website can't convert the general surfer. Someone who finds an accountant or CPA via the search engines, did not find them because they were recommended by a friend, and will no little to nothing about the firm. It is very important your website shares information about your firm, such as your firm's mission, credentials, affiliations, code of ethics, etc. Possibly even more important is sharing information about your team. This will go along way to getting the person who finds you via the search engine to take the next step, and contact your firm. This new site is a great example of what is needed.
Posted by: Norm | September 21, 2010 at 09:43 AM
The design is nice. The SEO looks OK, although I really only glanced at the source code. But there's a lot more to online marketing than just search engines and the site is extremely weak on content. The site could be a much more powerful long-term marketing tool. First thing I noticed is the lack of a newsletter sign-up. That's an easy 12 or more branded contacts per year. Also, add some free reports, calculators, commonly used tax forms etc. Make the site more than just a glorified ad. Make it a useful tool that will draw your prospects to your site even if they don't intend to buy anything. In a year or six, when they DO need an accountant, you'll have positioned yourself as the logical first choice.
Posted by: Kenny | September 28, 2010 at 03:19 PM
Aha! I Stand corrected! There IS a newsletter sign-up, but it's poorly placed.
Posted by: Kenny | September 28, 2010 at 04:00 PM