Many accountants are engaged in blogging as part of their digital marketing strategy. So what’s the big deal about Google Posts? Are they really necessary for an accountant’s SEO?
Your blog content typically sits on an accountant’s website. Google Posts, however, allow you to host content on your Google My Business profile.
Let’s take a close look at how this works and whether it is worth the extra marketing investment & effort.
Google Posts: A Brief Overview
Google Posts is one of several features on your Google My Business profile.
The latter is especially important for accountants who engage in digital marketing. When current and potential clients search for your business on Google, your GMB profile is usually what comes up first.
This takes the form of a box on the left-hand side of your page and displays important information such as your business opening hours, recent customer reviews and answers to frequently asked questions.
Google Posts allows you to share thoughts, company news, updates and articles within this platform. The content you can share includes blog content, text, GIFs, videos and images. You can find this content within the knowledge panel of your GMB listing.
This feature to GMB was introduced in 2016 in order to allow locally-based businesses (e.g. lots of accountants!) to take up more search engine real estate.
Since your GMB listing is currently a crucial search engine ranking signal for local search, Google Posts have historically been seen as an important way to build up your GMB profile and achieve higher search engine ranking positions.
GMB: The situation now
More recently, however, Google Posts have been less visible in users’ search results. At the time of writing, these posts have been placed to the very bottom of the Knowledge Panel. Indeed, in mobile search, they have all but disappeared.
Why has Google done this, assuming that Google Posts are indeed still an important aspect of an accountant’s local SEO strategy?
No one outside of Google really knows for sure, but one theory suggests that Google wants to prioritise paid content in the face of heightened competition from Amazon Advertising.
With all that aside, however, we at AccountantLift believe that Google Posts still hold great value for promoting your accountancy firm in local search results. Here’s why…
Why Accountants Should Still Use Google Posts
As previously mentioned, your Google My Business profile is now one of the primary determinants of your Google search rankings. Indeed, Moz has published research showing that GMB has increased in importance for local search, year on year, by over 30%.
That is only likely to continue. Indeed, many industry authorities now claim that your GMB profile is possibly the most important ranking factor for your local search position.
Your Google Posts form an important aspect of a healthy GMB profile listing, so it is therefore still worthwhile investing in them. It will help keep your GMB listing fresh and make you more visible.
This is especially true for accountants and other financial firms, whose business models rely heavily on high-value transactions. These types of businesses are founded on trusted, long-term relationships and all it might take to push a potential client towards a sale is one click on a Google Post.
How Accountants Can Get Started
The good news is, accountants do not need to let Google Posts become a large extra item on their already-long marketing “to do list”. You can do this intelligently without creating needless, extra work.
First of all, re-use content that you have already created elsewhere – such as blog posts on your accounting website. Just tweak it slightly to make sure it is sufficiently different from the original.
Secondly, make sure you include some effective, prominent calls-to-action within your Google Posts. Make your posts inviting, engaging and value-driven. Do not just litter your GMB listing with endless sales pitches. Offer solutions to your clients’ problems and address their pain points, first and foremost.
Thirdly, make sure your Google Posts contain accurate and appropriate contact and office location information. This makes it easier for people to find your local accountancy business and keeps your GMB profile comprehensive and consistent.
