Rounded is the best accounting software for freelancers. That may be a bold claim considering the competition, but the software’s slick user interface and impressive capabilities take much of the stress out of preparing for taxes, invoicing clients, and tracking time.
Before Rounded became a client of mine, I was one of theirs. As a lover of the software, I wanted to help Rounded get the word out about their product. That’s where the power of a smart, SEO-focused content strategy came into play.
Since working with Inkwell Content Rounded has seen:
Meet Rounded: The best accounting software for freelancers
Rounded is the brainchild of founder Grant McCall, an Aussie who has worked as a freelance designer, photographer, and filmmaker. He grew frustrated with the lack of accounting software options available to freelancers. The big names in the game were designed for large businesses and came with a lot of expensive bells and whistles that only complicated things for freelancers.
Grant created the very first accounting platform designed for freelancers, by freelancers. Rounded offers a suite of simple yet highly useful features for solo-preneurs and small businesses:
- Custom invoicing that is supremely easy
- A beautiful dashboard that tracks finances in real time
- Bank connectivity so freelancers can automatically record transactions and expenses
- A built-in time tracker, which can be seamlessly attached to invoices
- Incredibly responsive and friendly customer service
But as a newcomer in the field, Rounded wasn’t receiving the kind of love and attention it deserved. Their existing users were thrilled with the software, but the young company needed more new signups to keep the business moving forward.
That meant increasing their visibility on the web. Grant and Oliver knew SEO was one way to do this, but with a small marketing team and plenty of important software updates on their plates, they didn’t have the time to maintain a robust content and SEO strategy for themselves.
“We’d tried out a few SEO writers before we started working with Inkwell Content, but we were struggling to find someone who was not only an excellent writer, but really understood how SEO worked. Then we found Inkwell, and all that changed.”
Rounded and Inkwell Content join forces
I came across Rounded at just the right time—when I was new to the freelancing game. It was everything I’d been looking for in accounting software—it helped me create beautiful invoices, keep track of all my money going in and out, and made filing for taxes as simple as could be.
I told everyone I knew about it, and I was surprised at how few of my freelancers friends had heard of it. Being the nosey SEO nerd I am, I started poking around and found that, compared to their competitors, Rounded didn’t have much visibility on Google at all.
Here’s how the playing field looked when we started, in terms of keyword share. The chart below shows how many keywords Rounded was ranking for before they launched their comparison. As you can see, the odds of ranking were stacked against them:
I knew I could help Rounded increase their organic traffic and reach new audiences, so I reached out with my findings. After a few conversations, I suggested putting together a content strategy to help them start creating content that would improve their rankings, bring in more organic traffic, and help get the word out to more freelancers about their amazing product.
Building Rounded's custom content strategy
The Rounded team was committed to getting their content offering right, so they signed up for a content strategy as the first course of action.
After an interview with Grant and Olly to gather all of the necessary information about their brand and goals, I put together a full content strategy that outlined:
Current Website Status
A review of the website in its current state, covering any potential SEO issues or UX problems that would prevent content engagement.
Competitor Analysis
I showed Rounded how their competitors were faring, including what they were doing well with content (so we could try to emulate it) and where they were falling short (so we could fill the gap).
Audience Profiles
I did deep research on Rounded’s target audience, then organized their audience into different segments. I then examined the different types of content that would appeal to each group.
SEO and Keyword Data
Next, I mapped all of their audience information against keyword data. I delivered an extensive document with every potential keyword listed, including its volume, how competitive it was, and how it fit into the overall structure of Rounded’s new content marketing approach.
Action Plan
Finally, I distilled all my findings into a simple and straightforward action plan. There was nothing left to do but start creating content.
“After Liam presented his strategy to us, we had a clear picture of what we needed to do to achieve SEO success. With all the new information and insights about our audience, we were excited to start producing content with Inkwell.”
Creating content that brings in the right traffic
With our strategy in place, we were ready to begin creating content. Our strategy involved creating fresh content targeting new keywords, while also updating old articles to make them more SEO friendly. We also updated some of their primary landing pages, and per my advice, Rounded made adjustments to their site to improve UX for content consumers.
The results? Within a few months, Rounded was seeing some impressive changes in traffic.
With fresh content created and promoted on a regular basis, Rounded was able to begin dominating some of the primary high-value keywords in their industry.
Blog Traffic: 77% Increase Year on Year
Most of our content was written for the Rounded blog. As our strategy progressed, we saw a steady increase in organic traffic to the blog as a whole, with an impressive 77% growth when comparing today’s traffic to the year before we launched our new strategy.
Rescued Blog Articles: 526% increase in traffic
Some of Rounded’s older blogs touched on important topics, but they hadn’t been written with SEO in mind. By targeting these articles with fresh content and some new keywords, we were able to turn them into some of the most popular blogs on the Rounded site, bringing in thousands more visitors over a 9-month period.
The result? More signups and more revenue
As Rounded has been enjoying more organic traffic to their website, they’ve also seen growth in the number of users who have signed up to the platform.
According to co-founder Oliver Garside, Rounded has seen significant growth over the last financial year. He attributes this to organic traffic.
“The majority of our marketing spend is on organic traffic, and we’ve spent a good bit of that with Inkwell. We knew we could get more out of our dollar with SEO content than AdWords or Facebook Ads. The payoff has been ideal—we’re seeing more organic traffic to our site, and we’re welcoming more people into the Rounded family all the time.”
Rounded was so satisfied with the results, they’re still working with Inkwell to produce stellar content that spreads the word about their product. Watch this space—with a strategy like this, Rounded is bound to be a bigger and bigger presence in the accounting software landscape.
