Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing an increasing number challenges thanks to the digital economy.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase their marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change over time and many aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting firms (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to give visitors the information they need or they will go elsewhere.

“Websites have evolved into central information hubs where service information is still present but enhanced with web portals, hyperlinks to state and federal sites, and a variety of free tools.”

Michael Alter, http://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software/tips-for-improving-your-website

Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively about marketing their business services better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to find more accounts and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Potential Customers
• An Online Guide To Growing Your Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

This section will show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content you need, ways of improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this guide: The Web Site Planning Process - A Cost-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites require some essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of Services

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services and any products that you offer.

This page will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, problem resolution
• Investment strategies
• Corporate finance
• Wealth creation
• Superannuation/retirement plan (401k) advice
• Audit risk assessment and assurance
• Quickbooks – setup, training, tune up, and support
• Specialist services – mergers, acquisitions, information technology, secretarial, rentals, trusts, fiduciary accounting, succession planning, selling a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above the competition.

(List all of your professional awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Screenshot source: deloitte.com)

Staff

If you are looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know you and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your team member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in your site with no coding skills required here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include stories of trainees who have risen within your company and information about career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to provide prospective clients with social proof.

(Add a page with testimonials and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews get better results online here: Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include:

• Company Name
• Location of office
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Interactive chat feature

If you operate in several areas you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You should also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like company events, company updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your website and business blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin driving new visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Information Pages

It’s essential for accounting and financial services firms to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improving Your Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could include the following:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers understand your services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Using RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides lots of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to your accounting website:

• Taxation Policy Center: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/press/rss.cfm
• Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/RSS-news-feeds.aspx
• Canada Revenue Agency: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/rssfeeds/
• UK HM Revenue and Customs: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rss/rss.htm
• South Africa Revenue Service: http://www.sars.gov.za/Pages/RSS-Feeds.aspx

(RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s user experience.)

Adding Downloadable Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Others would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your accounting or financial services site that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

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• Online Business Tips For Certified Public Accountants – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins And Themes

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