Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing an ever growing number of new challenges thanks to the digital economy.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Now, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new clients, and keep their current clientele. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned to developing and maintaining a website that will attract new prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to increase your presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting organizations face with their websites (and most professions for that matter), is that you have only around 30 seconds to help users find the information they are searching for or they will leave the site and 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

Online Opportunities For CPAs

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet digital demands and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to source more business and establish stronger online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, suggestions for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed guide: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Useful Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

Professional business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Services

You need to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, problem resolution
• Investment strategies
• Corporate accounting
• 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community programs, etc.

It should also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Staff

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for your prospects to get to know your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. 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 bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

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

(Add an employee description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an updatable simple employee directory to your web site using a free plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page would include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps to provide visitors social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

To learn more about using client testimonials and reviews go here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Knockout User Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

It should include:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat feature

If your business services different areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as announcements, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established accounting site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your services.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help begin attracting an ongoing stream of web traffic to your site, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Web Visitors For Your Business Automatically

Legal Pages

It’s vital to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations in whichever area you do business in.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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
• and others

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with advice and tips will get your readers to share your content with others and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your accounting or financial services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving User Experience

Improving your user experience (typically referred to as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide valuable information, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add 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

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s UX.)

Provide Downloadable Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms covering a range of subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view the rest of this article, click this link:

• Online Business Tips For Certified Public Accountants – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With WordPress Plugins & Themes

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