Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for accounting businesses.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Now, more than ever, accountants must work harder to stand out from the competition, obtain new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning better ways to grow your business online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they will need to delegate a more significant portion of their budget to develop and maintain a website that will attract leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and increase their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another problem that CPAs (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has only around thirty seconds or less to help visitors find what they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 CPAs In The Online Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this guide, you will learn about opportunities to drive more web traffic and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Money
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Small Business

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

This section explains ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what content you need, ways to improve your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process: A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional websites need several basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

You need a page that explains your services and products.

It should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 a business, 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 your services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Your Team

If you are looking for ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update list of staff or team members in your site using free plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your firm. It can include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have risen within your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

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

Testimonials & Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you will also help to provide potential clients with social proof.

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

To learn more about using client case studies and user reviews get better results online, go here: All You Need To Know To Get Better Results Online Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is essential.

It should include:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If you operate out of multiple locations you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You could also include links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news, updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is very hard to keep updated with new content or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin to attract new visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

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

For more info, see this article: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

As a professional business, having a compliant website is vitally important, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your business is located.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Improving The Content On Your Site

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

Providing great content with advice and tips will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can cover the following:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring 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 your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your content that prospective clients will be searching for online.

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

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide valuable information, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable content 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 just search online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds you may want to consider adding to your 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

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Provide Online Forms And Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. They are great planning tools.

Forms and checklists can include areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Accounting Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins

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