Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only revolutionized businesses worldwide, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for CPAs.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Now, more than ever, CPAs must work hard to remain competitive, find new clients, and retain current business. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your business services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards the development and maintenance of a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and give their business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change in time and many areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting firms face online, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 CPAs

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to adapt to meet online challenges and who can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover ways to increase traffic and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting web presence, 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 the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• WordPress And Small Business – An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by going over the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, go here: Planning Your Business Website: A Practical Blueprint For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that lists your products and services.

It will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also include any accounting awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Team

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to sell more products online, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add an employee page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an updatable simple staff directory in WordPress using a free plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and new 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients what kind of solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve their problems. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also helps to establish social proof.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online. If you are interested in learning more here: Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Compelling Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information about your firm:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional)

If your business services different locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as company events, updates, useful information, informative posts, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin to drive web traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can drive new visitors automatically to your website)

For more details, go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Increase Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s extremely important for professional organizations to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of 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
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive online economy, being generous with content has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a 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 prospective clients understand your accounting services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your articles that your prospective clients would search 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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by visiting sites of tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could 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

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

Adding Online Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and forms are great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

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

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This is the end of part one of this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your accounting business online.

Click here to continue:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes That Can Help To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation

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