Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face a growing number of challenges.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards developing and maintaining a website that brings in prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create a wider amount of marketing reach online.

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

Another problem that CPAs face online, as do other professions for that matter, is that they have only about 30 seconds or less to provide users what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and who can think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• The Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, read this article: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require some 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.

Services

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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 a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community programs, etc.

This page should mention any professional 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 awards accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc. in the About page. Screenshot image sourced from: deloitte.com)

Your Team

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in accounting terms your bio 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 that will allow your visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your person’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable 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 image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add a simple and easy-to-manage simple staff directory in your web site with no coding skills required, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities available within your company. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information such as the job outlook and new 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.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients them minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also helps your accounting site to establish social proof online.

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Knockout Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should provide the following information:

• Company Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live Chat/Skype

If you have multiple locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

You should also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like company announcements, product updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.

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

You are probably not aware of this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.

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

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

Legal Pages

It’s vitally important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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 detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with advice and tips will get your visitors to share your web pages with others online and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand accounting services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your articles that your prospective clients would search for.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

If you provide useful information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website 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, search online for tax-related government departments and industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you could add 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.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists can cover areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to read the rest of this article:

• The Step-By-Step Guide To Growing An Accounting Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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