Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised the way business is done around the world, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for accountants.

Challenges Accounting & Financial Professionals Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out better ways to promote your business online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned to develop and maintain a website that attracts clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your website layout 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 often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting organizations (and other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.

This guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of 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 the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Money
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

We’ll start first by covering 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 type of content works best, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All websites require several basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Products And Services Description Page

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

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

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to 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 direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.

Remember to list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Core Team

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be 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. It should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage directory of staff members in your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

We’re Hiring

List any career opportunities within the firm. This page should include training, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this 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.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and client reviews get better results online here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Your physical address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business services multiple areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content such as industry news, company updates, educational articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, promotional 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 accounting or financial services site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and business blog.

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

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

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is crucial, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting 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 Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content at no cost has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses selling similar products or providing similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. This is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with you.

For example, topics for an accounting business can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure 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 your prospective clients understand your accounting or financial services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, 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!

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving 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 visitor engagement and UX.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could add to your accounting site:

• 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.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

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

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

Other Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

Click here to continue:

• A Complete Guide To Building And Growing Your Accounting Website – Part 2

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