Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized the way business is done globally, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and great opportunities for certified public accountants.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and searching for better ways to promote your business online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned to developing and managing a website that can attract new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and help you create a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting organizations face (as most professions do for that matter), is that you have only about 30 seconds to provide users what they are searching 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

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 adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think strategically about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will discover ways to find new business and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Business
• WordPress And Small Business – A Complete Guide To Growing A Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, ways to improve your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

Professional websites need some basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Services

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business – business planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Team

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help prospective clients 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 people. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s experience, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff or team members to your site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within the company. It can include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information about new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

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

(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to grow your business online here: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat

If your business operates in multiple locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like company news, updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can drive new targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

It’s crucially important for accounting and financial services organizations to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being broken wherever you provide services to.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve Your Content

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

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more information. This is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, 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 or financial services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. 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 (often referred to as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

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

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses 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 kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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 by visiting sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you could consider adding 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

(Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)

Provide Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms (or links to these) covering a range of topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this guide, we look at a number of WordPress plugins you can add to your site that improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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