Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face a growing number of challenges created by the online economy.

Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession

Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive, find new clients, and keep their current clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to market your business services online.

As well as investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that attracts prospects, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps create a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 may need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accountancy firms (and other businesses) face online, is that you have an average of 30 seconds to give visitors what they need or they will leave and go 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 Accountants In The Web Economy

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

This detailed guide will help you uncover new opportunities to drive more web traffic and improve your business online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section looks at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages an accounting website needs, what content works best for accounting websites, ways to improve layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services

You need a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

This page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

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

This page should also include any CPA awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above your competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each person’s expertise, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add an updatable simple employee directory in your site using free WP plugins, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page should include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information about 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 this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what kind of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. Adding a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also provides visitors social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Company Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates from multiple locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like industry news, product updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly deliver new visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Pages

It’s crucially important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached in whichever area you service.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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
• and others

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

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your content with others and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tips on using small business accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles that readers would search 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 web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 100% FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) 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.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding to your 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 (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can give them useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists are 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 Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) 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, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this step-by-step guide on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Grow An Accounting Business Online – Part Two

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