Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed business worldwide, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that will attract new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and increase their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accounting businesses face online, as most other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to give users the information they need or they will go away.

“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 Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover ways to attract and engage more visitors 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 WordPress to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Money-Saving Guide For Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services or products.

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

• Business – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

It’s important to mention any industry awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and position it above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online? Then make it easier for visitors to 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 employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your team member’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 staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-manage simple employee directory to your site, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within your firm. This page would include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and 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 And Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you will also help to will also be providing potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Create Better Results Online Using Standout Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include the following information about your business:

• Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Online Chat/Skype

If you operate out of several areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

You are probably not aware of this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will deliver targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

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

For more info, see this article: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Grow Your Web Visitors For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s vitally important for professional firms to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being contravened in whichever area or location you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential 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/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive online economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with you.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your 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 informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords in your content that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach you 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 strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may 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 kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• 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 different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great content on 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 useful content just search online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s user experience.)

Provide Online Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. They are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

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

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

***

This is the end of section 1.

Click on this link to view the rest of this guide:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins & Themes

Want To Get Automatically Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published? Then Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!

***

***

***