Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many challenges in today’s web economy, especially when it comes to growing a presence online.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to investing money marketing offline, 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 will attract clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and give them wider marketing reach online.

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

Another difficult challenge that accounting businesses face with their websites (as other businesses do for that matter), is that they have only about thirty seconds to help visitors find the information 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

Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and who can think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will discover ways and opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, suggestions for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed guide we have written here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Practical Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

Professional websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

This page should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, problem resolution
• Investment strategies
• Corporate finance
• 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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community contributions, etc.

Remember to mention any business awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Core Team

Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online and get prospective clients to interact more on your site? Then help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to 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. This page should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight 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 team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an updatable simple employee directory in your WordPress site without coding skills, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within your company. It would include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include stories of trainees who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and 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 the page, subscribe to your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show prospective clients them minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also provides social proof.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using client case studies and reviews to improve your business results online here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Sales Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is crucial.

It should include the following:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Address of premises
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media links
• Online chat feature (optional)

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content like company news, product releases, training information, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your website and blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Learn more about this here: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s essential to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. For more details, go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra competitive global economy, content generosity has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more information. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with you.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a 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 educational articles that will help your your readers understand your services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, tips on using business accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terms in your articles that your 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 easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide useful information, other sites 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of finance and tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS 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

(Use RSS feeds to improve your accounting site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins that can improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

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

• A Practical Guide To Building And Growing An Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence Successfully – Part Two

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