Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face growing challenges.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must find smarter ways to remain competitive, find new clients, and retain current clients. Not only do they have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards developing and maintaining a website that will drive new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and give you a wider amount of reach online.

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

One other challenge that CPAs face online (as most other professions do for that matter), is that you have an average of 30 seconds to provide users what they need or they will 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively about improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn ways to attract new clientele and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Business Owners – A Beginner’s Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

We’ll start first by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Practical Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Products And Services

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, 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, asset 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 contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to include any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your company and set it above other competitors.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for simple ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your team members on their social pages.

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

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to add an easy-to-update list of staff members in WordPress, go here: How To Add A Staff Directory: Tutorial

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your firm. It can include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also 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.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to will also be providing prospective clients with social proof.

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online, go here: Improve Your Sales Conversions With Highly Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is essential.

It should include the following information about your firm:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Interactive chat

If your business services different areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like company announcements, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an 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 accounting or financial services site is hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and business blog.

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will begin driving new targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Web Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached in whichever area or location you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

You will want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages online and coming back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos 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 gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, understanding accounting 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by searching online for relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of useful RSS feeds you may want to consider adding 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. They are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your accounting or financial services site that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins & Themes That Can Help Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic

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