Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face significant challenges created by the digital economy.

Challenges Accounting & Financial Businesses Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and many aspects may need to be updated often. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

One other difficult challenge that accounting organizations face (as do all other professions for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to help users find what they need or they will leave the site 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

Online Opportunities For CPAs

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think strategically in terms of marketing themselves better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover new ways to increase traffic and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider 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 platform, go here:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this detailed guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All websites require several essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should choose you.

About Us

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

It should include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Team

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

On 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 each employee’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-update directory of staff members in your web site with no coding skills required, go here: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site: Plugin Tutorial

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It would include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also provides social proof.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)

For a detailed article about using testimonials and reviews get better results online, go here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Highly Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include the following:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat

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

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as industry announcements, product releases, useful information, discussions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your services.

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin driving a stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

For more info, see this article: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Information

It’s crucial for accounting and financial services businesses to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you service clients.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of 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
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, engaging in the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your readers sharing your content online and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, 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, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your articles that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you 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 completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (known 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 user experience.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

If you provide useful information, other businesses may 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
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to 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 benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds you could 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 website’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add 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, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your accounting website that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To continue, click here:

• How To Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online – Part 2

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