Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned to developing and managing a website that will attract new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give your business a wider degree of marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and some aspects may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting businesses face with their websites, as do all other professions for that matter, is that you have around 30 seconds or less to give visitors the information they are searching for or they will look 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 Services

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting firms that can evolve to meet digital economy challenges and who can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn new opportunities to source new clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• WordPress And Small Business – An Online Guide To Growing Your Successful Business Using WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Site

Let’s start by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, go here: The Web Site Planning Process: A Comprehensive Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Products And Services

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and products.

It should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to also mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Meet Our Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know your organization better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be 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. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

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 expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to add an updatable directory of staff members in your site with no coding skills required here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities within the organization. This page would include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your organization, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have risen within your company and information about career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps your accounting or financial services website to provide social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews get better results online. For more details: How To Get Better Results Online With Awesome Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your business:

• Business Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat

If your business operates from different areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as industry announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin to deliver web traffic to your website, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s vital to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever your do business in.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website 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 Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive global economy, being generous with content has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses selling similar products or providing similar services.

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

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients understand your services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your 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 Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

If you provide valuable content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites 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
• Allows for subscribing
• It provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great 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 just visit sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to add 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

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

Adding Online Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we discuss a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your accounting site that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to build your accounting business web presence.

Click here to keep reading:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins

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