Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

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

Challenges Accounting Businesses Face Online

Now, more than ever, CPAs must work harder to stand out from the competition, source new business, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned to developing and maintaining a website that drives new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps them gain a wider marketing exposure online.

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

Another problem that accountants (and most professions) face with their websites, is that they have only about 30 seconds to give users what they are looking 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 Professionals

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think strategically about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about ways and opportunities to source new clients and build more 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 or financial services business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, go here:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Customers
• Understanding WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and 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 websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: Planning A Website - A Money-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

Professional websites need several basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services Description Page

You need to include a page that lists your services and products.

This page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community programs, etc.

It’s important to also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above other competitors.

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

Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online or get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. 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 site visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your staff member’s experience, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to add a list directory of staff members in WordPress using free plugins here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within the organization. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about 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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. To learn more about this go here: How To Create Better Results Online With Awesome Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat

If your business operates from different areas you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news, updates, training articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your services.

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin attracting an ongoing stream of new targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever your business services clients.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. For more details: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages with others online and come back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a 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 informative articles that will help your your readers understand your services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terms 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 that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your site.

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

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for finance-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you could add to your 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 (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Adding Online Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover topics such as:

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

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this detailed article, we will be discussing a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting web presence.

To keep reading, click here:

• The Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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