Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

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

Online Challenges For CPAs

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, obtain new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards developing and maintaining a website that can bring in prospects, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help you gain a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and some areas will need to be updated often. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that accountants face with their websites, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to help users find what they are searching for 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 Accountants In The Digital Economy

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

In this guide, you will discover opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your website, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

This section will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this article we have written: A Basic Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s review these.

Services

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

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

• Business accounting – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

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

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

Team

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online or get prospects to interact more on your site? Then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you, your team and 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. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be 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. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update directory of staff members in your site using free plugins here: How To Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored by your firm, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your 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.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what kind of financial solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also establishes social proof online.

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

We have written extensively on using client case studies and reviews get better results online. For more details: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online With Profit-Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature

If your business operates from different locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as announcements, product updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is very hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and business blog.

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

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Information

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your visitors sharing your content online and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your content that your readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• A feed provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with useful content just search online for tax-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your accounting 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 feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)

Adding Forms And Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Forms and checklists are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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

To view Part 2, click here:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online With WordPress – Part 2

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