Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today are facing increasingly difficult challenges created by the online economy.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and figuring out better ways to market your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they need to designate a more significant share of their budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that CPAs face with their websites, as do most other professions for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds to help users find the information 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

Online Opportunities For Accounting Businesses

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that can evolve to meet online challenges and can think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover a number of ways to drive more web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting business website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Small Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

We’ll start first by covering the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages an accounting site needs, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, see this article: Planning Your Website - A Useful Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

All business websites need several basic 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.

Products And Services Description Page

You need a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

Your page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It should also mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

Are you looking for ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site? Then help your visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A 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 mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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. It should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-update list of employees to WordPress using free WP plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory To Your Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your firm. It would include training offered, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

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

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials, you are also helping to will also be providing visitors social proof online.

(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews get better results online. For more info, see this article: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Standout Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services multiple locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You should also include links to the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as industry news, updates, useful information, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, 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 website is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your website and your blog.

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin to drive targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s vital for professional businesses to have a compliant website, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. For more details, go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

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

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (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 forensic accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your content 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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!

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (often referred to as UX) helps 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.

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

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 will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of 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 just visit sites of finance and tax-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds 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

(Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Provide Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. They are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.

Click here to access Part Two:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part 2

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