Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing significant and increasingly difficult challenges brought about by the web economy.

Online Challenges For Accounting Firms

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive, obtain new clients, and keep their current clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning smarter ways to promote your business services online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to designate a more significant portion of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new leads, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you create wider exposure online.

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

One other problem that CPAs (and other businesses) face, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to help users find the information they are looking 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 Accounting Professionals

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that can adapt to meet digital economy challenges and can think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by covering some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this detailed guide: Planning Your Small Business Web Site: A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Description Page

You need a page that lists your services and products.

Your page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 a business, 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also include any industry awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above other competitors.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online, then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions 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 some of your team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s qualifications, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list directory of staff or team members to WordPress using a free WP plugin, see this tutorial: Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the firm. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show prospective clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with testimonials and case studies also helps to provide potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article about using testimonials and reviews get better results online. If you would like to know more here: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

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

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business services several areas you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like company news, company updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress 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 add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your website and your blog.

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will drive new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

To learn more about this go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

As a professional accountant, having a compliant website is crucially important, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your readers to share your content online with others and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• 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
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• How to structure 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 readers gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful 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!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site 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 visit sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS feeds you could add 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

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Provide Downloadable Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could include topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence With WordPress – Part 2

Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Get Published – Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!

***

***

***