Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your business services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned to develop and manage a website that will bring in leads, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and give their business a wider degree of reach online.

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

One other difficult challenge that accountancy firms face, as do all other businesses for that matter, is that you have only around 30 seconds to provide visitors what they need or they will go away.

“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 Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy

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 online economy demands and think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn new ways to drive more web traffic and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services business website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Small Business

Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for accounting websites, ways to improve layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, go here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Money-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Essential Pages

All business websites require some basic web pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

This page will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 a business, asset 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 what your services do and direct them to your contact or 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, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online or increase user interaction on your site? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not very 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 prospective clients to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s expertise, 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.

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple employee directory in your website with no coding skills required here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. It can include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials from past clients. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, see this article: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online Using Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat

If you operate out of several areas you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You could also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like industry announcements, company updates, educational articles, informative posts, 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 manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and business blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will deliver web traffic to your business, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

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

For more details: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Web Traffic For Your Business Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws or regulations in whichever location you do business in.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

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

Providing great content with information and tips will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more. This is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand accounting services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers will be searching for.

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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for 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 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different 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 websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept 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 content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for tax-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

(Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services website that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click on this link to continue:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Traffic

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