Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for accountants.

Online Challenges For Accounting Firms

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they need to delegate a more significant part of their budget to develop and manage a website that can drive clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and create a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

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

Another problem that CPAs (and most other businesses) face, is that your site has around thirty seconds to provide visitors what they need 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 Accountants

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet digital economy demands and think strategically in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover opportunities to attract more visitors and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need website planning assistance, check out the article we have written here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require several essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Services And Products

You need a page that describes your products and services.

This page should include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and why they should choose you.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community donations, etc.

Remember to also mention any CPA awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Your Staff

Are you searching for cost-effective ways to grow your business online and get prospective clients to engage more on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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 prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’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.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add a simple team directory to your web site without coding skills here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. This page would include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also provides visitors social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. For more info, see this article: Achieve Better Results Online Using Compelling User Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information about your company:

• Company Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Chat feature

If your business services several locations you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as announcements, company updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can attract an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

For more details: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a compliant website is vitally important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws or regulations in whatever area or location you service.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms 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
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

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

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your readers to share your content online and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your articles that 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, 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 completely FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many 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 businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing content on your website from other websites, 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 relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you may want to 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

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

Add Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses on your website can help 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 can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to build your accounting web presence.

To continue, click here:

• How To Grow An Accounting Web Presence – Part Two

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