Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering accounting services.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to promote your business services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will bring new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase your presence online.

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

Another difficult challenge that CPAs face with their websites, and all other professions for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to help users find the information they are looking for 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 CPAs In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to evolve to meet digital challenges and can think strategically in terms of marketing their business better online.

In this guide, you will discover new ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and improve your business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting or financial services website.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Customers
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site

This section will show you how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, ways of improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, check out the detailed guide we have written here: Planning Your Website: A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites need some essential web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services or products.

Your page should include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, 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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for simple ways to sell more products or services online? Then help prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be 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. It should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’s expertise, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add an easy-to-maintain list of staff or team members in your WordPress site using free WordPress plugins, go here: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your firm. It should include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Get Better Results Online Using Standout Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Online Chat/Skype

If you have different locations you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news, company updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is very hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will attract targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

Go here to learn more: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your Website Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

It’s extremely important for accounting companies to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken wherever you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• and others

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

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, engaging in the practice of content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

You will want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your firm.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable information, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 loads of useful content for your website, search online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds 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

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

In part two of this detailed guide, we look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your site that improve your seo, improve 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 improve your accounting business presence online.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Business Online Using WordPress – Part Two

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