Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they need to allocate a greater share of their marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that will attract new clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and increase their marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site 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 will need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting firms face online (and all other professions for that matter), is that they have an average of thirty seconds or less to give 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 many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet digital demands and who can think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover a number of ways to attract more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Customers
• WordPress And Small Business – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content you need, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, visit this page: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need several basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should 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 will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community projects, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above the competition.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for simple ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with 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 also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline each employee’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 an employee description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-maintain list directory of employees in your web site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within the company. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have risen within your firm and information about 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of accounting solutions you can implement to help them solve problems. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also helps your accounting or financial services site to provide social proof online.

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

To learn more about using testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Improve Your Conversions Using Meaningful Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat

If your business operates in different locations you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as company events, company updates, training information, informative posts, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an accounting site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your business.

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will begin attracting web traffic to your website, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

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

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

It’s extremely important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting website 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 And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. You can learn more about this here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, content generosity has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can cover the following:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring 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 informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your content that your prospective clients will be searching 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 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 completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many 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 sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s 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 RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of finance-related government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to your 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

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

Provide Downloadable Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can give them useful instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. They are also great business planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable forms and checklists covering a range of subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In part two, we discuss a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

***

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

To view Part Two, click here:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With Plugins & Themes

Subscribe To WPCompendium.org And Get Notified Of New WordPress Tutorials!

***

***

***