Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionized the way business is done around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning better ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed to developing and managing a website that can attract new prospects, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give them wider exposure online.

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

Another problem that accounting businesses (and most professions) face, is that they have around 30 seconds or less to give users the information they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Professional Accountants

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think progressively in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn ways to drive more traffic and improve your business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, see this guide: The Website Planning Process Explained: A Cost-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require some essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

You need a page that explains your products or services.

It should include services such as:

• Business – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do 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, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to include any business awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above other competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are searching for simple ways to grow your business online, then help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with 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 also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s experience, how their skills 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 page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add a directory of staff or team members to a WordPress site without using code, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within your organization. It can include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your firm and information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also provides visitors social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. If you are interested in learning more about this here: Create Better Results Online Using Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following information about your business:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media URLs
• Online chat feature

If your business services multiple locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news and events, product releases, training articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your business.

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 be used as both your website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that will deliver targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Generate More Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s really important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below 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 sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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
• etc.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Website

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

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

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your content that prospective clients would search for.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s 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 visitor engagement and user experience.

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience 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 updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable information on 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, visit sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds you could consider adding 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

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Adding Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

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

In part 2, we look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your accounting site that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

• Online Business Tips For Certified Public Accountants – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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