Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face significant challenges thanks to the digital economy.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and gives your business a wider amount of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and your website 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 will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that accounting firms face (and most other businesses for that matter), is that they have only about thirty seconds or less to help users find what they are looking for 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

Online Opportunities For Accountants

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting companies that can evolve to meet digital challenges and can think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

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

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, read this article we have written: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require several basic pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services Page

You need a page that lists your products or services.

It will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 businesses, asset 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It should list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Team Profile

If you are searching for simple ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. 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. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain list of employees or team members to your website using free plugins here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. This page can include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored by your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients them minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with client reviews and case studies also helps to provide potential clients with social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using client testimonials and client reviews, see this article: How To Improve Your Sales With Highly Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Company Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Chat/Skype (optional)

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

You should also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

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 by publishing content like company news, product updates, educational information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will attract an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken in whichever area or location you service.

Depending on the services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 prospective clients understand your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (known 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.

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

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

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site 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 just search online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you may want to consider adding 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 feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

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

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your accounting website using WordPress plugins that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

***

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

To view Part Two, click here:

• A Practical Guide To Building And Growing Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part Two

Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Get Published – Subscribe Using The Form Below!

***

***

***