Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face a number of challenges.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

In addition to investing money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to assign a greater share of your budget towards developing and managing a website that brings in clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you gain a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 in time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accounting organizations face with their websites, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they need or they will leave your site.

“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 Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

The guide below will help you uncover opportunities to source more clients and improve your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this article we have written: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need some basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services Page

You need a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Staff

Are you searching for ways to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a team profile page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-update directory of staff or team members in your web site without editing code here: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory To Your Site

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the firm. It should include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can also include information about 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to are also providing visitors social proof.

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

We have written a detailed article about using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Sales Conversions With Compelling Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include:

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates from different areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content such as industry announcements, product releases, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will begin driving targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s very important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your do business in.

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

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

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your content with others and coming back for more information. This is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers 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 teach 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 Experience

Improving user experience (known as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Adding RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

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

There are also a number of benefits to providing great content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds containing useful information that 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

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

Provide Online Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we will be discussing a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your accounting website that improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• How To Grow An Accounting Web Presence – Part Two

Would You Like To Get Automatically Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published? Then Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!

***

***

***