Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face growing challenges.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to allocate a more significant share of your budget towards developing and maintaining a website that attracts prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps you gain a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your website 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 the needs of your website will change in time and some aspects will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting businesses (and most professions) face, is that you have only about 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with 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

Online Opportunities For Accounting Professionals

As well as facing many new 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 challenges of the online economy and who can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business better online.

The guide below will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting website.

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

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Business Using A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

We’ll start first by covering the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages an accounting website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require several essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

Your page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. 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 explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community activities, etc.

Remember to also include any CPA awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then help your visitors get to know you and your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be very 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 also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline your staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list directory of staff members in your website without messing around with code here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your company. It can include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting 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, subscribe to your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also helps to provide potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews get better results online here: Improve Your Sales Conversions With Compelling User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is essential.

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

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate from several locations you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as announcements, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, 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 hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your website and business blog.

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that can begin attracting an ongoing stream of new targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

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

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what products and services 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 legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Content

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

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your 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 informative articles that will help your your readers understand your accounting or financial services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s 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.

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

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

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

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

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

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your site 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 finance-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of RSS feeds you could add to your accounting 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

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

Provide Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. They can also be great planning tools.

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

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

Online Tools

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

In part 2 of this guide, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services website that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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