Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for accounting businesses.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to market your business online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards developing and managing a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and gives your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting organizations face online, and most professions for that matter, is that they have only around 30 seconds to provide users with 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

Opportunities For CPAs In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

This guide will help you uncover new ways to attract more clientele and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:

• Discover Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, useful tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All business websites need several essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products Description Page

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

This page should include all the services and products you offer, such as:

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

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

It’s important to list any professional awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Your Staff

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know you and 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. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your team member’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-update simple team directory to WordPress using a free WP plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

We’re Hiring

List any career opportunities available within your firm. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your firm and information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to provide social proof.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Create Better Results Online Using Captivating Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide the following information:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like company events, updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established accounting or financial services 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 or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your business website and blog.

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can attract web traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s essential for professional companies to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached in whatever area or location you do business in.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting 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 Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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
• etc.

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your website: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with information and tips will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your articles that your readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide valuable information, 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 in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits 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 useful RSS feeds just search online for tax-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are some feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding 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 website’s UX.)

Adding Online Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Forms and checklists are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets 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. Others could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins you can add to your accounting website that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to continue:

• Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors

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