Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today are facing increasingly difficult challenges thanks to the online economy.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

Today, more than ever, accountants must work hard to remain competitive, source new business, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed towards developing and managing a website that drives new prospects, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and gives them a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website 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 areas may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accountants face online, as other businesses do for that matter, is that you have an average of 30 seconds or less to give visitors what they are searching 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 CPAs In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and think strategically about marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn new ways to increase web traffic and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Business

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

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

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed step-by-step guide: The Web Site Planning Process: A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need a number of essential pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of services And Products

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

This page will include services such as:

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

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with 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’s important to list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you searching for simple ways to grow your business online and get prospects to interact more with your site? Then help your prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an updatable simple team members directory to a WordPress site using free WP plugins here: Adding A Staff Directory

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within the organization. This page can include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. You should also include stories of graduates who have risen within 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 this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also provides visitors social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Engaging Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Online chat

If you operate in multiple locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like company events, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help begin to attract web traffic to your website, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

For more details: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever your business services clients.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. If you would like to know more about this here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your content with others and coming back for more information. This is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your company.

For example, topics for an accounting business could include 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 advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• How to structure 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 services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients 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 and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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 your site’s user experience (typically referred to 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 UX.

RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable content on 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 loads of useful content for your website, search online for finance-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds you may want to add 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 (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins that can help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part Two, click here:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With Plugins & Themes

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