Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many new challenges in today’s online economy, especially when it comes to growing a business online.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that will attract prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase your 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 even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accountancy firms (and most professions) face, is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to help users find 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

Opportunities For CPAs In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and who can think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract more visitors and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business Online With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

This section explains ways to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of services And Products

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

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

• Business – planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It should also include any CPA awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Team

If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help prospects get to know your organization better.

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

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

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-update list of staff members to your WordPress site without editing code here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within the organization. It should include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information about career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what kind of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also helps to provide social proof online.

(Add a web page with reviews from clients and case studies. Image source: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews, refer to this article: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Powerful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should provide:

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat feature (optional)

If your business operates from multiple locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You should also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as company news, product releases, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help begin to attract targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Traffic For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s essential to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• 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
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing great content with information and tips will get your visitors to share your web pages with others and come back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your firm.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your content that your 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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (often referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

If you provide useful information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of finance-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds you could consider adding 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

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

In the next section, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

Click here to keep reading:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part Two

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