Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for CPAs.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Today, more than ever, accountancy organizations must work hard and find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new clients, and keep their current clientele. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated to develop and maintain a website that brings in clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and some aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms (and most other professions) face online, is that they have an average of 30 seconds to give visitors what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for elsewhere.

“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 Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting firms that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and can think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about opportunities to increase traffic and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, 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 the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• WordPress For Small Business – The Complete Guide To Growing Your Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best, ways to improve your navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Essential Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Description Of Services

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

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

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

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 contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

Remember to mention any accounting awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Your Team

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Potential clients need 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 bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that 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 even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage directory of employees or team members to your website here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It could include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or sponsored by your firm, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also provides social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using client testimonials and user reviews improve your business online here: Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should provide the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Location of premises
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Online chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates in several areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

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

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your firm.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin delivering a stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Get More Web Traffic For Your Business

Legal Information

Having a compliant website is extremely important, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever your do business in.

Adding the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

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

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your articles that 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 actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your site.

If you provide useful information, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for finance-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Forms and checklists are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

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

In part 2, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue reading, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins And Themes

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