Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accounting professionals face many challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing a business presence online.
Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online
Now, more than ever, CPAs must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive, find new business, and keep their current clients. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to grow your business online.
In addition to spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will drive new prospects, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help give them a wider degree of exposure online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.
One other problem that accountants face with their websites (as other businesses do for that matter), is that you have around thirty seconds to provide users what they need or they will go 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
Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants
As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.
In this comprehensive guide, you will learn ways to increase web traffic and improve your business results online.
As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting business website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:
Useful Tips To Improve Your Website
In this section we will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need additional information about website planning, see this guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Web Pages
All business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.
Services
You need a page that describes your products or services.
Your page will include services such as:
- Business – planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, 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 what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.
About Us Page
This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.
Remember to also mention any business awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and position it above the competition.
(List all of your awards certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Meet Your Staff
If you are searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products online, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust your business better.
Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions 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 so your site visitors can follow your staff 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 outline your staff member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a staff description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)
To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees or team members to your web site using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory: Tutorial
Career Opportunities Page
List any career opportunities within your firm. This page would include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. You should also include information about 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 this page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show potential clients what type of solutions you can implement to help solve their problems. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to provide social proof.
(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)
We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews get better results online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Effective Client Testimonials
Contact Us Page
Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.
Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your firm:
- Name
- Physical location
- Telephone
- Facsimile number
- Email address
- Map
- Website URL
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media networks
- Live chat feature (optional feature)
If you have different locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.
Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section
A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like company news, updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your services.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and your blog.
Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin delivering a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.
(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your website)
Go here to learn more about this: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Web Traffic For Your Business Automatically With WordPress
Legal Pages
As a professional accountant or financial services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws or regulations in whatever area you service.
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. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial/Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website
How To Improve The Content On Your Website
In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.
You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content online with others and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.
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
- How to present accounts for non-profit activities
- Business cashflow planning advice
- Maximizing business insurance cover
- Protecting revenues
- How to structure 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 your readers understand your services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.
Remember to use keywords in your articles that readers would search for.
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 useful 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!
Improve Visitor Experience
Improving website user experience (typically referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Adding RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared
- Allows users to subscribe
- A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the 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.
You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for finance-related government departments and respected industry bodies.
Here are examples of RSS feeds 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
(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)
Provide Online Checklists And Forms
Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.
Forms and checklists can include topics such as:
- How To Set Up A Business
- Rental Property Worksheet
- Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Individual Tax Checklist
- Trust Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Other Tools
Providing useful 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 great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.
In part two of this guide, we discuss a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence.
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