Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created many challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

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

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, you will need to assign a larger part of your budget to developing and managing a website that can attract prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help you gain a wider amount of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, 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 will change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting organizations (and all other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to give users the information they are looking for or they will leave your site.

“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

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover opportunities to drive more traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business Online With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: How To Plan Your Small Business Website - A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of Services

It’s essential to include a page that describes your products or services.

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

• Business – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to list any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

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

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to add an updatable simple team members directory to your WordPress site without coding skills, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you are also helping to are also providing social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online. For more details, go here: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online Chat/Skype

If you have multiple locations you should make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like company announcements, company updates, training information, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting website is 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 an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin delivering an ongoing stream of web traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

If you would like to learn more about this here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s vitally important for accounting and financial services businesses to have a compliant website, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords in your content that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information 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 marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of finance-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of useful RSS feeds you could add to your website:

• 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Add Downloadable Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can give them useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your accounting website using WordPress plugins that improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

Click on this link to continue:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence With WordPress – Part 2

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