Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face growing challenges.

Online Challenges For Accounting & Financial Businesses

Today, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new business, and retain current business. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that will attract leads, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to increase your reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting organizations face online (as other professions do for that matter), is that your site has an average of thirty seconds or less to give users what they are looking for or they will look 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 CPAs

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think strategically when it comes to marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover ways and opportunities to attract more clientele and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Business – The Complete Guide To Growing Your Successful Small Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Website Planning Process Explained: A Useful Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to have a page that lists your products or services.

It should include services such as:

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

List all of the services you provide. 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 Page

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

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

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

Your Staff

Are you looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in accounting terms it 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 that will allow your visitors to 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 person’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to your WordPress site using a free WP plugin, refer to this tutorial: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work With Us

List any career opportunities available within the firm. It would include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the accounting industry.

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

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients 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 page with case studies and client reviews also provides potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is essential.

It should provide the following information about your firm:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If you operate out of several areas 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, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as company news, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin driving targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

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

To learn more about this go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Information Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a compliant website is vital, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken in whichever region you service.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your readers to share your web pages online with others and come back for more information. Content marketing 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 or financial services business could include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers understand accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, tips on using business accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your content that readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful 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 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing information on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Adding Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. They can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide forms and checklists covering a range of topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

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

In part 2 of this guide, we will look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can help to improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part 2, click here:

• A Complete Guide On How To Grow Your Accounting Website Successfully – Part Two

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