Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face many new challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new clients, and retain current business. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out better ways to grow your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that can drive new leads, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase their presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms face with their websites (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to provide users what they need or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 Accountants In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will discover new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online Using A WordPress Blog

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of services And Products

You need to include a page that describes your services or products.

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

About Us

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

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

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you looking for ways to sell more products online or get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then help your prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be 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. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your employee’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in WordPress using a free plugin, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. This page could include training offered, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online. If you are interested in learning more here: How To Get Better Results Online Using Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include the following:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media links
• Live chat (optional)

If you operate out of different locations you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content like industry news, updates, training information, informative posts, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can help begin attracting an ongoing stream of new targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Generate More Web Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

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

Depending on what services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions 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 about adding legal pages to your website. For more details, go here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

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

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content online with others and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could cover the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers understand your accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terminology in your articles that your prospective clients 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 and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site 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!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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 and tax-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds you could add to your accounting 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

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could address topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view Part Two, click here:

• Your Accounting Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website With WordPress Plugins

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