Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing significant challenges brought about by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Today, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, obtain new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps them gain wider exposure online.

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

Another difficult challenge that accounting organizations face, and all other professions for that matter, is that you have an average of thirty seconds or less to help users find the information they are searching 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 Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think strategically in terms of marketing themselves better online.

In this article, you will learn about ways to source more potential clients and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, visit this page: How To Plan Your Business Web Site: A Cost-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products Description Page

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

It will include services such as:

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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community activities, etc.

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

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

Your Staff Page

If you are looking for simple ways to sell more products or services online and get people to engage more with your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very 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 site visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add a simple and easy-to-update simple staff directory to WordPress with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your organization, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have risen within your organization and 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, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps your accounting business to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and reviews get better results online here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business services several areas you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like news, company updates, training information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and business blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

For more details, go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Grow Your Website Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws and regulations wherever your do business in.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. If you would like to know more about this here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker 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 content and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your products and services.

For example, for an accounting business, topics could include the following:

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

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

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular 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 that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

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

There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable information on your website 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 searching online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds you may want to consider adding 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.)

Adding Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists are also great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists can address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

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

In part two of this detailed guide, we discuss a several WordPress plugins you can add to your site that can help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to build your accounting web presence.

To view the rest of this article, click here:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Online Presence Using WordPress – Part Two

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