Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only revolutionised the way business is done globally, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to assign a larger portion of your budget to develop and manage a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that CPAs face with their websites, as do other professions for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds to help users find the information they are looking for or they will go away.

“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 Accountants

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that can adapt to meet online economy challenges and think strategically about marketing their business better online.

The guide below will help you uncover new opportunities to drive more traffic and improve your business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by covering some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, see this detailed guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require some basic web pages. Let’s go over these.

Services And Products Description Page

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

This page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

This page should also mention any business awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and position it above other competitors.

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

Our Team

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online and get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each person’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add a simple and easy-to-manage simple employee directory to your website using a free WP plugin, go here: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. This page can include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your firm, etc. You should also include stories of trainees who have risen within your company and information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to are also providing social proof.

(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews to grow your business online. If you are interested in learning more here: Achieve Better Results Online With Awesome Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates out of multiple locations you should make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as company news, company updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is very 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 people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can help begin driving a stream of new targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws or regulations wherever you service clients.

Adding the legal pages below 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 Page
• 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
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your accounting or financial services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your 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 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (often referred to as UX) helps 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 – Content Syndication

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your accounting business.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple 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 benefits when it comes to providing valuable content on 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 visiting sites of finance-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds you could 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click here to continue:

• The Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Successfully Building And Growing Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part Two

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