Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face a number of challenges.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to designate a more significant portion of your marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that drives clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 may change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accounting organizations (and most other businesses) face, is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to give visitors the information 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

Online Opportunities For Accounting Services

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that can adapt to meet online demands and who can think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover opportunities to increase traffic and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:

• How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: Planning Your Web Site - A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites need some essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of services And Products

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.

This page should list any professional awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Your Staff Page

Are you looking for simple ideas to sell more products online or get prospective clients to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to add an easy-to-manage list of staff members to your web site, go here: Adding An Employee List Directory

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page should include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your firm, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also provides prospective clients with social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Create Better Results Online With Standout Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include:

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature

If you operate out of different locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like company news, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

You may not be aware of this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

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

For more info, see this article: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Web Visitors Automatically

Legal Pages

It’s extremely important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more info, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could include:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand accounting services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s 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.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, search online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

Click here to continue reading:

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

Subscribe Using The Form Below And Get Notified When New Tutorials Get Published!

***

***

***