Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for accounting businesses.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a greater portion of your marketing budget to developing and managing a website that attracts clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and increases your marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change in time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting organizations (and other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they are looking for or they will leave the site.

“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 In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting firms that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think progressively about marketing their services better online.

In this article, you will discover new ways to find new clients and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section looks at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, useful tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this article we have written: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

All websites require some essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services And Products Page

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

Your page will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, 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, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Your Team

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to sell more products or services online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your site visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline your team member’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 to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a simple and easily updatable directory of staff members to your website without messing around with code here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within the company. It could include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You can also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

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

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to provide social proof online.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

If you would like to learn more about using testimonials and user reviews go here: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Address of office
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business services several locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like company events, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin to deliver targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

For more details: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Increase Your Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Information Pages

It’s vital for accounting and financial services businesses to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/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: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more information. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to include the same keywords in your content that readers would search 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 website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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!

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing content on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of finance and tax-related government departments or key industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds you may want to add 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 feeds to improve your accounting site’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are great planning tools.

Forms and checklists could cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Online Presence Successfully – Part Two

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