Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionised business around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will attract new leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change in time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that accounting businesses face with their websites (and other professions for that matter), is that you have an average of thirty seconds or less to provide visitors with what they are looking for or they will go 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 Accountants

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover ways and opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and improve your business online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Business
• The Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by covering some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, go here: The Website Planning Process: A Money-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Essential Pages

Professional websites need several essential pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to set up your website for best results.

Services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services or products.

It should include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to 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 appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Staff

If you are looking for simple ideas to grow your business online, then help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want people 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 mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-manage directory of employees in your web site using free plugins, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within your organization. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include stories of graduates who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you will also help to establish social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews get better results online here: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Knockout Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your business:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat

If your business services different locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry announcements, updates, training information, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin driving targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Get More Website Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of 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 sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

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

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content online with others and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring your 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 your prospective clients understand your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terms in your articles that readers 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 actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.

If you provide useful information, other businesses 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 kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It 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 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 adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are a few RSS feeds 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 provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists can address areas such as:

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

Unique Tools

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

In the next section, we look at a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to 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.

To continue, click here:

• How To Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part Two

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