Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for accounting businesses.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to market your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to invest a greater amount of your marketing budget to developing and managing a website that can drive new clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help you gain a wider degree of marketing reach online.

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

Another problem that accounting businesses (and all other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to provide users with what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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 In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting companies that can evolve to meet digital economy challenges and can think outside the box about marketing their business services better online.

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

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Prospective Clients
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Small Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Your Services

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, 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 these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.

It’s important to also list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for simple ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social pages.

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

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to your WordPress site using free plugins here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities available within the company. This page would include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and 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 this page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients what type of solutions you can implement to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to are also providing social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more about this: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional)

If you have several locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as industry announcements, company updates, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vital, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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
• and others

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve Your Content

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

You will want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use the same keywords in your articles that prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your site.

If you provide useful information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses 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
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for finance and tax-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few 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

(Use RSS 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 help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. They can also be great planning tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your website that improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• A Complete Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Business Online – Part 2

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