Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionized the way business is done worldwide, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for certified public accountants and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Today, more than ever, accounting organizations must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, obtain new clients, and retain current business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to designate a larger part of their marketing budget to developing and maintaining a website that will bring new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase their presence 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 may change in time and some aspects may need to be updated often. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that accountants face with their websites, as other professions do for that matter, is that they have only around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find what they are searching 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 CPAs

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting companies that can evolve to meet digital demands and think strategically when it comes to marketing their business better online.

This guide will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to increase web traffic and improve your business results online.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see the articles below:

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how 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 sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process: A Useful Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require a number of basic 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

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical programs, etc.

It should also include any CPA awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Meet Our Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help prospects get to know you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in 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 also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’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 staff page. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff members to WordPress using a free plugin, go here: How To Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your company. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your company. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to provide social proof.

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

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business operates out of multiple locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry news, company updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

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

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

For more details, go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a compliant website is essential, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached in whichever area or location you service.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• 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 informative articles that will help your readers understand your services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful 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 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site 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 finance and tax-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds you may want to add to your 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

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Provide Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They are also great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

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

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to grow your accounting business presence online.

Click here to access the rest of this guide:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing An Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online – Part 2

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