Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful business presence online.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives new leads, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and some areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accountants (and most businesses) face, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to give users what they are searching 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

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to adapt to meet online challenges and who can think strategically about marketing their business services better online.

This article will help you uncover new opportunities to find more clients and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

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

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Money
• Learning WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

How To Improve Your Accounting Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages an accounting site needs, what content works best, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this detailed step-by-step guide: How To Plan A Web Site - A Money-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

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 set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services Description Page

You need a page that describes your services and any products that you offer.

It should include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

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

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

Your Team

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to 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. This page should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social pages.

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

(Add a staff description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your website using a free plugin, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It should include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted by your organization, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and new 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, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your company. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also provides visitors social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. For more info, see this article: How To Improve Your Conversions Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

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

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live Chat/Skype

If you operate from different locations you should make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content like industry announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can help begin driving new visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

If you would like to learn more here: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Web Traffic Automatically

Legal Info Pages

It’s essential for accounting companies to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever your business services clients.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more info, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve Your Content

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

Providing great content with information and tips will get your visitors sharing your content online and coming back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, search online for finance-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are a few RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding 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 UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful instructions and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms are also great planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists covering topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can use in your accounting site 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 section 1 of this article on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

To view the rest of this article, click here:

• Online Business Tips For Certified Public Accountants – WordPress Plugins & Themes That Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation

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