Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face a number of challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing their business presence online.

Challenges Accounting And Financial Professionals Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that can attract clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help give you wider marketing reach 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 will change in time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accountants face (as all other professions do for that matter), is that you have an average of thirty seconds or less to help visitors find what they need 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 many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting firms that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this guide, you will learn about new ways to attract and engage more visitors and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers
• WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by going over some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content you need, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, check out the detailed guide we have written here: How To Plan Your Small Business Website - A Money-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need several basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Your Services And Products

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

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

• Business accounting – business planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

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

Remember to list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above the competition.

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

Team

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

You want prospects to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-manage list of employees in your web site here: How To Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. This page could include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, 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 this page, subscribe to your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. Adding a web page with client reviews and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: Achieve Better Results Online With Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include:

• Name
• Your address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat (optional feature)

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

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

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as company news, product releases, educational information, informative posts, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your business.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin to attract targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Drive More Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucial to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws and regulations in whatever area you provide services to.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

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

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• How to structure 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 prospective clients understand your services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your articles that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• 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.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just search online for finance-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding 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

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

Add Forms And Checklists

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

Checklists and forms can include subjects such as:

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

Online Tools

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

In part two of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

To continue reading, click here:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors With Plugins & Themes

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