Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many new challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing their business online.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Today, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, obtain new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they will need to delegate a more significant share of their marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that brings in clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and increases their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, 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 sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that CPAs face online (as do most businesses for that matter), is that they have only about 30 seconds to give visitors what they are searching 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

Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think outside the box in terms of marketing themselves better online.

The article below will help you uncover ways to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what type of content you need, tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, go here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services Page

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

Your page will include services such as:

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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

Remember to mention any professional awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are searching for ways to sell more products online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team 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 employees. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to your web site using a free plugin here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within your organization. This page can include training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients what kind of solutions you can implement to help solve their problems. Adding a web page with testimonials and case studies also establishes social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more using testimonials, case studies and client reviews get better results online, go here: Achieve Better Results Online Using Knockout Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat (optional feature)

If you operate from multiple areas you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

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

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as company news, company updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can help drive new visitors to your business, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant, having a compliant website is very important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whatever region you do business in.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• 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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

You will want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, 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 accounting services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles that your readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Adding Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

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

To view Part Two, click this link:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Website With WordPress – Part 2

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