Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for CPAs.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to delegate a bigger amount of your budget to develop and maintain a website that will drive new clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase your reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and some aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting organizations face (as other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with 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 a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting companies that can adapt to meet online challenges and can think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to attract new visitors and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business Online With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

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

If you need specific help with website planning, check out the article we have written here: The Website Planning Process - A Comprehensive Blueprint For Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

All business websites require some essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Products And Services

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to include any accounting awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Staff

Are you searching for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or increase user interaction on your site? Then help visitors get to know you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t 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. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to your website using free plugins, see this tutorial: Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory To Your Site

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities within the firm. It should include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your firm and information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in your 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

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also provides prospective clients with social proof online.

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

For a detailed article about using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online, go here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is essential.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Phone number
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Chat (optional feature)

If you operate out of several locations you should make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like news and events, company updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

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

You will want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your content online with others and come back for more information. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your organization.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a 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 readers understand your accounting services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your content that readers will be searching 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 and practical tips that will teach 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits 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 useful content for your website, search online for finance-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds you could consider adding to your accounting 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

(Add 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 increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses can help 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. Other applications can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we will look at a number of online tools you can add to your accounting website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

• The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence Successfully – Part 2

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