Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and great opportunities for accountants.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you gain a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web 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 over time and some areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other problem that accountancy firms face with their websites, as do most other businesses for that matter, is that you have an average of 30 seconds to provide visitors what they need 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

Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think strategically when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Potential Customers
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need several basic pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services Description Page

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

This page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community projects, etc.

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

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

Team Profile

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online, then help your prospective clients get to know you, your team 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 team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms your 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 individual 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 highlight each team member’s expertise and qualifications, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to easily add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff members to your site, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add A Staff List Directory To WordPress

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the organization. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 this page, subscribe to your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your company. Adding a web page with client reviews and case studies also provides visitors social proof online.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more about using client case studies and user reviews, see this article: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online With Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online chat (optional)

If your business services several locations you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as company announcements, product updates, educational articles, informative posts, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will help begin to drive targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

You can learn more about this here: Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s very important for accounting and financial services organizations to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, refer to this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, 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 content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing great content on 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 by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of feeds 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Adding Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed article, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help to improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue, click here:

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

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