Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionized business globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for accountants and financial service providers.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

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

In addition to spending money advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated to developing and managing a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to give them wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 will change over time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

One other difficult challenge that accountants (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to help users find what they are looking for or they will leave and 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 The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy demands and can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to increase web traffic and improve your business results online.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

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

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by going over the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, useful tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process - A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that explains your products or services.

This page should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not 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. It should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each staff member’s experience, 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 an employee page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your website using a free WP plugin here: Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have risen within your firm and information about upcoming 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof online.

(Add a page with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews improve your business online here: How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is essential.

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

• Business Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat (optional)

If your business operates from different locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like company events, company updates, useful information, informative posts, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can deliver targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Drive More Website Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s extremely important for accounting and financial services businesses to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

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

Improving Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive digital economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your visitors to share your content with others online and come back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring a 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 educational articles that will help your your readers understand your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords in your content that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your 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!

Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

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

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

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform a task. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover subjects such as:

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

Adding Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

Click here to view the rest of this guide:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic To Your Website Generation With Plugins

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