Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many challenges in the online economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful business online.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work harder to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to investing money advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to designate a bigger amount of your budget towards the development and management of a website that drives new clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you gain a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accounting firms face with their websites, and most other businesses for that matter, is that you have only around thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they need 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover opportunities to attract new accounts and create significant improvements in your business results online.

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

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business Online Using A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this guide: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of services And Products

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

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

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s experience, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to a WordPress site using free plugins, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also 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.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your company. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Image source: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. For more details: Create Better Results Online With Knockout Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is crucial.

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

• Name Of Your Organization
• Address
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat

If your business operates in several locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like announcements, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin delivering targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

For more info, see this article: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

As a professional business, having a compliant website is vitally important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive online economy, content generosity has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your visitors to share your web pages with others online and come back for more. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (often 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 visitor engagement and user experience.

Add RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing content on your site 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 relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds you could 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

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

Add Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide useful instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to build your accounting web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• A Step-By-Step Guide To Successfully Building And Growing Your Accounting Online Presence – Part 2

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