Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face growing challenges.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to assign a greater portion of their budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and create wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy in place.

Another challenge that accounting organizations face online, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they need or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about new ways and opportunities to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in 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 or financial services business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Learning WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Website

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

If you need help with website planning, check out the article we have written here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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, 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 what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

It’s important to also include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are looking for simple ideas to sell more products online or increase user interaction on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust 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 or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with 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 also include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual team 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 highlight your employee’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 staff page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain simple employee directory in your web site using a free WP plugin, refer to this tutorial: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory In WordPress

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within the organization. This page should include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information such as the job outlook and new 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide the following information about your company:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional feature)

If you operate out of multiple areas you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as industry events, company updates, useful information, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established accounting site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your Website Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is vital, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever your do business in.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site 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 and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improving Your Content

In today’s highly competitive online economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your readers sharing your content online with others and coming back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring your 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 informative articles that will help your your readers understand accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your content that your prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides many benefits for your site.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 useful content for your website, search online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you may want to add 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your accounting or financial services website that can help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue reading, click here:

• The Complete Guide On How To Build And Grow An Accounting Website Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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