Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many challenges in the digital economy, especially when it comes to growing their presence online.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

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

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that will drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help them gain a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website may change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that accountancy firms face with their websites (as most other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to help users find the information they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Online Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can adapt to meet digital demands and can think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover new opportunities to drive more web traffic and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business
• A Complete Guide To Growing A Small Business With WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, ways of improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Website Planning Process - A Useful Blueprint For Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

All websites require some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services And Products Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists your products or services.

This page should include services such as:

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

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

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

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

Your Staff

If you are looking for ways to sell more products online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in accounting terms your 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 visitors can follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s expertise, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff page. Image source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial on how to add a simple staff directory to your web site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. It could include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to provide social proof online.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and user reviews improve your business online. For more details: How To Get Better Results Online Using Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is crucial.

It should include:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Online Chat/Skype

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news and events, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin driving new visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

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

For more details: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Info Pages

It’s essential for accounting firms to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links 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 about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your website.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your 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 adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, 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 visit sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds you could add 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

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

Add Forms And Checklists

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 give them useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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

Click here to keep reading:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation

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