Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face a growing number of challenges.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning better ways to promote your business services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they need to assign a larger part of their marketing budget to developing and managing a website that can attract clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help to give their business wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accountants (and all other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to provide users 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

Opportunities For CPAs

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet digital challenges and can think strategically when it comes to marketing their services better online.

The article below will help you uncover a number of ways to drive more web traffic and create significant improvements in your business online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting website.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Business Online

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

Let’s start by reviewing some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what content you need, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites need some essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Products And Services

You need a page that explains your services and products.

Your page should include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services 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, community participation, etc.

This page should include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online? Then help your prospects get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff 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. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an updatable simple team members directory in your website without messing around with code, go here: Adding An Employee Directory: Tutorial

Work For Us

List any career opportunities within the company. This page can include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting 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, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials 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 testimonials and case studies also helps your accounting business to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Sales Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media pages
• Online chat

If your business operates out of different locations you should make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as announcements, product updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your business website and blog.

You may not know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will deliver a stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate traffic automatically to your website)

For more info, see this article: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically

Legal Information

It’s extremely important for accounting and financial services firms to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages online and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services and products.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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 Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide useful content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website by visiting sites of finance and tax-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of 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 feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms can cover topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your website that can help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to build your accounting business presence online.

Click on this link to read Part 2:

• Online Business Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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