Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized business around the world, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for CPAs.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Today, more than ever, accounting firms must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, find new business, and keep their current clientele. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning better ways to market your business online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to designate a larger part of your budget to develop and manage a website that brings in leads, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and gives you wider marketing reach online.

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

One other challenge that accounting firms (and all other businesses) face online, is that your site has only around thirty seconds to give users the information they are searching for or they will look 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 Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think progressively about improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover ways to find more potential clients and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Essential Pages

Professional business websites need some essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

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

It will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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, asset 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 these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community involvement, etc.

Remember to list any industry awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a list of staff members in WordPress here: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

Recruitment

List any career opportunities within the firm. This page should include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also provides social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more using client testimonials and client reviews go here: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Profit-Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat feature

If your business services multiple areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as company events, company updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, videos, webinars, 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 site is hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and blog.

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin to deliver targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important for professional companies to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

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

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, engaging in the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 your readers understand accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, tips on using office accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that readers 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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 having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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 useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

(RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. They can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

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

In part two, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins

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