Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned to developing and maintaining a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and gives you wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change in time and many aspects may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accountants (and most other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds to give users what they are searching for 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 CPAs

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and think outside the box about marketing their business better online.

In this article, you will learn about a number of ways to find new potential clients and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting website.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

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

If you need website planning assistance, check out the guide we have written here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Services Page

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

Your page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 businesses, 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 appointment booking page.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you and your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be 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 that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add a simple and easily updatable simple team members directory to your website without coding skills here: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site: Plugin Tutorial

Work For Us

List any career opportunities within your company. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have risen within your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps to provide potential clients with social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online here: How To Get Better Results Online Using Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat feature (optional)

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

You can also include links to the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like company news, updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your services.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and your blog.

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic system that will help begin to drive new visitors to your site, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can drive traffic automatically to your site)

If you would like to know more here: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Information

It’s crucially important for accounting businesses to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws and regulations in whatever area or location you provide services to.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you 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 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• 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 educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords and terminology in your content that your 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 and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

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

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

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS 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 various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great information on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Provide Online Forms & Checklists

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 instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

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

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This is the end of section one of this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your accounting business online.

To continue, click here:

• Online Business Tips For CPAs – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins

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