Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

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

Online Challenges For Accountants

Now, more than ever, CPAs must work hard and find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new business, and retain current business. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they need to allocate a larger share of their marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that can bring in leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and give them wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another challenge that accountants face with their websites (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds to give users what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn ways and opportunities to find more potential clients and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• Understanding WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide

Tips To Improve Your Website

This section explains ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best, tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Comprehensive Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of Products And Services

You need a page that explains your services and products.

It will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

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

It should include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Your Team

Are you searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff 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 staff member’s experience, 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 employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your site using free plugins here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your organization. It would include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your firm, etc. It should include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

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

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using More Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is essential.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Chat (optional feature)

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

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

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news, company updates, educational information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is very hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and business blog.

You may not have been told about this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can help begin to drive targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services you provide, adding the legal pages below 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. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and 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
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive global economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more information. This is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your content that readers would search 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 web site, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

Tips For Improving User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (known 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.

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing information on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Checklists and forms are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Tips For Accountants – Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins

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