Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accounting professionals face many challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing a successful business presence online.
Challenges CPAs Face Online
Now, more than ever, accountancy firms must find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to grow your business services online.
As well as investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to allocate a more significant part of their budget to developing and managing a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and gives them wider reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy in place.
One other problem that accountants (and all other professions) face with their websites, is that they have around 30 seconds or less to provide users with what they are searching for or they will leave the site 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 Accountants In The Online Economy
As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.
In this guide, you will learn about opportunities to attract new visitors and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.
As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting website.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:
- Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
- Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Small Business With A WordPress Blog
Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site
In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, ways to improve your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, see this guide: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners
Improving Your Website Pages
Professional websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s review the pages your should have and how to structure your accounting website for best results.
Products And Services Page
You need to include a page that describes your services and products.
It should include services such as:
- Business accounting – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
- Taxation – preparation, 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. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.
About Us
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community activities, etc.
It should also mention any professional awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.
(List all of your business awards recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc. in the About Us page. Screenshot image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Staff Page
If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you and your organization better.
People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.
On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add an employee page. Image source: deepsky.com)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to add a simple team members directory to your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills
Career Opportunities Page
List any career opportunities available within the organization. This page could include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.
Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps your accounting business to establish social proof online.
(Add a page to your site with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)
If you would like to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and user reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Improve Your Conversions With Standout Client Testimonials
Contact Page
Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.
It should provide visitors with the following information:
- Name Of Your Organization
- Street address of premises
- Phone number
- Fax
- Contact email address
- Map
- Website address
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media networks
- Live chat
If your business services multiple areas you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.
Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like company news, product updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, 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 site is very hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your website and business blog.
Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will help begin driving targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine
Legal Information Pages
It’s essential to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever your business is located.
Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting 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 Policy
- 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
Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Tips On How To Improve Your Content
In today’s ultra competitive global economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more information. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.
For example, for an accounting business, topics could cover the following:
- Explanations of balance sheets
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
- How to present accounts for fundraising activities
- Business cashflow planning advice
- Business insurance
- Protecting revenues
- How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
- Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your content 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 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 marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Tips For Improving 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 ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds
Using RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.
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
- Doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared online
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- It provides a way for links to point back to your site
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing great content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.
For example, here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to add to your accounting 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 (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)
Adding Online Checklists
Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.
Forms and checklists can cover areas such as:
- How To Set Up A Business
- Negative Gearing Worksheet
- Non-Profit Activity Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Company Tax Checklist
- Trust Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Unique Tools
Providing useful tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.
In the next section, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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