Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many new challenges in the web economy, especially in terms of growing a business online.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to invest a larger share of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that will attract prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and give you wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

Another problem that accountants face online (as most businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds to provide users with what they need 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this guide, you will learn new ways to increase web traffic and improve your business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

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

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: A Basic Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Services And Products Description Page

You need to include a page that describes your services and products.

It should include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

About Us Page

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

Remember to also include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online, then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions 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 so your visitors can follow individual staff members on their social pages.

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

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

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team directory to your web site with no coding skills required, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within your firm. This page can include training, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional 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, join your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also establishes social proof online.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients. Image source: pcg-services.com)

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like announcements, updates, training information, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your business.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly drive a stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your Website Into A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vitally important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened in whichever region you do business in.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and 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
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Learn more about this here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your content online and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• 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
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, 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 finance accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your articles that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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 Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses 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
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, search online for tax-related government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Add Forms And Checklists

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They can also be great planning tools.

Forms and checklists can address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Online Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your accounting or financial services website that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue, click here:

• Online Business Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Traffic

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