Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
The digital information age has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for the accounting sector.
Challenges Accountants Face Online
Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for smarter ways to grow your business services online.
In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to allocate a more significant portion of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts leads, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and increases your marketing exposure online.
This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy in place.
One other challenge that accountancy firms (and all other professions) face, is that they have an average of 30 seconds to help visitors find the information they are looking for or they will leave your 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 CPAs In The Online Economy
As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can evolve to meet digital economy demands and think progressively about marketing their business better online.
This comprehensive article will help you uncover new ways to attract more visitors and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting website.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:
- Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money
- Learn How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress
Useful Tips To Improve Your Website
In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this detailed guide: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Your Web Pages
All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your need to have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.
Services
It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and products.
Your page should include services such as:
- Business accounting – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
- Taxation – preparation, 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, transfers, etc.
- Lending and leasing
Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.
Who We Are
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.
Remember to include any CPA awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above your competitors.
(List all of your industry awards accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc. in the About page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Your Staff
If you are searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust your organization better.
You want potential clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms your bio 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 so your site visitors can follow individual staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to outline your person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add an employee page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)
For a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an updatable simple team members directory to a WordPress site using free WordPress plugins, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory To WordPress
Job Opportunities
This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. It can include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies And Testimonials
Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof online.
(Add a page with case studies and client reviews. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)
We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Engaging Customer Testimonials
Contact Us
A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.
It should provide the following information about your firm:
- Name Of Your Organization
- Your address
- Telephone number
- Fax
- Contact email address
- Google Map
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Social media URLs
- Online chat feature
If your business services multiple areas you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.
You can also include links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.
Blog Section
A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content like company events, product updates, educational information, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your company.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your website and your blog.
Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin driving an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate web traffic automatically to your site)
Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into A Traffic Generation Machine
Legal Pages
It’s very important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.
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 (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions 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 comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. If you are interested in learning more about this here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
Improving Your Web Content
In today’s ultra competitive online economy, content generosity has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.
By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services and products.
For example, for an accounting business, topics can include the following:
- How balance sheets work
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
- Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
- Business cashflow planning
- Business insurance
- Risk protection
- How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
- Do’s and don’ts of … (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 finance accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to use keywords in your articles that your prospective clients 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Ways To Improve User Experience
Improving your website’s user experience (known as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.
Content Syndication – RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide many benefits for your accounting business.
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 syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Can be shared
- Users can subscribe to your feed
- It provides a way for links to point back 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. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also benefits to providing valuable 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, visit sites of finance-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.
Here are examples of feeds containing useful information that 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
(Use RSS feeds to improve your site’s UX.)
Provide Online Forms & Checklists
Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. They are great business planning tools.
Forms and checklists could address areas such as:
- How To Set Up A Business
- Negative Gearing Checklist
- Fundraising Governance Checklist
- Disclosure Requirements
- Company Tax Checklist
- Trust Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Unique Tools
Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses 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 useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In part 2, we will be discussing a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can help to improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section one.
To view Part 2, click here:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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