Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed businesses worldwide, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for businesses in the accounting and financial services profession.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

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

As well as investing money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned to developing and maintaining a website that can attract prospects, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give you a wider amount of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accountancy firms face online (and other professions for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to give users what they are searching for or they will go away.

“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

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting firms that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think strategically in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about new ways to source new potential clients and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting website.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

This section looks at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

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

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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, 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 these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical programs, etc.

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

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

Team Profile Page

If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then help your prospects get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline each team member’s expertise, 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 an employee description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update directory of employees in a WordPress site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within your organization. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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, subscribe to your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what kind of solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you are also helping to are also providing social proof online.

(Add a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using testimonials and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Improve Your Sales Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media links
• Online chat feature

If your business operates in multiple areas you should make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry news, company updates, training information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can help attract web traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can drive traffic automatically to your site)

For more details: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s vitally important for professional firms to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being broken wherever you provide services to.

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 threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. For more details: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, content generosity has become one of the key business differentiators.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your content online with others and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring 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 readers understand accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, office accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your articles that 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 actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your 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 Visitor Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide content 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 updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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, search online for finance and tax-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS feeds you could add to your 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

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

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. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this detailed guide, we look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

***

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

To view Part 2, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow An Accounting Business Online – Part Two

Subscribe To WPCompendium.org And Get Notified Of New WordPress Tutorials!

***

***

***