Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For CPAs

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your business services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that will attract new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help give them wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website may change over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that accounting organizations face online, as do other professions for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Accounting Services

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.

In this article, you will discover ways to attract more visitors and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business – The Complete Guide To Growing A Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, check out the article we have written here: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require some basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your products and services.

It will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

This page should also mention any business awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online, then help visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

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

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain simple employee directory to your site here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about new 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 you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using client testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Effective Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information about your organization:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live Chat/Skype

If your business operates from multiple locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links for the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as announcements, product releases, useful articles, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin to deliver targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Get More Web Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being broken wherever your business is located.

Adding 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. Google), 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 Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages online and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide valuable content, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing information on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding 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

(Add RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Provide Online Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business presence online.

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