Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only revolutionized business worldwide, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to market your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated to develop and maintain a website that will attract clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help give you a wider amount of exposure online.

This means that your website 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 may change in time and some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accountants face (and most professions for that matter), is that they have an average of 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information 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

Online Opportunities For CPAs

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting firms that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover opportunities to increase traffic and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Business

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Site

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what content works best, suggestions for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed step-by-step guide: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services and any products that you offer.

This page should include services such as:

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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to include any professional awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Staff

If you are searching for inexpensive ways to grow your business online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in 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. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

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 will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-maintain list of staff members to your website with no coding skills required, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the firm. This page would include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You should also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps to provide social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, see this article: How To Get Better Results Online With More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as company announcements, updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can begin attracting web traffic to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Get More Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

Having a compliant website is extremely important, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever your do business in.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Web Content

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

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your organization.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site 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 Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (known as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS feeds 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.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

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

In part two, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this comprehensive guide on ways to grow your accounting business presence online.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part 2

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