Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionised business around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and great opportunities for CPAs.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you create a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your site 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 it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting businesses face with their websites, and most businesses for that matter, is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to provide users what they are searching for or they will 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 Accounting Professionals

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

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover a number of ways to attract more clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business Online Using WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Website

This section looks at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages an accounting website needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed guide: How To Plan A Website - A Basic Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Services And Products

You need to include a page that lists your products or services.

This page should include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

About Us

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

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

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

Staff

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms your 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 visitors can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add a list of employees or team members in WordPress without coding skills, see this tutorial: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. It should include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or sponsored by your firm, etc. You can also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve their problems. Adding a page with testimonials and case studies also establishes social proof online.

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews, refer to this article: Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Engaging Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is essential.

It should include the following information about your organization:

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone number
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat

If your business services different areas you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like industry announcements, company updates, useful information, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help drive an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Generate More Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

It’s crucial 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 local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

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

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your content and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients understand your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your articles that prospective clients 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 you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving User Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (typically referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great content 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 just visit sites of tax-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS feeds you may want to add 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. They can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we will be discussing a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your website that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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

Click here to keep reading:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Generating More Traffic

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