Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created significant challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering accounting services.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your business online.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps increase their marketing reach online.

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

One other challenge that accounting businesses face online (and all other businesses for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to give visitors the information they are searching for or they will leave 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 Certified Public Accountants

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

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Customers
• WordPress And Small Business – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Site

Let’s start by covering the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Practical Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need some essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services Description Page

You need to include a page that describes your services and any products that you offer.

It should include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, 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. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community activities, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Team Profile

If you are looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One 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 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. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, how their skills add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff or team members to your site with no coding skills required, refer to this tutorial: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within your organization. It would include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can also include case studies of trainees who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and new 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 updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show potential clients what type of accounting solutions you can implement to help them solve their problems. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also establishes social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients. Image source: pcg-services.com)

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews, see this article: How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With Sales Boosting Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is crucial.

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

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business services several areas you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like news, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your company.

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin delivering an ongoing stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your website)

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

Legal Info Pages

It’s vitally important for accounting and financial services organizations to have a compliant website, 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 contravened in whichever location you service.

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with information and tips will get your readers to share your content and come back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use the same keywords in your content that readers will be searching for online.

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 high-quality 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 Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

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

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• 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.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Provide Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are also great planning tools.

Checklists and forms can address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click here to continue:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence With WordPress – Part Two

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