Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face significant challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For Accountants

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that can drive prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site layout 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 may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that CPAs face (and most professions for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds to help visitors find what they need or they will find what they are looking for 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 Accountants In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this guide, you will discover a number of ways to attract more clients and improve your 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.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business Online With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for accounting websites, suggestions for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need several basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Products And Services

You need to include a page that explains your services and products.

This page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, 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

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

It should also include any CPA awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory to WordPress using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Add A Staff Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within the firm. It should include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have risen within your organization and information about new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Improve Your Sales With Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following:

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat (optional)

If your business services several locations you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You could also include links to the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as company announcements, updates, useful articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can attract new visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Pages

It’s crucially important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever your do business in.

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

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content with others and come 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 you.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (generally referred to 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 user experience.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide valuable content, other sites 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Allows for subscribing
• It provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing content on your site from other sites, 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 and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that 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

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your accounting or financial services website that can help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

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• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website Using Plugins And Themes

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