Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must work harder to remain competitive, obtain new business, and retain current clients. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning smarter ways to market your business services online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they need to assign a greater share of their marketing budget to develop and manage a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to create wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change in time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that CPAs face online, and most other professions for that matter, is that they have around 30 seconds or less to give 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

Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants

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

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to increase web traffic and improve your business results online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of 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 Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Money
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by going over the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what content you need, useful tips for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Basic Pages

Professional business websites need some basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services

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

This page will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to 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 these services and why they should choose you.

About Us

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

It’s important to include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online? Then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A 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 it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your team member’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset 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)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update directory of employees or team members in your website using free WP plugins, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within your organization. This page should include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also 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 you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using testimonials, case studies and reviews here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat

If you have multiple locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as company events, product releases, educational articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help begin to drive web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Traffic For Your Business Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important for accounting firms to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, content generosity has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content online with others and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure 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 informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terms in your content that your readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And 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 different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your website.

If you provide information 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
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your site 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 finance-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of useful RSS feeds you may want to consider adding to your accounting website:

• 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 (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Provide Online Forms

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

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust 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 for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your accounting site that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

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

To view the rest of this guide, click here:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Visitors

Subscribe To WPCompendium.org And Get Notified Of New WordPress Tutorials!

***

***

***