Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for CPAs.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to promote your business services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to assign a more significant part of their marketing budget to developing and maintaining a website that brings in leads, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and increases their marketing exposure online.

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

One other problem that accountancy firms face online, as other professions do for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to give users what 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

Opportunities For CPAs In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think strategically about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about a number of ways to increase web traffic and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Mastering WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by going over the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Practical Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

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

Services And Products Description Page

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

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

• Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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 a business, 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 book an appointment.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to mention any accounting awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above other competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site, then make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your organization better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be that 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. This page should even include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.

In 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 each employee’s qualifications, 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 staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update list directory of employees to your WordPress site using free WP plugins, refer to this tutorial: Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the organization. This page could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can also include information about 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 this page, subscribe to your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

We have written a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews improve your business online. For more info, see this article: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Powerful Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature

If your business operates in several areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as industry events, company updates, training articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your company.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s vital to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content online and come back for more information. Using content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• 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 informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use the same 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 actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving website 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.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great information 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 for your website, visit sites of finance-related government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds you could 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

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Add Forms

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

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your accounting or financial services site that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of part 1.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Web Presence – Part Two

Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Get Published – Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!

***

***

***