Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for accountants.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Now, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to remain competitive, find new clients, and retain current clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for smarter ways to market your business online.

As well as spending money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated to developing and managing a website that can attract new leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and give your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and some areas will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accountancy firms face (as all other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to provide users with 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 The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting firms that can adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business better online.

The article below will help you uncover new ways to attract and engage new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: Planning Your Business Website - A Cost-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

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

Services And Products Page

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, 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 the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

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

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

Team Profile Page

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online or get people to engage more with your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in accounting terms it 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 visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each 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 team profile page. Image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to add a simple and easily updatable simple employee directory to WordPress here: How To Add A Simple Staff List To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. It could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients what type of solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials and user reviews, refer to this article: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions With Powerful Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is essential.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media links
• Online chat

If your business operates out of different areas you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry announcements, product updates, useful articles, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to know more about this here: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is very important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws and regulations in whichever location you service.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content online with others and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (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 finance accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terms 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content. 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 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.

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your website.

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 updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view 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 adding syndicated content to your website 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 finance and tax-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds you could add to your 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 feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Provide Online Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists are also great planning tools.

Forms and checklists could include subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business online.

Click here to view the rest of this guide:

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

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