Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face a number of challenges in the online economy, especially in terms of growing their business presence online.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and searching for better ways to grow your business online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that can drive prospects, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help give their business wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your 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 your site’s needs will change in time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms face online (as most businesses do for that matter), is that you have only about 30 seconds or less to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will look 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 a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting firms that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and can think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

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

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting website.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

All business websites require some essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Services Description Page

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

This page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

Remember to list any business awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions 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 that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-update directory of staff members in your web site using a free plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. It could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. You should also include information about 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, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also provides visitors social proof online.

(Add a web page with reviews from clients and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews get better results online. For more info, see this article: Improve Your Sales Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is essential.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat

If your business services several locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You can also include links to commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news and events, updates, educational articles, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and business blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that will begin to drive new visitors to your business, simply by adding content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential 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
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles that your readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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!

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other sites, 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 relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Forms and checklists are great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can cover topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

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

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This is the end of part 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting business online.

To continue reading, click this link:

• How To Successfully Grow An Accounting Business Online – Part Two

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