Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to assign a larger part of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives leads, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase your presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and some areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accounting firms face online, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they need or they will leave the site.

“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 Online Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that can adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover ways and opportunities to increase traffic and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

It will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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.

Who We Are

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

It should also include any business awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Core Team

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual staff members on their social pages.

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

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory in your site without coding skills, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should 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 this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your company. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to provide social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials and client reviews improve your business online here: Improve Your Sales Conversions With Profit-Boosting Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is crucial.

It should provide some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates out of several areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like announcements, product updates, useful articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can help begin to deliver targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

Having a compliant website is very important, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whichever region you provide services to.

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), 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
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more info, see this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with you.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, 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 forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your content that your readers would search for.

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 web site, 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 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your 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 for your website, visit sites of finance-related government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are some 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

(Use RSS feeds to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Checklists & 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 give them useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable 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
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Online Tools

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

In part 2 of this guide, we look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your website that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation Using Plugins & Themes

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