Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face increasing challenges.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Today, more than ever, CPAs must work harder to remain competitive, obtain new clients, and keep their current clientele. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase your presence online.

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

One other difficult challenge that accountancy firms face, as other professions do for that matter, is that your site has only about 30 seconds to provide visitors what they are looking 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

Opportunities For CPAs In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover new opportunities to drive more traffic and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your accounting website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business – An Online Guide To Growing A Business Using A WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

Let’s start by going over some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: How To Plan Your Small Business Web Site: A Practical Primer For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Products And Services

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services or products.

Your page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 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 your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Your Team

If you are searching for ideas to sell more products or services online and get people to engage more on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s experience, why they are an 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 team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory in your web site without coding skills here: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your Site

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within your firm. It would include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also helps to provide social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With More Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is essential.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Live chat feature (optional)

If your business operates from several areas you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as company news, updates, training information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and business blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin delivering a stream of web traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Get More Web Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

It’s vital for accounting and financial services businesses to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), 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 Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content free of charge has become one of the key business differentiators.

By committing to providing great content with advice 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 teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• 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 informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites may 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 updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• It provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for finance-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds you could consider adding 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

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

Add Online Checklists

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. They are great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists could cover subjects such as:

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

Provide Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website 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 to add to accounting websites. Others would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

To view Part Two, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins & Themes

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