Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed businesses worldwide, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Challenges Accounting Services Face Online

Accounting businesses 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 an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they will need to invest a larger part of their marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that drives new prospects, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give their business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and your website 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 many areas may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other problem that CPAs face online (and other professions for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds to give visitors the information they need 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

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

This detailed guide will help you uncover ways to drive more web traffic and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• Learning WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for accounting websites, ways of improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: How To Plan Your Web Site: A Cost-Saving Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to set up your website for best results.

Your Services

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business – planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

It should mention any accounting awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Meet The Team

If you are searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual staff members on their social pages.

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 outline each staff 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 staff description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an updatable simple team members directory to your web site using free WP plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory To Your Site

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within the company. It can include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and additional 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, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients what type of solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to will also be establishing social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews to grow your business online here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Powerful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is essential.

It should provide:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Live Chat/Skype

If you operate in several areas you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You should also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as company announcements, product releases, educational articles, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin attracting 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: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Traffic For Your Business

Legal Information

It’s important for accounting and financial services organizations to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay 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 Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner 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 want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your visitors sharing your content online with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, 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 services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology 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 easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

If you provide valuable content, other sites 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great content on your website 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, search online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you may want to consider adding to your 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

Forms and checklists could address areas such as:

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

Adding Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to access the rest of this guide:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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

***

***

***