Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many new challenges in the online economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards developing and maintaining a website that brings in prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps increase their marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and some areas will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that CPAs (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds or less to help visitors find the information they need 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can adapt to meet digital economy challenges and who can think outside the box when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover new ways to find new potential clients and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, go here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of services And Products

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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

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.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Core Team

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

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in 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 even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, 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 staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in WordPress without editing code, see this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It can include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include case studies of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show prospective clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. Adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

We have written a detailed article about using client case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. For more details, go here: Achieve Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide some or all of the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Live chat feature

If your business operates out of multiple areas you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like company events, company updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your business.

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can instantly begin driving targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you are interested in learning more about this here: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Get More Web Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s crucially important to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.

Adding the legal pages below to your 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 Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. For more details: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages with others online and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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 completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps to 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

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your website.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing 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 RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can give them useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists are also great planning tools.

You can provide checklists and forms covering a range of subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

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

In part 2, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

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

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