Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face growing challenges.

Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession

Today, more than ever, CPAs must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new business, and keep their current clientele. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give you a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accounting organizations face with their websites (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to give visitors what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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

Online Opportunities For Accountants

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting companies that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this guide, you will discover new ways to find more potential clients and improve your business presence online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

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

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this article: A Comprehensive Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

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

Services And Products Description Page

You need a page that explains your products or services.

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

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each employee’s expertise, 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 team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory to your site without coding skills, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities available within the company. It can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting industry.

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

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also establishes social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Captivating Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is essential.

It should provide the following information about your organization:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat (optional)

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

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

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as company news, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin attracting web traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Traffic For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s extremely important to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay 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 Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Web Content

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

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that your prospective clients would search 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 you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

Improving website user experience (generally 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 user experience.

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide useful information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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 many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are a few useful 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

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

Provide Forms & Checklists

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In the next section, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part one.

Click here to read Part Two:

• How To Grow An Accounting Web Presence Successfully – Part 2

Get Notified When New Tutorials Get Published – Subscribe Using The Form Below!

***

***

***