Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering accounting and financial services.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

Now, more than ever, CPAs must work harder to remain competitive, obtain new clients, and retain current business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to investing money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated to develop and manage a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps increase your presence 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 the needs of the website may change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accountants face (as do most businesses for that matter), is that your site has an average of thirty seconds or less to give visitors the information they need or they will leave your site and 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can adapt to meet digital demands and think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover a number of ways to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by going over the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, suggestions for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: How To Plan Your Small Business Website: A Practical Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of Services

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 a business, 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

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

It’s important to also list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online, then something you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. 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 will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each employee’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 staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add a list of employees or team members to WordPress without messing with code, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Simple Staff List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It should include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your company. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Knockout Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include the following information about your firm:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services several areas you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like news and events, company updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your company.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin to drive targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Web Traffic For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucially important, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations in whichever region you do business in.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your visitors to share your content online and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your accounting services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your articles that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, 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 completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (often 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.

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just visit sites of finance-related government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of useful 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Adding Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help 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 would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we take a look at a several online tools you can use in your accounting website using WordPress plugins that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To keep reading, click this link:

• A Practical Step-By-Step Guide To Successfully Building And Growing Your Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence – Part 2

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