Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for accounting businesses.

Online Challenges For CPAs

Now, more than ever, CPAs must work harder and find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new business, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on 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 budget need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that can drive new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give them a wider amount of reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting organizations (and other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to give users the information they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 Accounting Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this guide, you will learn opportunities to attract new business and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content you need, useful tips for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed guide: Planning Your Small Business Website: A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

All business websites need several basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Your Products And Services

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online and get people to engage more with your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. 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. It should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add a simple employee directory to a WordPress site using free plugins, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within the company. This page can include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 the page, join your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps to establish social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Online chat

If you operate from multiple areas you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

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

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like industry events, company updates, educational articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin delivering a stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Increasing Your Web Traffic Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is vital, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, content generosity has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing great content with information and tips will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable content 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 useful content just visit sites of finance and tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are some feeds you could consider adding to your accounting 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

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Provide Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Forms and checklists are great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

To continue, click here:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic Using WordPress Plugins

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