Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for accounting businesses.

Online Challenges For Accounting Firms

Now, more than ever, accountancy firms must work harder to stand out from the competition, find new business, and retain current clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to spending dollars marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards developing and managing a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and gives them a wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site 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 will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting businesses face (as do other professions for that matter), is that your site has around thirty seconds to give users what they are looking for 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting companies that can evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and think outside the box in terms of marketing their business better online.

In this guide, you will discover a number of ways to find new clients and create significant improvements in your business online.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• Mastering WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Website

Let’s start by going over some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide: The Website Planning Process - A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites need some basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Products And Services Page

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

It will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, 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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Staff Page

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One 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 well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions 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 so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s experience, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an updatable list of employees in your site with no coding skills required here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within your organization. It would include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting 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, join your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps to establish social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and reviews to grow your business online here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should provide:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location of office
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat (optional feature)

If you operate from several areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as industry announcements, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, informative posts, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established accounting 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 hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and business blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin attracting web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

For more info, see this article: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a compliant website is very important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever your do business in.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and 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.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

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

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages with others and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with you.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a 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 readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your content that prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. 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 site’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of finance-related government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could add 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant 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, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we look at a several online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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

Click on this link to keep reading:

• How To Build And Grow An Accounting Business Online – Part Two

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