Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionised businesses globally, it has also created many challenges and opportunities for businesses offering accounting and financial services.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that attracts prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give their business a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and many aspects may need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accountancy firms (and all other businesses) face with their websites, is that you have around 30 seconds to provide users what 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 Accountants In The Online Economy

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

The article below will help you uncover a number of ways to attract more visitors and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, go here:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, ways of improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Comprehensive Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

All business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Products And Services

You need a page that explains your services and products.

Your page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

This page should mention any industry awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business 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 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 visitors to follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add a directory of staff members in your web site using free WP plugins here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within the organization. This page could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your firm and information such as the job outlook and new 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof.

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

If you would like to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews improve your business online, go here: Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

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

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature (optional)

If your business operates in different locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You could also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog is 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 by publishing content like news, updates, useful articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is 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 blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can drive targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

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

Legal Information

It’s essential for accounting and financial services companies to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on the products and services you provide, 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 (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

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

You want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages online and coming back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present 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 your prospective clients understand your accounting services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality 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 Experience

Improving website user experience (known as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful content, 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, 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 relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Other Tools

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

In the next section, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your website that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To continue, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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