Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face a number of challenges.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

Today, more than ever, CPAs must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and retain current business. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to delegate a bigger portion of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to increase your reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that accountancy firms face online (as do most professions for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to provide visitors what they need or they will leave 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

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy demands and can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.

The guide below will help you uncover a number of ways to drive more traffic and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Customers
• WordPress For Business – The Complete Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, read this article: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

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

Your Services

It’s essential to have a page that explains your products or services.

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

• Business accounting – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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

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

About Us

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

It’s important to include any industry awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above your competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s experience, why they are an invaluable 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 staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add a simple team directory in WordPress using a free WordPress plugin, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within your company. It can include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your firm, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also a positions available section in this 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 And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients them minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also provides visitors social proof.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using client case studies and client reviews improve your business online. If you are interested in learning more about this here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With More Effective Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include:

• Company Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat/Skype

If your business services multiple locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as company news, product updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your company.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin to drive targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Info Pages

It’s vitally important to have a compliant website, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. If you would like to know more here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your readers to share your content with others online and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your content 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 easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (typically referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides many benefits for your website.

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

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

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

There are also a number of benefits to providing great content on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds you could 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 (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Add Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and forms are great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can address areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets 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 some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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