Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionized the way business is done worldwide, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for accounting businesses.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Now, more than ever, CPAs must work hard to stand out from the crowd, obtain new business, and keep their current clientele. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning better ways to market your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated to develop and manage a website that drives new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to increase their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, 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 may change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that accounting organizations face online, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that they have only about thirty seconds to give users what they are looking 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 The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and think progressively about improving their online business marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover new ways to increase traffic and improve your business online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting business website.

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

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site

This section explains how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what content works best, ways to improve layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: Planning Your Website - A Practical Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

All websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Services And Products Description Page

You need a page that explains your products or services.

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

• Business – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, 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. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to mention any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be 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 even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each person’s expertise, why they are an 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 to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-maintain list directory of staff or team members to a WordPress site with no coding skills required, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It can include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can include stories of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients what type of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps your accounting or financial services website to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article about using client case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If you have multiple areas you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like company news, product updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your business website and blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin delivering new visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Pages

It’s crucial to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever your do business in.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• 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

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

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

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that your 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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 User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing 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 useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are a few feeds containing useful information that you may want to add 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

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

Add Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could address areas such as:

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

Provide Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click here to continue:

• A Practical Guide On How To Build And Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Website Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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