Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for certified public accountants.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to designate a more significant part of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can attract new leads, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and give your business wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and many aspects will need to be updated often. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accounting organizations face with their websites (as most other professions do for that matter), is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to give users 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 Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting firms that can adapt to meet online demands and can think strategically about marketing their business services better online.

In this guide, you will learn new ways to attract more visitors and establish online credibility for your business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

How To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

Let’s start by covering some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages an accounting website needs, what type of content you need, suggestions for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, go here: Planning Your Business Website - A Comprehensive Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need several essential pages. Let’s review these.

Your Products And Services

You need to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business – planning, 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 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, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

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

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online and increase user interaction on your site? Then help your prospective clients get to know your organization better.

You want people 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 brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

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

(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add an updatable simple team members directory in your website using a free WordPress plugin, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your firm. It would include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show potential clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you will also help to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online. For more info, see this article: Improve Your Sales Using Engaging User Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Online Chat/Skype

If you operate out of several areas you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You should also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like company announcements, company updates, educational articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act 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 machine that can help begin to drive new targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Grow Your Web Visitors For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s extremely important 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 no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever you service clients.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing great content with information and tips will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use relevant keywords in your articles that prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular 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 marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your website.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits 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.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, search online for finance and tax-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few RSS feeds containing useful information that you could 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 feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Provide Online Checklists

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

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique 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 potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Others could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your site that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part one of this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.

To continue reading, click this link:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part 2

Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published – Subscribe To Our Site!

***

***

***