Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many new challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing a business online.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that brings new prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and gives their business wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, 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 may change over time and many areas will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting firms face, as do most other businesses for that matter, is that they have an average of 30 seconds or less to help users find the information they need 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

Opportunities For CPAs In The Web Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

The article below will help you uncover new ways to find more clientele and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Customers
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by going over the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

Professional websites need some basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of Products And Services

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

It should include services such as:

• Business – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, asset 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 what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Your Team

Are you searching for cost-effective ways to grow your business online and get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then help your prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms your bio 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 visitors to follow your team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your team member’s experience, how their skills and knowledge contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee page. Image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-update simple staff directory to WordPress using a free WordPress plugin here: Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your Site

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you will also help to will also be establishing social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews here: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Profit-Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location of office
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat (optional feature)

If you operate out of multiple locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, 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 marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content like news and events, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your services.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting website is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and your blog.

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin driving targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

Learn more about this here: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services to.

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your web pages with others and come back for more information. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• How to structure 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 gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, office accounting software, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide useful content, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites 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 online
• Allows for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• 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 benefits when it comes to providing great information on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of feeds you may want to add 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 feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. They can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your accounting website that improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to access Part 2:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Traffic

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