Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many challenges in today’s online economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful presence online.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to market your business online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned to developing and maintaining a website that can attract new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and give them a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting businesses face online, as most businesses do for that matter, is that they have an average of 30 seconds or less to help users find what 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 Accountants

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) 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 Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• WordPress And Small Business – A Complete Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Practical Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

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

• Business accounting – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community activities, etc.

It’s important to also include any professional awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief 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. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s qualifications, 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 employees to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-update simple staff directory to your WordPress site using a free WP plugin here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work With Us

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It should include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting 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, join your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

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

(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to improve your business results online here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat feature

If your business services several locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links for the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry announcements, product updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that can help begin driving an ongoing stream of web traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

Go here to learn more: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Website Visitors Automatically

Legal Information Pages

It’s vitally important to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever your business is located.

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

• Contact Us
• 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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, being generous with content has become one of the key success factors for businesses selling similar products or providing similar services.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• 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 readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers 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 web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for tax-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. They are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Unique Tools

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

In part two, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your website that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to access the rest of this article:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Site With WordPress Plugins

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