Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created a number of challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for better ways to promote your business services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to designate a larger portion of their marketing budget to developing and maintaining a website that drives leads, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps give them a wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and some areas will need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms face (as other professions do for that matter), is that they have an average of thirty seconds to provide visitors with 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 Accountants

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

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about new opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Money
• Mastering WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

We’ll start first by going over some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what type of content works best for accounting websites, ways to improve your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Your Web Pages

All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and products.

This page should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to 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 your services and why they should choose you.

About Us

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

This page should also mention any accounting awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Meet Our Team

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be that 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 individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your team member’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain list directory of staff members in your website using free plugins, go here: Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory In WordPress

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your firm. It can include 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.

Also include 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. For more details: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Compelling Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following information:

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates out of different locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You could also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog is a powerful 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 content such as news, updates, useful information, informative posts, promotional 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 website is hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your website and business blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin driving an ongoing stream of new targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Traffic Automatically

Legal Information Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a compliant website is vital, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached in whichever area you service.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. For more info, see this article: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics could include the following:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your 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 readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your content that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful 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 User Experience

Improving your website’s 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 UX.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to 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 when it comes to providing great information on your site 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.

Below we have listed examples of feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding 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

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your accounting site’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can cover subjects such as:

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

Add Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of section 1.

To view the rest of this guide, click here:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Generating More Visitors

Subscribe Using The Form Below And Get Notified Of New Tutorials!

***

***

***