Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for certified public accountants.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Now, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to remain competitive, find new clients, and retain current clients. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and give them a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your 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 will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires a sound website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accounting firms face, as do other businesses for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to help visitors find what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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 The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting firms that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically about improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover a number of ways to attract more clientele and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business Online With A WordPress Site

Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, suggestions for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Your Products And Services

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, 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 these services and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to also list any business awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above other competitors.

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

Your Team

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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 prospective clients can follow your team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add an updatable directory of employees in WordPress without coding skills, go here: Adding An Employee List Directory: Plugin Tutorial

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It should include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also 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 this page, join your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients what type of solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide social proof.

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

To learn more about using testimonials and user reviews, see this article: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online With Knockout User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following:

• Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Chat (optional feature)

If you have several areas you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like news, product releases, useful articles, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help attract web traffic to your business, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

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

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you provide services to.

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

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

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

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors free of charge has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (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 gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly 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 Experience

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

RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your site.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you could add to your 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

(Use RSS feeds to improve your website’s user experience.)

Adding Checklists & Forms

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

Forms and checklists could address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view the rest of this article, click this link:

• Tips For CPAs – WordPress Plugins That Can Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Site

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