Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for accounting businesses.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Now, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, obtain new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning better ways to market your business services online.

As well as spending dollars 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 budget will need to be allocated towards developing and managing a website that will drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase their reach online.

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

Another challenge that accounting firms face (as most professions do for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they are looking 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting companies that can adapt to meet digital challenges and think progressively about marketing their business services better online.

In this article, you will learn ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Potential Customers And What To Do About It
• Understanding WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips To Improve Your Accounting Website

This section will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: Planning A Web Site - A Basic Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional websites need some basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Services

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

Your page will include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, 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, 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 what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also mention any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online or get people to engage more with your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms your 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 site visitors can follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight your team 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 an employee description page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an updatable list of staff members in your web site using free plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory In Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. This page should include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and user reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Improve Your Sales With Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is essential.

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

• Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Online Chat/Skype

If your business operates out of several areas you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You can also include links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content like industry events, product releases, training articles, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established accounting site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your firm.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will attract new targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

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

For more details, go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your Website Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

It’s important for professional organizations to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws or regulations in whatever region you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Content

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

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• 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 prospective clients understand your services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (often referred to as UX) helps to 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 feeds provide many benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide valuable information, other sites 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back 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 your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, 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 searching online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could 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 feeds to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could include topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

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

In part two of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to build your accounting web presence.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence – Part Two

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