Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face an increasing number challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Firms

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to allocate a greater portion of your marketing budget to developing and managing a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change in time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that certified public accountants face online, as most other professions do for that matter, is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to help users find the information they are looking for or they will go away.

“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 a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically in terms of marketing themselves better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to drive more traffic and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress In Business – A Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Business With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed step-by-step guide: Planning Your Website - A Money-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

All business websites require some essential pages. Let’s review these.

Your Services

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

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

• Business – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 businesses, 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 direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community projects, etc.

This page should include any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

Are you searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online and get prospective clients to engage more with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not very 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 even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

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

(Add a team profile page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain list of employees or team members in WordPress using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

We’re Hiring

List any career opportunities available within your organization. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can also include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

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

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also helps your accounting or financial services website to establish social proof.

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

For a detailed article on using client case studies and reviews to grow your business online, go here: Improve Your Sales Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should provide the following information about your firm:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat (optional feature)

If your business operates in different areas you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, training information, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an accounting website, 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 site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your website and business blog.

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin attracting a stream of new visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Drive More Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Information Pages

It’s vital for professional companies to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever your business services clients.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions 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 about adding legal pages to your website. You can learn more here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• 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 software accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords in your articles that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also 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, search online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you could consider adding 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

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

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. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

You can provide forms and checklists covering a range of subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to users. 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 2, we will look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this step-by-step article on ways to build your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• A Practical Guide On How To Successfully Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online With WordPress – Part 2

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