Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Now, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to remain competitive, obtain new business, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they need to delegate a larger part of their marketing budget to develop and manage a website that brings new leads, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps them gain wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting organizations (and all other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds to help visitors find the information they are searching for or they will leave the site 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 Accounting Services

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about new opportunities to drive more traffic 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 web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• Mastering WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Site

This section explains ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content you need, ways to improve your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: How To Plan Your Small Business Website: A Money-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require some essential pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need and how to set up your website for best results.

Your Services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Team Profile

Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online and get prospective clients to engage more with your site? Then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with 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 even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your team member’s expertise and qualifications, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage directory of employees to WordPress using a free WordPress plugin here: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your company. It should include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to show potential clients them minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you will also help to provide social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and reviews from clients. Image source: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: How To Improve Your Sales Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business services several locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like company events, company updates, training information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will deliver a stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Generate More Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information Pages

Having a compliant website is vital, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws and regulations in whichever location you provide services to.

Adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay 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 Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors at no cost has become one of the key business differentiators.

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors 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 you.

For example, topics for an accounting business can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, 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 To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses may 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 kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds you may want to add 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 site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a task. They are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

Providing useful tools 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 useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed article, we look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Website – Part 2

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