Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face difficult challenges brought about by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For CPAs

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do they have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they need to delegate a greater portion of their budget to develop and manage a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and creates a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting businesses face with their websites (as most other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to give users the information they are searching 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 The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think strategically in terms of marketing themselves better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover ways to attract more visitors and improve your business online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Prospective Customers
• How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, check out the article we have written here: Planning Your Business Web Site: A Cost-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services And Products

You need to include a page that lists your services or products.

It will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community involvement, etc.

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

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each employee’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 a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-manage list directory of employees in your website without using code here: Tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your firm. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. Adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

We have written a detailed article about using testimonials and reviews get better results online. If you are interested in learning more about this here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online Using More Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Phone number
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat (optional feature)

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

You can also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A 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 simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, company updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that will begin to deliver targeted visitors to your site, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more: Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Info Pages

It’s very important for accounting and financial services businesses to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website 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 or 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 detailed article on adding legal pages to your site here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive global economy, having a content marketing strategy has become one of the key business differentiators.

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 a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could include:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just search online for finance-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

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

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other tools would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to grow your accounting business presence online.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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