Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful business online.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

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

In addition to spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and managing a website that can drive prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and increase their presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other problem that CPAs (and all other businesses) face, is that they have around thirty seconds to provide users what they are searching for or they will leave 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

Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting firms that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover ways to drive more traffic and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on 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, go here:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Customers
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

How To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Cost-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites require some basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Services And Products

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

This page should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, 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, 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 the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above other competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

You want potential clients 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 very 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 even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your team member’s experience, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update directory of employees to a WordPress site, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory

Work For Us

List any career opportunities within your company. It should include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and new 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online. To learn more about this go here: Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your firm:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Chat/Skype

If your business operates out of different locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like company announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website 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.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that can drive new visitors to your site, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

For more details: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Attract More Website Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a compliant website is important, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever your do business in.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business can include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that readers 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 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 completely FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also 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 many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of finance and tax-related government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds you could add to your 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Add Downloadable Forms & Checklists

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete a task. Forms and checklists are also great planning tools.

Forms and checklists can cover subjects such as:

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

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your site that improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business online.

Click on this link to view Part Two:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins That Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website

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