Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many challenges in today’s online economy, especially in terms of growing their business online.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to market your business online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed towards developing and managing a website that will attract new prospects, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your site 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 may change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accounting organizations (and all other professions) face with their websites, is that you have only around thirty seconds or less to provide users what 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

Online Opportunities For Accounting Professionals

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to evolve to meet digital demands and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover ways to increase web traffic and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by going over the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: The Website Planning Process - A Money-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All business websites require some basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services And Products Page

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 a business, 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 what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

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

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

Team

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then help prospective clients get to know your business better.

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

In this page, make sure to outline your staff member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add an updatable list of staff members to your web site using free WordPress plugins, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To WordPress

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the firm. This page could include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this 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.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of financial solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also provides visitors social proof online.

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

To learn more about using testimonials and user reviews, refer to this article: How To Get Better Results Online With Standout Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is essential.

It should include the following information:

• Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat (optional feature)

If your business services different areas you will 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, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like industry events, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your business website and your blog.

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly deliver targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Increase Your Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your do business in.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and 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/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, engaging in the practice of content marketing 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 online and coming back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable content on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of finance and tax-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to 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 improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Add Downloadable Forms And Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. They are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your users. 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 guide, we look at a number of WordPress plugins you can add to your site that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• Online Business Tips For CPAs – Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins & Themes

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