Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created a growing number of challenges and great opportunities for the accounting profession.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

Now, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and retain current clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence 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 television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards developing and maintaining a website that drives prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give your business wider marketing reach online.

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

One other difficult challenge that accounting firms face (and most businesses for that matter), is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will look 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 The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that can adapt to meet online economy demands and think outside the box in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this guide, you will learn new opportunities to attract new potential clients and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Potential Customers
• An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Business Using A WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this article we have written: Planning Your Business Website: A Practical Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

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

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and products.

Your page will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community donations, etc.

Remember to also mention any business awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Team Profile

If you are looking for simple ways to sell more products online, then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. 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 brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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 that will allow your visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team directory to your site using free WordPress plugins, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your firm. This page would include training offered, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include 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 And Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also establishes social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: Achieve Better Results Online With Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is essential.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat (optional)

If you operate out of multiple locations you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news, product updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly attract new visitors to your website, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Get More Web Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whichever area you provide services to.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• 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 comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

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

You want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your readers to share your content online and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your firm.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your articles that your 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 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 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (often referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website 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 for your website by searching online for finance-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to consider adding to your accounting 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide useful instructions and resources to perform a task. They are great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists covering areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Online 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 significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your accounting website using WordPress plugins that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to build your accounting web presence.

Click on this link to read the rest of this guide:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part 2

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