Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created a number of challenges and opportunities for CPAs.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings new prospects, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to give them wider marketing exposure online.

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

Another challenge that CPAs (and all other businesses) face online, is that your site has around thirty seconds to provide visitors 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 CPAs

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet online challenges and think strategically about marketing their business services better online.

In this article, you will learn about new ways to attract and engage more visitors and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting website, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site

We’ll start first by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, go here: Planning Your Web Site: A Basic Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Your Services And Products

You need a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

Your page should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 businesses, 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 the benefits of using your services 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, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to also mention any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above your competitors.

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

Your Team

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. One 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 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. It should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Add a staff description page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-update list directory of staff members in your site with no coding skills required here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within the firm. It would include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. It should include information about 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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with testimonials and case studies also establishes social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: How To Improve Your Sales With Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Name
• Location of office
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Chat/Skype

If your business operates in several locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as company events, updates, educational articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will begin attracting a stream of web traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Web Visitors Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucial for professional organizations to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages 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 sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors to share your web pages with others and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could cover 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
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your 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 readers understand accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that your prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses will 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
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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 loads of useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds you could consider adding to your 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

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

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

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust 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 potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

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

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This is the end of section one.

To continue, click this link:

• A Step-By-Step Guide To Successfully Growing Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website Using WordPress – Part Two

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