Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for accountants and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Today, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they will need to delegate a larger amount of their budget to developing and managing a website that drives clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps them gain a wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that CPAs face (as most professions do for that matter), is that your site has around thirty seconds to give visitors the information 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

Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting firms that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover new ways to increase traffic and build more online credibility for your business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

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

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Products And Services Description Page

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

Your page will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

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

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with 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 prospective clients to follow individual team 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 each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how they 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 sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update simple team directory to WordPress using free WordPress plugins here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page should include training, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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 your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show potential clients them minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more about this: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Online Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business services multiple areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. 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 industry news, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can help begin delivering new visitors to your website, simply by publishing new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

For more details: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding 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. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Content

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

You will want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages online and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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 Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience 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 sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable information on your website 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 for your website, search online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you may want to consider adding 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

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

Adding Online Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. They can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could address topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your accounting site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To keep reading, click here:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Generating More Visitors To Your Site

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