Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face growing challenges.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning smarter ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to invest a more significant amount of their marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that brings new clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their reach online.

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

One other difficult challenge that CPAs face (and most other professions for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 CPAs

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think progressively in terms of marketing their business better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover opportunities to drive more traffic and improve your business results online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Business
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Small Business

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by covering the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what type of content you need, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this article we have written: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of Services

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

It should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to mention any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Staff

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in accounting terms your bio 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 some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to your web site using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page should include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your firm, etc. You should also include information about additional 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your company. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you will also help to will also be providing potential clients with social proof.

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

If you would like to learn more about using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online, go here: How To Get Better Results Online With Powerful Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include the following information about your business:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If you operate in multiple areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, useful articles, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin driving an ongoing stream of web traffic to your site, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

It’s important to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water 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 Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with advice and tips will get your readers to share your content online with others and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can include:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your content that 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality 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 website’s user experience (often referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Using RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your accounting business.

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

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

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

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great content on your site 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 just search online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds you could 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

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

Adding Forms And Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other tools would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your accounting or financial services website that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

Click here to continue:

• A Practical Step-By-Step Guide To Growing An Accounting Or Financial Services Website Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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