Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for CPAs and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For CPAs

CPAs today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to market your business services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed to develop and manage a website that will attract leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create 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 the website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accountants (and most other professions) face, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information 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 CPAs

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet digital challenges and think progressively when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

This article will help you uncover new opportunities to increase traffic and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers
• The Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Website

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: The Web Site Planning Process - A Useful Blueprint For Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require several basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Description Page

You need to include a page that explains your products or services.

It will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community activities, etc.

This page should mention any accounting awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above your competitors.

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

Your Team

Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be 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. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add an employee page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-update simple employee directory to your web site with no coding skills required here: How To Add A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. It could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to provide visitors social proof online.

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

To learn more about using client testimonials and reviews, see this article: Convert More Visitors Into Prospects Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is essential.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business operates from different locations you should make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as announcements, product releases, educational articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin driving a stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations 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 legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions 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
• etc.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics could cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

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

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 website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site 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!

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide useful content, 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for 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 a number of benefits to providing valuable information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

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

Below we have listed examples of feeds you may want to consider adding to your accounting 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 site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms 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 Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we look at a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue, click here:

• The Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing Your Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online Successfully – Part 2

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