Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face significant challenges.

Challenges Accounting Businesses Face Online

Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard to stand out from the crowd, find new business, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to market your business services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, you will need to delegate a larger part of your budget towards developing and maintaining a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and give you wider marketing exposure online.

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

One other difficult challenge that CPAs (and other businesses) face online, is that your site has around thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they need or they will go 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 In The Web Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting firms that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Mastering WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide

How To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what content you need, ways to improve layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process - A Comprehensive Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

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

Services And Products

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

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

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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to include any CPA awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online and get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It 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. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

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

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

To learn more about how to create and add a simple employee directory to your web site without coding skills, see this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your firm. It would include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. It should 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what kind of solutions you can implement to help solve their problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof.

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

For a detailed article about using client testimonials and client reviews get better results online, go here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Sales Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following information about your business:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online Chat/Skype

If you operate in several locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry announcements, updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that will attract targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

You can learn more about this here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s really important for professional firms to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws or regulations wherever you service clients.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

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

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers to share your content with others and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can include:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients would search for online.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality 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!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for finance and tax-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of useful RSS feeds you may want to add 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 feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. They are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins you can use in your website that can help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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