Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionised business globally, it has also created many challenges and opportunities for businesses in the accounting and financial services profession.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

Today, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, source new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning better ways to grow your business online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned to develop and manage a website that attracts prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and gives your business wider marketing exposure online.

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

One other problem that certified public accountants face online, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to provide visitors what they need 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 Accounting Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

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

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

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting 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 assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, go here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Money-Saving Guide For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites require some basic web pages. Let’s go over these.

Services Page

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you looking for simple ideas to sell more products or services online or get prospects to engage more on your site? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline each person’s experience, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update list of employees to your WordPress site without messing with code, refer to this tutorial: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. It could include training offered, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have risen within your organization and information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this 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

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 reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide social proof online.

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

We have written extensively on using client testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat feature

If you have several areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as industry announcements, 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-driven blog to promote your business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act 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 attracting targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

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

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vitally important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content to visitors free of charge has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your web pages with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a 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 informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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!

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving your website’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.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing valuable information on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are a few RSS feeds containing useful information that 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Adding Checklists And Forms

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

Checklists and forms could cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

In the next section, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can use in your website that can improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to build your accounting business online.

Click on this link to continue:

• Your Accounting Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins

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