Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionised the way business is done globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the accounting sector.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Today, more than ever, CPAs must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give their business a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and many aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting businesses face online, and most businesses for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds to provide visitors what they are searching 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 The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting businesses that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think strategically about marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover ways to attract and engage new visitors and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site

We’ll start first by covering some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, ways of improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, see this detailed guide we have written: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

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

Services Description Page

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

Your page should include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to list any industry awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Team

Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be 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. This page should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual team members on their social networks.

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

(Add a staff description page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-update simple employee directory in your web site with no coding skills required, see this step-by-step tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory: Tutorial

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within the organization. It would include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have risen within your company and information such as the job outlook and additional 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 this page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of accounting solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve their problems. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps your accounting or financial services website to provide prospective clients with social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. For more details: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Engaging Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Street address of premises
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat feature (optional feature)

If you operate from several locations you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as industry events, updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can instantly drive new visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

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

For more details, go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Drive More Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s essential to have a compliant website, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional or federal laws and regulations in whatever location you service.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting website 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 threats and legal 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
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

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

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 understand your services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your content that readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving user experience (often referred to as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide valuable content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing 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 useful RSS feeds just search online for tax-related government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could 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

(Add RSS feeds to improve your website’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

Checklists and forms can address areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Other Tools

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

In part 2, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue, click this link:

• A Practical Step-By-Step Guide To Growing An Accounting Business Online – Part 2

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