Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession

Today, more than ever, CPAs must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new clients, and keep their current clients. Not only do they have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that can attract prospects, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and give them a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting firms (and most other businesses) face, is that your site has around thirty seconds to provide visitors what they need 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that can adapt to meet online economy demands and can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

In this guide, you will learn a number of ways to find more potential clients and improve your business results online.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business Owners – An Online Guide To Growing Your Successful Small Business With A WordPress Site

Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

All business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Your Services

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

This page will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. 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

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Core Team

If you are searching 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 and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It 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. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your staff member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add a list directory of staff members to your site with no coding skills required here: How To Add An Employee Directory

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the firm. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you will also help to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Powerful Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following information about your company:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat feature

If your business operates in several locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You could also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like company announcements, company updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

You may not be aware of this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin attracting targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is essential, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whatever location you do business in.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• 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
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive global economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your readers to share your content and come back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use the same keywords in your articles that readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular 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 useful content for 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 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• 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 content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great 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 loads of useful content for your website by searching online for finance and tax-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of RSS feeds you may want to add 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 feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. They are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful 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 useful tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your site that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part 2, click here:

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

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