Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for businesses in the accounting profession.

Challenges CPAs Face Online

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

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising 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 with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that can attract new prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help you create wider marketing exposure online.

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

One other problem that accountancy firms face (as most professions do for that matter), is that they have only around 30 seconds to give visitors what they are looking for 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 Professional Accountants

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

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover new ways and opportunities to increase web traffic and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting business website or blog.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow Your Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, see this article we have written: Planning Your Business Website - A Practical Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need several basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

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

It should include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

Remember to also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Your Team

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in 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 even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team 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 expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable 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)

To learn more about how to create and add an updatable list directory of staff or team members to a WordPress site without coding skills, see this step-by-step tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

Work For Us

List any career opportunities within the organization. It can include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. Adding a page with testimonials and case studies also helps your accounting business to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and reviews improve your business online here: All You Need To Know To Get Better Results Online Using Engaging Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Business Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Chat feature (optional)

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

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

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content like industry news, company updates, useful information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and business blog.

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s important for accounting firms to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting site will help keep you out of legal hot water 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
• and others

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site 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!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:

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

There are also a number of benefits to providing great content on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for finance-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of feeds you could 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Add Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. They are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses can help 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 can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we look at a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

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

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part 2

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