Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many challenges in the web economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Online Challenges For Accountants

CPAs today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned to developing and managing a website that drives clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and gives your business a wider degree of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change over time and some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that accountancy firms face online, as do all other professions for that matter, is that they have only about thirty seconds to give users the information 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 The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet online economy challenges and think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn opportunities to attract new visitors and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Small Business Online

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by covering some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what type of content you need, tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed guide we have written here: The Website Planning Process - A Basic Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services Page

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

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

• Business accounting – planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, asset 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 contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also list any CPA awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above the competition.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online, then help prospects get to know 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 team. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not that 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. It should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

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

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

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff members in your website using a free WP plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment

List any career opportunities within your company. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have risen within your company and information about additional 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. Adding a web page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps to provide visitors social proof online.

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. For more details: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If you have multiple areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like company announcements, product releases, training articles, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly attract targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, ensuring that you have a compliant website is vitally important, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services 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
• 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

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• 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 informative articles that will help your readers understand your services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site 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 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience 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 having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site 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, visit sites of tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds containing useful information that you could 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Unique Tools

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

In part two of this guide, we will look at a several online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to continue:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Driving More Traffic

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