Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

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

Online Challenges For Accountants

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and figuring out better ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to allocate a more significant part of your budget towards the development and management of a website that can drive new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help give you 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 layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change over time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that CPAs face with their websites, as do most businesses for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to give visitors the information 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

Online Opportunities For Accountants

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will discover new opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, 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:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Money
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best, useful tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, read this article we have written: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Pages

All websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Description Page

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

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

• Business accounting – business planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your company and set it above other competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each person’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your WordPress site, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your company. It should include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of financial solutions you can implement to help them solve their problems. Adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also provides social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using client testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. For more info, see this article: How To Create Better Results Online Using Knockout User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Live Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate from several locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as industry news, company updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your organization.

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

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin driving an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

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

To learn more about this go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucially important to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being broken wherever you service clients.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra competitive digital economy, content marketing has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand accounting services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that your prospective clients 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your 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 Of Improving Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing great 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 RSS feeds with loads of useful content just visit sites of finance-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS feeds you may want to 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Adding Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. They are great planning tools.

Forms and checklists could address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets 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 you can add to accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your accounting or financial services site that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to view Part 2:

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

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