Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accounting professionals today face an ever growing number of challenges brought about by the online economy.
Online Challenges For Accounting Firms
Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.
In addition to spending money advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to designate a more significant amount of your marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that can drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase your presence online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web 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 your site’s needs will change over time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.
Another problem that accountants face, as most professions do for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to help users find the information they need 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 Accounting Businesses
As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.
This guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and improve your business online.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:
Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site
This section looks at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best, layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed guide: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Cost-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Website Pages
All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s review these.
Your Products And Services
You need a page that describes your products or services.
It will include services such as:
- Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
- Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
- Lending and leasing
Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.
About Us Page
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.
This page should mention any accounting awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above other competitors.
(List all of your business awards recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Our Team
If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online, then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know your business better.
You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. 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. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your 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 staff member’s experience, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a staff page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an updatable simple team directory in WordPress here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
We’re Hiring
List any career opportunities available within the organization. It could include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your firm and information such as the job outlook and 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you will also help to provide social proof online.
(Add a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)
To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, see this article: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Standout Client Testimonials
Contact Us
A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.
It should include the following information:
- Business Name
- Your physical location
- Telephone
- Fax
- Contact email
- Google Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media URLs
- Online chat feature (optional feature)
If your business operates in multiple locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.
Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Blog
A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like news and events, product releases, training information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and your blog.
Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that will drive new targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically
Legal Information
Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vital, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.
Depending on the services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or 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
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
How To Improve Your Web Content
In today’s ultra competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.
Providing great content with advice and tips will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.
For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could cover:
- How balance sheets work
- Profit and loss statements
- Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
- How to present accounts for non-profit activities
- Cashflow planning advice
- 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 your prospective clients understand your accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.
Remember to use 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 easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 completely FREE!
Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your site’s user experience (known as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.
Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds
Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.
If you provide useful information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
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
- Your feed can be shared
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
- There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of finance-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.
Below we have listed some RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to add 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
(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)
Adding Forms & Checklists
Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. They are also great planning tools.
Checklists and forms can cover subjects such as:
- How To Set Up A Company
- Negative Gearing Checklist
- Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Partnership Tax Checklist
- Capital Gains Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Unique Tools
Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In the next section, we will be discussing a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your website that can help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.
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