Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accountants today are facing an ever growing number of challenges thanks to the web economy.
Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop 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 advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned towards developing and managing a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps create a wider exposure online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many aspects may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.
Another challenge that accountants (and all other professions) face online, is that you have around thirty seconds or less to give visitors what they are looking for 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
Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy
As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet online demands and think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.
This detailed guide will help you uncover new ways to attract and engage new visitors and improve your business online.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting website.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:
- Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Customers
- Mastering WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide
Ways To Improve Your Accounting Website
Let’s start by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages an accounting website needs, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need any help with website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Web Pages
Professional business websites require several basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your should have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.
Your Services
It’s essential to include a page that lists your products and services.
Your page should include services such as:
- Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, 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
Make sure to 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 Page
The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.
It’s important to mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above other competitors.
(List all of your awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc. in your About Us page. Screenshot image source: deloitte.com)
Team Profile
Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust your business better.
Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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 also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your team members on their social pages.
In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s expertise, 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 page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)
To learn more about how to create and add an updatable simple team members directory in a WordPress site using free plugins, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
Work For Us
This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. It should include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the accounting 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, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials
Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you will also help to provide social proof online.
(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)
We have written a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Using Knockout Testimonials
Contact Us
A contact page is absolutely necessary.
Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your organization:
- Company Name
- Location
- Phone number
- Fax
- Contact email address
- Map
- Website URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media links
- Chat feature (optional feature)
If you have different locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.
You should also include links to commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Blog
A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news and events, company updates, training articles, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your services.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and business blog.
Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can help begin to drive new visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)
For more details, go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Website Visitors For Your Business
Legal Pages
It’s really important to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened in whichever area or location you provide services to.
Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting site 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 Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website
Improving The Content On Your Site
In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key success factors for businesses selling similar products or providing similar services.
Providing great content with information and tips will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more information. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.
For example, for an accounting business, topics could cover the following:
- How balance sheets work
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
- Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
- Cashflow planning advice
- Business insurance
- Protecting revenues
- Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
- Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your accounting services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.
Remember to use keywords and terms in your content that prospective clients 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality 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 completely FREE!
Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your website’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Adding RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your site.
If you provide valuable information, 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 content updates are kept in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared online
- Feeds allow users to subscribe
- An RSS feed provides links back to your content
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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.
You can find RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for tax-related government departments or respected industry bodies.
Here are some useful RSS feeds you could 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
(Add RSS feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)
Checklists & Forms
Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.
Forms and checklists can address subjects such as:
- How To Set Up A Company
- Rental Property Checklist
- Non-Profit Governance Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Company Tax Checklist
- Capital Gains Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Unique Tools
Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. 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 part two, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your website that can help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section one of this comprehensive article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.
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