Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized the way business is done globally, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering accounting and financial services.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning better ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated to develop and manage a website that brings new leads, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and gives them a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, 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 may change over time and many aspects will need to be updated often. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that accountancy firms face with their websites, as most businesses do for that matter, is that they have only about thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they are looking for 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 Professional Accountants

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think strategically about marketing themselves better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover new ways to find more potential clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

This section explains ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this article we have written: Planning Your Small Business Website - A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need some essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of Services

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

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

• Business – planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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, asset 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 your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.

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

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online and get people to interact more on your site, then something you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One 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 very 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 even include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual team members on their social networks.

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 team member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to your web site, see this tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the organization. It should include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can include case studies of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information such as the job outlook and 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 you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show prospective clients what type of solutions you can implement to help them solve problems. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof.

(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

We have written a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Awesome Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is crucial.

It should include:

• Company Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat feature

If your business services several locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as industry news, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin delivering an ongoing stream of web traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

You can learn more here: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information

It’s very important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations in whichever area you do business in.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

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

You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your content and come back for more information. Content marketing is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to use the same keywords and terminology in your content that your 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• 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 benefits when it comes to providing valuable content on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some useful RSS feeds you may want to add to your 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 improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can provide useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

You can provide forms and checklists covering a range of areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2 of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can help to improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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

Click on this link to continue:

• The Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part Two

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