Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face significant challenges.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Today, more than ever, accountants must work harder and find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and keep their current clientele. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities like 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 need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that drives new prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase your presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accountants (and other professions) face online, is that you have around thirty seconds to give users the information 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and who can think progressively about improving their online marketing skills.

The guide below will help you uncover new ways to attract more visitors and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Business
• WordPress For Business Owners – A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Successful Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, useful tips for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this article we have written: Planning Your Web Site - A Basic Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services And Products Page

You need a page that describes your services and products.

This page should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should choose you.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

This page should list any accounting awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above other competitors.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be 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 site visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your staff member’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add a simple and easy-to-manage directory of staff members to your website using a free WordPress plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your firm. It should include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your firm, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies 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 reviews from clients, you will also help to provide potential clients with social proof online.

(Add a page with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include:

• Name
• Your address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat

If your business operates in several locations you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a very 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 announcements, product releases, useful articles, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

You may not know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can help begin delivering a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive traffic automatically to your site)

If you are interested in learning more about this here: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Traffic Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms 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
• and others

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive online economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors free of charge has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business can include:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching 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 and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great information on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, search online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of 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

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this detailed guide, we look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Site With WordPress Plugins And Themes

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