Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised businesses worldwide, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Online Challenges For The Accounting 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 maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to market your business services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they will need to allocate a bigger part of their marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps them gain wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that certified public accountants face, as other professions do for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to provide visitors with what they need or they will leave your site.

“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 In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

In this article, you will learn about new ways to source more potential clients and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Small Business Using WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, suggestions for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, go here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

Professional websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

It should include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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 a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to 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 direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

This page should mention any professional awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online, then help prospects get to know your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual staff 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 outline your person’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update simple employee directory to your web site, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within your firm. This page should include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can include information about additional 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 this page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show prospective clients what kind of financial solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof.

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

If you want to learn more using client testimonials and reviews go here: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Engaging Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live Chat/Skype

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You can also include links to commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, updates, training articles, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly deliver targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

If you would like to know more here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is really important, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you service clients.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble 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 Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Content

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

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business can cover the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your content that readers will be searching for.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. 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 website user experience (generally referred to 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 user experience.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable information, 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 in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, 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 searching online for tax-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of feeds containing useful information that 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

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

Provide Online Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

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

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