Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face an ever growing number of new challenges brought about by the web economy.

Challenges Accounting Services Face Online

Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard and find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, obtain new business, and retain current clients. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards developing and managing a website that drives leads, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to increase their marketing exposure online.

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

One other difficult challenge that accountants (and all other professions) face, is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to help users find what 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 The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting businesses that can adapt to meet online economy demands and think strategically about marketing their services better online.

This article will help you uncover opportunities to drive more web traffic and improve your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• WordPress For Small Business Owners – The Complete Guide To Building A Successful Business With WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by covering some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, go here: How To Plan Your Web Site - A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services

You need a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business accounting – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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, asset 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 the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

It’s important to include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Staff

If you are searching for simple ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust 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 employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini 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. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your team member’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff description page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to WordPress, go here: Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within your firm. It should include training, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of financial solutions you can implement to help them solve problems. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews to grow your business online. For more info, see this article: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With Powerful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature

If your business services several areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You can also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like announcements, product updates, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly attract a stream of new visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant, ensuring that you have a compliant website is very important, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you service clients.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links 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: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra competitive digital economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content online with others 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, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 readers understand your services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your content that your 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, 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 completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Allows for subscribing
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for finance-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of 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 feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and forms can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms (or links to these) covering topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your accounting or financial services website that improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more web 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 web presence.

To view Part Two, click here:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part Two

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