Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing many new challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they need to assign a bigger portion of their budget to developing and maintaining a website that can attract prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase their marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web 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 the website will change over time and some aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accounting organizations face, as most businesses do for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to give users what they are looking for 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 Accountants

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to adapt to meet online challenges and who can think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover opportunities to increase traffic and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business With A WordPress Blog

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages an accounting site needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the article we have written here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

All business websites require some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of Services

You need to include a page that lists your products and services.

This page will include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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, 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

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

It should also list any CPA awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Staff

If you are searching for ideas to grow your business online and get people to interact more on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini 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 that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise and qualifications, 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 staff or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your web site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within the firm. This page should include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what type of accounting solutions you can implement to help them solve problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof online.

(Add a web page with case studies and reviews from clients. Image source: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more about this: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat/Skype

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 a few links for commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like announcements, product updates, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that will begin to attract new visitors to your site, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Website Traffic Automatically With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached in whichever location you do business in.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

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.

You will want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your content that your prospective clients would search for online.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your 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 To Improve User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of tax-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few 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 increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a task. Checklists and forms are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To continue, click this link:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins

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