Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Challenges Accounting Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard to stand out from the crowd, source new business, and keep their current clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they need to designate a larger amount of their budget towards the development and management of a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to create a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms face online (as do most businesses for that matter), is that your site has around 30 seconds or less 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think progressively in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this guide, you will learn about a number of ways to attract new potential clients and establish stronger online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Business – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Pages

Professional websites require some basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services or products.

It should include services such as:

• Business – planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

It should also include any industry awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online and get prospective clients to stay longer on your site? Then help prospective clients get to know your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add a staff page. Image source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-update list of staff members to your web site with no coding skills required, go here: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your company. This page could include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps your accounting or financial services website to provide social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using client testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Awesome Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Location of office
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Interactive chat

If you operate from several areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like news, company updates, useful information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is very hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that can help attract targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Drive More Web Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vitally important, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• 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.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a 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 educational articles that will help your readers understand accounting services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your articles that 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

Improving 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 ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to 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 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 examples of feeds you may want to consider adding to your 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

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

Adding Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. They are great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can include subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to 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 could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in 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 section 1 of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

To view Part 2, click here:

• How To Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence With WordPress – Part Two

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