Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing a business presence online.

Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Firms

Today, more than ever, accountants must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, obtain new business, and retain current business. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and increases their presence online.

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

Another challenge that accounting firms (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only about 30 seconds to help visitors find what they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and think strategically about marketing their business better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover opportunities to attract and engage more visitors 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 (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Prospective Clients And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Small Business Online

Tips To Improve Your Accounting Site

This section explains ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages an accounting website needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Money-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional 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.

Services And Products Description Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your products or services.

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

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

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 why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

Remember to also mention any CPA awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be that 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 networks.

On this page, make sure to outline each person’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-update list directory of staff members to your website, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within your firm. It would include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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.

Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients what kind of solutions you can implement to help them solve problems. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also helps your accounting or financial services business to provide visitors social proof.

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

For a detailed article about using client testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online, go here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat feature

If your business services multiple locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your organization.

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 act as both your website and business blog.

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will help begin driving a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

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

To learn more about this go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken wherever your do business in.

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

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use specific keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients 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 site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

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

If you provide valuable content, 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 updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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 visiting sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds you may want to add 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. They are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Other Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets 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 popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click here to keep reading:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part 2

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