Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing an increasing number challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For Accountants

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

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that brings new prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to give your business a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and some aspects may need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting businesses face (as do other businesses for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to give users what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and who can think strategically about marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover a number of ways to drive more traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by covering some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this article we have written: The Website Planning Process - A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

Professional websites need several basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services 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, company formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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, 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 your services and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

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

It’s important to also mention any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Team Profile

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know you and your organization better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be very 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. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual 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 highlight each team member’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 an employee description page. Image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add a list of employees in your website with no coding skills required here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and new 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

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you can implement to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to are also providing social proof online.

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews, see this article: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions Using Highly Effective User Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is essential.

It should include:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Online Chat/Skype

If your business services several areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like company announcements, product releases, educational articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is very hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that will drive targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

As a professional accountant, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vitally important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

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 legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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
• and others

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

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles that readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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!

Improve Visitor Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s 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 by visiting sites of finance and tax-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of useful RSS feeds you may want to add to your accounting 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

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Add Downloadable Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can give them useful instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. They are also great planning tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we discuss a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With Plugins

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