Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized businesses globally, it has also created significant challenges and great opportunities for accounting businesses.

Challenges Accounting Businesses Face Online

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out smarter ways to promote your business online.

As well as spending dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards developing and managing a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give you wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and 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 implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting organizations (and all other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to give users the information they need or they will go 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

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will discover opportunities to attract new 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 emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting website.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Potential Clients And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section explains ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, tips for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, read this detailed guide: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products

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

It will include services such as:

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

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 these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

This page should also include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above your competitors.

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

Meet The Team

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

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief 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. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On 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 staff member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team directory to your site using free WordPress plugins, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory In WordPress

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page should include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have risen within your company and information such as the job outlook and additional 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 the page, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Engaging User Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat (optional feature)

If you operate from different locations you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as industry news, company updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your firm.

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your Website Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is very important, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws or regulations wherever your business services clients.

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

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

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

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

Providing great content with advice and tips will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more information. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics could include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Structuring 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 your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology 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 easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (often 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 UX.

RSS Feeds

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

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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• 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.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for finance and tax-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of RSS feeds you could 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools 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 great tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to continue:

• How To Grow An Accounting Web Presence Successfully – Part Two

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