Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many challenges in the online economy, especially in terms of growing a successful presence online.

Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as investing dollars 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 now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards the development and management of a website that can drive new leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase their presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting organizations (and other businesses) face online, is that they have only around 30 seconds to give visitors what they are searching for 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 The Accounting Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and who can think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover new ways to attract and engage new visitors and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress In Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Business Using A WordPress Blog

How To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this guide: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

All business websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s review these.

Products And Services Page

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

It should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

Remember to also list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Team Profile

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to interact more on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business 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 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. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each 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 staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add an updatable directory of employees in your website using a free WP plugin, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your firm. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your company and information about new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients them minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to provide social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews improve your business online. For more details, go here: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Compelling Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Name
• Location
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat feature

If your business operates from several locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like industry announcements, updates, educational articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can instantly begin driving web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

For more details: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Increase Your Web Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

It’s essential to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws and regulations wherever your do business in.

Depending on what services you provide, adding some or all of 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, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content to visitors at no cost has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your web pages with others online and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a 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 readers understand your services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use 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 website, 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 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

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

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great content on your site from other sites, 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 searching online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of feeds containing useful information that 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

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

Provide Checklists And Forms

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

Forms and checklists can cover areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your site that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this comprehensive guide on ways to build your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to view Part Two:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Web Presence – Part 2

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