Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised businesses worldwide, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for CPAs and financial service providers.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Today, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new business, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better market your business services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they need to allocate a bigger portion of their budget to develop and manage a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that accounting organizations (and most other professions) face, is that they have only around thirty seconds to give visitors what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy

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

In this detailed guide, you will learn new ways and opportunities to find more potential clients and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, go here:

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business Online

Useful Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

We’ll start first by reviewing some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the guide we have written here: Planning Your Business Website: A Comprehensive Guide For Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

All websites require some basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services And Products Page

You need to include a page that describes your services and products.

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

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

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community activities, etc.

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

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

Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction with your site? Then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want potential 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 mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions 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 site visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your person’s expertise, 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 a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your site without messing around with code here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. It would include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

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

(Add a page to your site with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online here: How To Create Better Results Online With Standout Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is essential.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat (optional)

If you operate out of multiple areas you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You can also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, product updates, useful information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that will attract web traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this: Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s crucial for professional companies to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws and regulations in whatever area you service.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra competitive global economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content to visitors free of charge has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your organization.

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
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, office accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your articles that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, 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!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

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

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

There are also benefits to providing content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds containing useful information that you could add to your accounting 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 feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Add Downloadable Checklists & Forms

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

Checklists and forms can cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

In part two of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your site that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to grow your accounting web presence.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• A Step-By-Step Guide To Growing Your Accounting Online Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Get Published – Subscribe Using The Form Below!

***

***

***