Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today are facing increasingly difficult challenges created by the digital economy.

Challenges Accounting Services Face Online

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to market your business services online.

As well as investing money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that accounting organizations face with their websites, as do most other professions for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to give visitors what they need 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 Web Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to increase web traffic and create significant improvements in your business online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Small Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

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

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

Your Web Pages

All websites need several basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

Your page will include services such as:

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

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to mention any business awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Team

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or get people to interact more on your site, then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want people 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 biography. Since most visitors will not tend to 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. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise and 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 a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update list directory of staff members to your site using free plugins here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within your organization. This page should 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 organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

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

Testimonials

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Online Chat/Skype

If your business operates from different locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like industry events, product updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will drive targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

It’s crucial to ensure 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 breaking any local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you service clients.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or 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
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. For more details, go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a content marketing strategy has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your web pages online and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your 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 informative articles that will help your your readers understand your accounting services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tips on using business accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your articles that your prospective clients 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 and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site 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!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

Improving your user experience (typically 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 your visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your site.

If you provide content that adds value to others, 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 content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to 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 by searching online for finance and tax-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of RSS feeds you may want to consider adding to your 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 site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

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

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your accounting or financial services site that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins

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