Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accounting professionals face many new challenges in the online economy, especially in terms of growing a successful presence online.
Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession
Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your business services online.
In addition to spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they will need to designate a larger share of their marketing budget to developing and managing a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase their reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.
One other challenge that accounting firms face, as do most professions for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to help users find what they need 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 Services
As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.
In this guide, you will learn new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and establish online credibility for your business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:
Tips To Improve Your Website
We’ll start first by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for accounting websites, suggestions for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need any help with website planning, read this detailed guide: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Cost-Saving Guide For Business Owners
Your Web Pages
Professional business websites require several essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your need and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.
Products And Services
It’s essential to have a page that describes your services and products.
It should include all the services you offer, such as:
- Business accounting – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
- Taxation – preparing, 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
Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
About Us Page
The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.
It’s important to also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above the competition.
(List all of your business awards recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc. in your About page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Your Staff Page
Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online and get prospective clients to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is help your visitors get to know 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 or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your team members on their social networks.
On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a staff page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)
To learn more about how to easily add a directory of employees or team members in your web site using a free plugin, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
We’re Hiring
This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. It can include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your company and 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials
Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your company. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof.
(Add a web page with reviews from clients and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)
We have created a detailed article about using testimonials and user reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Awesome Testimonials
Contact Us Page
A clean contact page is crucial.
Your contact page should provide the following information:
- Name Of Your Organization
- Your physical location
- Telephone number
- Fax number
- Contact email address
- Map and directions
- Website address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media URLs
- Chat/Skype
If you have several locations you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.
You could also include links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Blog Section
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as company events, product updates, training information, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.
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 be used both as your business website and business blog.
Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will deliver a stream of targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.
(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your site)
For more details: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine
Legal Information
Having a compliant website is crucially important, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.
Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay 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 Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website
How To Improve The Content On Your Website
In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.
You want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your web pages with others and come back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.
For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could cover the following:
- How balance sheets work
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
- How to present accounts for non-profit activities
- Cashflow planning advice
- Business insurance
- 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 readers understand your services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to use specific keywords in your content that readers will be searching for online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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 Visitor Experience
Improving website user experience (often referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and user experience.
RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your accounting business.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may 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 kept in one place
- Doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
- Allows for subscribing
- 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 readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site 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 visit sites of finance-related government departments and key industry bodies.
For example, here are examples of feeds you could consider adding 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 improve your website’s user experience.)
Adding Online Checklists
Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are great business planning tools.
You can provide a range of forms and checklists covering topics such as:
- How To Set Up A Company
- Negative Gearing Checklist
- Fundraising Activity Checklist
- Disclosure Requirements
- Company Tax Checklist
- Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Other Tools
Providing unique tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In part two of this detailed article, we will look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your accounting or financial services site that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.
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