Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing their business online.

Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Firms

Today, more than ever, accountants must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning smarter ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned to developing and maintaining a website that can attract clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and help give them a wider amount of marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change over time and many areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that accountancy firms face with their websites (as do all other businesses for that matter), is that they have around thirty seconds or less to help visitors find the information 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 Accountants In The Web Economy

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

This detailed guide will help you uncover new opportunities to drive more traffic and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting web presence, 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.

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Customers
• WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, go here: Planning Your Website - A Basic Primer For Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Page

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

This page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, 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 businesses, 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 your services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community projects, etc.

It should also list any accounting awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above the competition.

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

Team Profile

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or get prospective clients to interact more with your site? Then help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your bio 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 visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s expertise and 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 members to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-manage list of employees in WordPress with no coding skills required, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within the firm. It could include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in your 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.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Your physical address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat

If your business services multiple areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news, updates, training articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and business blog.

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help attract an ongoing stream of new visitors to your web site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a compliant website is crucial, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws or regulations wherever you service clients.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions 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
• and others

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to 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
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring a 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 educational articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, understanding accounting conventions, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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 To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide useful information, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, visit sites of finance-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds containing useful information that you may want to add to your accounting 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

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

Adding Downloadable Forms And Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this detailed guide, we look at a several WordPress plugins you can use in your website that improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins That Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Website Generation

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