Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
The digital age has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for accounting businesses.
Online Challenges For Accounting Firms
Now, more than ever, accountancy firms must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and retain current business. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better market your business online.
In addition to investing money advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that will bring in prospects, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help them gain wider marketing reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, 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 the needs of your website may change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy in place.
Another challenge that certified public accountants face, and most other professions for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to provide users what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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
Online Opportunities For Accountants
As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting companies that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.
In this guide, you will learn about new ways to increase web traffic and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services business website.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:
- Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
- Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Small Business Online With WordPress
Ways To Improve Your Website
We’ll start first by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, check out the guide we have written here: How To Plan A Web Site: A Useful Primer For Business Owners
Ways To Improve Your Website Pages
Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your need to have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.
Description Of Products And Services
You need a page that describes your services and products.
Your page should include all the services you offer, such as:
- Business accounting – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
- Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, problem resolution
- Investment strategies
- Corporate accounting
- 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. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.
Who We Are
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community projects, etc.
It should include any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above your competitors.
(List all of your awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc. in the About page. Image source: deloitte.com)
Core Team
If you are looking for ways to sell more products online, then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.
You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not that 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 even include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual staff members on their social networks.
In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s experience, how they contribute to the success of 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. Image source: deepsky.com)
If you need help how to add an updatable directory of employees to a WordPress site using a free WP plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
Recruitment
This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.
Maintain 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 updates list, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also provides social proof.
(Add a web page with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)
If you want to learn more using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online, go here: Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Meaningful User Testimonials
Contact Page
A functional contact page is essential.
It should include some or all of the following information:
- Business Name
- Your address
- Telephone
- Fax
- Contact email
- Map and directions
- Website URL
- Contact form
- Request for more information – contact details
- Links to social media networks
- Chat
If you operate out of multiple locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.
Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add An Accounting Blog Section
A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like industry news, company updates, training articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your company.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and your blog.
Very few people know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin to attract targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
For more details: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Generate More Web Visitors For Your Business
Legal Information
It’s extremely important to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.
Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
Improving The Content On Your Website
In today’s globally competitive economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.
By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content online with others and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.
For example, topics for an accounting business could include:
- Explanations of balance sheets
- Profit and loss statements
- Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
- How to present accounts for fundraising activities
- Business cashflow planning advice
- Maximizing business insurance cover
- Risk protection
- Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
- Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers will be searching 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website, 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!
Improve User Experience
Improving your site’s user experience (known as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your accounting business.
If you provide valuable information, other sites 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
- Doesn’t rely on email
- Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits to providing valuable information 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 RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of tax-related government departments or respected industry bodies.
Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you may want to 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
(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)
Checklists & Forms
Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.
You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms covering a range of topics such as:
- How To Set Up A Business
- Negative Gearing Checklist
- Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
- Disclosure Requirements
- Individual Tax Checklist
- Trust Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Other Tools
Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools you can add to accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In part 2 of this guide, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your site that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section 1.
To view Part Two, click this link:
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