Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face growing challenges.

Challenges Accounting & Financial Businesses Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that will drive new prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and increase your marketing exposure 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 even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that accounting firms face with their websites, and most other professions for that matter, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to provide 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 Accountants

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting firms that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business better online.

The guide below will help you uncover new opportunities to find new potential clients and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Business
• How To Grow Your Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by going over some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, read this article: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need some essential web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Description Page

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

It should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, 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, 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 choose you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for ideas to sell more products online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. A 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 won’t be 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 so your prospective clients can follow selected team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff 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.

(Add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an updatable list of staff members in your site without messing around with code here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. This page could include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. Adding a web page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps your accounting website to establish social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews improve your business online here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Meaningful Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name
• Location of premises
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Online chat feature (optional)

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

You could also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news, updates, useful articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin to deliver new visitors to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

For more details, go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Web Traffic Automatically

Legal Information

It’s essential 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 no laws or regulations are being contravened in whichever location you provide services to.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• 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.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving 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 see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics could include:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tips on using small business accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your articles that 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 show you 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!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide useful information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

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

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great information on your site from other websites, 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 relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are a few useful RSS feeds you could add to your 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 improve your website’s user experience.)

Add Downloadable Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. They can provide users with useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

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

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

Click here to continue reading:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence Successfully – Part 2

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