Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for accountants.

Challenges Accounting & Financial Services Face Online

Now, more than ever, accountants must work harder to stand out from the crowd, find new business, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to grow your business online.

In addition to investing money advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that can drive clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help give you a wider degree of marketing reach online.

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

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms face with their websites (and all other professions for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to provide visitors 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 Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet digital challenges and think strategically when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

In this article, you will learn about new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and establish online credibility for your business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

Let’s start by reviewing some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content works best, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: How To Plan Your Web Site - A Basic Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

All websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that describes your services and products.

Your page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community participation, etc.

Remember to also list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above other competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. 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 mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline your employee’s expertise, 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 or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory to your WordPress site using free WordPress plugins here: How To Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. It should include training, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have risen within your company 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also provides social proof online.

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews go here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat feature

If your business services several areas you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content like company events, company updates, training information, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your firm.

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can drive targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Increase Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whatever region you do business in.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble 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
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Learn more about this here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your content with others online and come back for more information. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can include the following:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring 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 educational articles that will help your your readers understand your services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords in your articles that your readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (known as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable content on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of feeds containing useful information that you could 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Add Forms And Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

Forms and checklists can include subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online 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 add significant value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a several WordPress plugins you can add to your site that can help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

To continue, click here:

• How To Build And Grow An Accounting Online Presence – Part Two

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