Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for the accounting industry.

Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses

Today, more than ever, accountancy firms must work harder to stand out from the competition, source new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and figuring out better ways to promote your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they will need to assign a larger portion of their budget to develop and maintain a website that attracts new clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that accountants (and most businesses) face, is that you have only about 30 seconds or less to help users find what they are looking for or they will leave and 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 Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think progressively about improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to increase traffic and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Potential Buyers
• Understanding WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

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

If you need additional information about website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services Description Page

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

Your page will include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to 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 your 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, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to mention any industry 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 awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc. in the About page. Screenshot image source: deloitte.com)

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for simple ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and 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. It should include a photo and a mini biography. 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 even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff description page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable simple team directory to WordPress using free plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. This page can include training offered, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps to provide prospective clients with social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Get Better Results Online Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following information:

• Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat feature

If your business operates out of different areas you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You should also include links to the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as industry news, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin attracting an ongoing stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Get More Website Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information

As a professional accountant, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

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

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• 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 readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, tips on using small business accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords in your articles that prospective clients 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also 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 and tax-related government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your 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 feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Add Online Forms And Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They are also great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant 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, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to build your accounting business web presence.

To continue, click here:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation

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