Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face growing challenges.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, obtain new clients, and retain current business. Not only do they have to be fully involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to investing money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that brings in clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you gain a wider degree of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accountants face online (as do all other businesses for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds to give users the information they need or they will look 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 The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy challenges and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about a number of ways to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content you need, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: Planning Your Business Web Site - A Money-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Services And Products Description Page

You need a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

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

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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

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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Team Profile

Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online and get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust 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 employees 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 so your prospective clients can follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory in a WordPress site without coding skills, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within your organization. It can include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored by your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your company and information about additional 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your company. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also provides social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article about using testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. For more details, go here: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Live chat

If your business operates in multiple areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like industry announcements, updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, videos, media presentations, 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 website is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your business website and business blog.

You may not have been told about this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will attract targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new visitors automatically to your site)

You can learn more about this here: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

It’s crucially important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws and regulations in whatever area or location you service.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your readers to share your content and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (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 services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords in your content that prospective clients will be searching for online.

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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (often referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your accounting business.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds you may want to add 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

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could include areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Online Tools

Providing unique 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 useful tools for accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

Click here to keep reading:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online – Part Two

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