Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face a number of challenges.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

Now, more than ever, accounting firms must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new business, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and figuring out better ways to grow your business services online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to invest a more significant part of your marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that brings in prospects, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give you a wider amount of reach online.

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

One other difficult challenge that accountancy firms face with their websites, as all other professions do for that matter, is that your site has only around thirty seconds or less to help users find what they are searching 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 Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this guide, you will discover opportunities to increase traffic and establish online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Prospective Customers
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Business

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Website

This section covers how 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, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Services And Products

You need to include a page that explains your services or products.

Your page will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

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, philanthropical programs, etc.

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

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

Staff

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in accounting terms your 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 that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your employee’s qualifications, why they are an 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. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an updatable directory of employees or team members to your website without coding skills, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page could include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information such as the job outlook and new 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 the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you are also helping to provide social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online. Learn more about this here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With Standout User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Live Chat/Skype

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

You could also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like announcements, updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your business.

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

You may not be aware of this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that can begin attracting targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

For more info, see this article: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s really important to have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken in whichever area or location you do business in.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting 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 legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, engaging in the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your content that readers will be searching for.

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 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 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your website.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content just search online for tax-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are a few useful RSS feeds you may want to 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

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

Add Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are great planning tools.

Checklists and forms could cover areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other 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 value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your accounting site that can help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to improve your accounting business presence online.

Click on this link to continue:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part Two

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