Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many challenges in today’s online economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Now, more than ever, accountancy organizations must work hard to remain competitive, obtain new business, and keep their current clientele. Not only do they have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to promote your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that drives new prospects, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and gives them wider exposure online.

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

One other difficult challenge that accountants (and all other professions) face online, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide users what they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about a number of ways to increase traffic and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Small Business

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: How To Plan Your Small Business Web Site - A Basic Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require some essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Your Products And Services

You need a page that describes your products or services.

Your page will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above other competitors.

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise, 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 team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-update directory of staff members in your web site using free WordPress plugins, go here: Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include information about 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, subscribe to your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your firm. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also helps to provide social proof.

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

If you would like to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews go here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Chat/Skype (optional)

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

Consider also including a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, training articles, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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 serve as both your business website and business blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help deliver targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a compliant website is important, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever your business services clients.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water 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 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 about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker 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 readers to share your web pages online with others and come back for more information. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your 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:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that readers 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 that will show exactly 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 strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your content 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 for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your website 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding 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 feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Adding Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Forms and checklists are also great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms (or links to these) covering areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we will look at a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

• How To Grow An Accounting Online Presence – Part 2

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