Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face increasing challenges.

Challenges Accounting Businesses Face Online

Today, more than ever, accountancy firms must work hard and find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new clients, and retain current business. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for smarter ways to promote your business online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they need to allocate a bigger part of their marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that will bring new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give their business a wider amount of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, 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 the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting businesses (and all other professions) face online, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will leave the site 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think progressively in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover opportunities to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in your business online.

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

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Clients
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, suggestions for improving your navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, go here: How To Plan Your Website - A Useful Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need several basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your website for best results.

Services Page

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

It should include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community projects, etc.

Remember to also include any industry awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online or increase user interaction with your site, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your team member’s experience, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add a directory of staff or team members to your web site using free WP plugins, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your company. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help solve their problems. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, see this article: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Compelling User Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat feature (optional)

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

You can also include links to commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as industry news, company updates, useful articles, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and your blog.

Very few people know that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will help begin delivering targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Attract More Web Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is really important, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you service clients.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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 comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. If you are interested in learning more about this here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with you.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, 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 services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, 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 completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

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 sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing valuable content on your site 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 finance and tax-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of useful RSS feeds you may want to 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we look at a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

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

• Tips For CPAs – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors Using Plugins And Themes

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