Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face many challenges in today’s digital economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful presence online.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they need to delegate a larger amount of their marketing budget to develop and manage a website that can attract new prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and create wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

Another challenge that accounting organizations (and other professions) face online, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they are searching for or they will 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 Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think progressively in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover opportunities to source new business and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: How To Plan Your Business Web Site: A Useful Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites need several basic web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

It should include services such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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 a business, 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

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community programs, etc.

Remember to also include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above the competition.

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online or get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be that 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. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update list of employees or team members to your web site without using code, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within the company. This page should include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can also include stories of trainees who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with client reviews and case studies also provides prospective clients with social proof online.

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

If you would like to learn more about using client testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online, go here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Company Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat feature

If you operate in several areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include links to commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as industry events, updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin driving a stream of web traffic to your business, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Generate More Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s crucial 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 no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being broken in whichever region you do business in.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you 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
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your visitors to share your content and come back for more information. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your firm.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to include keywords and terms in your articles that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide valuable information, other sites 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to 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 great content on 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 visiting sites of tax-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are examples of 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Add Online Forms & Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website 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. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we discuss a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To keep reading, click this link:

• The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website With WordPress – Part Two

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