Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

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

Challenges Accounting Firms Face Online

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do they have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards the development and maintenance of a website that can bring in clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website 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 may change in time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that accountancy firms face online (as most businesses do for that matter), is that you have around thirty seconds or less to help users find the information they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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 Accountants

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will discover new opportunities to attract new clients and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

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 Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Prospective Customers
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow Your Small Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide: A Comprehensive Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Your Services And Products

You need a page that explains your products or services.

It should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an updatable simple employee directory in your WordPress site without messing around with code here: Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. It would include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can also include stories of graduates who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your company. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps your accounting or financial services site to establish social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials and client reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more about this: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions With Standout Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media links
• Live chat (optional)

If your business operates from different locations you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like company events, product updates, educational articles, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your website and your blog.

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

For more info, see this article: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s really important for accounting firms to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of 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 Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra competitive digital economy, having a well-planned content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors 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 and about using your services and products.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your 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 User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other sites, 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 relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS feeds 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. They can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

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

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can use in your site that can help to 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 guide on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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