Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised businesses around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for the accounting and financial services profession.

Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that will drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase your reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change in time and many areas will need to be updated often. This requires a sound website and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that accounting organizations (and most businesses) face, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide users what they are looking for or they will look 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 The Accounting Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about a number of ways to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers
• Learn How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

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

If you need website planning assistance, read this article: How To Plan A Web Site - A Money-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

Professional websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s review these.

Your Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that describes your products or services.

This page should include services such as:

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

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Your Staff Page

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or increase user interaction with your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions 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 that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your 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.

(Add a staff page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add a simple and easy-to-maintain list of employees to a WordPress site, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory: Plugin Tutorial

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the firm. It can include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about upcoming 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, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients them minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to will also be providing visitors social proof online.

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

We have created a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to improve your business results online here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Using Meaningful Client Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

It should include the following:

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat

If your business services several locations you will want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is 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 timely content such as industry news, updates, educational information, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin driving a stream of web traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Attract More Web Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever your business services clients.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, content generosity has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your readers sharing your content with others and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting business, topics could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

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

Remember to include the same keywords and terminology in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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) helps you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your site.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds you could 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are great business planning tools.

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

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

Adding Other 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 significant value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Other tools would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can add to your website that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part Two, click here:

• The Ultimate Guide On How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website – Part 2

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