Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Today, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as spending money advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated towards developing and managing a website that will bring new leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change in time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting businesses face (and most businesses for that matter), is that they have only about 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with what they need 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 In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting companies that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover new opportunities to source more clients and improve your business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your accounting business online, 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.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• WordPress And Small Business – The Complete Guide To Building A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best, useful tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this guide: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need some basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Products And Services

You need to include a page that describes your services or products.

It should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 why they should choose you.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Team

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions 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 so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s qualifications, 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 staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add a list directory of employees in your site without coding skills, go here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

List any career opportunities within the company. This page should include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have risen within your firm and information about career opportunities in the accounting 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, subscribe to your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

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

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

If you want to learn more using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online, go here: Achieve Better Results Online Using Compelling Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

It should include the following information about your company:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Chat feature (optional)

If your business services several locations you should make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like news, company updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will attract web traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

For more details: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information Pages

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

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. For more details, go here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

You want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your readers sharing your content online with others and coming back for more information. This is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to use specific keywords and terms 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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 Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just search online for tax-related government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS 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 provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide users with useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Online Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your accounting website using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section one.

Click here to read the rest of this guide:

• How To Grow An Accounting Website Successfully – Part 2

Would You Like To Get Notified When New Tutorials Get Published? Then Subscribe Using The Form Below!

***

***

***