Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face significant challenges.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for smarter ways to grow your business online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to invest a more significant part of your budget towards developing and maintaining a website that will drive prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help you create a wider degree of reach online.

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

One other challenge that accountancy firms (and most professions) face, is that your site has around 30 seconds to help users find what 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 Accounting Businesses

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to evolve to meet digital demands and who can think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about a number of ways to increase web traffic and create significant improvements in your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting website.

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

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Business
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best, tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

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

It will include services such as:

• Business – planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 a business, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

It’s important to mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and set it above the competition.

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

Our Team

If you are looking for ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be very 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. It should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your 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 outline each employee’s expertise, how their skills and knowledge contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-update list of employees or team members to your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your firm. This page would include training, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have risen within your firm and information about additional 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, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and user reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions Using Powerful Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide the following information:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat feature (optional)

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

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

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very 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 company news, product releases, training articles, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin to attract new visitors to your business, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your website)

Learn more about this here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your 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 your readers understand your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terminology in your content that readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site 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 completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can 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 adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are some exaples of feeds you could add to your accounting site:

• 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

(RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists can cover topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To continue reading, click here:

• How To Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress – Part Two

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