Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals face many challenges in the web economy, especially in terms of growing a successful presence online.

Challenges Accounting & Financial Professionals Face Online

Today, more than ever, accounting firms must work hard to stand out from the competition, source new business, and retain current business. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to grow your business online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they will need to assign a more significant portion of their marketing budget to develop and manage a website that can attract new leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help to give them wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accountants face with their websites (as most businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds to provide visitors with 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Web Economy

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

In this article, you will discover new opportunities to attract more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

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

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Business
• Mastering WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of services And Products

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

Your page should include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 businesses, asset 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 the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

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

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

Our Team

If you are searching for ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with accounting terms it 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 site visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

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 outline your staff member’s experience, how their skills add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add a directory of staff members to your site using a free plugin here: How To Add A Staff Directory To Your Site: Tutorial

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your company. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include information about new career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your company. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to provide social proof online.

(Add a page with case studies and client reviews. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written extensively on using client testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online here: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Live chat feature

If your business operates out of multiple areas you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You can also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like company announcements, company updates, educational articles, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will begin to drive targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details, go here: Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information

As a professional business, having a compliant website is extremely important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken in whichever area or location you provide services to.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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 detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra competitive global economy, the earlier you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your firm.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand accounting services, such as software accounting, business accounting, tips on using small business accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terms in your articles that your readers 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 and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content. 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 your site’s 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 visitor engagement and user experience.

Add RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Allows users to subscribe
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of 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

(RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund 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 significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your accounting or financial services site that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting web presence.

Click here to read the rest of this guide:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Accounting Web Presence Using WordPress – Part 2

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