Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face significant challenges.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work harder to stand out from the crowd, find new business, and retain current business. Not only do you have to actively participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out smarter ways to promote your business services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to increase their reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change in time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-planned website and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that accounting organizations face with their websites, as other professions do for that matter, is that you have only about 30 seconds or less to provide users with what they are looking for or they will leave the site.

“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 In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover ways to find more clientele and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting website, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your accounting business website.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Potential Clients
• Understanding WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

Let’s start by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, see this article: The Website Planning Process: A Practical Primer For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your products or services.

It will include services such as:

• Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to also include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above the competition.

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online? Then help your prospective clients 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 team members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in accounting terms your 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 that will allow your visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an updatable simple employee directory to your web site without coding skills here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within the organization. This page could include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or encouraged by your firm, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Also include 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also provides social proof online.

(Add a page with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to grow your business online, go here: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following information:

• Business Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online chat

If your business operates in several areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as industry news, product releases, useful articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin delivering a stream of web traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is important, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or 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
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

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

You will want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers to share your content and come back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can include:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (often referred to as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your 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

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. They are great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists can include topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses 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 useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your accounting web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online Successfully – Part 2

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