Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized the way business is done worldwide, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for accounting and financial services businesses.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

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 you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as 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 that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy accounting businesses, you will need to designate a bigger share of your marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that will attract new leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help give you wider marketing exposure online.

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

Another problem that accounting organizations face with their websites, and most professions for that matter, is that you have around 30 seconds to help users find what they need or they will leave and go 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

Online Opportunities For Certified Public Accountants

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn ways to source new accounts and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, 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 or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Customers
• How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, visit this page: The Website Planning Process Explained: A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Essential Pages

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

Description Of Products And Services

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

It should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

This page should include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your company and set it above your competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your visitors get to know your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each person’s expertise and qualifications, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in WordPress without touching code here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. It could include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

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

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

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide the following information:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat (optional)

If your business operates out of different locations you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like company news, product updates, useful articles, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your company.

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Grow Your Website Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s essential for accounting firms to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your business services clients.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of 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/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages with others and coming back for more information. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with you.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• 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 informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, tips on using office accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use the same keywords and terminology in your content 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 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your website.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by visiting sites of finance-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS feeds containing useful information that 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

(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Add Online Forms & Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists are also great planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms covering a range of subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses 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 some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to build your accounting business web presence.

To continue reading, click this link:

• Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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