Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for certified public accountants and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses

Now, more than ever, accountancy firms must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new business, and retain current clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that attracts leads, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their marketing exposure online.

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

One other challenge that accounting firms face with their websites, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that you have an average of thirty seconds to give users 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 Professional Accountants

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover ways to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your accounting business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see the articles below:

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Clients And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Small Business

How To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages an accounting site needs, what type of content works best, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting or financial services website, check out the guide we have written here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need a number of essential pages. Let’s discuss these.

Products And Services

You need a page that explains your products and services.

It will include all the products and services you offer, such as:

• Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 businesses, asset 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 the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

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

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an updatable list of staff members in your web site here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your firm. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and 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 the page, subscribe to your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, refer to this article: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With More Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

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

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media links
• Online Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate in different locations you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog can be a very 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 such as announcements, updates, useful information, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your business.

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

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that will help begin to attract new visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to know more here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucially 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 wherever you provide services to.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting 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 or inconveniences:

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

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the sooner 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 information. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

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

Remember to include the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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 Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide information 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
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, 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 for your website, search online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your accounting 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

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

Provide Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses can help 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 applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow An Accounting Online Presence Successfully – Part Two

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