Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and opportunities for the accounting and financial services sector.

Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses

Now, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to maintain a strong presence in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will bring new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and your site 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 areas may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting businesses (and most other businesses) face online, is that they have only about thirty seconds or less to give visitors the information they need or they will 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

Opportunities For Accounting Services

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that can evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think strategically about marketing their business better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover new opportunities to find new business and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Money
• WordPress In Small Business – The Complete Guide To Growing Your Successful Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of services And Products

You need a page that explains your products and services.

This page should include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, 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 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 what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

Remember to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Your Team

Are you searching for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then help your prospective clients get to know you and your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini 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 even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory in your site using a free plugin here: Plugin Tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory

Recruitment

List any career opportunities within your organization. This page should include training, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

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

(Add a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article on using client testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more about this: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions With Compelling Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like company events, product releases, training articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s vitally important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your business is located.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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 website. For more details, go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your content with others online and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could cover the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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 100% FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide content 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 content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you could add 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can give them useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique 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 useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Others would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed article, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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

To continue, click here:

• How To Build And Grow An Accounting Web Presence – Part 2

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