Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized businesses worldwide, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for accountants.

Challenges Certified Public Accountants Face Online

Today, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, source new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that they will need to delegate a larger portion of their budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives leads, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and increases their marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change in time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other problem that accounting organizations (and other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only about 30 seconds to help visitors find what they are looking 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

Online Opportunities For Accountants

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet digital challenges and think strategically in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and improve your business results online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your accounting website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Small Business Online

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process - A Money-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Pages

All websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services Page

You need a page that explains your products or services.

Your page will include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 a business, 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 your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

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

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

Core Team

Are you looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online and get prospective clients to engage more on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions 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 that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline your person’s expertise, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff description page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your website using a free plugin, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your company. This page should include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your firm and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

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

Testimonials And Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also helps your accounting site to establish social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Conversions Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

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

• Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Chat/Skype

If your business services several locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like industry announcements, company updates, training information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can help attract a stream of web traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

To learn more about this go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Info Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being broken in whichever location you do business in.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content free of charge has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, 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 services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide useful content, other sites will 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 kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links back to your site
• 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. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable information on 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 searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of RSS feeds you could add 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and forms can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could include subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools 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 potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue reading, click this link:

• A Complete Guide On How To Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence – Part Two

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