Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing an ever increasing number challenges brought about by the web economy.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and figuring out better ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and increases their presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and some aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that CPAs (and most businesses) face, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to provide visitors with what they are looking for 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 Accounting Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

This guide will help you uncover ways to source new clientele and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website.

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

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Clients
• How To Grow Your Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages an accounting site needs, what content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process - A Useful Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Services And Products Description Page

You need a page that lists your services and products.

This page should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

This page should also list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are looking for ways to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust your business better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in accounting terms it 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 visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s experience, 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. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in a WordPress site without using code, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

We’re Hiring

List any career opportunities within the company. It should include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have worked their way up in your organization and information about new 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients them minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials and client reviews here: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions Using Powerful Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat (optional)

If you operate in different locations you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You could also include links to the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like news and events, company updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that will begin attracting web traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

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

If you would like to learn more here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being broken wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. For more info, see this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

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

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your readers sharing your content with others online and coming back for more. Using content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and about using your services and products.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover the following:

• 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
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring your 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 services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords and terminology in your content 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 that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your accounting business.

If you provide useful content, 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 content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your 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 tax-related government departments and industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you may want to consider adding 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

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Provide Forms And Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms could address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

To view Part 2, click here:

• Online Business Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins That Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic

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